I like baseball. Granted, someone
I like baseball. Granted, someone once said that the average baseball game has about four minutes of actual action. Watching a game on TV is definitely admitting that you are seriously bored and lethargic, or enjoy watching fielders pick lint of their jersey, batters step out of the batter's box, or, my personal favourite, the pitcher throw to first in another failed pick-off attempt.
Yet somehow, on a hot summer day, with a cold beer in hand and a cool breeze rolling in from right-center field, nothing is better than a day at the old ballgame. Which is why Vladimir Guerrero is never going to attract attention in Montreal. The Expos play in a concrete cavern, where the turf is an alarming shade of green, where the echo from the fans cheering is louder than the cheering itself. Guerrero is and will continue to be, well, unexposed. The team doesn't broadcast on Montreal TV and there is no English radio broadcast, and if the Expos have ever seriously promoted, I've certainly never noticed.
In a city that first broke the colour barrier--Jackie Robinson playing for the Montreal Royals way way back--there is a sad sort of acknowledgment by most serious baseball fans that this team must move, if not this year, then soon. to a city that will recognize its heroes and champion them. Vladimir Guerrero is simply too good to stay.
Previously: For two years or so,
Subsequently: In other news, Seattle area
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