Montreal ? A recent vacation provided an opportunity to hop this city’s Metro to the Pie IX station that stops underneath Olympic Stadium. From there, it’s a short walk up the ramp toward the ticket windows, then a quick right turn to the large gift shop selling soon-to-be-classic Montreal Expos souvenirs.

Except, six weeks before Christmas, that team store already has been closed and emptied, gutted to its very fixtures. Given the stark nature of Major League Baseball’s stewardship of the franchise, the symbolism was striking.

MLB isn’t interested in dispensing T-shirts, sweatshirts or caps in Montreal and seemingly cares not if it sells another ticket to see the team that finished second in the NL East last year. That much was made plain at last week’s owners meeting in Irving, Texas, where commissioner Bud Selig announced his plan to move 22 Expos “home” games to Puerto Rico in 2003.

Whether they are now Les Expos or Los Expos, manager Frank Robinson’s team is getting jobbed. It was hard enough already for the Expos to contend on the pauper’s payroll allotted by the league. But given this new schedule hurdle, it will be all but impossible.

With three “homestands” shifted to the Caribbean island, the Expos in one stretch will play 22 games in 25 days away from Olympic Stadium, with an eight-hour flight from San Juan to Seattle somewhere in the middle. And 27 of the team’s final 37 games will be played away from Montreal, where the Expos were 49-32 last season. Those are grueling road trips, no matter who is batting last.

But competitive integrity means nothing to the bean counters who hatched this plan. Puerto Rican promoters have guaranteed certain minimum revenues for the games at Hiram Bithorn Stadium, where the 2001 season opener between the Rangers and Toronto Blue Jays drew 19,891. The Expos drew a crowd that big five times in 2002.

And there is a big difference between the tickets that will be sold in San Juan and those sold in Montreal, which finished last in attendance last season with an average of 10,025 per game.

“You’re collecting U.S. dollars as opposed to Canadian dollars,” Expos president Tony Tavares said. “And these are certain dollars, because there are guarantees involved. The revenues will be far greater, enough that there won’t be a fire sale of top players.”

That’s great news for the couple of dozen fans MLB hasn’t disillusioned in Quebec. They will get one last glimpse next season of Vladimir Guerrero before the team is sold and moved for 2004. But those fans’ new 59-game home slate won’t afford them the chance to see the Expos play world champ Anaheim, the Rangers and shortstop Alex Rodriguez, or even Sammy Sosa’s Chicago Cubs. Those games will take place in Puerto Rico.

The players union still has a say in this and won’t give its consent to the schedule before first considering Montreal’s players.