Up, Up, and Away: The Kid, the Hawk, Rock, Vladi, Pedro, le Grand Orange, Youppi!, the Crazy Business of Baseball, and the Ill-fated but Unforgettable Montreal Expos (49 page)

Bill Simmons went from being an early, shining example of what was possible for an Internet-based sportswriter to someone much closer: a great supporter of my work, and also my excellent boss. Dan Fierman, Mike Philbrick, Mal Rubin, Sarah Larimer, and Chris Ryan have all been terrific editors and confidants. When Dan was about to hire me, he first spelled out the cardinal rule
of Grantland: “No assholes.” Hopefully I’ve lived up to my end of the bargain; everyone I’ve met at Grantland certainly has. As the two people with whom I’ve worked most closely over the past three years, Mike and Mal in particular have been amazing. Every writer should be lucky enough to work with such great people.

Much love to every other Grantlander, including Bill Barnwell, Zach Lowe, Kirk Goldsberry, Katie Baker, Sean Fennessey, Rafe Bartholomew, Rembert Browne, Mark Lisanti, Patricia Lee, Andy Greenwald, Jonathan Abrams, Brian Phillips, Sean McIndoe, David Cho, Andrew Sharp, Bryan Curtis, Emily Yoshida, Mark Titus, Jay Kang, Robert Mays, Charlie Pierce, Holly Anderson, Sal Iacono, Dan Silver, Justin Halpern, Michael Baumann, Shane Ryan, and Rany Jazayerli (I follow him everywhere); as well as my terrific podcast producers Dave Jacoby and Joe Fuentes. Thanks also to my producers and colleagues at
Baseball Tonight
, including Mike McQuade, Pete McConville, Fernando Lopez, Mark Schuman, Gregg Colli, Justin Havens, Adnan Virk, Boog Sciambi, Karl Ravech, Keith Law, Buster Olney, Jayson Stark, Tim Kurkjian, Manny Acta, Alex Cora, Doug Glanville, Barry Larkin, Chris Singleton, Mark Mulder, Curt Schilling, and John Kruk.

My literary agent Sydelle Kramer has been by my side for years. She’s a fount of ideas, she knows the publishing industry better than just about anyone, and she cares deeply about her clients.

Thanks to all the players, managers, scouts, general managers, front-office executives, owners, writers, broadcasters, team employees, and fans who shared their stories. There were interviews in malls and coffee shops, stadiums and living rooms, offices and bars. There were also numerous phone chats with people I’d never met who agreed to share their thoughts because they believed in the project and were willing to play along with an over-zealous Canadian with lots of questions. It’s tough to single anyone out without offending dozens and dozens of others, but I will say
this: the one-hour chat I had with Felipe Alou at the back fields of the San Francisco Giants’ minor league complex is something I’ll remember and cherish for the rest of my life.

An all-star team of transcribers helped convert many interviews into ready-to-use material for the book. First and foremost, massive thanks to Blake Murphy and Ryan Szporer, who carried the biggest share of the workload. I’m also indebted to Jared Book, Kyle Casey, Cedric de Jager, Minda Haas, Corey Sylvester, and Matt Swain. Additional assists were offered by Gabriel Brison-Trezise, Forrest Carpenter, Jordan Cunningham, Jacob Grill-Abramowitz, Fred Katz, Maxime Paiement, Jamie Vann Struth, and Adam Wray. My brilliant and resourceful wife, Dr. Angèle Fauchier, helped manage hundreds of interview files and reams of source material, while also setting up workflow on my Scrivener writing platform. Lifesavers, all of you.

Speaking of incredible generosity, Russ Hansen met me one sunny afternoon at the Redondo Beach Cafe, then unveiled a treasure trove: years of phenomenal photos and materials, all of which I was free to use at my discretion. Russ’ photos appear in this book, making it that much better. Likewise, Terry Mosher overwhelmed me with a gracious offer of his own: the opportunity to go through his entire collection of Expos-related editorial cartoons, choose whichever ones I liked, then sprinkle them throughout the book. That’s how the great Aislin and his award-winning images came to populate
Up, Up, & Away
. Thanks also to Loretta Stephens for her assistance with photography.

I mention this book’s many sources in the references, but want to point out two in particular that proved invaluable. First, SABR’s BioProject produced a staggering number of terrific biographies on former Expos players, managers, and execs that served as vital source material. Though the BioProject deploys many different writers, Rory Costello and Norm King wrote some particularly
fruitful ones with Expos themes. While we’re here, let’s toss out a blanket endorsement for SABR and everything that organization does; if you’re not yet a member, you should fix that
tout de suite
. A second go- to source was the
Montreal Gazette
, my first-ever full-time employer. I kept going back to the
Gazette
’s archives, again and again, to pull out quotes and facts about the Expos: from mid-’60s articles describing the city’s quest to land a Major League Baseball team to 2004 editions of the paper that chronicled the end of the franchise in
la belle province
. Getting the opportunity to interview esteemed
Gazette
writers such as Michael Farber, Jeff Blair, and Stephanie Myles only enhanced the experience.

