Is it too soon?

[Augustin_"Gus"]

Is baseball on it's way back to town? Here's a extract from Maurice Dumas' column in this morning's Le Soleil (home made translation to follow)

<B+>Montréal s'organise<B->

Selon des informateurs dignes de foi, le projet d'implantation à Montréal d'une équipe de la ligue Can-Am de baseball indépendant aurait franchi quelques étapes dans les dernières semaines. On parle même de la construction d'un stade de baseball qui pourrait également présenter différents spectacles. Un homme d'affaires bien en vue au Québec serait parmi les promoteurs du projet.

Miles Wolff, le commissaire de la ligue Can-Am de baseball indépendant, travaille depuis quelques années afin d'établir des équipes à Montréal et à Ottawa. Il vise toujours la saison 2007 pour atteindre son objectif.

According to generaly reliable sources, the project to bring a Can-Am independant baseball league team in Montréal has cleared some hurdles over the last few weeks. They're even talking about building a baseball stadium that could host shows of different kinds. A prominent Québec business man would be among the projects backers.

Miles Wolff, comissioner of the Can-Am independant baseball league as been working for the last few years to bring teams to Montréal and Ottawa. He's targetting the 2007 season to reach his goal.

Of course, there's no need to rush to the ticket window. Rumors like that surface every other week. But if it is true (big if), I believe it's too early. Going from MLB to A-ball in a 3 year span, that's too short for my taste. Let people miss baseball for a little while. Give the folks a couple of years to get bored to tears watching soccer, then we can all come back to baseball.

Plus, frankly, A-ball aint much. I'd like to have something a little better than that. We don't absolutely have to have a rivalry with Québec City.

One other, thing. All those reporters who couldn't get enough of putting down the Expos, they're still there. We should let a couple of them retire before we bring baseball back here. I know, Alexandre Pratt is still many years removed from retirement. We'll have to do something about him. I'll see what I can do...

By the way, while we're on the subject of the media, I said, here and elsewhere, that reporters (especially sport reporters) absolutely do not give a crap about their readers. They just keep on making absolutely ridiculous factual mistakes that could be avoided by a 10 second Google search performed by an intern. Case and point, Réjean Tremblay from La Presse. He stopped trying many years ago. Here's what he wrote in his column this morning:

"The Washington Nationals (...) played in front of 2,7 million fans at old JFK Stadium".

JFK? :hp

Sacrament.

[XPOFAN]

Rejean "the King" Tremblay was definately very negative about the Expos. I remember at our last home game ever, there he was on the field in his suit and tie looking just like the pompous a$$ he is. I couldn't help thinking what a hypocrite he was. Although not alone in the local media on that score.

[Ontarioguy]

Rejean "the King" Tremblay was definately very negative about the Expos. I remember at our last home game ever, there he was on the field in his suit and tie looking just like the pompous a$$ he is. I couldn't help thinking what a hypocrite he was. Although not alone in the local media on that score.
Couldn't have said it any better myself. Both sides have their winners.

I know that guys like Shaughnessy in Boston and the NYC scene in general are regarded as vicious, but Montreal's media can really hold their own.

[Augustin_"Gus"]

This week's rumor of baseball in Montréal, was in yesterday's Le journal de Montréal, in a column by Serge Touchette (another member of the of local pompous ass reporters' club) intitled "Du baseball professionnel à St-Lambert?" (professionnal baseball in St-Lambert, suburb south of Montréal). A local college, College Champlain-St-Lambert, as been approched by Québec businessman to build a 5000 seats, multifunctional stadium that would serve for both the school sports teams and a minor league baseball club, possibly a AAA franchise. The piece of land in question is a parking lot/snow deposit of the school, along highway 132 close to the entrance to Jacques-Cartier Bridge.

If there is no rumor of the sort next week, I volunteer to come up with one.

[wilkerson_rulz-06]

This week's rumor of baseball in Montréal, was in yesterday's Le journal de Montréal, in a column by Serge Touchette (another member of the of local pompous ass reporters' club) intitled "Du baseball professionnel à St-Lambert?" (professionnal baseball in St-Lambert, suburb south of Montréal). A local college, College Champlain-St-Lambert, as been approched by Québec businessman to build a 5000 seats, multifunctional stadium that would serve for both the school sports teams and a minor league baseball club, possibly a AAA franchise. The piece of land in question is a parking lot/snow deposit of the school, along highway 132 close to the entrance to Jacques-Cartier Bridge.

If there is no rumor of the sort next week, I volunteer to come up with one.
Oh please. who's going to watch baseball games in St-Lambert.

[Augustin_"Gus"]

Hey, people didn't want to watch baseball in the east. They didn't say anything about the south. :rolleyes:

[Ex-Expo fan]

I wouldn't mind going to st.Lambert to watch baseball. I miss baseball so much I sometimes sit down at parc Jeanne-Mance when I see guys playing softball.

[Ontarioguy]

Gota love 'Le Journal', whether it's coming up with a brilliant rumour like this or showing pictures of Mathieu Dandenaults wife 9 month's pregnant, they always come up with something. I find it's amazing how much of the personal life of the Canadiens they publish.

I hadnt read the Journal until this fall, we used to get it for free at my work in Ontario, now living in Montrel I never buy it, ironic enough. I remember they sent some guy to cover the World Series.

AG, what papers/writers did you find to be the best when it came to dealing with the Expos in a respectable way. I know alot about the Anglo side, and most of the Francophone side that covers hockey, but living in Ontario, my only Expos source was the Internet and Team990, so I never read much of the local stuff.

On a side note, I really love guys like Casavant and Francois Gagnon who aren't afraid to go on both sides of the media (Anglais et Francais). I wish I could name an Anglo who does that but I can't. Props to Casavant and Gagnon for being progressive in such a polarized climate.

[cubaxpos]

I hope Montreal gets a baseball team, of any sort, because it could be the gateway to a MLB club.
Also, can anyone explain to me why the media was against the Expos? Which media is more negative, the English or the French?
By the way, THANK YOU VEEEEEEEEEEEEERY MUCH FOR TRANSLATING INTO ENGLISH THE ARTICLES, really, guys, I don't speak a word of French

[Augustin_"Gus"]

For a long time, the Expos had the kind of coverage a professionnal team deserved in the french media. Every paper had a beat writer. The first one to do it for La Presse was actually Jacques Doucet before he switched to radio. For many years, you had Serge Touchette for Le Journal and Ronald King for La Presse, tough my guess is that there must have been little discussion about anything that happened after the 4th inning in both their articles, beacuse of the repeted passing out drunk in the press box.

Only, in time, both of them became desillusionned with the game, with the team and the athletes. Players were not like in the good ol' days. King actually mentionned on more than one occasion how much he missed the days when half the locker room snorted cocain (sniffait large et dur, comme dirait Christian Mistral) in those crazy early 80's. He was taken off the beat, beacuse at that point, he was all piss and vinegar, and the heart just wasn't in it anymore. He took about a five year leave of absence to travel to the Betty Ford clinic, and resurfaced not so long ago to blast the folks on 110% (that's good) and talk to his imaginary friends (that's not so good).

Touchette on the other side, was every bit as fed up with covering the Expos as King was, but he couldn't write about anything else. So he stayed on. But Touchette, just like Michel Lajeunesse of La Presse Canadienne and... well basically every other reporter in town would always let their personnal feelings dictate what they would write about a player or a coach, or the team as a whole. So he was negative pretty much all the time, especially after having issues with Mike Lansing who made some rather regrettable remarks about the fact that flight attendants gave instructions in both french and english in the teams chartered flights.

So for a couple of years, you had Touchette on one side talking about what he had for diner, how much he hated his job... and that was pretty much it. While La Presse would delegate a platoon of reporters usually the last one who had been hired, to cover the team.

Then, in came Loria and the firing of Felipe Alou wich was probably the last straw. To the reporters in this city, Felipe was a god and he could do no wrong altough he really mailed it in for the last few seasons he was here. It was never as bad as Frankie R, but still. From that point on, Touchette, well he changed his story completely. He would talk about what he had for diner, how much he hated his life, how badly he dispised David Samson, and that was that. While at La Presse, the last guy in was my former arch nemesis Alexandre Pratt, who in his first story about the Expos said he use to go the stadium all the time in 94 (when they were good) and after the strike jumped off the bandwagon. Now, he wished the Expos would leave, cause after all, he never really cared for the team and was a life-long Yankees fan (in addition to being a total idiot). From that point on, La Presse would send a reporter to the stadium about once a month and the rest of the time, would print Canadian Press stories in page 12.

So basically, for the last 15 years of the team (with a hiatus from, I'd say, late-june to mid-august of 94, then again for another couple of weeks in 2001), the coverage we had on the french side was nothing short of ridiculous.

As far the crossing of the language barrier, it is limited, you're right. On the english side, the media space (the demand) is rather limited, while the list of potential guests (the offer) is enormous. Say you want to talk on an english talk show about the Canadiens-Hurricanes series. If you can have the opinion of all sorts of players and coachs, past and present, as well as the other side of the story from the Hurricanes' local reporters, then there's no real point in asking for Norman Flynn's opinion, is there?

On the other side, the french one that is, demand is huge, the offer, not so much. So inviting an anglophone reporter from time to time could have been an interesting avenue. But I don't believe very many anglophone sport reporters in this town can speak french well enough to cross over. During the last few seasons, Jacques Doucet would periodically move over to the Team 990 both and do an inning or 2 in english (wich he speaks rather well). I doubt Price nor Melnick ever returned the favor tough. But we were surprised from time to time. During the 2004 training camp, RDS did a pre-season special and, out of shear desperation I believe, someone stuck a microphone under Stephanie Myles' nose. And guess what? She speaks french. Who knew? At that point, she was pretty much the only person wich travelled all the time with the club, she could have had something relevent to say. But our media had no interest in doing that.

Plus, petty "nationalism", or however you want to call it, aint dead. I'm pretty sure they're were some rather dissatisfied people on the english side when Denis Casavant landed the morning gig on the Team 990. And by the same token, if, for example, RDS decided to ask Pierre Mcguire to break down some game films for them from time to time, how do you think that Norman Flynn would feel, going after him, having his hockey knowledge put to shame by "un anglais"?

[Ontarioguy]

For a long time, the Expos had the kind of coverage a professionnal team deserved in the french media. Every paper had a beat writer. The first one to do it for La Presse was actually Jacques Doucet before he switched to radio. For many years, you had Serge Touchette for Le Journal and Ronald King for La Presse, tough my guess is that there must have been little discussion about anything that happened after the 4th inning in both their articles, beacuse of the repeted passing out drunk in the press box.

Only, in time, both of them became desillusionned with the game, with the team and the athletes. Players were not like in the good ol' days. King actually mentionned on more than one occasion how much he missed the days when half the locker room snorted cocain (sniffait large et dur, comme dirait Christian Mistral) in those crazy early 80's. He was taken off the beat, beacuse at that point, he was all piss and vinegar, and the heart just wasn't in it anymore. He took about a five year leave of absence to travel to the Betty Ford clinic, and resurfaced not so long ago to blast the folks on 110% (that's good) and talk to his imaginary friends (that's not so good).

Touchette on the other side, was every bit as fed up with covering the Expos as King was, but he couldn't write about anything else. So he stayed on. But Touchette, just like Michel Lajeunesse of La Presse Canadienne and... well basically every other reporter in town would always let their personnal feelings dictate what they would write about a player or a coach, or the team as a whole. So he was negative pretty much all the time, especially after having issues with Mike Lansing who made some rather regrettable remarks about the fact that flight attendants gave instructions in both french and english in the teams chartered flights.

So for a couple of years, you had Touchette on one side talking about what he had for diner, how much he hated his job... and that was pretty much it. While La Presse would delegate a platoon of reporters usually the last one who had been hired, to cover the team.

Then, in came Loria and the firing of Felipe Alou wich was probably the last straw. To the reporters in this city, Felipe was a god and he could do no wrong altough he really mailed it in for the last few seasons he was here. It was never as bad as Frankie R, but still. From that point on, Touchette, well he changed his story completely. He would talk about what he had for diner, how much he hated his life, how badly he dispised David Samson, and that was that. While at La Presse, the last guy in was my former arch nemesis Alexandre Pratt, who in his first story about the Expos said he use to go the stadium all the time in 94 (when they were good) and after the strike jumped off the bandwagon. Now, he wished the Expos would leave, cause after all, he never really cared for the team and was a life-long Yankees fan (in addition to being a total idiot). From that point on, La Presse would send a reporter to the stadium about once a month and the rest of the time, would print Canadian Press stories in page 12.

So basically, for the last 15 years of the team (with a hiatus from, I'd say, late-june to mid-august of 94, then again for another couple of weeks in 2001), the coverage we had on the french side was nothing short of ridiculous.

As far the crossing of the language barrier, it is limited, you're right. On the english side, the media space (the demand) is rather limited, while the list of potential guests (the offer) is enormous. Say you want to talk on an english talk show about the Canadiens-Hurricanes series. If you can have the opinion of all sorts of players and coachs, past and present, as well as the other side of the story from the Hurricanes' local reporters, then there's no real point in asking for Norman Flynn's opinion, is there?

On the other side, the french one that is, demand is huge, the offer, not so much. So inviting an anglophone reporter from time to time could have been an interesting avenue. But I don't believe very many anglophone sport reporters in this town can speak french well enough to cross over. During the last few seasons, Jacques Doucet would periodically move over to the Team 990 both and do an inning or 2 in english (wich he speaks rather well). I doubt Price nor Melnick ever returned the favor tough. But we were surprised from time to time. During the 2004 training camp, RDS did a pre-season special and, out of shear desperation I believe, someone stuck a microphone under Stephanie Myles' nose. And guess what? She speaks french. Who knew? At that point, she was pretty much the only person wich travelled all the time with the club, she could have had something relevent to say. But our media had no interest in doing that.

Plus, petty "nationalism", or however you want to call it, aint dead. I'm pretty sure they're were some rather dissatisfied people on the english side when Denis Casavant landed the morning gig on the Team 990. And by the same token, if, for example, RDS decided to ask Pierre Mcguire to break down some game films for them from time to time, how do you think that Norman Flynn would feel, going after him, having his hockey knowledge put to shame by "un anglais"?

Wow! Now that was one heck of a post AG:atthepc

I remember hearing Stephanie Myles speaking french and was impressed how good she was. I always liked her writing and she knew her baseball. Being Billingual she could have really been a 'media star' around the Expos.

This town really has an endless parade of characters in the media. I didn't realize there was that much of a circus around the Expos.

I know you said you tried to break into the Media Business, did you ever meet any of those guys? My old man worked for CBC Montreal for 20 years, I heard all kinds of rumours/stories about characters in the local press growing up.

[wilkerson_rulz-06]

Wow! Now that was one heck of a post AG:atthepc

I remember hearing Stephanie Myles speaking french and was impressed how good she was. I always liked her writing and she knew her baseball. Being Billingual she could have really been a 'media star' around the Expos.

This town really has an endless parade of characters in the media. I didn't realize there was that much of a circus around the Expos.

I know you said you tried to break into the Media Business, did you ever meet any of those guys? My old man worked for CBC Montreal for 20 years, I heard all kinds of rumours/stories about characters in the local press growing up.
AG, you should be writing!:D
(in a jorunal, or you should start your blog!)

[Augustin_"Gus"]

Thank you guys. Sometimes, you're inspired, and you just go at it.

Wrinting aint my specialty. I'm really more of an electronic media type of guy. But I've been published in La Presse a few times, tough I don't bother to write very often, and I'm sitting on a few novels I'll try to have published one day. But first things first. Landing a job on radio, then, it's much easier to get published if you're not completely unknown.

As far as meeting those characters, Ronald King use to live across the street from me. He drank quite a bit.

And what did your dad do at the CBC, OG?

[Ontarioguy]

Thank you guys. Sometimes, you're inspired, and you just go at it.

Wrinting aint my specialty. I'm really more of an electronic media type of guy. But I've been published in La Presse a few times, tough I don't bother to write very often, and I'm sitting on a few novels I'll try to have published one day. But first things first. Landing a job on radio, then, it's much easier to get published if you're not completely unknown.

As far as meeting those characters, Ronald King use to live across the street from me. He drank quite a bit.

And what did your dad do at the CBC, OG?
He worked at their shortwave department, Radio Canada International. Had his own morning show broadcasting to the USA in the early 90s, but RCI has suffered massive cuts over the years. The last few years he would read and write the news broadcasts, stuff like that. Now they don't prduce anything on weekends, just borrow CBC programming. He left a few years ago, which is why I ended up in Ontario.

It's ironic, living at home I would have never decided to go into radio, the thought of turning into your parents horrifies young people all over the place. Luckily having moved out I figured out what I wanted to do.

[wilkerson_rulz-06]

Thank you guys. Sometimes, you're inspired, and you just go at it.

Wrinting aint my specialty. I'm really more of an electronic media type of guy. But I've been published in La Presse a few times, tough I don't bother to write very often, and I'm sitting on a few novels I'll try to have published one day. But first things first. Landing a job on radio, then, it's much easier to get published if you're not completely unknown.

As far as meeting those characters, Ronald King use to live across the street from me. He drank quite a bit.

And what did your dad do at the CBC, OG?
What is your job now AG?
Is your dream to become a radio man?

[Augustin_"Gus"]

He worked at their shortwave department, Radio Canada International. Had his own morning show broadcasting to the USA in the early 90s, but RCI has suffered massive cuts over the years. The last few years he would read and write the news broadcasts, stuff like that. Now they don't prduce anything on weekends, just borrow CBC programming. He left a few years ago, which is why I ended up in Ontario.

It's ironic, living at home I would have never decided to go into radio, the thought of turning into your parents horrifies young people all over the place. Luckily having moved out I figured out what I wanted to do.

