Olympic Stadium
Montreal, QB
New York Mets at
Montreal Expos
July
24, 2003
By
Ken Schlapp
This is the day I leave the country to
see baseball in a foreign land, or at least Canada. My companion
for Fenway Park, Vinnie, was not able to continue the journey with
me, so after dropping him off at Back Bay train station, I continued
on my journey to Montreal, with a brief stop in Maine. I know this
did not make any sense, but I wanted to pass through all 48 lower
states during my trip. Therefore, I had to drive up I 95 through
New Hampshire and up to Maine for a gas and food pit stop, before
backpedalling and heading north through New Hampshire and Vermont up
to Quebec.
My drive went smoothly until I got to
the border. The Canadian agent checked my passport, looked into my
car, and asked why I was visiting Canada, what I had in my car and
specifically if I was bringing any alcohol into Canada. I said “no”
to the alcohol and that I just have a month’s worth of clothes and
Souvenirs from my trip. I guess my word was not good enough,
because he asked me to pull over, open my trunk, and wait on the
bench while they go through my car. Needless to say, my car was
packed to the hilt and in an order where it was easy for me to take
only what I needed into each stadium and hotel. That, however, did
not stop him from going through every bag and box in my trunk,
without putting it all back in quite the same order as it was prior
to his disruption. The interesting thing though, was that they
found the bottle of wine I received as a gift from the Wyndham Hotel
in Miami, which I forgot was there. After giving me the third
degree about the alcohol, they finally let me go, but not before
taking up an extra 45 minutes of my time.
Happy to get out of customs,
I was on my way to Jarry Park, or at least what was left of it.
Jarry Park was the first home of the Montreal Expos. They played
their first 8 seasons in this small ballpark from 1969 to 1976.
When I say small, I mean it. It only held 28,456 fans for each
game. It did have an interesting attribute to it though. There was
a public swimming pool behind the short right field fence that
sometimes entertained baseballs as swimmers that dove in on long
home runs, such as one hit by Willie McCovey on August 24, 1969.
Although baseball is no longer played
at Jarry Park, some of the stadium still exists. I was able to
contact Peter Robitaille, who is the coordonnateur du CTPJ, which in
English is the coordinator of the Jarry Park Canadian Tennis
Center. As you might realize, here in Quebec, everything is in both
French and English, with the heavy majority in French. My
background is French, and I can speak it well enough to get by, but
not fluently, so I enjoyed the challenge of attempting to converse
in French as much as possible. Speaking French with Peter was not
necessary though, because he spoke English quite well, and was a
great person to spend the afternoon talking about sports.
Back to the baseball part, sort of.
After the Expos moved into Olympic Stadium in 1977, not much went on
at Jarry Park (or more appropriately Parc du Jarry) until 1995,
which is when the Canadian Masters Tennis Tournament (Canadian
Tennis Open) began to be held here annually. Looking in on the
tennis center, which also changed its name to Stade Du Maurier (Du
Maurier Stadium); it is hard to believe that baseball was once
played here. It is quite small or simply the proper size for
Tennis. Peter told me that only the bowl section behind home plate
exists now as it was for baseball. The seats and stands down the
lines were taken down, but eventually the seats were used in the
tennis stadium. The other thing left from the old stadium is the
pool that is still in the same spot. The public pool outlasted the
baseball stadium! Like many of my experiences on this trip, the
best part of my visit was making a new friend in Peter. He invited
me to come back and join him to see a Montreal Allouettes game,
which is Canadian Football. I have not done so yet, but I would
love to someday.
