MLB - The Colorful Montreal Expos [FULL DOCUMENTARY]

it is a city where one game one team one set of Heroes stand apart from all of us because for generations of us in Montreal hockey hasn't been just a sport it's been a way of life the Canadian never just been a franchise but a symbol what excellence can look like and names like rocket Rashard Jean Beliveau G Leffler haven't just been stars but icons forever ingrained in history yet there was once a time when there were others names people knew Nicole the kid the hawk the rock and they drew men who didn't wheel sticks and pucks but bats and pawns members of another teeth that captured the heart of the city in unforgettable ways the Expos are still alive in Montreal you just have to look a little harder to find them the Canadians were Lake lorry you the glorious somehow they were appear the Expos were of the people people called them in French no zamore our love's [Music] Montreal is a city of style of fashion of - miss teen peeled - Montreal it was colorful it was alive and fans just loved the expose doing weird it was a weird franchise it wasn't like playing in Cleveland or Milwaukee or New York it always had that different vibe to it the mascot was weird the stadium appeared two languages popcorn miss and flip hotdog she show it anyway now that's what boss all of it was weird but weird was great tricolor hats think of a tricolor ass you're saying what the heck is that they look like clowns out there I wonder if everybody heard think they look like clowns do I love in a city that's primarily French they had Oompa band I mean really who has opened and I used to play song called the happy wanderer 3 imagine 30,000 people singing that we were all laughing you know going like these people are crazy they'll come out in full house and lot of the Eloi dance oh there we into a man you had a dancer on top of the dugouts you know even now when you get a small group of former expose together these days the memories come flooding back I saw the fine Christmas tree when I first saw the night life partner remember main occasion hey hey rook come on I didn't dream get a glass of milk it was fun the theme was fun because it if you build on winning you could have problems but if you build on having fun we had no problems there was no better atmosphere first of all they had these yellow seats and if you banging on those things the sound that came out was incredibly loud and also very annoying for the opposing team tough luck the little nuances the songs that they play the chicken that would come on the screen the food the poutine the hotdogs there was a charm to it they had a mascot for one year named Sookie the kids were afraid of them you look bad I monster it looked like mr. Mets let's say mentally challenged cousin okay so they move on to another mascot you pee exclamation point what is you pee you know what is it what is it time is called Davidson is throwing you pee out of the ballgame I have never in my life seen a mascot if any major sports a team ejected from basically we've seen it all now yup he's been thrown out of the game only in Montreal there was something a little Mickey Mouse about those Expos but it was our Mickey it was utterly charming without being traditionally charmed it was Montreal charm and plus we had a lot of fun personalities too Billy there were times where I thought he was he was a homeless guy Cromartie bunch of dawson and rain Larry Walker and Moises Alou we got into a lot of fights I had to go hard on one daily page oh man you get these fans very much took two guys who were colorful they didn't necessarily sweat off field escapades they didn't worry about any of that stuff Larry Walker sometimes you become the bartender and you start giving everybody that passed by on the street drinks drinks are on me in those moments were like so much fun I didn't want to let go those summers in Montreal [Music] more than a decade after their departure they are not for death even a few exhibition games can still trigger a familiar passion [Applause] they filled the joint they put 97 thousand people in the stadium for two games 97 thousand people the next season in 2015 another 97 thousand people showed up we were singing Expo songs and we were singing Valerie Val draw and we were crying Gro man we were crying over the outpouring of emotion it was literally like seeing someone who you thought was dead and now all of a sudden ten years later Blake hey guess what I'm back [Music] long before the Montreal Expos there were the Montreal Royals a minor league club that became in 1939 the Dodgers triple-a farm to a host of Legends would pass through that Royals clubhouse over the years but none more significant than a 27 year old Jackie Robinson who spent the 1946 season with the team one year before breaking major league baseball's color barrier Montreal is a baseball city so baseball has always been there but in 1960 the Royals folded which actually might have been the best thing for baseball in Montreal because major league baseball was expanding and the city was making a bid to get into the game and we had a mayor mr. jackal you wanted to be able to have a stadium so he can pray in the Olympics in Montreal and baseball was a way to do it much was a huge huge underdog and against all odds much y'all gets big there's only a few months left until the 1969 season is going to start but they don't have anywhere to play there's no stadium where are they gonna play their games we were having a wake in our office for the team that wouldn't be and there's a phone call from the mayor I went down it was office and there was a picture of Cherie Park a municipal park called Jerry Park and riposte says we're gonna turn this into a major