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BASEBALL LIVES IN OUR CITY

BASEBALL LIVES IN OUR CITY

Tim Raines Tribute Will Kick Off “Montreal Baseball Weekend”

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Tim Raines tribute Montreal Baseball Weekend

Tim Raines will be in Montreal for Baseball Weekend.

If you haven’t already purchased your tickets for the Toronto Blue Jays’ exhibition game versus the Pittsburgh Pirates on March 31, the latest news should spur you into action. A Tim Raines tribute will take place before the game, meaning “Rock” will be at the Olympic Stadium to kick off “Montreal Baseball Weekend”.

According to multiple news outlets, Tim Raines will headline the festivities prior to the first of two exhibition games held in Montreal at the end of this month.

Shi Davidi of Sportsnet posted the following on Twitter:

Other sources reported the same news on Twitter throughout the day:

Fans who make it to the game on March 31 will also get to see several former Expos. Dennis Martinez, Steve Rogers, Bill Lee, Al Oliver, David Palmer and Jeff Reardon will also be there. Five of those players will also take part in Exposfest on Sunday, April 2.

Raines was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in January. Now, he will be properly honoured in the city where his career began. This will be the first opportunity for Expos fans to congratulate “Rock” on making it into the Hall of Fame.

So, make sure you’re at Olympic Stadium to show Tim Raines how much this city appreciates its baseball legends.

Braves Trade Recalls a Controversial Expos Blockbuster

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Phillips Trade Recalls Controversial Expos Blockbuster

Brandon Phillips While Still With the Cincinnati Reds

On Sunday, the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds completed a trade that sent Brandon Phillips to his hometown in exchange for a couple of pitching prospects. On the surface, this was hardly an earth-shattering move between two non-contender teams. However, a closer look recalls a controversial Expos blockbuster from the team’s final seasons in Montreal.

By acquiring Phillips, the Braves reunited him with Bartolo Colon, who signed with Atlanta as a free agent in November. Expos fans recall that Omar Minaya sent Phillips to Cleveland in a package deal for Colon during the 2002 season. Minaya was going all-in for the postseason. Some people called it the “Trade of the Decade”. Instead, it became an example of how trading the farm for a rental player can backfire on a team.

The Controversial Expos Blockbuster

The full deal was Phillips, Cliff Lee, Grady Sizemore and Lee Stevens for Colon and Tim Drew. At the time, only Stevens was on the active big-league roster for the Expos. Colon was an ace pitcher in Cleveland. Phillips, Lee and Sizemore were top prospects but hadn’t played a big-league game with the Expos yet.

Colon Part of Controversial Expos Blockbuster

Bartolo Colon With the White Sox After the Expos Traded Him

It was an exciting trade and Colon pitched well in Montreal. He went 10-4 with a 3.31 Earned-Run Average. However, the Expos didn’t make the playoffs and wound up trading Colon to the White Sox in the subsequent offseason in a payroll-cutting move.

While Colon was an established ace, there was little chance he would stay in Montreal for more than a few months. Phillips, Lee and Sizemore became All-Stars outside of Montreal. The Indians clearly won the deal.

The 2002 trade may have tilted heavily in Cleveland’s favour but it has taken numerous twists over the years.

Colon and Phillips are two of the last remaining connections to the Montreal Expos in Major League Baseball. Colon is technically the last former Expo remaining in the big leagues since Phillips never played with Montreal’s Major League team.

As it stands, Phillips is a fading player who will serve as middle-infield depth on a bottom-feeding team. Sizemore and Lee may never play again in the big leagues. As for Colon, he reinvented himself as a pitcher and remains a highly-productive fixture in the starting rotation.

Oh yeah, and baseball fans will forever love “Big Sexy” for this:

While the Braves may have been bitter rivals to Expos fans for years, they now have a special connection to Nos Amours. By reuniting two of the last remaining players connected to the Expos, the Braves have given nostalgic Montrealers a reason to follow their games this season.

Unless of course they don’t want to be reminded of that controversial Expos blockbuster that backfired in 2002.

 

Vladimir Guerrero Among 2017 Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame Inductees

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Vladimir Guerrero Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame

Vladimir Guerrero as a member of the Baltimore Orioles.

Vladimir Guerrero will have to wait at least a year to go to Cooperstown. He won’t have to wait that long to proclaim himself as a baseball hall of famer. Following an official announcement this morning, Guerrero is among the 2017 Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame inductees.

The museum announced in a press release on their website that Guerrero will join former Blue Jays pitcher Roy Halladay, Baseball Canada President Ray Carter, longtime B.C. umpire Doug Hudlin and the 2015 Senior Mens Team Canada squad that took home gold in the Pan Am Games as inductees on June 24, 2017.

