Expos Blue Monday: the Tragedy of Life is not in Losing but in Almost Winning

STORY BY: Bob Mann
YEAR: 1981
LOCATION: Montreal, QC

Bob shares Rick Miller's love for the Montreal Expos baseball team. Here, he highlights some memories of "Blue Monday", the infamous night for Expos fans when they lost against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the only year they ever made the post-season. Bob remembers sitting at the Big O (Olympic Stadium) on Sunday afternoon, sitting in the rain for hours, until the game was postponed to Monday. The Expos went on to lose a 1-1 tie in the ninth inning, when Dodger Rick Monday hit a 2-out home run off Expos star pitcher Steve Rogers. Bob finds it sad that Rogers is often remembered for this day, as he "doesn't deserve it". He also finds that it was a vivid example of how a crowd of over 35 thousand people can go from a complete frenzy to complete silence in a matter of seconds. Seeing centrefielder Andre Dawson onscreen in BOOM X, 37 years later, still makes Bob think Dawson will flag the ball down, or it will hit the wall - instead of clearing the fence and turning into the game-winning, Expos-killing home run. "A cruel reminder, as someone wrote the next day, that the tragedy of sports is not in losing, it's in almost winning."* Thanks for sharing, Bob.

Note: as a young boy, Rick Miller watched Bob play and coach baseball in TMR, QC. He was one of Rick's many inspirations for his continued love of baseball.
Note: Bob later ameded his quote to: "The tragedy of life is not in losing, it is in almost winning". attributed to author, commentator and sportswriter Heywood Hale Broun (1918-2001).