league baseball co-presidents of national league doesn't want to hear no and doesn't want to think about no just okay I believe you I'm afraid to mention the word problem because every time I mention it the mayor would say we have no problems we only have solutions night and day the city and the club labored to do the impossible to put into operation what has been called the most fantastic sports enterprise the Canadian is everything was rushed a rushed construction job through a cold tough winter and it was almost ready for the opening day game almost ready because they hadn't installed all of the seats and night before they're gonna play their first game they have to set up folding chairs chairs that the ball club had rented from a funeral home basically the first general manager of the baseball team is unfolding chairs imagine dave dombrowski unfolding chairs at Fenway Park it was closed the day after and run to French papers the editor wrote Liz X fool knows a move the Expos we love you and that our state they are lovers all state and in The Gazette now granted Amish rusty stop his name was there in one day people loved us and we had a superhero and rusty stop opening day they called him LaRoche an original Expo who endeared himself to the fans not just by making three all-star teams but by learning French rusty stop was the star the expansion Expos needed to connect with their city the reason why I learned French was I felt kind of stupid not to be able to talk to a child I needed to be able to talk about baseball I need to talk about how to get around how to order at a restaurant and to be able to do those things it took on a whole new air with the people in Canada other than Jean Beliveau on the Montreal Canadiens he was his popular figure in the city look on the launch the grander Amish look Dora the girl Roz was the first Expo superstar but where he played was almost as colorful tonight here at Jerry part I mean I hit so beat some of the idiosyncrasies at the ballpark we had a dancer we had a dancer at Jerry Park guy ran up and down the seats and everybody cheered if he wasn't there I don't I don't know if they're to continue the game at the time they had uh charettes you're wearing go-go boots think of them they were very popular very popular however it was a major league ballpark in name only and sundown was very very tough for the first victim the Sun would set right in the first baseman's eyes that's the fact that that really was almost dangerous I can remember the first baseman hit the deck and the pole rose up and landed in the stands that's when they realized they had to stop the game for twenty minutes each night [Music] realistically you got to say we're gonna finish last in our division if anybody looks at it in other way they're just kidding somebody the Expos lost a lot of games those first few seasons but fans had been ready for that what they weren't expecting was the 1972 trade of their beloved superstar that's the only time in my career I was ever caught on aware the it actually hurt I was stunned that was people couldn't really wrap their arms around it they felt well we lost one of our own and as things go on this kind of escalation you have to look ahead and said what was gonna happen the history of franchise that was it it was always going to be like that and it was always going to be in peril as a result I met the people at Walt Disney we said okay so how do you operate a mascot the first thing they told us you must never take the head off of a mascot Cromartie Cromartie cool he talked with putting that UB sudo we looked at this room there's you be with the head off he smoked a cigarette so I look at it hard look at me do it so I went on the top give my favorite day he kind of got got going a little bit so I run down first base say okay so I got on second base taking my lead or get man [Music] [Music] [Music] through the mid-70s the Expos remained a middling Club unable to get above 500 but in the franchise's minor league system stars were beginning to develop and there were none brighter than the guy they called the kid you know how you got that name kid you know Gary was tearing up contra blade and every day at dawn Corinthos he will mess with Barry foot every foot was the catcher at that time [Music] he Waco Carter gets here wait till carly gets her and when he got here he didn't disappoint anybody Carter and every respect starts flourishing he's a terrific hitter he's got power and just becomes such a great defensive catcher had that smile had the curly hair he would always find the camera some of his teammates would call him lights because when the lights came on Gary Carter would appear in front of the camera he was the enthusiastic kid and people saw that love of the game and love for the city he just jumped right in and he was never shy to practice French you know even if he wasn't pronouncing it perfect it really gave the people there in Montreal I think just an extra love for monoi Gary Carter Lewis Seaver days Expo Gary Carter was the face of the Expos he was the expose Carter was the new face of a franchise about to embark on a new era in a new home Olympic Stadium though built for the Olympics was in many ways an upgrade tiny Jerry Park but it was far from perfect you know welcome to the big Olin thing wow this is absolutely beautiful it was ugly just a big oval brick some people said it looked like a big spaceship had landed some other people weren't as kind and said it looked more like a toilet he won big stadium was always cold it was concrete and it didn't have a roof the retractable roof was in a warehouse because they ran out of money this was the billion dollar boondoggle wasn't designed for baseball the big ol' was a dump