MTL Baseball

Perry Giannias is an avid Expos memorabilia collector and the founder of Exposfest.

Perry Giannias is one of the biggest Expos fans you’ll ever meet. Over the years, he has built an impressive and possibly unmatched collection of Expos memorabilia. His basement is a shrine to the team and its players.

He has a story for every piece in his collection. He loves to reminisce about the different eras of the team. Just don’t bring up the bad times like the player’s strike of 1994 or the dreaded “Blue Monday”.

But, as much as Giannias loves the Expos, he cares even more about his family.

“The only thing I know, there’s two things I love in my life, my family and the Montreal Expos,” Giannias proclaimed.

On April 2, Giannias will proudly pay tribute to both of those loves at ExposFest, a charity fundraiser he started with his family last year. The event is a joyous occasion for families who love baseball. It’s a day to celebrate the Expos’ history and to provide kid-friendly entertainment at an affordable price.

It’s also an opportunity to raise money for a good cause. All proceeds go to the Kat D DIPG Foundation at the Montreal Children’s Hospital. DIPG is an aggressive form of brain tumour that affects small children and took the life of Giannias’ five-year-old niece Catherine.

ExposFest is a very personal labour of love that allows Giannias to deal with two important losses in his life. It’s also the culmination of Giannias’ journey from Expos fan and memorabilia collector to crusader against a rare form of cancer.

Collecting Memorabilia to Preserve the History of the Expos

Giannias grew up watching the Expos and collecting baseball cards like so many other kids in Montreal. As he grew older, he became more interested in collecting.

In 2004, his hobby turned into a full-blown obsession when the Expos left the city. Like so many baseball fans in this city, the loss of the Expos was hard for Perry Giannias to swallow.

“My game-used collection really took off after 2004, when I really, like everybody else, thought the Expos were ‘done-zo’ with and we’re never going to see them again,” Giannias remembered. “It really hit me like a ton of bricks. I just wanted to be surrounded by my heroes of the past and stuff that I could see every day and still remember what it was like to have a baseball team.”

A sampling of Perry Giannias’ extensive collection.

Giannias has filled his basement with rare items spanning the history of the Expos and Montreal Royals. Jerseys, jackets and autographed baseballs cover every corner of the space.

He even has Andre Dawson’s Gold Glove award and the helmet Gary Carter wore when he got his last hit at the Olympic Stadium. Giannias also shares pieces from his collection on the Facebook page “Montreal Expos Museum”.

Eventually, Giannias would like to display his collection for all to see if a Major League Baseball team returns to Montreal.

“My dream would be, once we get a ballpark, maybe we could find a spot somewhere near. It could even  be like a restaurant, museum kind of setting. It would be really cool to have that near the ballpark, or maybe a spot at the ballpark,” Giannias said. “Something like that to remember how amazing we were.”

Getting Involved in the Fight Against DIPG

Whatever Giannias may have felt following the loss of his childhood baseball team surely paled in comparison to the heartbreak he and his family would experience in 2015.

Personal tragedy struck Giannias’ family when his five-year-old niece Catherine “Kat” Demes was diagnosed with a DIPG brain tumour. Doctors gave her nine to twelve months to live. She passed away nine months later, six months before her sixth birthday.

Struck by grief and searching for answers, Giannias and his family decided to take action.

Using the connections he had established with former Expos players over the years through his memorabilia purchases, Giannias came up with the fundraiser idea that would become ExposFest.

“That’s the best way, we thought, to honour my niece Catherine,” Giannias explained. “It’s better than just crying every day and stuff like that, because there’s nothing worse than losing a child.”

“You always think it happens to somebody else, but when it happens to your family, it’s just devastating. So, we want to turn, you know like the old saying, lemons into lemonade,” Giannias said.

So far, the foundation his family set up has raised almost $140,000 in over a year and a half. For a disease that gets little coverage in the press and even less funding for research to find a cure, that is a significant amount. Giannias hopes this year’s event will help the foundation surpass $200,000.

