Les Expos de Montréal Nostalgia Repository

Final of the Concacaf Champions League at the Big O right now, there is player called Martinez on the pitch and another called Guerrero on the bench.

I was at that game, I gotta say the expos games had nothing on that crowd... holy fuck

But also for the expos game, they had the "getting people in the doors" game on LOCK (compared to this)... for concacaf I think I was outside for ~35 mins just to get in

http://globalnews.ca/news/2002980/baseball-in-montreal-mayor-denis-coderre-mlb-commissioner-to-meet/?hootPostID=3eb37d12087edc74a154c527df9bfb75

Baseball in Montreal? Mayor Denis Coderre, MLB commissioner to meet

1969 program:

http://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1330/5100890119_2cdc70417d_b.jpg

I want to know what a sandwich spécial is!

Ham, cheese, and little pieces of John Boccabella.

I finally started reading "Up Up and Away" as a spring training present to myself (I bought it a few months ago and finally started reading it this week). I'm about sixty pages in and it's perfect pre-season reading, full of amusing stories and cool factoids (like the English to Quebecois French translation of baseball terms). No bitterness, just a "this was fun while it lasted" vibe throughout (maybe the bitterness comes later though).

I had no idea that MLB awarded a franchise to MTL before there was an ownership group in place! The business of baseball has really changed since the late 60's ...

this is one of my favorite pages in the internet: http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/French_Baseball_Glossary

Got my tickets for Saturday @ the Big O, currently getting tickets for Friday as well. It was all sorts of fun last year.

Knuckleball - la balle papillon

Butterfly ball?

that's my favourite one! i end up just reading that page idly a few times per season.

i'm picturing the Quebec language police coming down on the field and telling the players they have to communicate entirely en francais during the game.

"La balle papillon" was Jonah Keri's favourite too, but his list wasn't as comprehensive as the B-R glossary. "Blown Save - le sabotage" gets my vote though.

a screwball is a corkscrew ball, because wine lol french lol etc
a forkball = a slingball
a bunt is like... a cushioning?
pop-up/line drive/grounder = candle/arrow/roller
a shutout = laundry!!!
pitch hitter = emergency hitter (but a pinch runner is just a substitute runner, lol)

and then there's the ones that are just fun to say... moyen du puissance! balle glissante!

fly ball is ballon, which is the name we give to bigger balls like a basketball or a soccer ball.

I'm up to the chapter about 1994 (it gets its own chapter). I've been kind of dreading this part of the book, since it's nothing but a series of crushing disappointments from here until the end, but OTOH Keri's been keeping the negativity to a minimum so maybe I'm in for a surprise.

I'd almost forgotten how bad Expos ownership was in the pre-Loria days. Keri tries to be neutral on most things, and in many ways Charles Bronfman comes across as a visionary who helped bring the Expos to Montreal and led them through their late 70's/early '80's heyday. But to me he also comes across as a greedy asshole, even more so than your usual scummy baseball owner. He was arguably the most enthusiastic supporter of collusion in the 80's, and interviewees in the book say that he was personally crushed to discover that players wanted to be paid better and would sometimes sign with the highest bidder. He saw the Expos as a family business (where only he was allowed to make money of course) and couldn't understand why the ungrateful players didn't share in that loyalty, they just wanted more money.

The Expos also tried to squeeze the Jays out of their own markets in the 80's, which I hadn't heard about before. People partly blamed the Expos' downfall on the Jays, claiming that the Spos couldn't possibly survive unless they had nearly exclusive rights to broadcast anywhere in Canada, but particularly in Southern Ontario. Last I checked, the Canadiens do just fine despite the Leafs, and the population of Montreal is still larger than most MLB cities. And where exactly were the Jays supposed to broadcast their games??

I agree with Kerri, reading between the lines I think he admits that Montrealers don't care about baseball. You have some niches groups here and there, enough to get the O filled up for those two meaningless spring training games, but if you ask random montrealers they would struggle to name all 30 MLB teams. I keep asking about Mike Trout and 9 times out of ten they have no idea. It gets worse outside of the city, although Quebec City has a solid core of baseball fanatics for whatever reason. I don't have numbers to back that claim but I'm certain soccer and football are way more popular, and way more part of the collective consciousness. Jays and Jays' ownership were within their rights to solidify their own markets, it's just that it exposed the ugly truth that Montreal does not care about baseball like say lots of american cities do. Also, comparatively to other NA markets, Montreal was financially poor and struggling up until quite recently.

Also, Habs have fans all across Canada and are tied to a nationalist sentiment unlike any other club in the major leagues, I don't think you can compare both situations.

