What did "ELB" stand for?

[Imgran]

Sorry for the noob question, I always meant to ask someone since I was a kid but never really found someone who knew. I've got a pretty good guess that it's basically the team name in French, but is someone feeling charitable enough to fill me in on something that's been killing me for more than a decade now?

EDIT: I apologize for the past tense in the thread. Wasn't thinking. ELB still stands for everything it ever stood for of course.

[ipitch]

http://sports.sympatico.msn.ca/The+mystery+of+the+Montreal+Expos+logo++solved/5Hole/Articles/ContentPosting_5Hole.aspx?isfa=1&newsitemid=ba2c2b97-a1d6-4be3-b5ca-fa0d1e26f0de&feedname=The_5_Hole&show=False&number=0&showbyline=True&subtitle=&detect=&abc=abc

"The answer, as I was repeatedly informed, is that it's not "elb", it's that I'm a blind and/or drunk idiot and it's a stylized "M" with an "e" on the left part and a "b" on the right part. They stand for "Expos de Montréal Baseball" and they're also the initials of the team's original owner, Edgar M. Bronfman."

[Imgran]

So that stroke that looks like an L is actually the left upstroke of an M? Who knew?



In my defense, the stroke that looks like an L just seems so self-contained, especially because it's light-on-dark compared to the rest of the icon. I guess though that it isn't a coincidence that it's arranged in the same order of red, white, blue as the French flag is it?

[Yankeebiscuitfan]

So that stroke that looks like an L is actually the left upstroke of an M? Who knew?



In my defense, the stroke that looks like an L just seems so self-contained, especially because it's light-on-dark compared to the rest of the icon. I guess though that it isn't a coincidence that it's arranged in the same order of red, white, blue as the French flag is it?

The French flag has it's colours in reverse Blue White and Red. Minor detail.

[Imgran]

Google, you've let me down again! All my illusions are falling away!

Sorry for cluttering your board, folks.

[The Fonz]

weird, i always thought it was just an M with an e on the left side, never thought about the right side being a b...

[VIBaseball]

they're also the initials of the team's original owner, Edgar M. Bronfman."

Edgar was not the team's original owner. It was his brother Charles.

[Milwaukee T]

This or That - Still Sad

Some also claim that it is e l b for Expo les Baseball.

Where did you find that art of the cap?

[tinseltown]

Some also claim that it is e l b for Expo les Baseball.

It would be similar to claiming that the "t" in the Saint Louis logo stands for "The baseball". No, the Expos media guide has never mentioned an "L"; only the e, b, and M representing expos, baseball, and Montreal (just the individual words, not a phrase linking them together).

[hairmetalfreek]

weird, i always thought it was just an M with an e on the left side, never thought about the right side being a b...

I always thought it was JUST an M. Never noticed the e and b until you guys pointed it out.

[Pere]

I always thought it was JUST an M. Never noticed the e and b until you guys pointed it out.

I still think it is just an "M."

ipitch's link is broken, and I haven't seen any credible reference to the Expos ever intending it to be anything else but just an "M." If tinseltown is right about the media guide, of course I stand corrected, but I'd like to see the reference. This reminds of of when somebody insisted to me that the stitching on the handle of the Braves' tomahawk was meant to read "VMI."

[Captain Cold Nose]

I still think it is just an "M."

ipitch's link is broken, and I haven't seen any credible reference to the Expos ever intending it to be anything else but just an "M." If tinseltown is right about the media guide, of course I stand corrected, but I'd like to see the reference. This reminds of of when somebody insisted to me that the stitching on the handle of the Braves' tomahawk was meant to read "VMI."

You don't see the red e? That's always stood out to me. I thought it was an e and an M with a ball next to the M.

[bryanac625]

I vaguely recall hearing an explanation of the logo some years ago. But what's funny is that no we're just understanding what it all meant and the team no longer exists.

GO NATS!!!!

[Imgran]

So I'm not drunk or crazy. It really is just a bit confusing

Trust a Quebecois to make something unnecessarily complicated.

[Pere]

You don't see the red e?

I see a curly red serif.

I'm not saying other interpretations are definitely wrong, because I guess I don't know either. But I've never seen anything official about it, which is why I suspect that the more elaborate "translations" are urban-legend.