it was a concrete elephant it was just it was nothing to be proud of but it was ours the unique new stadium was now embraced by a unique cast of characters who connected with Montreal in unpredictable ways it was like jazz on the field watching Rodney Scott run the bases stealing third base when the catcher would throw the ball back to the pitcher Andre Thompson was one of those guys that muscles coming from everywhere he had that look about him if you didn't know way of face a brilliant guy a really smart pitcher but also somebody who is eccentric and just hard to read I'm not flaky at all it's the right-handed world that caused the problems and left-handers are just responding to it in 1979 the Expos had a winning season for the first time in their existence and suddenly expose baseball was instantly transformed into the most exciting thrilling party in town Olympics David became the place to be as soon as you actually entered the actual stadium they had oompah bands they had these German Oktoberfest kind of bands that were playing in the lobby really who has own pop bands and people loved it they used to play a song called the happy wanderer the chorus is basically Valerie Valderrama that became the rally cry for the team in unison and then you had the score was pixelated it was strange and I had these weird messages though if the opposing pitcher through at first base we had a chicken come on and not some sort of beautiful chicken it would be basically a cardboard cutout of a chicken into electronic form it was a Cardinals lefty who one day decided if he could break the chicken record which I think was 11 my phone ringer is the chicken sound [Music] you were going to a game in an era especially from another city if he just zapped in from out of town you just sort of looked around what business what is what am i eating what is this beer what is this scoreboard what is this ban it was all completely foreign right down to the player announcements being in both languages this was unique too much well it was crazy man two languages French and English out there and flag waving they started to know us a little bit waiting for us at the subway stations and for me 79 is really when they really realized what they had no one ever wanted to leave the party at Olympic Stadium and it was about to get even bigger we always come close but we couldn't get close if we get to the bridge where we couldn't cross the bridge at one time we were close in 81 and I mean the city was electric Montreal was on fire 1981 was a strange year in baseball history it was split up by a seven week long player strike a situation that led to two separate seasons the Expos won the second half of the season marking their first ever playoff appearance they defeated the Phillies in a five-game NLDS [Music] it was a cup of fans holding the Canadian flag and I went over there and I got the flag and then held the flag up I was really a proud Canadian at that time you know his Canada's turned it with Canada like Canada against the United States we had a whole country behind the montreal expos were just three wins away from their first ever trip to the World Series the Expos and Dodgers split the first four games setting up a deciding fifth game to be played on a Monday in Montreal the first memory that I have ever was Blue Monday unfortunately it was October 19th 1981 seven years old the game went to the ninth inning tied 1-1 but then came a series of events that would forever defined October 19th 1981 as Blue Monday with their closer hurt the Expos sent their ace Steve Rogers to warm up in the bullpen the adrenaline was just pumping coming out of my ears because I wouldn't use doing that and they said you're gonna go in to start the inning okay right Steve Rogers is into the game and this unusual position to see Steve in out of the bullpen Rogers would retire the first batter Steve Garvey on just one pitch he would then face Ron say the adrenaline I didn't handle and I was mechanically just off a little bit I was thinking the wife pitches Gary and I were right in sync I just wasn't throwing fields rains in the corner he's under it makes the catch on the warning track oh hey the pitch to Ron Cey was a warning sign oh geez maybe he doesn't have it he's never done this before I remember feeling a pit in my stomach seeing that say fly ball with two down in the ninth Rick Monday stepped up to the plate I did not hit well against Steve Rogers in my career 167 is when I hit against three one if I miss I'm gonna miss low and away and walk I just threw that ball so poorly and it ended up being Hein right over the middle of the plate I used the theory swing hard in case you happen to hit it here's the 3-1 pitch Shannon swung on fly ball centerfield I saw the swing I knew he made you know a good connection with it I should have felt I had a beat on it I said going back I saw Andre going back Dawson drifts back I thought I was gonna make a play the right back at the warning track I hit the wall the warning track and he keeps carrying Dawson at the wall I got to the wall so I'm running out of room it's gone oh my god that's the day I thought you had wings and I was really praying that you had ways I got back even though I was playing playing him to pool I got back I just didn't think it would carry as far as it did to see the ball disappear with Dawson moving back was just absolutely kick to the gut and all of a sudden you could hear a pin drop we could hear the silence when can you hear silence the saddest day in the history of sports imagery the saddest day even when you relive it you still have that shunned sick why inside and you know it's like yeah when the expose failed to rally in the night the season ended and Blue Monday