Les Expos de Montréal Nostalgia Repository

yes, by the time I get my new passport it could be March; let's go to Montreal.

I could do this.

btw those exhibition dates are March 28 & 29

Got my tickets to one of the games (I think Friday). Any ILXors going? Maybe grab an ILX pack? Are they even still available? Got mine so long ago...

oh and re:

YES!

Now i'm anxious it won't draw.

― Van Horn Street, Tuesday, 10 September 2013 23:34 (1 month ago)

"Over 50,000 have been sold for the games in March," the president of the Montreal Baseball Project told CJAD 800 News.

Cromartie said they've also sold about 28,000 tickets for next March's gala celebrating the 20th anniversary of the 1994 Expos.

http://www.cjad.com/CJADLocalNews/entry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10604899

well I guess we should decide before (US) Thanksgiving, then

Yeah I'm glad it is such a success, but the anxiety was justified.

what's the o roof situation these days?

http://gs1.wac.edgecastcdn.net/8019B6/data.tumblr.com/7c1f88e3e905fa80c7651bf3636fd9b8/tumblr_mv04fzGP1r1r52h1zo6_400.gif

One of my first elementary school field trips after arriving in North America involved an Expos game at Jarry Park. It was a cold, windy day, and sitting in those bleachers through nine innings didn't let you forget it. Jarry struck me as a desolate and forlorn place, though in hindsight it was much more lovable than the Big O.

I became more of a hockey fan in those years, but the Expos were a part of the landscape, and there was something about that logo...

The first month of grade seven in '79 coincided with the epic pennant race against the Pirates. I had a classmate who'd bring in a radio to class and turn it on during class breaks to catch us up on the games. Raines made his debut that September, all of 19 years old.

I think this must make me one of ilx's resident geezers.

I remember my Grade 2 class in a non-Quebec French immersion school being interrupted to watch game 5 of the Expos-Dodgers NLCS on a TV they wheeled into the auditorium. Rick Monday hit the winning home run right around the time classes were scheduled to end, IIRC, and they kicked us out. I ran home (2 blocks, unaccompanied age 7) dreaming of the Expos rallying to win in the bottom of the ninth. Dawson was due up, at least. Got home, ran to the TV and found the game: they'd gotten 2 quick outs, then 2 walks, forcing a pitching change. I sat down just as the first pitch was delivered, ground ball up the middle, easy out, game over.

The next year we took a Via train through the Rockies and I spent most of the time in the dome car carefully drawing baseball players (out of overlapping ovals) and then colouring the numbers, stripes and "elb" logo of the Expos home uniform.

Followed them as closely as I could from afar for years after that, listened to Dave Van Horne do the radio broadcasts, watched them on French CBC, bought a Rotisserie baseball stats guide with Andres Galarraga on the cover.

Haven't watched a regular season baseball game since 1994.

Cool story, Plasmon.

God I loved that VIA dome car. Did the transcontinental trip a few times, on way to various summer jobs out West. I remember one time, on my way to Prince Rupert and the Queen Charlotte Islands, I had my eyes glued on the massive Skeena River --half a mile across, boiling and swirling emerald currents marching towards the Pacific-- when this enormous thing erupted from the water, missile-like, and then fell back into it, a creature so large that in the first instant I took it to be some sort of a marine mammal, a member of the whale family, maybe... but as we rolled onward and I processed the image in my mind I realized, no, that was a fish. Sure enough, as a local sitting near me confirmed, the Chinook salmon were running. He figured the one we saw was easily sixty pounds.

A cool kickstarter project concerning nos z'amours

it'd be kind of poetically fitting if the filmmaker just scammed all the Kickstarter backers and just ran off to Miami with the money.

@si_vault
Get excited, Montreal -- it's Expos Day at the SI Vault! I'll get up as many pics as I can. pic.twitter.com/j2eQY6QFUK

https://twitter.com/si_vault

Jonah Keri's book comes out on the 25th.

http://www.amazon.com/Up-Away-Business-Ill-fated-Unforgettable/dp/0307361357

I guess no one is joining Will M. for the exhib games?

oh god... the only time i could get off work & my gf could get off work to see each other was this weekend/the following week, so i am flying out to vancouver the day of the first game... meaning... none of us are going to the exhibition games!!!! i am upset :( i was really hoping to see a colon vs ohka matchup!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BiJ6MwXCIAAqHtl.jpg

anyone will be at one of the two games this weekend?

acc to the other thread, no!

maaaaaan :( :( :( picked the worst time to leave montreal for a week! had my tickets and everything. at least i'll have mlbtv when i get back.

