MONTREAL, QUEBEC – Andre Dawson, Steve Rogers, and Warren Cromartie began their major league careers at a place where a tennis stadium now stands. All that now remains of Parc Jarry, the original home of the defunct Montreal Expos, is the press box and grandstand. And on a diamond near the old park, the three former Expos were reunited earlier this week for a charity softball game to benefit Lou Gehrig's disease research.

On one hand I'm back where it all started for me, seeing family and seeing some friends, but it's a little traumatic for me not having baseball here," said Cromartie, who debuted with the Expos in 1974."

" I can imagine what the rest of the Canadian people think about it. It's hard talking about it, but you're never going to lose those memories," he said. The Expos played at Parc Jarry from 1969-1976, then moved into Olympic Stadium. The franchise was shifted to Washington after the 2004 season.

The field where Coco Laboy and Mack Jones were embraced by local fans, visiting sluggers Willie Stargell and Willie McCovey launched tape-measure shots into the municipal swimming pool beyond the right-field scoreboard, and Rusty Staub became ' Le Grand Orange ' is now center court at Uniprix Stadium.

" I was disappointed and sad to see the ballclub leave," Dawson said. " You don't ever want to see a city lose a franchise and it's so difficult to acquire one. Baseball going across the border into Canada was a new beginning for the game. It was a different type of experience from playing in the States all those years.

" Being here 10 years and having all the wonderful experiences, the good times, the bad times, and then witnessing the second half and the organization falling apart and the end result being that the team left was not a particularly exciting moment," he said. Dawson made his debut as a late-season callup in September 1976 at the end of one of the Expos' worst seasons on the field and at the gate.

" I wouldn't trade those first 10 years. Montreal gave me my start and I enjoyed every minute that I played here," he said. Of the three, Rogers spent the most time at the Expos' quaint bandbox of a ballfield.

The charm of the old park faded by the end, shunted aside by the Olympics and the star power of Nadia Comaneci, Bruce Jenner, and Sugar Ray Leonard.

" It was dismal. It was terrible," Rogers said. " I hated coming to the ballpark and playing. I mean, you can't lose 107 ballgames and have a whole lot of fun."

Things were much better three years earlier when he made his debut midway through the 1973 season, posting a 10-5 record with a sparkling 1.54 ERA as the fifth-year expansion team made an improbable run at the NL East title in a five-team race that went to the wire.

" That 1973 was a crazy year," said Rogers, who pitched a one-hitter in his second major league start and went on to become a five-time All-Star, finishing second in NL Cy Young voting in 1982. " We were in a pennant race and I just thought we were going to be in pennant races forever, that's how rookies think, I guess."

Longtime Expos executive Jim Fanning, who managed the Expos when they made their only postseason appearance in 1981, attended the ALS event. So did former Expos president Claude Brochu, who played down the chances of the majors ever returning to its first international home.

Brochu thought minor league baseball could work in Montreal, as it did when Jackie Robinson starred for the old Royals. Cromartie thinks the city needs to aim higher. " No, we need a big league team, not a minor league team," Cromartie said. " We know how to do it in Montreal. We're big league here. Never say never because Washington had it once and they got it back. This is a great town. It's a great sports town and there are great fans here."

For his part, Dawson just hopes baseball one day returns to Montreal, be it in the majors or the minors.

" Hopefully at some point we can get an organization to return," Dawson said. " We had a huge fan base. They were still learning the game and it was exciting for them. There are a lot of disappointed people here and they deserve a chance at a second shot."

© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.