Video Of (Last) Week: Magnum

I know nothing of this Magnum character, but I know this much: when I was a kid, every summer was Expos time.

Tim Raines, the base-stealing wonder who wore #30, was my favourite, and I learned later that he slid head-first when he was stealing bases for the sole purposes of not taking chances on anything happening to the cocaine bags he kept in his back pocket...

Third baseman (#29) Tim Wallach and I shared a birthday, September 14th, and I'd go to the Olympic Stadium almost every year on that date to celebrate it, usually against either the Los Angeles Dodgers or Atlanta Braves.

Dennis Martinez' perfect game, Dennis 'Oil Can' Boyd's perfect name, Tim Burke in with the saves at the end.

Then came the 1994 players' strike, when with Delino Deshields, Marquis Grissom, Larry Walker, Pedro Martinez, John Wetteland, Spike Owen et al, we had the team to beat, ahead of even the damned New York Yankees. It was never the same. The team sold or traded all of its stars and just when they'd start climbing the rankings, every two years, they'd start over. But we still loved those underdogs and cheered for them until they'd inevitably fall to the Braves (who often had 6 times the payroll the Expos had) for the division title.

And then it got worse, when the team was sold to the thieves currently running ruining the Florida Marlins and making money not by gate revenue or winning, but by revenue-sharing alone.

But we have the memories. And the Expos Fitted caps.




Thanks to Martin from La Vie Est Une Puck.