What's normally the year's most exciting live baseball in Montreal? Or does one have to go to Quebec City?

The Quebec City team played one game here last year and something over a thousand people showed up, I think... other than that, not really any live baseball. Just wish everyone would get their head out of the clouds re: an MLB team and just get a minor league team. Vancouver has one, Ottawa is getting one, ugh.

If you're in Montreal and for some reason really hurting for live baseball I can send you my beer league's schedule, I guess!

i was looking for the thread where i was going to bring a new york-penn league team to montréal and rrrobyn was going to do all the graphic art and stuff but i couldn't find it and found this instead:

Stade Olympique in Montreal, Quebec

I am so on board with having a minor league team here. I used to go to evening games in Vancouver at nat bailey stadium, which is next to a big park, so the air is fresh and just, well, it was pretty sweet.

Jonah Keri's Expos book is out this week.

i mean i would want a AA team but i'm not picky, i would probably watch a couple games a week of short-A ball (but i am usre the tickets would be massively overpriced -- last time i went to a vermont lake monsters game, i am pretty sure it was under $5!!!)

(vs vanoucver canadians which was around $20!!!)

Quite excited for tonight. I'll be at the game tomorrow.

ergh, many dodgers cap and jersey at the stade.

ergh, many dodgers cap and jersey at the stade.

rude

a fan fell from the bleachers, that's a 16 meters drop. yes meters. hope he's fine. :(

a massive bunch of montrealers singing the olé chant for a toronto team was kinda special.

I caught just a bit of today's game. I take it Pedro wasn't there? (I had to check to see if he was even on the '94 team...)

http://wpmedia.sports.nationalpost.com/2014/03/mets_blue_jays_baseball.jpg?w=620&h=387

Keri interview on book

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=23189

his book tour includes smoked meat at a NYC deli

http://jonahkeri.com/2014/02/14/book-tour/

WDYLL during the summer of 1983 (during your first Tiger Stadium visit)?

https://scontent-b-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc1/t1.0-9/5249_113425568633_7952656_n.jpg

May 2, 1987:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4UclkYmr7g

https://i.imgur.com/XyiYhSd.jpg

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2044800323/the-perfect-storm-documentary-on-the-94-montreal-e

"In the past year I have independently Produced three Sport's Documentary's."

Hmm.

anyone read Keri's book?

I just discovered that an acquaintance of mine (someone I met at parties a few times and played online games with) is the son of Joel Youngblood. He's the first player to hit with two different cities, in two games, with two different teams ON THE SAME DAY, the pitchers were Jenkins and Carlton. JENKINS AND CARLTON. He did for it for the Mets and Expos. You guys must know this story by heart already. I am going to try to meet him and report back to ILB.

yeah i remember that trade

Joel was a total babe btw

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/aug/11/1994-major-league-baseball-strike-montreal-expos

Wetteland, who would go on to close for the 1996 World Series champion Yankees, told the Guardian:

It’s never been reconciled in my heart. It’s never been reconciled. In 1994 we had a product on the field that would win a World Series … we understood that that was the beginning of the end in ‘94, and that was tough. I just can’t get over it, we could have had many world championships here because we were all young. But that’s life.

Kinda confused by expos fan (and expos themselves) talking of that championship like a sure thing, how many times the best record in baseball translated into actual championships? The White Sox were also very good, many other teams were. The narrative of 'we should have won the World Series and then things would have been okay' is ridiculous wishful thinking at worst, a romantic story at best. I am not denying the strike had no effect on the expos whatsoever, but there was plenty of factors and one of them was the pure apathy Montreal public towards the sport of baseball.