was officially born never again with the Montreal Expos ever comes so close to a World Series after last I was made and I think myself Dawson and Cromartie sat on our bench for like about an hour after that game was over [Music] Rick Monday don't mention that name around here if you say the name Rick Monday that gets people pretty pissed off Rick Monday every time he came back to my drill there was always someone to remind him you hit a home run and that first year coming back after that series Steve Yeager who was a catcher it was my brownie we went to dinner in Montreal and we sat down and were looking at the menu and we'd ordered a beverage and the manager of this restaurant comes over and he says gentlemen I have to ask you to leave you're not closing we just we just don't it's like seven o'clock at night there's no I said we don't want fights in here so we're not fighting group we're gonna order and have dinner because I'm worried about you but there's six guys back here that want to come over and start a fight with you please leave so we left and that's when I discovered the blue Monday and I discovered that the winners are long and Montreal and they don't forget anything [Music] I believe that if the expose hadn't won the game it would still be a baseball franchise in Montreal because I'm convinced it would have gone on to beat the Yankees in the World Series the most remembered moment in the history of this franchise Rick Monday's home run Blue Monday is something that was bad for the Expos and if it had been something good there would have been something for the people to have held on to through dark times [Music] the Canadiens won the Stanley Cup in 1979 the last a foreigner world and after that was great dynasty started splintering so there was room for a baseball team to capture the hearts of the city Montreal Expos in the early 80s were more popular than montreal canadiens that's a fact that's not flying the sky thinking from our core baseball friends they were giving away 2,000 tickets again to fill the seats at the Montreal Forum in the early ages while the Expos were setting franchise attendance right the expose laid fire wagon baseball in the way that Canadians of the 70s played the fire wagon hockey people were going to games they were flocking the games it was a place to be celebrities at Donald Sutherland the prime minister these were regulars at Montreal Expo games players were very popular community wise very popular all these guys kind of hung out you know in Old Montreal and they were very accessible maybe a little too accessible but everybody partied in the 80s especially in a city like Montreal and for some members of the team partying meant turning to drugs the most notable example was the team's young star Tim Raines I remember having promised when I first got there you know doing all the partying I was 19 what happened was not really knowing the effects of what it would get me into I sort of went overboard and something got myself in trouble being an exciting city and so many you know good and bad things that can go on with that being out all time tonight hanging out part in here and there he was not nearly the player he was in 1982 after a fabulous 1981 when he was runner-up as the NL Rookie of the Year I took it upon myself to say you know if I'm gonna be as good as I can be Andre Dawson was one of those guys that was more like a straight and narrow guy but one day I went to him I say man you know I want to be like you and he said it's gonna be okay he kind of showed me the way Tim Raines was special and I got to develop a very very special and close bond with Timmy me and Andre I became the best of friends even today you know who the best of friends he named his son Andre and I made me his his Godfather and he was born on the same day so we celebrated the same birthday if I had to sing a lot one person to say that they had the biggest influence on my career it would definitely be Andre Dawson despite rains developing into a perennial all-star with the help of Dawson the team gradually retreated back to mediocrity in the mid-1980s that team should have won more it should have won they had a great team but even amid the disappointment there was always one players to the part which made it all the more shocking when the face of the franchise the kid was dealt away after the 1984 season was almost like what they traded Gary Carter well I would say that was the second heartbreaking situation player 1 when rusty left it was just as heartbreaking as when Gary left those two trades heard the expose you can't imagine how Andre Dawson and Tim Raines would be the next ones to go [Music] you place coz that when that season ended because of the strike I sat down at home and I made notes on this piece of paper listing the players the record and the date because I think it was the death knell of baseball in Montreal but the strike brought on by the many money problems baseball had was at least in one respect a fitting way for the Expos to get undercut because it was money or more precisely the lack of it that was starting to threaten the team's existence they still have this great team all they have to do is literally nothing just status quo just make sure that this team takes the field next year and they decide within the course of three days basically get rid of everybody get rid of marquise grissom Traynham get rid of Kenna Hill get rid of John wetland Larry Walker come on you couldn't had a better guy and he had to walk because they couldn't afford to pay him local owners would argue that they were in survival mode and they just had to tread water but you got a win okay we knew they couldn't keep everybody but you could have kept two of these guys the