Perry Giannias shows off one of his prized pieces.

Keeping It in the Family and About the Kids

One of the biggest draws to ExposFest has been the participation of former players. Giannias has attracted players like Ellis Valentine, Jose Vidro, Vladimir Guerrero and many more to the event. This year, he has attracted nine former Expos players (including Hall of Famer Andre Dawson) as well as local star Éric Gagné.

Back in November, Giannias also held a sports celebrity gala to raise funds for the foundation. His focus remains on keeping ExposFest geared to kids even though he admits the gala was much less work. Exposfest is free for children under 12 years old, which surely cuts into the amount of money Giannias and his family could raise. Giannias is steadfast that the event is not just about raising money.

“ExposFest is a celebration of the family, my niece and baseball,” Giannias explained. “We want it to be a family event, because (Catherine) was a little girl. She was five years old. We want to honour her memory by having as many families and kids there because that’s what baseball was.”

Giannias and his family have been working on the event since November. Giannias is proud to call ExposFest a small family-led venture.

“One hundred per cent of what we make goes straight to the Montreal Children’s Hospital and the Kat D DIPG Foundation. We don’t have a CEO. We don’t have a treasurer,” Giannias assured. “Whatever is done is our time and we don’t want it any other way.”

It should come as no surprise to anyone that Giannias is a certified daycare provider who runs two daycares in the Laval area with his wife. He obviously cares deeply about children.

Having an Impact on Local Baseball Culture

One of Perry Giannias’ more unique pieces from his collection of Expos memorabilia.

It’s that genuine desire to give back to the community that has allowed Giannias to forge deep connections with the former players who make ExposFest a popular event among the city’s die-hard baseball fans.

Giannias insists that making connections with former players has been easy since most are happy to join his fight against DIPG.

“I think they can feel my passion for the team and I don’t ask anything of them. The only thing I ask of my Expos is to do our fundraiser so we can raise money for the Montreal Children’s Hospital,” Giannias said. “There’s no ulterior motive that I have with them.”

Giannias hopes that his event helps in the quest to bring a team back to Montreal.

“ExposFest makes you remember how great the Montreal Expos were and our heroes of old and how much they loved the city,” Giannias said with enthusiasm. “I think it’s a great weekend to celebrate baseball and the Montreal Expos.”

Perry Giannias is making a lasting impression on his community by honouring his family and his beloved Expos.

So, if you want to support a great cause and relive the glory days of the Expos, pay Giannias a visit at Plaza Centre-Ville between 10:00 AM and 5:00 PM for ExposFest.

Warren Wilansky, President and Founder of Plank.

Some Montrealers have an impact on the local baseball culture and community through their contributions on the field or in the dugout. One local business owner is hacking into Montreal baseball culture in a most unexpected way.

Warren Wilansky is the President and Founder of Montreal-based digital design agency Plank. He’s also a huge baseball fan.

Over the last few years, Wilansky has combined his passion for baseball with his work as a digital design entrepreneur.

He has embarked on a number of passion projects that mix his business with baseball. He hopes those projects help to build a lasting baseball culture in Montreal.

Rediscovering an Old Love

Wilansky developed his love for baseball at an early age. Like so many other kids in Montreal, he played Little League and watched the Expos at Olympic Stadium.

“My earliest baseball memory was going to the Olympic Stadium in the late 1970’s with my father and sitting in the bleachers,” Wilansky recalled. “I vividly remember seeing the names Cromartie, Dawson and Valentine staring at me from the backs of their jerseys.”

Over time, Wilansky’s interest in the game waned as his beloved Expos became a mismanaged mess before moving to Washington. Like so many other Montrealers, he distanced himself from baseball. It took him years to rediscover his love of the game.

“In 2009, it was rekindled with the passion of a million white hot suns after visiting Wrigley Field for the first time. It was on those hallowed grounds that I remembered what I loved about the game,” Wilansky said.

“I love that the game is slow, the season long and the pace muted until action springs out of the pitcher’s hand or a hitter’s bat,” he explained.

It would’t take Wilansky long to find creative ways to combine his work life with his rekindled passion for baseball.

Teaming up with Montreal Baseball Project

As Wilansky explains in a blog post on Plank’s website, he rediscovered his love of baseball around the same time another Warren with Montreal ties embarked on his own baseball odyssey.

Warren Cromartie, who Wilansky grew up watching at the Olympic Stadium, started the Montreal Baseball Project in 2012. For those who don’t know about Cromartie’s mission, the Montreal Baseball Project hopes to bring a Major League Baseball team back to Montreal.

Wilansky soon understood that promoting the passion for baseball in this city was an important step towards getting a team back.

He was no longer just a young fan watching Cromartie from the stands. Wilansky was now the leader of a successful digital design agency. Therefore, he felt he could help Cromartie on his quest to bring a team back to the city.

“A few years ago, I approached the Montreal Baseball Project to modernize their website and they gladly accepted our help. I felt that for Montreal Baseball Project to be taken seriously as the main lobby group to bring a team back, that they needed a world class site,” Wilansky told MTL Baseball.

Outside of Plank’s collaboration with Cromartie’s group, Wilansky has found other ways to fit baseball into his agency’s work.

Warren Wilansky looks on as the judges announce the winners of the 2016 Montreal Baseball Hack Day.

Growing the Montreal Baseball Culture and Community Through Creativity

On March 25, Plank will host its third annual Montreal Baseball Hack Day. The Baseball Hack Day started in Boston in 2012. The event allows participants to collaborate on a baseball-themed digital project over the course of one day.

Over the past few years, Wilansky kept in touch with the original Boston event organizer. Finally, he decided to start a Montreal chapter of the event in 2015. He believes events like the Hack Day can play a crucial role in building a stronger local baseball community.

“What I like about the event is that it extends out to a community that traditional baseball marketing and outreach would not consider,” Wilansky explained. “I think that designers and developers have a different and interesting take on how they see and interact with sports. It shows that non-traditional communities should be a part of baseball culture.”

He also thinks it’s important to connect different groups in the local community through baseball in order make baseball culture sustainable in Montreal.

“I would love to see and I think deep relationships can be generated with musicians, artists and filmmakers. Heck, one of our judges is a poet who has written a book about baseball,” Wilansky continued. “Building relationships with these groups of people is going to ensure that baseball becomes a part of the soul of our city.”

Wilansky at the 2016 Montreal Baseball Hack Day

Developing Your Own Passion Project

Warren Wilansky has managed to integrate his passion for baseball into his work as a digital entrepreneur with Plank. But, he also believes it’s important for everyone to have a personal passion project.

In another blog post on the Plank website, Wilansky discusses the genesis of his own blog “Runners at the Corners”.

While it began as a way to track the games he and other contributors attended, he now wants to expand the scope of the site.

“What I’m working on now is making it into more than just an archive of games that I attend. It’s clear that it needs to be more than that to generate any interest or traffic,” Wilansky conceded. “So, I’m looking to get a few different people involved to shape the vision and make it a unique place for baseball fans to visit.”

Wilansky believes that investing in your interests can help you grow as a person while making an impact on your community. His passion projects allowed him to learn a lot about himself and build new relationships.

While his passion projects have helped fill the void the Expos left behind, something is still missing. Like so many Montrealers, Wilansky is still waiting for his team to come back to Montreal.

“But seriously, how could someone not be passionate about having a beer and hot dog in July, in an open air stadium in downtown Montreal while watching our Expos,” Wilansky pondered.

He may be a successful digital entrepreneur, but Warren Wilansky still wishes he could be a kid in the bleachers again.