“I was surprised and excited to hear that I’m being inducted,” said Guerrero through a translator during a media conference call this afternoon.  “I knew that I would need to wait at least one more year to join the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, but I’m very pleased to join the Canadian hall of fame first, since I was given my first opportunity to play Major League Baseball in Canada.”

The museum posted the following on its Twitter feed this morning:

The Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame is in St. Marys, Ontario.

Guerrero also joins other former Expos notables Dennis Martinez (2016), Felipe Alou (2015), Tim Wallach (2014), Tim Raines (2013), Larry Walker (2009), Steve Rogers (2005) and Gary Carter (2001) as inductees of the museum.

Furthermore, the former Expos All-Star is the fourth Dominican player in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. The others are Felipe Alou, George Bell (2013) and Tony Fernández (2008).

Guerrero shared the following on his Twitter account:

Join Guerrero for the Festivities at the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame

Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame

The Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in St. Marys, Ontario.

The induction ceremony will be part of an entire weekend of activities in Toronto and St. Marys. The ceremony will take place at the Hall of Fame grounds with the following itinerary for June 24:

9am-5pm – museum open for tours
9am-10:15am – Inductee press conference  (media only)
11:00am-1:00pm – Induction Ceremony for 2017 Inductees
1:30pm-3:00pm – autograph session with 2017 Inductees and other special guests.

There will also be a Baseball Family Festival all day.

Admission for the ceremony is 10$ for members and 20$ for non-members. You can find more details on this page:

Induction Day

You can read the rest of the press release announcing the Class of 2017 Inductees here:

CANADIAN BASEBALL HALL OF FAME UNVEILS 2017 INDUCTEE CLASS

MTL Baseball Community Mourns Passing of Geoff Bawart

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I just wanted to say a few words to pay my respects to Geoff Bawart, who passed away January 22.

For those who didn’t know Geoff, he was the Vice-President of the Lac St-Louis Tigers organization in Baseball Quebec. He was also a coach, a senior-league player and a volunteer who gave much of his time to others in the local baseball community.

First and foremost, Geoff was by all accounts a devoted family man. He leaves behind a wife and two young sons.

This is a sad time for the local baseball community.

I got to know Geoff on the baseball field several years ago while competing against his Knights team in the Baseball West Island Senior League. I didn’t know him personally off the field, but I can tell you that nobody in the league represented himself or his team with more dignity and class than Geoff did.

You can tell a lot about someone in the way they carry themselves as a competitor in sports. Geoff Bawart was one of the nicest people I’ve had the pleasure of interacting with on the field.

My heart goes out to Geoff’s family and all of the people he had an impact on over the course of his life, which was cut far too short.

Baseball Quebec honoured Geoff on their Twitter feed with the following:

The Tigers organization shared the following public post by Geoff’s brother on their Facebook page:

RIP Geoff. I’ll miss seeing you on the diamond.

After a Ten-Year Wait, Raines Elected to Hall of Fame

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Tim Raines (as manager of the Newark Bears) has been elected to the Hall of Fame.

After ten long years, the wait is finally over.

Tim Raines has been elected into Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame, joining Jeff Bagwell and Ivan Rodriguez as the 2017 inductees that were announced tonight at 6PM.

For weeks, Montrealers and Expos fans from all over wondered whether Raines would be inducted in his last year of eligibility. In 2014, the Baseball Hall of Fame adjusted its rules to grant players only ten years of eligibility on ballots, as opposed to 15. This was Raines’ tenth and final year on the ballot after failing to appear on the required 75 per cent of voters’ ballots last year. He had come up just short with 69.8 per cent.

There was a strong sense leading up to tonight’s announcement that Raines would finally make the cut, as he was on over 90% of ballots made public. In the end, he made it onto 86 per cent of the ballots.

Raines, nicknamed “Rock”, will enter the Hall of Fame as a Montreal Expo, having played 13 seasons with the team, the bulk of his sterling 23-year career.

He was beloved by Montrealers for being able to dominate a game with his bat and his speed. He finished his career with 2,605 hits, 1,330 walks, a .294 batting average, a .385 on-base percentage, 1,571 runs scored and 808 stolen bases (fifth best all-time). His 84.7 per cent success rate for stolen bases is first all-time among players with at least 400 attempts. To put that last stat in perspective, Rickey Henderson, widely regarded as the greatest base-stealer of all-time, would have needed to steal 448 more bases without being caught in order to surpass Raines’ success rate.

This is an important moment in Expos history, as Raines will become the third Expo inducted into the Hall of Fame after Gary Carter (2003) and Andre Dawson (2010).

Tim Raines posted the following on his Twitter account:

Expos fans will no doubt travel in droves to Cooperstown, New York to celebrate with Rock when he is inducted on July 30.