THE CONSERVATIVE HIPSTERS
Wednesday, September 29, 2004
MY SO-CALLED LIFE: EXPOS R.I.P
What a sad day for Canada and for Major League Baseball. I have already seen pundits pontificating about how this franchise could never work in a market like Montreal, but I beg to disagree. Numerous Canadian franchises (hello, Calgary Flames) have shown that they can compete, win and retain fans even if those three factors aren't taking place at the same time, as long as they have a support plan and are taking steps to reconnect with fans.
Farewell, Olympic Stadium
Here's a portion of comment from scribe Jack Todd at the Montreal Gazette, which was reprinted in today's National Post:
"End of an error," said the wise-guy headline on the Yahoo Sports site yesterday, heralding the end of the Expos. But it was never an error: Not from the beginning when Major League Baseball came to the tolerant city Branch Rickey had chosen, a quarter-century earlier, as the ideal place for Jackie Robinson to break into pro ball. Not when Jarry Park rocked night after night with a team losing close to 100 games a season. Not when the Expos made their pennant runs year after year at the Big O, with 50,000 screaming fans shaking the concrete, and talents as large as Andre Dawson and Gary Carter and Tim Raines on the field.
"Now that it looks like it's going to happen, that this is going to be the end, it's a little tough for people to get up and talk about it in the positive way that they should," Expos manager Frank Robinson said the other day. "And I think that's kind of a pity, really, because it deserves that people say more about how they feel about the situation, about the possibility of losing baseball in the Montreal area.
"I think there were a lot more good times possibly than bad times. This is where an expansion ball club grew into one of the best organizations in baseball, at one time, and it's sad the way it has gone over the last few years and the way it is going out, if this is the end."
Amen. But that's what happens when you set out to build a Field of Dreams and end up, for whatever reason, with a Field of Condos instead.
Fan attendence last night was 5,416. What a shame.
Farewell, Olympic Stadium
Here's a portion of comment from scribe Jack Todd at the Montreal Gazette, which was reprinted in today's National Post:
"End of an error," said the wise-guy headline on the Yahoo Sports site yesterday, heralding the end of the Expos. But it was never an error: Not from the beginning when Major League Baseball came to the tolerant city Branch Rickey had chosen, a quarter-century earlier, as the ideal place for Jackie Robinson to break into pro ball. Not when Jarry Park rocked night after night with a team losing close to 100 games a season. Not when the Expos made their pennant runs year after year at the Big O, with 50,000 screaming fans shaking the concrete, and talents as large as Andre Dawson and Gary Carter and Tim Raines on the field.
"Now that it looks like it's going to happen, that this is going to be the end, it's a little tough for people to get up and talk about it in the positive way that they should," Expos manager Frank Robinson said the other day. "And I think that's kind of a pity, really, because it deserves that people say more about how they feel about the situation, about the possibility of losing baseball in the Montreal area.
"I think there were a lot more good times possibly than bad times. This is where an expansion ball club grew into one of the best organizations in baseball, at one time, and it's sad the way it has gone over the last few years and the way it is going out, if this is the end."
Amen. But that's what happens when you set out to build a Field of Dreams and end up, for whatever reason, with a Field of Condos instead.
Fan attendence last night was 5,416. What a shame.
# posted by Anonymous : 11:39 a.m.
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