Jacksonville Expos

Southern League (1985-1990)

Tombstone

Born: 1985 – Re-branded from Jacksonville Suns
Re-Branded: 1991 (Jacksonville Suns)

First Game: April 11, 1985 (L 3-2 vs. Charlotte Orioles)
Last Game: September 6, 1990 (L 7-4 vs. Orlando SunRays)

Southern League Championships: None

Stadium

Wolfson Park (8,000)¹

Marketing

Cheerleaders: The Expo-ettes

Ownership & Affiliation

Owner: Peter Bragan Sr.

Major League Affiliation: Montreal Expos

Attendance

Jacksonville Expos attendance records are now complete.

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Source: The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (1st ed.), Lloyd Johnson & Miles Wolff, 1993

Background

Professional baseball was on life support in Jacksonville, Florida when Birmingham, Alabama car dealer Peter Bragan purchased the city’s Class AA Southern League franchise in 1984. The city had allowed 30-year old Wolfson Park to fall into disrepair. The park’s roof, which covered the entire, grandstand was rotting. Bragan recalled to The Florida Times-Union in 2004 that he often came to the stadium in the mid-1980’s to find homeless people sleeping in the bleachers.

Montreal Expos Affiliation

Jacksonville’s ball club had been known as the “Suns” since 1962. But Bragan agreed to adopt the branding of the team’s Major League parent club, the Montreal Expos, for the 1985 season. Attendance was meager during the Bragan family’s first season – 82,907 fans for a 72-game home calendar.

But the Bragans set about fixing up Wolfson Park as best they could and Montreal began to stock Jacksonville with outstanding prospects. Attendance doubled to 164,772 in 1986 and continued to rise every year for the rest of the 1980’s. Future Hall-of-Famer Randy Johnson won eleven games for Jacksonville in 1987 while future National League MVP Larry Walker belted 26 homers. The Expos finished with the best record in the Southern League that summer at 85-59.

Return to “Suns”

The Expos pulled out of Jacksonville after the 1990 season. The Bragans signed a new working agreement with the Seattle Mariners and restored Jacksonville’s traditional “Suns” identity for the 1991 season. Peter Bragan Sr. owned the Expos/Sun until his death in 2012. His family sold the Suns ball club to Ken Babby in 2015 for a sum in excess of $20 million. Peter Bragan Sr. paid $330,00 for the team in 1984. In November 2016, Ken Babby changed the name of the former Expos/Suns franchise to the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp.