Up, Up, and Away: The Kid, the Hawk, Rock, Vladi, Pedro, le Grand Orange, Youppi!, the Crazy Business of Baseball, and the Ill-fated but Unforgettable Montreal Expos (27 page)
Authors: Jonah Keri
“He loved the feeling that these were his guys. And I think the Carter situation told him otherwise. They are only his boys if he is paying them what they think they should be paid—it all boiled down to money. This was not only happening in Montreal, this was happening throughout baseball. And if it affected different
owners in different ways, it affected Charles deeply because what he viewed as a family enterprise wasn’t any longer. It was all business. And he didn’t like the way the business of baseball was going—the escalating salaries, the turmoil between the Players Association and the ownership group and so forth. All of that. I think the Carter deal was the one that iced it for Charles as far as getting out of the business.”
Bronfman selling the team, and the resulting reckoning, were indeed on the way, with Carter the first big domino to fall. His trade was the first time an Expos owner ever cited finances as the overriding reason to let a star player go. The first, but certainly not the last.
Out of the owner’s box and onto the mound: Charles Bronfman’s uniform number 83 is in honour of the Seagram’s whiskey.
The beloved grin of Gary Carter, “The Kid.”
After winning the pennant with the Red Sox during their “Impossible Dream” season, and then two championships with the Athletics, Dick Williams managed two of the best teams in Expos history, only to get replaced near the end of the team’s lone playoff season.
Shortstop Chris Speier slides home while teammates Tim Raines and Warren Cromartie look on.
Bon vivants
in the dugout: Scott Sanderson, Pepe Frias, Larry Parrish, Ellis Valentine, Dan Schatzeder, and Sam Mejias.
The first Expo to enter the Hall of Fame, catcher Gary Carter was a force at the plate as well as behind it.
Ellis Valentine was one of the most talented players to put on an Expos uniform.
Long before T-shirt cannons: Larry Parrish takes part in a cow-milking contest.
The 1982 All-Star Game at Olympic Stadium was one of the high points in Montreal baseball history, with five Expos (Tim Raines, Andre Dawson, Gary Carter, Steve Rogers, and Al Oliver) representing the National League, and four of them (all except Oliver) in the starting lineup.
Russ Hansen
A Hall of Famer next to a should-be Hall of Famer: Andre Dawson and Tim Raines.
Jeff Reardon, nicknamed “The Terminator,” briefly held Major League Baseball’s all-time saves record, and is still seventh on that list, behind only Mariano Rivera, Trevor Hoffman, Lee Smith, Billy Wagner, John Franco, and Dennis Eckersley.
A young Tim Wallach, who would play thirteen seasons for the Expos, appearing in five All-Star Games and collecting three Gold Glove and two Silver Slugger awards.