Well, time to leave the old and head
to the new, o r
at least Stade D’Olympic or Olympic Stadium, which is how most of us
are used to calling it. The special part of this stadium for me is
that my contact here is a special one. I used to play basketball in
LeFrak City, Queens with Omar Minaya, who was the Expos General
Manager at this time. Every Tuesday night for many years, I played
full-court basketball at a gym in LeFrak City with my brother, Omar
and many others, which I miss doing to this day. Only, back then, I
had no idea that Omar had anything to do with baseball. I just knew
he had a nice jump shot from the corner. When the Mets hired some
guy named Omar Minaya to be their assistant GM, I was talking to my
brother about it and he told me that it was the Omar we played
basketball with. Although, I never got the chance to play hoops
with him again, I did contact him about my trip, and he quickly made
sure I had good seats behind home plate for the game. Although,
with the Expos poor attendance, obtaining a good seat would not be a
problem. Unfortunately, he was not around to visit me this game,
but he did send his assistant, Marcia Schnarr, to pay me a visit
during the game. She brought me all kinds of information on the
Expos and Montreal in general, which was incredibly nice. Thanks
again Omar and Marcia, I really appreciated your kindness.
The Expos began playing in Olympic
Stadium in 1977, which was the year after the 1976 Montreal Summer
Olympics. Therefore, the stadium, like many others at this time was
built for multipurpose use. It first served as the main stadium for
the Olympics opening and closing ceremonies as well as for track and
field events. Once the Olympics were over, Canadian Football games
for the Montreal Allouettes were played there in the fall and winter
of 1976, before the Expos began play here in 1977. The Allouettes
continued to play here until 1986, before disbanding, restarting,
and playing here again from 1996 to 1997.
The problem with playing both CFL games and baseball games in the
same stadium is that Canadian Football Fields are 30 Yards longer
and 3 yards wider than NFL fields in the States. This means that
due to the dual-purpose nature of the stadium, that seating for
baseball is worse here than for typical dual purpose stadiums, which
is bad to begin with.
This stadium had other problems from
the start as well. It was intended to be completed with a
retractable roof in time for the start of the 1976 Olympics, but due
to labor strikes and funding difficulties, the roof was not
completed until 1987. The designs of the stadium included a tower
to, hold, open, and close the retractable roof. This tower is the
tallest inclined tower in the world, but the only problem with it,
is that it does not work properly for its intended use. It could
not be retracted until 1988, and then only if winds were less than
25 miles per hour. The roof itself was composed of an orange
colored Kevlar, which ripped several times and even caused rainouts
in a domed stadium.
The stadium was then remodeled in
1991. Home plate was moved closer to the stands and 12, 000 seats
were removed, since the view from them was so poor. Further
remodeling was completed in 1998 and 1999. In fact, in 1998, the
stadium was back to open air, while they built the permanent blue
roof, which was installed for the 1999 season. Although, that did
not work smoothly either. Snow and ice caused the roof to partially
collapse in January of 1999, before becoming a permanent structure
after repairs were made again.
In 2003, the problems surrounding the
Expos are quite different. The fan support of the team has dwindled
significantly since 1994. The Expos had success, both
 on
the field and in the stands from the late 1970s through 1994. Many
stars such as Rusty Staub, Gary Carter, Tim Raines, Andre Dawson,
and more recently Vladimir Guerrero and Pedro Martinez played for
the Expos. However, when the baseball strike began in 1994, the
Expos had the best record in baseball and were arguably the most
exciting team. The strike extended into the 1995 season and the
Expos were never the same. The team began to trade away its young
stars, while the crowds and the fan base began to plummet as well.
The outlook for baseball in Montreal became bleak. In fact, the
Expos were almost contracted prior to the 2002 season along with the
Twins. A number of circumstances led to the Expos being purchased
by major league baseball and remaining alive with the Twins.
However, relocation was in the plans. As we know now, the Expos did
move to Washington, DC for the 2005 season and baseball was dead in
Montreal.
OK, enough with the sordid history, it
is time for my take on my visit. When I came in in 2001 (fearing
that 2001 would be the Expos final season) with Paul, we took the
subway to the game, which is a convenient option. However, I drove
to the stadium this time and parked where you can go right from the
parking lot into the stadium, which is convenient too. However, to
keep with tradition, I went outside any way, where Stade D’Olympic
appears almost like a space station from science fiction movies. It
is also odd, how low to the ground the dome appears. It almost
looks like it is not high enough for playing baseball. Something
about it seems strange, but unique. The Bio dome and circle of
international flags outside the stadium do remind you that the
Olympics were once played here.
