Only 4340 were on hand at OLYMPIC STADIUM on Tuesday, May 1, the smallest Montreal crowd since October 3, 1990, as the Expos fell 8-3 to the Arizona Diamondbacks, its third straight loss and 14th in the last 19, falling to 11-15 after a 6-1 start. Expos owner Jeffrey Loria was in attendance and offered, via a scoreboard announcement, a free ticket to each of the fans for any of the five remaining games of the current homestand. The game drew just 78 more than the crowd of 4262 that witnessed the 1990 season finale. The smallest crowd in Olympic Stadium history was 2803 on September 27, 1984. Through their first ten home games the Expos have drawn only 130041, not counting the home opener crowd of 45183, on April 6, 2001. The Expos have drawn 84858 for nine games, an average of 9429. Montreal has failed to reach 1 million in attendance in each of the last three seasons.

CHRIS REITSMA is just the 11th native of Canada to appear for the Cincinnati Reds, with the others being:- RHP Clarence Currie - OF Glen Gorbus - RHP Bob Hooper - LHP Win Kellum - OF Andy Kyle - OF Roy 'Doc' Miller - OF James 'Tip' O'Neill - LHP Bert Sincock - RHP Harry 'Rube' Vickers - OF Nigel Wilson.

Four Jacksonville Suns pitchers combined on a four-hitter as the Greenville Braves went down 6-0 for the first shutout of the season by the Suns staff. The Suns starter pitched the first two innings before being removed in expectation of his promotion to the AAA Las Vegas 51s. PHIL DEVEY, a native of Lachute, Quebec, came on in relief to begin the third inning, yielding only two hits over the next five innings, while striking out four, and not allowing a Braves runner past second base, in earning his first AA victory since being promoted on April 16 from the Vero Beach Dodgers of the Florida State League. The soon to be 24-year-old grew up in Canada and attended Southwest Louisiana State University before being the Los Angeles Dodgers 5th-round pick in the 1999 first-year player draft.

On only four occasions in MLB history has both a pitcher thrown a no-hitter and a batter hit three home runs. One of these was on April 4, when Hideo Nomo, pitching for the Red Sox, no-hit the Baltimore Orioles and CARLOS DELGADO, of the Toronto Blue Jays, smacked three home runs in a come from behind 11-8 win over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

In a game on May 1, IZZY ALCANTARA, of the Pawtucket Red Sox, did something no other player hitting in Lackawanna County Stadium, home of the Scranton Wilkes-Barre Red Barons, has ever done. He hit two home runs that cleared the centerfield backdrop. The 24-foot-high wall, that sits 413 feet from home plate, is so hard to clear that not only has it never been done twice in any game, it has only been done approximately five times now in 13 seasons. Alcantara joins a select group of hitters to accomplish the feat that includes MARK WHITEN, Mark Parent and Gene Schall.

On Tuesday, May 8, RANDY JOHNSON wrote another page of baseball history in becoming only the third pitcher to ever strikeout 20 batters over a nine inning contest, but was removed as his Arizona Diamonbacks and the Cincinnati Reds played on to extra innnings tied at 1-1. Johnson, the first left-hander to strike out 20, missed out on the opportunity to join both ROGER CLEMENS and Kerry Wood as the record holders for a nine-inning game because Arizona could not finish off the Reds in regulation. Clemens struck out 20 for Boston against Seattle on April 29, 1986, and then did it once more for the Red Sox at Detroit on September 18, 1996. Wood struck out 20 for the Chicago Cubs against Houston on May 6, 1998. The actual MLB record for an extra-inning game is 21 by Tom Cheney for the Washington Senators against Baltimore in a 16-inning game on September 12, 1962. "It was just an incredible game," Johnson stated, after coming out of the game after nine innings. "I'm just really glad we won after losing a close one last night. I saw no point in going out there for the 10th inning. I surely could have went out there and done it, but what was the point in going out there and throwing 10 innings ? I really didn't see it. The outcome is what's important." Previously he had struck out 19 in 1997 for Seattle, in a 4-1 loss to Oakland and a 5-0 win against the Chicago White Sox. Last evening he threw 124 pitches, 92 for strikes, and walked none. He struck out the side in the fourth, seventh and eighth innings, and had two strikeouts in the first, second, third, fifth and eighth. He struck out only one in the sixth. With eighteen strikeouts through eight innings he then set down Deion Sanders on three pitches to leadoff the ninth followed by one groundout before striking out Juan Castro swinging. As he departed the mound Johnson raised his right arm in celebration, thrust his glove into the air, shouted to the sky and tipped his cap as he walked off the field. "I've struck out 19 before and lost, and I've struck out 19 and won. I get a no-decision today, but the team won, and that's the bottom line," he said. "It's much like a no-hitter. If it happens, it was meant to be. If it doesn't happen, well you just say you still gave it all you had. There are only two other players in the history of baseball who have done it. There's a great deal of satisfaction in doing it." The Elias Sports Bureau, baseball's official statistician, said that Johnson's performance will be considered as occuring in an extra-inning game even though he came out after nine innings as his Arizona Diamondbacks went on to a 4-3 victory in 11 innings.

