#28. Olympic Stadium, former home of the former Montreal Expos
Times visited: 1
Dates: 7/25/03 vs. Atlanta (W: 9-8)
Quite great memories of Montreal although I was only in that town for about 7 hours. Part of my six stadiums in six day tour. This was the fifth stop. I was getting a bit worn out at this point and it was a long drive from my previous stay in Toronto to Montreal. The police were nice in this area, instead of pulling you over, they just drive up next to you and tell you to slow down. This was my first experience in a part of the world where English wasn’t the first language. Everything was French to me, literally. Getting gas, reading signs or asking someone to take a picture was a bit of a challenge.
I have always felt bad for the city of Montreal, rumors were around that they were going to lose their baseball team and they played in a historic yet a stadium not quite suited for baseball. It just seemed like an odd location for a baseball venue in the middle of the city because it didn’t look like much of a stadium on the outside. The roof which was supposed to raise and lower didn’t work so there was a “roof” on top of the stadium. Inside the seats were really stadium seats. High schools seems to have better seats for sports. But there were some charming things about the stadium. The starting line ups were read in Englisn and French! The crowd wasn’t huge and I wonder as it wasn’t confirmed at the time the Expos were leaving if that affected the amount of people that came out to the game.
The game started off looking like the Braves were going to win it pretty easily. But the Expos had a big comeback in the 8th and then tied the game in the ninth off of John Smoltz. Something happened in the eleventh inning I have never seen at a game in person before. The home team winning in their last at-bat, a walk off win, except this came on a wild pitch. After the game I was able to make it down to the Expos club house into the office of Frank Robinson. Yes, that Frank Robinson. There were a handful of reporters there and Frank had every sports cliche he could use in answering questions. After the reporters left I asked Frank two more questions and got two more cliches. But it was still Frank Robinson! After my interview I hit the road, picked up a second wind, and headed back into the US and drive into the middle of New York State.
By the way, the Expos had also one of the best Mascots in Baseball, Youppi. I just missed out on a getting with him. He didn’t do much but his appearance was very cool. Youppi didn’t make the move to DC when the Expos moved. He’s now the Montreal Canadians’ Mascot. The first mascot to transfer between baseball and hockey.