I mean, you have one of the most beloved players of his generation reaching the eternal 3000 hits plateau and the attendance was of 13,540.

You could say a lot of the same things about Jays fans though. Baseball always comes second to hockey. Both Torontonians and Montrealers will support a winning baseball team, but when the team is playing badly that support collapsed. With the hockey teams, fan support is much more constant, particularly in Toronto (that's not necessarily a compliment -- Toronto hockey fans will tolerate way too much mediocrity, whereas Montreal fans are smart enough not to tolerate that shit).

At the time (late '90's) I thought a new stadium in Montreal wasn't the solution, but now I'm not so sure after seeing what it's done for other teams in recent years after moving from suburban multipurpose stadiums into downtown baseball only parks (e.g. Pittsburgh, SF).

Finished it ... it was about what I expected -- an easy read that brought back a lot of memories. It feels like he barely scratched the surface on a lot of things, he interviewed about one hundred people and could probably fill up another book just with stories and oral histories if he wanted.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ClpmHHLXIAASM57.jpg

this makes me sad.

allo

Now, just because a group of investors have met MLB’s conditions, it does not mean baseball’s return to Montreal is imminent. Hardly. Commissioner Rob Manfred has said he wants the Rays and Athletics to get new ballparks before considering expansion, plus MLB would surely open up the bidding to multiple cities.

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/investors-have-reportedly-met-mlbs-conditions-to-bring-a-team-back-to-montreal/

Bleh, we already have enough taxes and debt like it is, and no way a stadium is built without some government funding. I love baseball, of course, and would welcome an expansion team, but that scam has been going for too long.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C8RqHFPXUAE9QhE.jpg

makeshift bullpens at the O

Such a brutal stadium.

i agree, it is a masterpiece of brutalism

i don't think it's really any worse than the other 70s stadiums like three rivers/riverfront/the vet. which admittedly isn't saying much

Now, just because a group of investors have met MLB’s conditions, it does not mean baseball’s return to Montreal is imminent.

no, it means manfred has a francophone stick with which to beat the local oakland and tampa governments

un baton.

le bâton

lol

French government has been trying to reform that accent out of existence since 2008. You could say it is a bit like the Expos.

id say i liked the view from my cheap seats better than i ever enjoyed the view from the cheap seats at the skydome.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/rob-manfreds-three-expansion-cities

I guess it's not universally accepted that manfred's just yapping to get Oakland and TB their taxpayer parks

i'm sure that's part of it, but . . . the rockies paid a $95m expansion fee in 1992. the new las vegas team in the nhl just paid $500m. a new baseball team would be $1b at least, i would think, of straight-up free money? even split 30 ways that's a lot

i don't think it'll happen before those two teams get their parks though. really, they need to be relocated before anyone even thinks about expansion, but that isn't coming from a $$ standpoint.

i agree with AGon though, if the goal of mexico expansion is to open up the entire country's market and/or diplomatic baseball reasons, it doesn't need to be a logistical nightmare like mexico city. monterrey is at least a hell of a lot closer to the rest of the league and shorter than denver by several thousand feet.

Jered Weaver in a brutalist bullpen would think his fastball is roughly 110 mph.

Montreal can't afford a new ballpark/billionaire's scam. Montreal can't afford a new ballpark/billionaire's scam. Montreal can't afford a new ballpark/billionaire's scam.

otm. isn't carey price enough?

http://phildellio.tripod.com/raines.jpg

Oh man.

<3

Posnanski pointed out the other day how incredibly close they were during their Expos years:

Games played in Montreal:

Tim Raines: 1,452
Andre Dawson: 1,443

WAR in Montreal:

Tim Raines: 48.5
Andre Dawson: 48.1

This video is worth checking out. Stick around until the end, the last throw they show is unbelievable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQwfvNtAFyk

I remember when Ellis Valentine got hit in the face with a pitch and wore this helmet. Always thought this was a pretty cool card.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IBmZyF9wrGA/TVjWUNxAV1I/AAAAAAAAQUU/0YwpFu8NaXo/s1600/ellis_card.jpg

Lot of big name players in that Valentine clip. I believe that is Dale Murphy in that one against the Braves.

jacksonville expos cap circa 1985-90. nice

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DyVrJQzXQAAzY7j.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D-0cveIWsAEYs6D.jpg

Pitching another monster game through 5 (59 strikes, 19 balls!).

Somewhat related: going to the Canadian HOF for the first time on Wednesday. I hope there's more than a Fergie Jenkins jersey and a couple of Joey Votto's bats...