Baseball back in Montréal; for two nights at least

Baseball, right back where it should be: Montréal.

Almost ten years ago, on Sept. 29, 2004, I was at the last Major League Baseball game in Montréal.

Or so I thought.

Tonight, the Toronto Blue Jays hosted the New York Mets for the first of two spring training games at Olympic Stadium, and the atmosphere was electric. The negativity that seemed to permeate media coverage of the Expos during their last days in the city was gone.

Instead, there was jealousy...

Envious of the baseball scribes in Montreal tonight. What a great city. Hope baseball returns there.
— Pete Abraham (@PeteAbe) March 29, 2014

and appreciation of what the crowd meant ...

Attendance in Montreal tonight: 46,121. Speaks for itself.
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) March 29, 2014

(A crowd of nearly 50,000 is expected on Saturday.)

Even casual baseball fans in Montreal's traditional rival of Toronto were happy with tonight's outcome:

Miss watching baseball at the Big O. But even more, I miss watching the Expos play there. #BringBackTheMontrealExpos
— Phil Kane (@philistweeting) March 29, 2014

The atmosphere was compared to a playoff game.

Jays manager John Gibbons praised the "tremendous atmosphere" tonight, saying, "I did hear a lot of cheering for the Expos."
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) March 29, 2014

It was a far cry from when I was in Montréal for the last Expos game there. I had been an Expos fan for years, and an online advocate for their staying in Montréal. That day was an emotional experience, probably the last time I cried that was not connected to a relative's death. If anyone who doubted that Montréal could be a baseball city had been there, they would've changed their minds after seeing the heartfelt love the city showed their team that day.

Here's a short slideshow with some pictures I took before, during and after that final game:

"Fictional History" (In other words, "History") -- Part Two: Louis Riel

A few years back, Claire and I were in a Montréal museum and she noticed me excitedly shooting photos of a hat in a display case. "It's Louis Riel's hat," I exclaimed. She drew a blank, as would most Americans.

Riel was a 19th Century revolutionary figure in Canada, who stood up for the rights of his people, the Métis, most of whom were of mixed French-"First Nations" ancestry. His activism helped form the province of Manitoba and advance the cause of French speakers outside of Québec. But his means -- including the support of armed insurrection -- caused him to be labled as a murderer in English-speaking Canada and his was hanged as a traitor (despite vehement protests in Québec) in 1885.

He was also just a little bit crazy. Either that or he actually was on a mission from God. Take your pick.

I first learned of Riel in my study of Canada a few years back. Both Ferguson's Canadian History for Dummies (actually a really good survey of our neighbors to the north) and Riendeau's dense A Brief History of Canada treat Riel rather roughly. A few years back at Comic-Con, I was at the Eisner awards and noticed a Riel biography was nominated for Best Graphic Album-Reprint. I decided to look for it and found it at a local library a couple weeks back.

Chester Brown's Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography is a good read, but admittedly takes liberties with the facts. Historical figures are shown at gatherings where they were not present, several characters are composited into one for simplicity's sake, scenes are dialogue are dramatized. In other words, it's much like the movie "24 Hour Party People," which I reviewed earlier this week.

Below: Riel meets with Ulysses S. Grant, then goes nuts (because everyone knows there's no God in Washington D.C. ), in a two-page spread illustrating the typical six-panel layout of Brown's book. Click to enlarge.


Brown for the most part is sympathetic to Riel, showing him as being passionate about his cause, but indecisive and too willing to take bad advice. Despite the revisionism, the book is no hagiography. As stated, Riel is often shown to make bad decisions and despite the style shown in the "religious experience" above, its clear that Brown thinks Riel had a screw loose.

What conservative Canadians might get upset about is the treatment of John A. Macdonald, the Dominion's first prime minister. Now Macdonald is in no way as revered as, say, George Washington, he is certainly considered one of the greatest Canadians. In Brown's book Macdonald is presented as a conniving drunkard, willing to let the Métis suffer if it suits his political goals (right).

Brown offers an intriguing narrative, the simple line art is clean and easy to follow. The historical flow is easy to follow and the many, many characters are easy to keep straight. The story presents an intriguing political tragedy. But while I learned a lot about the North-West Rebellion and Riel's role in it, I don't know if I really learned much about Riel himself. There is nothing in the book before Riel's formation of Manitoba and virtually nothing about the nearly 15 years he was exiled in the United States. It stretches things to call this book a "biography" when it only concentrates on specific events.

History is indeed written not only by the victors, but by those who actually choose to write it. Brown's "Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography" helps remind us of that fact, while at the same time helping us debate if a little historical wiggle room is acceptable over forgetting the whole deal.

Last day of the season, but do I care?

Appearances to the contrary, this man and I rarely agree.

It's the last day of the 2008 MLB season and there are still two playoff spots up for grabs. Minnesota and the Chicago White Sox are split by less than a game in the American League Central Division and Milwaukee and the New York Mets are tied for the National League Wild Card going into play this morning. Exciting stuff, with potential tiebreakers and makeup games in the mix tomorrow.

The scenarios are enticing, and it will be fun to watch the Twins and ChiSox (and possibly the Tigers if a makeup game proves necessary) battle it out. Less enticing to me is the possibility of the Milwaukee Brewers making the playoffs for the first time since Harvey's Wallbangers.

I just can't bring myself to root for the Brewers, despite them being the type of underdog I would normally support. I still think they belong in the American League, for one thing. But the biggest reason I can't support them is their long affiliation with the Selig family. Formerly owned -- in a huge conflict of interest -- by the commissioner but since sold, I still can't shake the affiliation.

Bud Selig has had hits and misses as commissioner, but I will never be able to forgive him for helping to push the Expos out the door in Montreal. It was a short-sighted move by someone who claimed he wanted to "internationalize" baseball, yet did nothing to help MLB's first international team. I was a strong supporter of the Expos in their final years and Selig's legacy will always be tainted by their failure.

So I can't root for the Brewers in any situation. Much like my irritation about the 2003 World Series, which pitted the Florida Marlins (owned by former [terrible] Expos owner Jeffrey Loria) and the New York Yankees (owned, of course, by George Steinbrenner), I can't separate a good team from their owner (or former owner).

Yet there's another problem. I used to attend as many as 10-15 MLB games per year (being in a two-team market made this easy). I cut my attendance back a bit when the Expos were shooed out of existence, but still made around five games or so per season. This year, however, I went to only two games (in San Francisco in April and in San Diego in June) -- I never even made it to Oakland this season (and I might never go again if they move form Oakland into a new, BART-unfriendly ballpark).

Major League Baseball hasn't quite lost its appeal to me, but with the steroid scandals, the movement of the Expos and other issues, it's going to have to try harder to keep me around.