Merci pour des memoires
Last night, the final major league baseball game in Montreal was played. While the Expos went out with a whimper, losing 9-1, it brought back many great Pirate/Expos memories. After all, the last time the Pirates won the World Series, it was the Montreal Expos with whom they were nip and tuck all season long for the division title, finally besting them by 2 games.
Few fans are aware of the gold painted seat in the right field upper deck section of Olympic Stadium that marks the spot, some 500+ feet from home plate, where a classic Willie Stargell blast landed some 25 years ago. How many players have had such a tribute paid to them in a visitors' park? Fewer still (anybody??) are aware of the mammoth blast he hit at the Expos original home, Jarry Park, that sailed out of the stadium into a nearby swimming pool. And of course, I vividly remember his last at bat, in 1982, when he legged out an infield single against Steve Rogers.
Beyond the Stargell blasts and Pirate/Expos penant races, I always sort of rooted for the Expos. They've always had at least one or two players that I really enjoyed watching: Steve Rogers, Oil Can Boyd, Tim Raines, Al Oliver, Larry Walker, and Andre Dawson to name a few. They've also had many players that I hated such as Hubie Brooks, Rusty Staub, Tim Wallach, and Gary Carter. Unfortunately, few people seem to remember just how well the Expos franchise used to be run, as they always drew well and had an endless supply of young talent. Unfortunately, in the end they'll be remembered for empty stadiums, rotten records, and embarassing ownership thanks to Bud Selig and Jeff Loria.
When baseball fails again in Washington DC, and it will eventually, remember how good it used to be in Montreal.
1 Comments:
To comment on esabo...you're just not a baseball fan
ok, so i don't have anywhere else to post this and thought it was a good comment so i'm posting it here...it's from www.blacktable.com
Today also marks the beginning of the baseball playoffs, or as they call it in Pittsburgh, "Tuesday." Could this be the year the Red Sox finally defeat their evil counterparts in the Bronx? Not likely. Perhaps trying to reverse the effects of last season's "Cowboy Up" buzzcuts, several Sox players have been rocking some rather notorious manes. I can get with Johnny Damon's caveman 'do, Pedro's "Cool It Now" era New Edition throwback and Manny's Sideshow Bob routine … but there is no way -- absolutely no way -- that any team with a bleached blond cornrow-sporting Bronson Arroyo wins a pennant. That Japanese gay porn actor/relief pitcher from the Indians is embarrassed for Bronson. It doesn't matter what Arroyo does at this point; once you take the field looking like the fifth member of Color Me Badd, terrible things are destined to happen.
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