Tag Archives: Montreal Expos

Crocodile Tears

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Last night was the most amazing night of baseball I’ve ever seen – regular season or playoffs. I suppose I should therefore be upset this morning. Livid, even. The Red Sox, afterall, completed one of the most historic and spectacular flame-outs in all of baseball’s long history. But I’m not the least bit pissed off. Maybe it’s because my priorities have shifted this year or maybe it’s because I’m not a “true” enough Sox fan – I am satisfied with their 2 World Series wins since 2004.

Yes, a collapse like this is unbelievably embarrassing, and borders on unforgivable. Lord knows that if this were the Habs…oh hell, even he doesn’t know what I’d be doing this morning.

Perhaps the pain was eased slightly by knowing that so many people who love the Sox also love the Bruins and Patriots – two teams that make my skin crawl. After winning the Cup and being pretty much the best football team ever, it serves those uppity jerks right that the team that overshadows EVERYTHING in Boston suffers this kind of meltdown. Because the Yankees couldn’t hold a 7-run lead late in game 162. Does it get any better than that? If the collapse takes the shine away – even just a bit – from the Bruins winning the Cup, then good! If there are sports fans in Boston missing the Cup Banner raising ceremony because they’re tapping out their latest “fire Francona, trade everybody” rants then yay for collapses! But I don’t know I’m really that vindictive…afterall, if I never saw any images of the Bruins with the cup, then it never happened, right?

Maybe in another case of misery loving company, I find comfort in the fact that the Atlanta Braves also had their worst nightmare come true – blowing an 8.5 game lead in the Wild Card chase in the final month of the season. As an Expos fan, I’m glad to see the team that always stood in the way of the playoffs get slapped down like this. Too bad all anyone is going to talk about is how the Red Sox blew it. Too bad there were empty seats at Turner Field; it would have been nice to send a sellout crowd home in tears indifference.

Maybe I’m not upset because this summer I just learned to embrace baseball again. Really embrace it. Team allegiances fell by the wayside, as did many grudges (but I still haven’t forgiven the Jays). The biggest grudge being with MLB itself for knifing the Expos to death. I’m still bitter, but they can have my money again. I don’t hate the Yankees anymore now that George Steinbrenner is gone. It probably didn’t help that the Twins were out of the playoff race before the end of April, so I could have simply turned the switch to “passive”. A lot has changed for me in relation to baseball, but I did watch a decent amount of ball this year, and I listened to even more over the “radio”. Usually with an adult beverage in hand. It was terrific. After the Expos left at the end of 2004, I felt like I had to pay attention. This year I payed attention because it felt good to. That doesn’t mean that I still don’t miss the Expos – quite the opposite – I miss them more than ever. But it was nice to be, for lack of a better term, a free agent this summer and just watch baseball for what it is.

Last night capped off what I would describe as a rather unremarkable season as far as baseball goes, but it had as much drama in one night than the previous six months combined. There’s no doubt that many Red Sox fans cried themselves drank themselves to sleep last night, but let’s face it: If you blow a NINE game lead in 30 days, you don’t deserve to be in the post season. Now we move on to one of the best times of the year if you’re a sports fan – October baseball, the start of the hockey season, and the NFL season is well under way. Sorry NBA, nobody cares about you.

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Baseball Making a Return to Montreal?

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Delorimier Stadium in 1929

 

Photo credit: quebec.sabr.org – S.H. du Marigot

Doesn’t Montreal deserve a new baseball stadium built to look just like this one?

Considering the content of this blog you’d probably be surprised to learn that in my younger years, I was a devout baseball fan, and hockey was a distant second on my radar. I first got the baseball bug in 1984 when I was just six years old. I enrolled in tee-ball and played the game for the next 11 years. Prior to 1984, the only thing that really mattered to me was Star Wars. Hockey didn’t enter the picture until the ’89 Cup finals. I have vague recollections of ’86, but nothing more. Fast forward 26 years and I’ll tell you that hockey and Star Wars are my bread and butter, but baseball has slipped considerably. Without a doubt, the departure of the Expos had almost everything to do with my drop in interest.

