Short Stories over the decades:

The Swamp-
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

The Journey
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

And,
The Ballad of Turkey

And, added to that list has recently been:
Lights Out.......

As Well as....
The Golden Greek Goes Upstairs and The Thrilling Conclusion to that story!!

Oh and let's add to the list: The Haunted House
Vol. I
Vol. II

New One: *NEW* A Spring Story *NEW*
Vol. II
Showing posts with label felipe alou. Show all posts
Showing posts with label felipe alou. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

On Larry Walker (of the Montreal Expos)

Spring is here, and Warren Cromartie is on the radio and t.v. talkin' Expos so now I'm all happy today. I find I'm writing a lot about baseball again in the last little while (WBC, steroids, etc.). Baseball is something I like and it's nice and positive to write about it. I'm gonna try and write about more positive things (science, sports) in the future and try and stay away from politics. You get too negative when you get dragged into the drudges of the political world.

Larry Walker
I was listening to an interview on Mitch Melnick's TSN 690 radio program today and he was talkin' to Cro. The Cro was mentioning that his Montreal Baseball Project is well into Phase II as he is launching an economic forum/feasibility study, and he also mentioned that next year marks the 20th anniversary of the 1994 Montreal Expos team. Many know the history of that and really believe the disbanding of that squadron was the first step in the death of the Expos.

To mark the anniversary of the 1994 Expos, Montreal Baseball Project is re-uniting the team for some sort of festivity here in the city. He mentioned Pedro, Moises, Grip, Felipe, and others are gonna be part of it. I hope others show up too. Mitch asked him about Larry Walker and neither thought he would come. Cro proceeded to say that if anyone is in touch with Larry to call [him] homie, and let him know they want him there for the reunion.

Mitch mentioned that relations with Walker and Montreal are somewhat sour and I want to try and explain why that is.

Rabbit Ears

Warren mentioned that "players have rabbit ears" and I want to to try and elaborate on what he was saying.

Remember that episode of the Simpson's where Homer gets benched for Darryl Strawberry and Bart sits behind him in the rightfield stands and heckles the Straw until he sheds a single tear? That's rabbit ears.

In fact, Bart (or whichever writer wrote that bit) did not invent the "Dar-ryl" chant...fans at Fenway did (as evidenced by this video care of MLB.com):




Dar-ryyyyyyl, Dar-ryyyyyyyl.

Okay. Now, before moving on to how this relates to Larry Walker, I want to first talk about another Expos outfielder.

In the mid 1980s, the owners of each Major League club colluded to agree to not sign any free agents in order to drive their salaries down. Expos outfielder Andre Dawson left the Expos and signed a blank cheque with the Cubs. The fans had no way of knowing about the collusion that was going on, and when Dawson came to play against the Expos with the Cubs in 1987...the Expos fans booed him. The fans should have been booing the owners for colluding but with the information they had, they could only believe that Dawson jumped ship and thus they booed him under false pretenses.

Now, the same would occur in 1995...to one Larry Kenneth Robert Walker. After 1994, Claude Brochu dismantled the Expos following the cancelled season. Walker, Grissom, Wetteland, and others were traded or released. Larry Walker was let go and signed on with the Colorado Rockies. We now know that Walker wanted to take much less money to remain in Montreal but was still let go by the team in order to cut salaries. To the fans however, who had already been shafted out of a playoff berth for the first time in over a decade, were already understandably bitter and were very unfriendly to Larry when he came to Olympic Stadium to play against the Expos as a Rockie in the 1995 season. They booed the heck out of him, heckled him every at bat, and the fans in the right field bleachers gave him the Dar-yyyyl treatment something fierce.

So when Cro mentioned that "players have rabbit ears" that's what he was talking about. The fans gave Walker the Dar-yyyl treatment but who could blame them? Just like in 1987 when they booed Dawson, the fans had no idea of the back office politics going on which led to those players leaving the club. All they knew in '95 was that they just had their World Series contender team dismantled and were as bitter as hell. Once again the jeers were undeserved by the outfielder yet it is easy to see why the fans did it. How were they to know otherwise?

My sources for these two events are: I was present at the Walker "Dar-yyyl" game and very clearly remember the length and intensity of the jeers directed at Walker. While my source for the 1987 Dawson boos comes from a very reliable Expos historian (Wayne).

So,

The Walker and Montreal sourness is from a big misunderstanding by the fans, that's all. The 1995 season started on an incredibly sour note here and I don't think anyone can blame the fans for being pessimistic and quite angry that season.

It would be cool if Larry attends the Montreal Baseball Project's 1994 team reunion next summer.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

On Alou and on Robinson

        When Felipe Alou came to Olympic Stadium with the Giants in 2003, the Expos fans gave him, the opposing coach, a standing ovation. After the game, Expos coach Frank Robinson asked the press why they cheer for “that guy” and not for him. To this day I’m not really sure why Frank Robinson, a hall of famer and all around good baseball guy was not popular with the Expos fans. We’ll look into it and hopefully find the answer.
            


First of all, where did Frank Robinson come from? The first time I heard his name come into the picture was actually way before he was announced as the Expos new coach in 2003. Now, it was strange at the time but this is the information I had received. A friend of a friend of mine who apparently was in contact with Andre Dawson (then assistant GM for the Florida Marlins) told me that Frank Robinson and Bill Cosby were interested in purchasing the Expos (then almost defunct) and moving them to Washington. Setting aside the ridiculousness of this statement, it did come from Andre Dawson which meant it couldn’t totally be untrue. Having forgot about it for sometime, I was totally shocked when the league named Frank Robinson as the Expos new head coach. I was shocked, amazed, but mostly horrified. Was it the end? Did Frank Robinson find a way of getting his friend Bill Cosby into the picture? Was the Cos waiting in the shadows with moving trucks ready to whisk the Expos away and make them the Washington Puddin’ Pops? For the record books it should be known that Frank Robinson did indeed appear on an episode of “The Cosby Show” playing Frank “Payday” Potter circa 1991. Maybe it’s just a coincidence, yeah right. That being said, I didn’t trust this guy coming into Montreal, that’s strike one for Frank Robinson. By the way, I’m a huge Cosby fan and all and love his faces and antics, but moving away the Expos is not nice Bill Cosby.
     
       Alright, moving on, my initial distrust for Frank Robinson was dashed actually after his first season here began. After the Expos won on opening day 2002, I saw Frank smile and wave to the fans, he looked happy and proud to be an Expo. From that day on I was in his corner as head coach. As the weeks went by and no sign of Bill Cosby and moving vans I started to relax and let Frank do his thing…like sleep or look old.

2002 Opening day come-from-behind victory:



            At the end of the 2003 season, the last home game (we’re jumping ahead here), Vladimir “The Best Hitter Alive” Guerrero was to play his last game in Montreal. He had two at-bats and then was pulled in place of Ron Calloway (who homered in his at bat mind you, so no blame to him). The fans were not happy and booed Robinson like crazy. At the end of the game on the scoreboard highlights of the season were being played and every time Robinson was on it the fans booed him like crazy. I was a bit embarrassed, I mean they were booing a hall of famer, and an all around good baseball guy. After the game Robinson told the press that the fans had 80 games to see Vlad why did they want to see him so bad now, or something like that. Even though I was embarrassed during the booing, the after game comments were a total strike two for Robinson. You don’t talk bad about the fans man.
           
      Mind you, I still don’t dislike Robinson at this point, everyone else does, but I’m still sorta in his corner. Yet, when I saw the Nationals getting their uniforms however for their inaugural season, and how happy Robinson was…that was it. He was never an Expo, even if he wore the uniform, he was a National this whole time.