idea of expose University is you would serve four years as an expo you graduated then you're on to other things Pedro Martinez in 1997 strikes out three hundred and five batters and has a one point nine zero er a let's go trade him every year I wasn't paid talks I mean the nucleus it was right there you actually develop into whatever you want at that organization to be you can only stop anything if you want to talk about the what-ifs in baseball history Jeter and Posada and Mariano Rivera and Bernie Williams in those guys maybe they're not legends because the Expos are kicking their butt every year in the World Series financial issues has in fact been hindering the franchise for years multiple ownership groups and a failed attempt to move the team into a new downtown ballpark left the club's future in doubt then in 2001 owner Jeffrey Loria sold the xposed to Major League Baseball all that along with dwindling attendance made it seem like only a matter of time before the franchise would be relocated 2004 would be the Expos final season of Montreal 35 years after the club was born it was time to say goodbye it was emotional I was sitting close down the first baseline as a fan with my dad I remember leaning back and somebody I knew in the row behind me ended up taking a picture there's no joy in my face at a baseball game [Music] now they curtain falls on major league baseball here in Montreal [Music] a month later there would be a final farewell to Montreal and their fans it would come from the most famous graduate of expose University I'm sure the scene was played out in living rooms all over my trail with just tears streaming down I saw myself as champion 94 I just could never celebrate it so I wanted to share it with the people that I thought deserved to actually you go back to that moment with Pedro and there's so much love in that moment then if and when we do get a team back I'll always think that was like the first initial spark it was a sad day around Major League Baseball on Thursday as hall-of-famer Gary Carter died at the age of 57 we lose a pretty good one a good guy and a great player today way too early Gary Carter was never just another baseball hero in another baseball town he was a figure who revealed to Montreal all that an iconic sports star could be everybody had their moment with kid you know everybody had that one moment where he was kind to them or they saw him in public and he did something exceptionally kind that no other athletes would do so when Carter passed away in 2012 it reminded many Expos fans of a time that once was and a time that perhaps could be again when Gary Carter passed it really woke people up and it got people really emotional and really nostalgic about the expose it up miss you the huge ones I knew a lot kittens are not really Vermont's Elan 7e mom to Gary Carter you don't have words for Gary Carter all you can do a smile when you hear his name that's how I want to remember Gary when the kid passed away I said something's wrong here you got to get them back yeah I would make Gary happy for sure Gary be smiling down in heaven about it he'd love to have a team back there there's some finished business here that's what it amounts to we're at a point now the whole world knows Montreal wants their Expos back we have the media behind us Major League Baseball knows what we're trying to do now I would never say there isn't a chance of expanding in Canada Montreal is a great city and I do think that the showing surrounding the exhibition games is an impressive indication of interest like a good son not always returning home who is fine I think Montero his team returns mojo once we get this team back which we will get this team back we get this nice beautiful 35,000 seat stadium there's gonna be a couple statues out front one of them gonna be here is gonna be a Gary Carter I guarantee you that in truth there is no certainty that major league baseball will return to the city what is certain is that the Expos and their colorful history remain in the hearts of the people of Montreal it's not nostalgia it's not just memories it's DNA it's truly part of us look at all the players that pass through Montreal Gary Carter Andre Dawson Larry walk rusty Staub Vladimir Guerrero Pedro Martinez Harris special they were good and I hope people recall baseball may come back to our city one day it may not this April like most April's here sports fans will be thinking about their hockey team and the Stanley Cup but long ago and not so long ago when April came there was another game in town and the ones who knew about that colorful truly unique team will continue to know the Expos team the players the memories are still alive and always will be you just have to remember to look to find them my name is Anakin Slade I'm hip-hop artist from Montreal huge expose fan and I actually wrote a sort of eulogy to the team anythink at the springtime who's real bad we had I remember day 83 summer they still have the pic of me my possible brother I remember all-star kpop and strong 39,000 fans looking on I remember tears at the kids last game stood right behind him as the end played I remember see Valerie Valerie wild-card race last hurrah I'm missing Montreal ball ten years on sometimes a bigger which you've got two lives dog [Music] [Music]

Channel: JonnyTGood

Views: 16,553

Keywords: mlb, mlb montreal, mlb montreal expos, baseball montreal, baseball montreal expos, montreal expos, montreal expose documentary, montreal expos last game, montreal expos highlights, montreal expos stadium, jonny t, jonny t good, jonnytgood, baseball, baseball documentary, mlb documentary

Id: fpoAybOVp6w

Length: 44min 49sec (2689 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 02 2017