If I were in to online wagering, after the Expos left in 2004, I would have bet any amount that baseball was dead in Montreal forever. Most of that sentiment was emotional and very irrational. Teams come and go, of course, and there is always hope the game can live again in Montreal. A lot of people have allowed their love of the game die, some have promised never to give Bud Selig and Major League Baseball another cent, but many more have merely let their love of baseball slip in to hibernation. These latter two groups should be elated, as I was, when it was announced on the team 990′s airwaves that former Expos outfielder Warren ‘Cro’ Cromartie is working with Marc Griffin, and others to bring an Independent Baseball League team to Montreal.

If I didn’t have such a massive office chair, I would have fallen off upon hearing that news.

Whenever ‘Cro’ would be on as a guest on Mitch Melnick’s afternoon show, fans would constantly encourage him to try and bring ball back to Montreal. It seems he’s now going to give it a shot, and I for one could not be happier.

The pessimist in me can’t help but think this is going to be one big tease, but there’s no reason why a city the size of Montreal could not be (and isn’t) home to a professional baseball team. To those not in the know, baseball in Montreal goes WAY back. Famously, Jackie Robinson got his start in professional baseball back in the 1940′s when he broke baseball’s colour barrier with the Montreal Royals. Other prominent Royals include Tommy Lasorda, Duke Snider, Don Drysdale and Roy Campanella; all hall of famers. But did you know that the Royals are actually older than your beloved Montreal Canadiens? Though they were defunct between 1918-1927, the Royals were actually founded back in 1897, 12 years before J. Ambrose O’Brien founded the Canadiens at a Montreal hotel. For further perspective, the Royals went belly-up in 1960, after 52 seasons of ball in Montreal, and NINE seasons before the Expos played their first game. In an ill-fated attempt to bring affordable baseball back to Montreal, the Canadian Baseball League, in 2003 started up (and died that same year). The Montreal Royales were one of eight teams to play in the league during its inaugural (and final) year, but because the Royales couldn’t (or perhaps smartly wouldn’t) play their home games at Olympic Stadium, they never actually played a home game in the Montreal area.

My mind is racing, but for this to work, Cromartie and his group would need to have their team play in a stadium not called the “Big O”, not even temporarily. People simply won’t go. It’s a dump; cold and sterile, out of the way, not to mention the fears of falling concrete. It carries the hurtful baggage of being the Expos home for so long. Basically, the Olympic Stadium is to ballparks what Tatooine is to Star Wars, minus the twin suns. But before a team can be brought to Montreal, a stadium would have to be built. A small, cozy, open-air stadium that would sit 10,000 people would be more than enough to make this work. The stadium wouldn’t even have to be half-full to make it work! The location of the stadium is also critical. With people exiting the city for the outlying suburbs, it’s crucial that the stadium be in a place that is easily accessible by all. The part of town where the Olympic Stadium currently sits is not accessible, parking is scarce and with all due respect to the people that live around there, it’s the ass-end of town now.

I badly miss watching a game where time is not a factor, where you can sit outside and enjoy the beautiful (and sometimes not so beautiful) weather. Baseball, unlike other spectator sports is a game where you can chat with friends in the stands, and get lost in the atmosphere of a great stadium without feeling like you’re missing the game. In hockey, if you blink, you’ll miss something. There is NO sound in any sport as inextricably linked to summertime as the crack of a bat. That sound been brutally absent in Montreal for 5 years now, and it’s time that gaping void is filled.

If you’re a Montrealer, and miss baseball as much as I do, this is great news. I’ll keep listening for, and posting updates here and on twitter. I also created a twitter account specifically focused on bringing baseball back to Montreal. You can follow that account here, and follow the facebook group called “Baseball in Montreal – Baseball à Montréal“, founded by Game Points on Team990 host Matthew Ross. The group is already at 496 members, so let’s try to push that above 500 and beyond!

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Baseball Hall of Fame Gets it Right

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Andre Dawson - THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO

Despite his disappointment, justice has been done, and the Hall of Fame has served baseball history well.

Andre Dawson will enter the Hall of Fame as a member of the Montreal Expos.

Was there really any debate about it?

