By Les Carpenter
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 16, 2005; Page D01

Somewhere 500 miles away in a drab and fading office, tucked into a handful of giant duffel bags, lays the last tangible asset of the Montreal Expos. Its orange fur and giant nose have been carefully preserved, zipped into a sealed environment safe from moths and scavengers. And there it will remain until the lawyers can finally resolve its fate.

Youppi! is resting now.

But in the first spring without baseball in Montreal, the Expos' orange mascot is missed. Perhaps this seems strange. After all, Youppi! is grossly overweight, has a pointy head, a nose disproportionate to the rest of its body and appears to have something resembling an enormous beard that at some point grows into a forest of orange chest hair. And yet he is beloved in Montreal where his future is a daily topic of conversation.

The rumors have been flying: First Youppi! was going to be sold to a Canadian pharmacy chain, then to a hospital. Now the latest reports have the Montreal Canadiens deep in negotiations to acquire him.

"We do confirm that we have a serious interest in adopting Youppi!" Canadiens Vice President Donald Beauchamp said.

Of course in the big money world of professional sports, adopt is a relative term. Make no mistake, the Canadiens will pay for the rights to Youppi! and this, too, is the subject of much debate around Quebec with estimates of a final sales price ranging anywhere from $100,000 to $1 million.

The Canadiens will say nothing about a price. And Claude Delorme, the former Expos vice president who is assigned the task of divesting the team of everything Montreal, cites a confidentiality agreement when discussing Youppi's sale. All he will say is that the Canadiens are one of many bidders for Youppi!

Either way, the money goes to the Nationals. The situation is a bit awkward for the team, which tomorrow will unveil a new mascot, providing a face to an organization still searching for an identity. But this also leaves the team in the precarious position of being a club without an owner, yet with mascots in two countries.

The problem of the sale is a complicated one. Delorme says the deal would probably have been completed weeks ago if not for the issue of Youppi's trademarks. When Youppi! was first created in 1979, the Expos registered their logos on his cap and shirt. The registers lasted even as the team's insignias changed. Now in order to get rid of him, they must first "de-register" every logo, Delorme said, then register it again without the word "Expos."

And so Youppi! rests in his duffel bags while Montreal waits to hear what will become of him.

"When you think about Youppi!, think about Santa Claus, it's the same thing," said Rodger Brulotte, a broadcaster for French-speaking radio and television networks in Montreal. "The importance he has with adults and small children is amazing. If you walked into a hospital with Youppi! you can imagine the reaction. You would pay to do it again."

Brulotte, it should be noted, has a history with Youppi! As an employee in the Expos' marketing department in 1979 he helped to invent Youppi! At the time, the team had a different mascot, a figure in an Expos uniform with a giant baseball for a head. It was a variation of the popular mascot of the New York Mets called Mr. Met, but with one difference. The Expos' Mr. Met, called Souki, had odd antennas sticking out the sides of his head.

"He looked like something from outer space and the kids were afraid of him," Brulotte says.

So the Expos rid themselves of Souki, giving him to a fraternity at Montreal University, which held a public burial for the space creature, thus sparing children all over the city. Then the team set out to find the least offensive mascot that it could get. This led the Expos to Jim Henson, the Muppets creator. Henson sent several prototypes that the team rejected, including a purple and brown monster and something with a huge nose.

Then there was Youppi! Brulotte immediately fell in love with the orange blob. It was big, it was furry. Since it was orange, you could see it from far away. It seemed perfect.

"We wanted something happy that you could hug," Brulotte said. "He's just a huge, huggable teddy bear. He's just a big Muppet something that you want to hug and kiss."

But the Muppet needed a name. They decided on Youppi!

What does it mean? Brulotte is asked.

"It's neither French nor English," he replies.

Then what is it?

"Well when you are happy you say 'yooopie!' " he said.

This, of course, translates better in Brulotte's French-Canadian accent. Yet yoopie or yippee, people in Montreal couldn't get enough of the new mascot. He danced on the dugout, he danced on the field. Where most mascots would only appear for a couple of innings a game, Youppi! would be in the stands the entire game. It exhausted the men who wore him, who were left drenched in sweat trying to breathe through a suit that originally weighed 40 pounds.

The first Youppi! was difficult to wear; the head was so big it flopped down. This blocked the view of the man inside, who used a hole in Youppi!'s neck to see. To solve the problem, the first Youppi! would slap his nose every few minutes, thus lifting the head and giving clear vision if but for a brief moment. It became the mascot's trademark, and all subsequent Youppi!s would go around slapping their nose even after the costume was streamlined to weigh only about 12 pounds.

Then there were the Expos who enjoyed playing jokes on the mascot. The worst was pitcher Bryn Smith, who crouched behind Youppi! on the field as another player pushed Youppi! from the front. Over Youppi! would go, tumbling to the ground until another Expos player would rush in at the last second and catch him. The fans loved it.

And there were incidents, too. Once Dodgers Manager Tommy Lasorda had him thrown out of a game after Youppi! led cheers from atop the Los Angeles dugout. The umpires later let Youppi! back in after the mascot donned pajamas and napped on the dugout roof. Another time, Expos third baseman Tim Wallach -- in the middle of a slump -- complained that Youppi! was distracting him as he tried to hit, but that also was resolved.

Mostly, Youppi! was the most beloved Expo of all.

"There are a lot of kids who grew up with Youppi! whether they had dolls or posters," said Pierre Deschesnes, who wore Youppi! from 1988 to 1992 and whose stepfather wore the mascot for the seven years before that. "He was all over Montreal. Youppi! is a Barney in Montreal."

Now he is going to be sold.

But if so much other baseball history in Montreal was dissolved when the Expos left, why not just kill Youppi! as well?

Brulotte gasps.

"Kill Youppi!," he cried. "Why would you kill Youppi! when you hurt so many young kids?"

Fortunately for the children of Montreal, the lawyers will someday finish their work and Youppi! will be unpacked from his duffel bags and the great orange mascot will live again.

Even if he's on hockey skates.