By: Danny Gallagher

Canadian Baseball Network

Now that baseball’s labour front will be peaceful for another five years, commissioner Rob Manfred can dust off his expansion folder and that has to be good news for those wanting to see baseball in Montreal.

Manfred told me about nine months ago that expansion talk was not in vogue in 2016, but that a new Collective Bargaining Agreement was. After Manfred, owners and the game’s MLBPA hammered out a new deal recently, expansion can move forward.

So sometime in 2017, you will probably see Manfred strike a committee that will look at the feasibility of expansion beyond the current 30 teams. My thought is that owners will agree to take on two new teams, beginning with the 2019 season, which would be the 50th anniversary of the Expos’ first season in 1969.

Potential Montreal franchise owners Stephen Bronfman and department-store magnate Larry Rossy of Dollarama fame would no doubt be interested in seeing how the expansion program proceeds in the next several years.

Aren’t we all excited about what might happen? After all, there has been no baseball in Montreal since the end of the 2004 season.

NOTES: Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame officials are anxiously awaiting a town council meeting in St. Marys, Ont. to hear what the mayor and councillors have to say about a Watson & Associates report studying the hall’s request for funding for a new facility. The Watson group will release its report in mid-December and then council will meet Dec. 21 at 10 a.m. to discuss the report and in essence, deal with the hall’s request for funding. The hall is seeking a one-time capital contribution of $550,000 from the town plus annual core funding of $150,000 …

Anyone who loves the CBHOF should show up at the meeting on the 21st to show your support. The current museum is small and dated, thus making new digs absolutely necessary …

Hall director of operations Scott Crawford is busy getting bios and reference letters ready to be sent to the voting panel that will select 2017 inductees. The winners will be announced in the new year …

Two names I haven’t mentioned before as candidates for induction into the CBHOF are former Expos managers Buck Rodgers and Dick Williams. Rodgers spent six and a half seasons as Montreal skipper. Williams almost completed five seasons as Expos’ manager and what makes his case compelling is that he won two consecutive championships as manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ entry in the old International league before taking over the Red Sox in 1967… It’s interesting to see that Jays catcher Russell Martin would like to play some infield for Team Canada during the World Baseball Classic in March. Wonder if the Jays will allow him to do so …

Jay Jaffe of Sports Illustrated has penned a wonderful piece on the merits of former Expos great Tim Raines as a candidate for Cooperstown. Check it out here …

The Toronto Star’s Brendan Kennedy, one of the most insightful, eloquent writers on the Blue Jays’ beat the last few seasons, has become a news-side investigative reporter. It’s a loss. I always enjoyed his stuff, his phrasing, his words, his analytical mind.