To get inside Olympic Stadium, you
have to go through the main entrance, which brings you in near home
plate. Once inside, the first thing I noticed was a display by the
main entrance labeled “L’equipe de reve”, which literally translates
to “Dream Team”, but effectively represents their team hall of
fame. The players highlighted here were Tim Raines, Andre Dawson,
Hubie Brooks, Tim Wallach, Gary Carter, and Le Grande Orange – Rusty
Staub. I loved this little collection of x-Mets and Mets killers
that I grew up watching. Unfortunately, my next set of tasks were
fruitless. They did not sell sodas in souvenir cups nor offer
freebies for applying for a credit card, so I had to improvise by
buying a coffee mug. Fin ding
interesting food, however, was not a problem. When in Quebec, it is
imperative that you try poutine, which is French fries with cheese
curds covered in gravy. I am not a big potato fan, but I did like
poutine, so my advice is to give it a try. If you do not like it,
try the smoked meat sandwiches or you can still stick to the
standard hot dogs that were available too.
Note that if you were hungry though,
you need to be near home plate because that is the only section of
the stadium you can find food and souvenirs. When I took my walk
around the stadium for photos from different views, I noticed that
the concourses were completely empty and reminded me more of an
empty warehouse than of a baseball stadium. It looks like there
were places where concession stands could be, but there was nothing
there. They did have one interactive area for fans near the main
entrance with an arcade, batting cage, pitching area, knock down
booth, and since we are in Canada, there is knock hockey too. I did
like one section though. There was a wall with team pictures of the
Expos from every year they have been in existence.
When I entered the seating area, I was
somewhat overwhelmed by the blinding ugly yellow and blue seats.
The lower level and outfield seats are all blue (except for the one
yellow seat on the 300 level where Willie Stargell hit a 534 foot
home run), when all but the lower level in other sections are bright
yellow. When I went to sit in the seats, I noticed how they are
egg-shaped plastic seats, which are unlike any others that I have
seen. The next obvious observation is the roof, which as I
indicated earlier, is now permanent and blue. The roof also appears
to be lower than in the other domes I have visited to date, which
upon further research I found it to be true. The roof is only 170
feet high, which led to many popups and home runs hitting the roof.
This low roof did lead to something truly unique: they actually
painted foul lines on the roof to aid the umpires in making
fair/foul calls. Although, I am clearly not a fan of indoor
baseball, I do like this special feature. I also learned that the
foul poles here are red instead of the standard yellow that is in
every other stadium except Shea (which is orange), but Shea does not
have a red Maple Leaf on it. Lastly, on the “no good” ratings
scale, this is another stadium with turf instead of dirt and grass,
which I will never like.
Some of the features I do like are the
emblems of all the National League teams and their 1981 National
League East championship in circular shape on the outfield walls. I
mean any stadium with a Mets symbol in it cannot be all bad! They
also had similar circles on the right field wall for their three
retired numbers; Rusty Staub (10), Gary Carter (8), and Andre Dawson
(10). So, I guess they really have only 2 retired numbers.
However, the one thing I like most here was the out-of-town
scoreboards. They are manually operated and are above the left
field (AL) and right field (NL) walls. Finally speaking of the
walls, they are 99 meters away down the lines and 123 meters to
center field. Yes, Canada, unlike the USA, has embraced the metric
system.
Although I have barely noticed anyone
joining me for the game, it is now time for the national anthems.
Again, since the US team was the visiting team, the Star Spangled
Banner was played first. Then, I heard the half-French,
half-English version of Oh Canada for the first time. I have to say
that I like version better than the all-English version I am used to
hearing. In addition, as opposed to my visits to Canada for hockey
and baseball games since this visit, nobody booed the Star Spangled
Banner, which I did not appreciate its uniqueness at that time. I
am not sure if I did not notice the anti-American sentiment this
trip because it simply was not an issue at the time or if it was
because the stadium was completely empty. The emptiness barely
changed after the game started.
