by GABRIEL MORENCY

When the Montreal Expos announced last weekend that All-Star second baseman José Vidro had signed a four-year contract extension to stay with the club, eyebrows were raised around a league that commissioner Bud Selig says "there really is not a lot wrong with." Between missing a World Series (you know which one), an All-Star game that ended in a tie, a drug-testing system that Courtney Love would beat, failed contraction and the dead raccoon on his head that passes for hair, you have to wonder what exactly it would take before something is called "wrong" in Bud's world.

Normally, players of Vidro's ability who are entering free agency for the first time in their careers don't re-sign with last-place clubs that are nowhere near competing for a championship. They especially don't accept less money to do so - Donald Fehr didn't sell his soul to the devil so the players can take pay cuts. Somewhere right now, super-agent Scott Boras is revolted by Vidro's selfish actions in accepting $30-million to play a game for four years. No one, including his teammates, can figure out exactly why Vidro signed: either he is one of the most loyal players ever to don an Expos jersey or he has become accustomed to playing in games that don't mean anything and is content in racking up numbers without ever participating in post-season play.

Whatever the case, the very fact that Vidro was offered a deal, and accepted it, is as clear an indication as any that this indeed will be the last year of Major League Baseball in Montreal. After nearly two decades of players escaping the island, they need to no longer. Baseball will do it for them.

More than any MLB imposed deadline or politicians' claim that stadium financing won't be a problem, Vidro's signing all but ensures the Expos will not be in Montreal next season. The Expos' owners (MLB) didn't keep Vidro to appease fans who have been continuously crushed by the tri-colour's defections. Vidro's signing was no more than a coat of paint on a house for sale in the Washington, D.C. area. The players know it (three Expos have admitted OTR they're gone and happy about it), Bud knows it, Washington knows it, you know it, I know it - seemingly the only two people in the city who don't are Expos president Tony Tavares and V.P. of business affairs Claude Delorme.

You get the feeling that even when the introductory press conference goes down in D.C., both Tavares and Delorme will say they are unaware of the situation and nothing is set in stone yet. Okay? I'm beginning to see why Washington is such a good place for this crew. They'll fit right in.

A-League?

In case you haven't noticed, the Montreal Impact have not allowed a goal against yet this season and are undefeated after four matches (3-0-1). The 8,877 fans who turned out last Sunday at the Claude Robillard Stadium was their second-largest crowd in team history and there is talk of potentially playing some games at Molson Stadium.

While their success story is a nice one, it is also a damming tale of how a city of three-million-plus has become a minor league sports town. With the Expos' certain departure, a minor league team in Montreal is inevitable. The CFL offers an entertaining product, but there is a significantly lower talent level than the NFL offers. The Canadiens play in the NHL, which could be called a Major League if it didn't get lower numbers than the NFL, NBA, MLB, NASCAR, NCAA, AFL, PGA, LPGA, MLS, WTA, PBA, PBRA and everyone else in between!!

The A-League the Impact play in may be called just that, but it's not even close to the MLS, which in soccer circles gets about as much respect as the East Coast Hockey League does among hockey people. How bad have things become? We lost the Quebec Major Junior Montreal Rocket to P.E.I. Yeah, that's right P.E.I.!!

Say what you will about the city of Toronto - it's soulless, it's an American wannabe, its bars close too early, all of which may be true - but at least it's got game. Lots of 'em.

Sports Rage with Gabriel Morency is vented weeknights 11 p.m.-2 a.m. on TEAM 990 AM. This column appears bi-weekly. Comments: sportsrage@team990.com