Tom Dixon and the Beginning of the End for the 1983 Montreal Expos

Filed under "Victims of Circumstance"

Sometimes, life isn’t quite fair.

You’re in the wrong place at the wrong time, and you get associated with something that’s not really your doing.

And then, forty years later, when pretty much everyone has forgotten about it, some dude on the internet dredges it all up again.

Such is the story of Tom Dixon and his career in Major League Baseball.

It all began when the Dodgers drafted Dixon out of high school in the 18th round in June 1973. He didn’t end up signing with L.A. but did ink a free agent minor league deal with St. Louis in February 1974.

After a season split between Rookie ball and Class-A, the Cards sold his rights to the Astros in April 1975. The righty began a methodical climb through the Houston chain — Single-A Dubuque in 1975, Double-A Columbus in 1976, Triple-A Charleston in 1977.

Then, on July 30, 1977, the Astros called him up to Houston, and he spent the next two-plus seasons under the Astrodome.

Alas, Houston released him in February 1980. Dixon’s Major League record stood at 9-13 with a 4.22 ERA.

The Mets picked him up late it in the month, but he ended up back in Triple-A, with Tidewater. It was more of the same in 1981, and then New York traded him to the Montreal Expos in January 1983.

(Note: Baseball Reference also has Dixon playing in the Montreal and Toronto systems during 1982, though without an accompanying trail of transactions.)

Dixon spent most of 1983 with the (surprise!) Triple-A Wichita Aeros, and at age 28, it wasn’t looking all that great in terms of resuming his Major League career.

But then, when rosters expanded in September, the Expos found themselves in a four-way slog with the Phillies, Pirates, and Cardinals for supremacy in the old National League East division. Montreal pushed in all their chips and called up one Thomas Earl Dixon.

The Expos entered their September 12th game at Wrigley Field against the Cubs with a slim half-game lead over the Phils. Things went OK for awhile, but Chicago broke it open with a seven-run sixth.

By the time manger Bill Virdon brought in Dixon for his Montreal debut in the bottom of the eighth, the Expos were down, 8-0, and that’s how it finished. A Philadelphia victory put the ‘Spos in a half-game hole, and Dixon was the last Montreal pitcher standing.

The teams reversed fortunes the next day, and Montreal entered their September 14th doubleheader with the Phillies at Veterans Stadium back up by a half.

The first game was close until the fourth, when Philly put up their second straight four-run inning to go up 8-3. Still, the Expos fought back a bit in the top of the seventh with two of their own before Virdon again brought in Dixon.

This time, Dixon gave up a run of his own, pretty much the final nail for Les Expos.

Closer Jeff Reardon came on in the eighth, but the damage was done, as the Phillies vaulted ahead of the Expos with their 9-5 victory.

The nightcap was even worse, with the Phils whitewashing the Expos, 5-0, to finish the day a game-and-a-half up.

Montreal never tasted first place again and finished in third place, eight games behind the Phils and two behind Pittsburgh (though three ahead of St. Louis).

For his part, Dixon found his way into two more games, and he gave up a few more runs. He ended the season with a 0-1 record, 9.82 ERA, and four strikeouts in 3 1/3 innings.

And then … that was it.

The Expos traded Dixon to the Kansas City Royals in December in exchange for Ron Johnson, but Dixon hung up his spikes before the next season.

Though …

He’ll always have the distinction of being the man on the mound when the 1983 Expos fell out of first place … twice! Even if Jeff Reardon did get “lasts.”