One more group of people I’d like to single out: the many members of the Montreal media who so richly recounted their experiences covering the ballclub. Dave Van Horne told so many terrific stories about his 32 years broadcasting games that I wished I had three books’ worth of space to recount them all. Between his years covering the team from
La Presse
, followed by his own three-plus decades of broadcasting games, Jacques Doucet was there for the Expos’ entire history. He invited me into his home and regaled me with stories for the next three hours; several times during those three hours, we both found ourselves in tears.

As you’re reading this book, I’ll probably be blabbing on a show somewhere about baseball. There’s no way to cover everyone, so consider this a blanket thanks to all who’ve afforded me the opportunity to talk about the game. The great people at TSN 690 in Montreal in particular have been putting me on the air for so many years. Elliott Price, Shaun Starr, Mitch Melnick, Dave Kaufman, and Matthew Ross,
merci mes amis
.

Over the years I’ve gotten to know so many great people and brilliant minds in sports journalism and related industries that I’m already lamenting those I might forget to mention. To name just a few: Benjamin Hochman, Dave Cameron, R. J. Anderson,
Tommy Rancel, Jason Collette, Matthew Berry, Nate Ravitz, Kevin Goldstein, Dave Appelman, Matt Meyers, Mark Simon, Susan Slusser, Derrick Goold, Amanda Rykoff, Craig Calcaterra, Dave Dameshek, Bob Elliott, Jay Jaffe, Emma Span, Nick Piecoro, Chris Liss, Jeff Erickson, King Kaufman, Will Leitch, Ben Kabak, Tommy Bennett, Henry Abbott, Kevin Arnovitz, Dave Schoenfield, Greg Foster, Jesse Spector, Dirk Hayhurst, Jeff Passan, Kevin Kaduk, Tony Khan, Adam Thompson, Wendy Thurm, Tim Marchman, Randy Sklar, Jason Sklar, Gar Ryness, Jay Farrar, Annakin Slayd, Ben Lindbergh, and Brian Kenny.

Dialling up the way-back machine, thank you to all my Montreal pals who ate poutine with me and helped make up ridiculous songs for Expos players, both in the bleachers at the Big O and on road trips. First and foremost, those include the original Maple Ridge Boys, Elan Satov, Brian Benjamin, Andrew Kensley, and Eric Kligman. Other eggers-on included Derek Marinos, Jamie Itzkovits, Jon Selig, Lenny Godel, Ron Wexler, Ronen Pomeranc, David Itzkovits, Stephan Ouaknine, Avi Satov, and Double Mic himself, Michael Siegman. Also, I might’ve lost my mind during this book process without the friendship and Don’s Club Tavern accompaniment offered by the Denver WINS crew.

Family! Thanks Dad, Roz, Mom, Drew, Dan, R. J. Katie, Theo, Quinn, Logan, Samantha, Jesse, Lauren, Nicole, Bess, and all the loved ones no longer with us. You are all wonderful.

Finally, Angèle, Ellis, and Thalia—thanks for brightening my days with your love and warmth. Once again, you’ve made gigantic sacrifices that enabled me to write this book, for which I’m eternally grateful. I’m the luckiest husband and dad in the world.

T
his book took nearly three years to come together, and would not have been possible without the co-operation of many interviewees. From a two-hour breakfast with Cliff Floyd in a Miami-area coffee shop to spending an hour and a half in Tim Raines’ manager’s office before a Newark Bears game, the generosity and candour shown by all of these people are the lifeblood of this book—even in cases where they’re not quoted directly. Those interviewees are:

I read a stack of books, in both English and French (thanks UTT and Herzliah for 11 years of trilingual education!), to gain a better understanding of the Expos’ history—much of it occurring either before I was born or when I was too young to understand it. Those books include:

I drew from interviews and reporting done by various publications, including but not limited to: the SABR BioProject, the
Montreal Gazette, La Presse, le Journal de Montreal
, the
Montreal Star, Canadian Press, Associated Press, Sports Illustrated, The Sporting News, The New York Times
, the
Los Angeles Times
, the
Toronto Star
, the
Toronto Sun
, the
Globe and Mail
, the
Boston Globe
, and
ESPN.com
. I also borrowed some Expos-related passages from posts that I wrote for various publications, including
Grantland.com
,
BaseballProspectus.com
, and
JonahKeri.com
.