Wow! I just realized how far I have
come into this article without mentioning that I got to see the Mets
play again today…or at least try to. The Mets went down 1, 2, 3, in
the first, with Livan Hernandez pitching for the Expos. Tom Glavine
started for the Mets and he was tagged for 2 runs in the bottom of
the first. Jose Macias doubled with one out, Orlando Cabrera walked
and Vladimir Guerrero brought them both home with an unusual 2 RBI
single in which Cabrera scored all the way from first base. Both
teams went scoreless the next 2 innings, before the Mets scraped a
run together in the 4th on singles by Jose Reyes and
Jason Phillips (although Reyes was thrown out trying to go from 1st
to 3rd on Phillips hit), a wild pitch and an RBI
groundout by Cliff Floyd.
Before I go on, I will add the French
to English conversion chart I needed to understand the scoreboard:
P = runs
CS = Hits
CC = HR
PP = RBI
BV = SB
Youppi = Expos mascot
Both pitchers continued to pitch well
until the 6th, when the Expos scored 2 more runs on Wil
Cordero’s 2-run homer off Tom Glavine. Hernandez continued to
dominate the Mets into the 8th inning, when he finally
started to break down. The 8th inning began with Mets
pinch-hitter Roger Cedeno flying out to left, which was followed by
a chorus of boos from the Mets fans in attendance. This poor guy
cannot escape the wrath of disgruntled Mets fans even when leaving
the country. After Jeff Duncan struck out, Reyes and Phillips again
had back-to-back 2-out singles, only this time Reyes was not thrown
out on the base paths. At this point Hernandez was lifted from the
game and was serenaded with a standing ovation on his way out. To
the fans credit, although they were few in number, they were into
the game and cheered passionately for the Expos, although not as
passionately as when they showed the Allouettes highlights on the
jumbotron. They even clapped every time Hernandez had 2 strikes on
a Mets batter. Hernandez’ replacement was Eric Knott, who walked
Cliff Floyd (his only batter), and was yanked in favor of Luis
Ayala, who induced Ty Wigginton to ground out back to the mound
ending the Mets final threat. Hernandez finished his day pitching 7
2/3 innings, 1 run, 7 hits, and 5 strikeouts.
Brad Wilkerson doubled, swiped 3rd
base and scored on Mike Barrett’s double in the bottom of the 8th
to give the Expos a 5-1 lead, which ended up being the final score.
Rocky Biddle saved the game by getting the last 2 outs of the 9th
inning after Hector Almonte walked 2 of the 3 batters he faced.
This gave me the pleasure of seeing the Mets fall to 1-6 on my trip,
my only hope at this point was for them to win on the final game of
the trip at Shea Stadium, but the outlook is not positive.
Bottom line – Olympic Stadium is
clearly not one of my favorite stadiums, and tends to fall on the
bottom of anyone’s stadium list. However, the uniqueness of seeing
a game in another country, plus a lot of French language mixed in,
and the poutine, made it an interesting visit anyway.
Basic trip facts:
-Stadium # 26
-Old Stadium Sites visited – Jarry Park (Total – 18)
-Under construction Stadium Sites visited – None (Total – 2)
-Miles traveled – 421 via Car (Totals: Driving – 16,129, Subway -
20, Air - 3,196, Total – 19,245)
-States, provinces, Districts and/or commonwealths passed through –
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, Quebec (Totals: States
– 47, Provinces – 1, Districts – 1, Commonwealths - 1)
-Seats – Section 102, Row O, Seat 15 – Field Level, behind home
plate
-Prices: Parking – $12.00, Beer – 4.75, Hot Dogs - $3.75, Program
(including pencil) - $6.75, Souvenir Soda Cup – None, Poutine -
$4.75
-Credit Card giveaway – None
-First Pitch - 7:08 PM
-Attendance – 9,337
-Results – Expos 5, Mets 1, W – Livan Hernandez, L – Tom Glavine, S
– None
-Home team record to date – 15 wins, 14 losses
-Record of “team I was routing for” to date – 12 wins, 17 losses
-Lodging – Montreal, Quebec
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