August 12th, 1994 would have marked another night of baseball at Olympic Stadium in Montreal, instead, it was the first game the Montreal Expos didn’t play.
The strike of 1994 has been written about ad nauseam. In fact, you are probably tired of hearing about how the players and owners locked out, canceling the World Series for the first time since 1904. Unless you are a Montreal Expos fan, you are tired of hearing how Nos Amours were 74-40, holding the best record in baseball, and well on their way to the postseason.
Unless you are a Montreal Expos fan you are tired of hearing how the strike ended the season, and a firesale ensued. Gone were Marquis Grissom, Ken Hill, and Larry Walker, for the simple reason the Expos brass either couldn’t afford them, or didn’t want to pay them.
Unless you are a Montreal Expos fan you are tired of hearing how this strike ultimately set in motion the moving parts which lead to the eventual moving of the team after the 2004 season.
Even if you are a Montreal Expos fan you are tired of hearing all this.
Early in the 1994 season, I wrote a letter to the Montreal Expos. I enclosed an American ten dollar bill and asked to buy a ticket to a baseball game. Since my birthday was August 11th, I wanted that game. Unfortunately, the Expos were on the road that day. August 12th would have to do.
I had no intention of attending the game, I just wanted to contribute to a flailing franchise which I’d come to know as a “small market club”.
The Expos sent back two bleacher tickets to the game on August 12th featuring the visiting New York Mets, as well as an Expos hat and a note thanking me for my interest in the team.
The game on August 12th never happened. As of midnight on August 11th, the players and owners were locked out, making the 12th the first game which wasn’t played by the NL East leading Expos.
I would celebrate my 13th birthday on the 11th, unknowingly watching on television as teams would play for the last time that year. And much like other 13 year-olds, I didn’t understand the economics of the game. I was still upset the Expos traded my favorite player Delino DeShields a year earlier for Pedro Martinez. That’s what I knew about baseball.
What I knew about baseball is I loved the tri-colored hats. I loved the high socks. I loved the passion I saw on the field and the victories pile up in the win column. Then it all stopped.
I have those tickets still and just like every other Expos fan I wonder what could have been in 1994 for the team we loved so much. August 12th will always be a sour day for this baseball fan.