Let’s be clear on this: The Baseball Hall of Fame is a museum of baseball, and has the duty to best represent baseball’s history as accurately as possible. As such, Andre Dawson left his biggest mark in baseball in the “outpost” of Montreal. In 11 seasons with Montreal, Dawson batted .285, had 225 home runs and had 838 RBI. He also had 1,575 hits (out of his total of 2,774) in Montreal. If that weren’t enough, he won 6 of his 8 gold gloves, 4 of his 5 silver slugger awards in Montreal, and was the rookie of the year in 1977. Lastly, Dawson the only Expo to hit 200 home runs and steal 200 bases. That is significant, and worth preserving. 5 of his 8 all star appearances are as a Cub, but this can be written off because the All Star game meant nothing then. He also benefited from a larger, more passionate fan base voting for him. His biggest and best accomplishment was in 1987 when he was named National League MVP by batting .287 and swatting 49 home runs as a member of the Cubs. Unfortunately for Dawson, his accomplishments in Chicago pale when compared to what he did in Montreal. You can view Dawson’s career stats here. We can even have the debate as to whether or not Dawson even belongs in the Hall. Does his name belong in the Hall, alongside the likes of Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, Joe DiMaggio, etc? Or is he there because of the admission of many good, but not great guys, such as Jim Rice?

In 2001, two seasons after the legendary Wade Boggs tried to make a mockery of the Hall by wanting to enter as a Tampa Bay Devil Ray (where he spent 2 seasons in the twilight of his career) instead of a Boston Red Sox (where he spent 10 years) in exchange for a neat sum of money (reportedly), the decision was taken away from the player as to which cap he wants to wear on his plaque. He is now in there wearing a Red Sox cap, as he should be. I’m sure some decisions are tough ones for the Hall of Fame. But when a player spends nearly twice as much time in one place as any other, and establishes important career benchmarks there, is it really that hard of a decision to make?

It’s easy to see why a player would want to enter the Hall as a Chicago Cub as opposed to a Montreal Expo. When a player’s career is over, the fat paychecks go away with it, but the player can still earn a lucrative living on the autograph and memorabilia circuit. Dawson will draw a lot more attention as he travels around the U.S. marketing himself as “former Chicago Cubs Hall of Famer” as opposed to a “former Montreal Expos Hall of Famer”. However I am very disappointed in his reaction upon hearing that he will enter as an Expo.

Dawson, upon learning that his plea to enter the Hall as a Cub:

“But I think their decision had been made. It was a little gut-wrenching for me to hear that, but it’s their decision, and I respect that, and from there I move on.

“The Hall clearly stated their major concern is the history of the game, and that’s what really played into their decision,” Dawson said. “I’m disappointed. I can probably say that, because Chicago was my preference.”

As an Expos fan, it stings to hear that for sure. What was so bad about his time here? Ok, fine. The turf at the Big O wrecked his knees. His numbers would have been even better if he had the luxury of playing on natural grass. He underwent several surgeries and was treated for his bad joints after every game. Playing on natural grass for his whole career would have surely vaulted him in to 3,000 hit, 500 home run territory, which puts him among the very best to ever play the game.

It’s funny how we forget though. And it’s funny that Dawson seems to have forgotten as well. Once upon a time, 30 years ago, the Expos were a bigger deal in Montreal than the Canadiens. I was an infant then, so I can’t tell you about it first hand, but between 1979 and 1984, the Expos drew in excess of 2 million fans in 4 of those 5 seasons. You can see their full attendance report here. 2 million fans is a lot of people, and a lot of interest in a team. Andre Dawson is one of only a few players tho will ever wear the Expos cap in the Hall. Tim Raines is working his way up the ladder with the Baseball Writer’s Association of America (he will get in one day, and it will be as an Expo) and perhaps Vlad Guerrero as well (though he could very well be an Angel if he gets in).

The dilemma I now face is whether or not I should go to Cooperstown to see his induction speech in person. It’s not a secret that he preferred to go in as a Cub, but he seems to genuinely disappointed that he’s going in as an Expo. I skipped Gary Carter’s, and I’m on the fence about Dawson. If and when Raines gets in, I definitely plan on being at his ceremony.

Do you have any recollections of Andre Dawson? How about thoughts on the Hall of Fame? Should a player have the choice as to what cap he wears in to the Hall of Fame, no matter where his contributions were made?

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