What do you know? When I was a younger, I use to spend a lot of time à me piquer dans les aisselles en écoutant Radio-Canada International. I might just have heard him at one point or another.

[Augustin_"Gus"]

What is your job now AG?
Is your dream to become a radio man?

Right now him at the front line of informing the masses, rendering newspapers available to those who'd rather read the paper without having to kill trees. But radio is my calling. I might just find myself in Moose Jaw before too long.

I like the kind of show Mitch Melnick does. It's a sport show, but he's at liberty to wander off topic, and talk about plenty of other stuff. That's cool. I like to freelance myself. Of course, sometimes he goes a little too far and spends whole segments talking about dog food, but no one's perfect.

[Ontarioguy]

Right now him at the front line of informing the masses, rendering newspapers available to those who'd rather read the paper without having to kill trees. But radio is my calling. I might just find myself in Moose Jaw before too long.

I like the kind of show Mitch Melnick does. It's a sport show, but he's at liberty to wander off topic, and talk about plenty of other stuff. That's cool. I like to freelance myself. Of course, sometimes he goes a little too far and spends whole segments talking about dog food, but no one's perfect.
Are you serious about Moose Jaw? I'd like to head out West at some point. Alberta seems to be where it's at these days. Once I'm done my 2 years of Radio School, I'll see what doors open up.

Melnick has a sweet gig. He's the top guy at the local sports station. He gets to whatever he wants, he basically has no boss. He would take a week off to go visit NY and would schedule it around an Expos Trip to Shea. He would spend the day around Manhattan then get on the Subway to Shea, get in with his press pass and call the game with Elliot Price. That's a sweet deal. He always plays his music too. He's got pretty good taste (I like classic rock, though, just like him)

[Augustin_"Gus"]

I just realized I said I would come up with rumors of baseball being back in Montréal, and I never did. So here it goes.

From our correspondant inside his own ego, Réjean-Todd Jack-Tremblay

The annoucement came as a schock to mere mortals, so of course, I wasn't surprised.

Local businessman Augustin_"Gus" Dugas announced today that Montréal will have a stadium and a baseball team, sooner rather than later.

"The park will be built on the site of the old Dow brewery, between Peel, St-Antoine, de l'Inspecteur and William streets in the old Griffintown section of Montréal" said the young man. "The capacity will be about 40 000, and the view of the downtown area will be awesome".

Montréal will also get a AAA franchise wich will be, according to Dugas, a stepping stone toward buying the Kansas City Royals and moving them to town. "The Montréal Royals will live again. And in the first game, we will retire number 20 in honor of Jackie Robinson (the number he wore as a Royal) as the Expos should have done when there was a league-wide retirement of number 42".

The stadium, the first built for baseball in this city since Delorimier Stadium opened in 1928, will feature a few of the quirks of the Royals' home, including the wall at 293 feet in right field. "Also, like the first time, mayor Camilien Houde will be at the inauguration".

The new owner seemed unphased by the fact that mayor Houde as been dead since 1958. "There's a technology out there it's called cloning, people! Raël's a friend. He's gonna set something up for me."

The first question that was asked to Dugas was, how does he intend on succeeding where the Expos failed; i.e. at drawing fans night in and night out.

"We'll kind of sneak it up on people. Our AAA club will be called The Impact. So that's 6000 people every night right there. Our players will play in shorts; also, you know those plastic hair retainers girls use to wear in the 80's, that are all the rage with soccer players? our guys will wear that instead of baseball caps. And we guarantee that every game we play will finish 1-0 or else, everybody in attendance gets a free ticket to the next home game. With that, I can assure the sponsors they'll get 12 000 + every night at Augustin_"Gus" Memorial stadium, even with a foot of snow on the ground."

The official ground breaking will be held in a week to 10 days. Many Expos greats including Bill Krueger, Darond Stovall and both Jeff Reardon and Ugueth Urbina's parole officiers have already confirmed their presence.

Before the end of the press conference, I asked Dugas (not that I really care, but I hadn't been on camera yet) how he made his money.

"By writing crappy TV shows" replied the brash young man in an attack that was clearly destined at everyone in the room but me.

I don't like his face. I'll probably savage him in my columns every time I get a chance.

[XPOFAN]

:D



From our correspondant inside his own ego, Réjean-Todd Jack-Tremblay


:D

[Ontarioguy]

Classic, Gus, just Classic!:laugh

[Gjm130]

I actually like the location of the stadium...even if it's not on the island, you do still have a perfect view of downtown montreal and the water!!