Agree, and thought so at the time. I'm not convinced they would have even won their division. They were six games up on Atlanta when the strike shut down the season; the Braves were four years into their dynasty, playing .600 baseball, and it was only the year before when they staged one of the great divisional comebacks ever. On the other hand, the Expos had been getting better as the year went on: .565 in April, then .556/.704/.692/.818.

They had about 50 games to play--I wouldn't have been shocked if the Braves had caught them. But at worst, I think they had a (brand-new) wild card locked up, especially as they only had to stay ahead of Cincinnati or Houston, and Bagwell had just gone down for the season.

Got a cheap used copy of the Keri book over the weekend--will probably read that next after Perlstein's book.

Tim Koewn wrote an article about the '94 season being romanticized as whatever you wanted it to be. The Expos would have won the WS, Gwynn would have hit .400, somebody would have hit 62 homers -- as time passes, each of these becomes more of a certainty in the eyes of many people, and you can't really disagree because the season was never finished.

But yeah, winning the WS obviously wasn't a sure thing, but they would have made the playoffs and possibly kicked off a successful run not unlike the '90's Indians or the post '08 Brewers (i.e. two "smaller market" franchises that were transformed by finally getting over the hump and making the playoffs after two decades of losing). Maybe more guys would have stayed with the Expos in '95 and '96 if they'd had a deep playoff run in '94.

And I really need to get the Keri book.

My guess would be he had a hand in getting Montreal a team--he was PM up till '68? I think there are a bunch of non-Canadian Jays and Expos in there.

"Canada’s 14th Prime Minister, Lester B. Pearson, was a fine all-around athlete who participated in a variety of sports, including hockey, football, rugby, basketball and lacrosse. But baseball was Pearson’s true passion. He suited up alongside his brother, Vaughan, with the Guelph Maple Leafs of the Ontario Intercounty Baseball League and attended games at Toronto’s famed Hanlan’s Point stadium as a youngster.

Later in life, the Nobel Peace Prize winner served as an honorary board member with the Montreal Expos. After his death, the Pearson Cup, named in his honour, was presented to the winner of an annual exhibition game between the Toronto Blue Jays and Montreal Expos from 1978 to 1986."

So...he liked baseball seems to be the reason.

Go, Expos!

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/would-the-expos-have-won-the-1994-world-series/

In a word--three words--no, probably not (says Neil Paine).

Not sure if it will last--attendance is understandably sporadic--but I've been doing a couple of volunteer hours per week at the Canadian Baseball HOF. (As I mentioned when I moved to St. Mary's, a five-minute walk from my house.) I was scanning old Expos photos this morning, as they digitize their collections. Chris Nabholz, Bob Natal, Graig Nettles (had to check the spelling), Al Newman, Reid Nichols, Steve Nicosia, Otis Nixon; I'll have to mention that they need a file for Tom Nieto.

awesome

In 1958, a 30 yo Tommy Lasorda was the International league's most valuable pitcher, thanks to his 18-6 record, his 2.50 ERA and 1.16 WHIP. He was also an assistant to manager Clay Bryant (left) and the team's traveling secretary. pic.twitter.com/ExS6csoCIR

— The Montreal Royals (@Royals_46season) January 8, 2021

Not sure if it will last--attendance is understandably sporadic--but I've been doing a couple of volunteer hours per week at the Canadian Baseball HOF. (As I mentioned when I moved to St. Mary's, a five-minute walk from my house.) I was scanning old Expos photos this morning, as they digitize their collections. Chris Nabholz, Bob Natal, Graig Nettles (had to check the spelling), Al Newman, Reid Nichols, Steve Nicosia, Otis Nixon; I'll have to mention that they need a file for Tom Nieto.

― clemenza, Thursday, July 30, 2020 12:55 PM (five months ago) bookmarkflaglink

awesome

― mookieproof, Thursday, July 30, 2020 1:00 PM (five months ago) bookmarkflaglink

clemenza and mookieproof otm.

Random memory of Harry Caray absolutely butchering the pronunciation of "Nicosia."

Back in the spring, but thus far it's been a lot less glamorous than I envisioned a year ago. I thought I'd be out clubbing with Carlos Delgado and John Olerud; mostly I've been weed-whacking around park benches.