Photos: Expos Return! Oh, and Royals Throwback Too

The Montreal Expos briefly flashed back into existence yesterday afternoon courtesy the Washington Nationals who wore throwbacks paying tribute to the roots of their franchise.

Washington was decked out in powder blues with the old pinwheel cap, the same uniform design worn by the former team during their inaugural 1969 season now fifty years ago. Their opponents from Kansas City also wore their road uniforms from ’69, which just happened to be their inaugural season as well.

Both teams included the 1969-only patch commemorating the 100th anniversary of professional baseball.

The Nats added a couple of nice little touches around the ballpark including the use of the Expos logo on the on-deck circle

And a retro style scoreboard.

Plus Expos great Vladimir Guerrero Sr. was on hand to deliver the first pitch:

As was the case when the Carolina Hurricanes wore Hartford Whalers uniforms this past year, there was some furrowed brows over the use of the look of the former incarnation of the club, “a slap in the face” I heard more than once. Personally, I loved it, I grew up as both an Expos and Blue Jays fan and went to several games in Montreal every year… it’s been 15 years now and with the 50th anniversary of the franchise it felt like an appropriate time to look back and acknowledge where this team came from.

Now lets do it again with their 90s makeover.