RHP MIKE JOHNSON was traded to the Texas Rangers for RHP DARWIN CUBILLAN. Johnson had seen action in Montreal in April but was sent down to Ottawa upon activation of ANTHONY TELFORD from the DL and was 2-0 with a 4.50 ERA over 10 innings with the Lynx. Cubillan has appeared in 20 career games in the majors posting a 1-0 record with a 9.45 ERA. Acquired by the Rangers on 19 July 2000 from the Blue Jays who received ESTEBAN LOAIZA. In nine relief appearances with the AAA Oklahoma RedHawks he had posted a 1-1 record, 10.38 ERA with 2 saves.

In honor of the 50th anniversary of TOPPS baseball cards, the Chicago Cubs are giving away authentic reprints of 10 cards featuring some of the team's most memorable players. Using the original card stock and colors, Topps reproduced 30,000 of each card which will be given away at a different game, beginning on May 16, with Ernie Banks' card from 1958, the year he won the MVP. There's also Billy Williams' card from 1972, when he was the NL batting champion. FERGUSON JENKINS' 1971 card and Bruce Sutter's 1979 card, the years they won the Cy Young Award. There will be Sammy Sosa's 1998 card, the year he hit 66 home runs and won the NL MVP. There will also be the 1952 Andy Pafko card, which was the No. 1 card in the Topps series that year and has become so valuable that one sold for $ 83870 in 1998. "If you were to take a snapshot of the last 50 years of the Cubs, I think these cards would represent a good portion of that picture," said John McDonough, the Cubs' vice-president of marketing and broadcasting. We wanted to sell the franchise. We wanted to tell the story through baseball cards of how it happened, I think there's going to be a high collectibility on these, but I think there's going to be an emotional value on these."

On May 31, 2001, Portland Beavers RHP JEREMY POWELL threw seven-plus strong innings as his team defeated the Edmonton Trappers, 3-1. Powell, who entered the outing with the Pacific Coast League's top earned run average of 1.63, allowed a run and five hits, striking out five, in 7.1 innings for the win. The 24-year-old who signed with the San Diego Padres back in December after going 5-16 with a 5.84 ERA over the last three seasons with the Montreal Expos, has yielded a run or less in seven of his last eight starts. In the month of May, Powell posted a 3-1 mark with a 1.47 ERA, yielding only 29 hits while fanning 35 batters in 43 innings.

The Memphis Redbirds named local fan favourite STUBBY CLAPP as their player of the month for May. The scrappy second baseman hit .341 during the month with three home runs and 17 runs batted in. He failed to reach base by hit or walk in only three of the 26 games he played in during the month. He also had 29 hits, 7 doubles, 2 triples and 3 stolen bases. Nearly two years ago almost ever baseball fan in Canada had suddenly fallen for the heroics of Stubby Clapp. It still means a lot to him, the memories he holds of becoming the biggest success story at the 1999 Pan-American Games in Winnipeg. "It'll never get tired. When you get to relive a moment like that in your life. It's a lot of fun we had and we'll never get tired remembering that time in our lives," he related. "We didn't get to go to the Olympics or it would have been that much better." There's nothing he would like more than doing it all over one more time in 2008 if Toronto wins the right to host the Olympics. "I'd be more than happy to play for Canada again. There's definite pride. Representing your country, I always thought, was one of the most honourable things you can do, whether it be in war or playing a baseball game. For you to get asked to do that by a coach or your peers, It's something you take as an honour and cherish it for that time," Stubby said.