Gallagher: Canadian ball hall inductee Stoneman best remembered for no-nos with Expos

Former Montreal Expos ace and later executive Bill Stoneman has been elected to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. Photo: Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame

February 5, 2026

By Danny Gallagher

Canadian Baseball Network

When Bill Stoneman was plucked by the Expos in the 1968 expansion draft from the Chicago Cubs, he needed to look at a map at his California home to find Montreal's location in North America.

"I didn't know where Montreal was,'' he said on a conference call today, recognizing his election into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

Stoneman sure got to know Montreal once he got going. He spent 21 years in the employ of the Expos, five as a player and another 16 as an executive focusing on contract negotiations. It was also in Montreal where he met his wife Diane Falardeau, a flight attendant.

As he happily pointed out, his time in Canada was 30 years in total, including a long stint as a banker when he lived in Georgetown, Ont., south of Toronto where he would often run into his neighbour, NHL referee Bryan Lewis.

The quiet, reserved Stoneman is most remembered as throwing two no-hitters for the Expos, the first on April 17, 1969 in Philadelphia against the Phillies and on Oct. 2, 1972 in Montreal against the Mets, the first MLB no-no thrown on Canadian soil.

He told reporters he couldn't choose which no-no meant more to him. Both ended up as 7-0 scores.

"I know that near the end of each game, I had to focus on getting guys out,'' he said. "I was glad I pitched a no-hitter in Canada before the Montreal fans. I had younger brothers at the game. In the game in Philadelphia, they had a lot of good hitters. I really had to focus on them when they got in the batter's box.''

As an administrator, he got to spend one year as the general manager from 1987-88 and calling up speedsters Otis Nixon and Rex Hudler from triple-A comprised one of the highlights of that short tenure before he refocused on negotiating contracts.

Stoneman's flexible ability in challenging times in Montreal under the gun of a small payroll was commendable. He talked about the 1994 Expos, who were 74-40 before the strike and cancellation of the season, a devastating blow to the team's chances of doing damage in the post-season.

"That was the best team I was ever involved with when I was with Montreal,'' he said.

Five years later, Stoneman returned to his home state of California to become the GM of the Angels and it was under his watch that the team won the 2002 World Series.

Some 53 years after his final game with the Expos, Stoneman will be feted in St. Marys, Ont. on June 20 as a Hall of Fame inductee.

He's not sure how many supporters will be in attendance but it's a safe bet some of the people he worked with in Montreal will be there. And some of his friends and banking cronies in Georgetown are expected to be on hand.

Stoneman is a man of so much integrity and has meant so much to people in Montreal and Georgetown and all parts of Canada. He's a hero to all of us. He never sought attention but he will deservedly receive it in St. Marys.