Dodgers - 200 000 000 6 - 8 11 2 Expos - 000 100 100 0 - 2 5 1Now I can update my 21 Ball Parks post! ... 1977 was the first year the Expos played in the Big O, after the Summer Olympics the previous summer.
I was 13 years old and I guess I went by myself, on a Vermont Transit bus. (I have a memory of being at Olympic Stadium with my younger brother, but he would have been only five in 1977, so that game was probably in '79 or '80.)
Going to Montreal so early in my baseball fandom -- when actually being at a game was truly an amazing event; who the hell cared what they played on! -- gave me a soft spot* for domed stadiums. I don't like Skydome for many reasons, but being in the actual building with the roof closed is not one of them. The only other dome I have been in -- the Kingdome in Seattle -- resembled a huge prison complex from the outside, but walking in and seeing the green carpet brought back warm memories of Montreal.
* Or at least not a complete hatred and disgust. I would never prefer a dome & turf stadium for my team, but I don't have a visceral dislike of them. (I remember liking that the lanes for the Olympic track events were still there, by the backstop and along the walk-in dugouts.)
The Big O was also the scene for the greatest game I have ever personally witnessed. The Dodgers won that game in extra innings, as well.
12 comments:
Are you gonna post the slides?
I would, but I have no way of converting colour slides to a jpgs. (I assume having that done professionally is costly.)
My supervisor is also a professional photographer and told me yesterday that he hopes to purchase a contraption that will do exactly that so I'll totally exploit that avenue (sometime in the next year). But until then ...
I also have a shitload of b&w negatives (my father was a serious photographer) that I would like to transfer.
Hard to imagine a 13 year old going by himself or herself to Montreal by bus these days. Times sure were different! You had already been to Fenway at this point, right? This was not your first ever live MLB game, IIRC.
Well, almost 14!
I had been to Fenway the previous August with my father. I'm assuming this was MLB Game #2, since I think I went to only one game a year. (So maybe I did not go to Boston at all in '77.)
But this trip was fairly straight-forward. Get dropped off at bus terminal, get on bus, bus parks right near park, go to game, go back to bus, get picked up at bus terminal. Very little chance for things to go wrong. (Plus, it's Canada!)
Hard to imagine a 13 year old going by himself or herself to Montreal by bus these days.
Hey, it's done all the time, to all different places. Kids in NJ go to NYC or Philadelphia, kids in Mass go to Boston, etc etc. If anything, kids are more independent now that they all have electronic tethers (cell phones).
Hey, it's done all the time, to all different places.
I certainly went to NYC by myself to meet camp friends when I was that age, but those were different times, as I said. Plus I was meeting friends at the other end, and I was not crossing state, let alone national, borders!
I cannot remember either of my kids getting on a bus alone at 13 to go to Boston or NYC unless a parent or friend was meeting them at the other end.
But then maybe I am more neurotic than most. Ya think??
All I'm saying is that right now it is very common for kids in their early teens to take public transit into the nearest city by themselves or with friends.
Times are different, but this has not changed very much, except perhaps that parents feel a bit more reassured because their kids have cell phones.
A group of us spent part of Friday night bemoaning the loss of the Expos. During the run in 1994 and at the end, during inter-league play, you got a glimpse of what could have been.....
Made the trip up from Vermont so many times.....
I am assuming I went alone, because I have no recollection of going to an Expos game with either of my parents.
MOCK: Somewhere (BB Primer or Prospectus, maybe, but it was years ago) there was an article on how Montreal really lost the Expos. The common story that people simply stopped supporting the them is not accurate. The Expos story is more like the owner who deliberately lets his stadium fall to shit, then explains that he has to move or get a new taxpayer park because the old one fell to shit.
I am looking for that Expos article and I found this:
In 1969, the Expos' first season, they played 12 extra-inning games -- and they lost all 12, being outscored 18-0. That article states that they are the only team since 1901 to not win even one extra-inning game in a season.
I just looked up slide scanners, and they run about $60-$120 for a USB slide or film scanner. YMMV.
That is far less than I would have thought. Interesting.
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