August 2- Montreal Expos

It’s been a while since I’ve done a post on the Montreal Expos. Unfortunately, there is a good reason for that. In the 35-year history of Expos baseball the team only wore four caps: two of them served as the team’s every day game caps, one was their batting practice cap and the other is one they wore for a short period of time when they played their home games in San Juan, Puerto Rico when they were looking to relocate in 2003. The latter cap is one that I have been trying to track down for quite some time.

The funny thing about this photo is that my friend John Beare (@Interstate19) is the only person I know of to own this cap. Not to mention this photo (his) is the only one I have been able to find on the internet.

The reason I bring all of this up is because there are too many great stories about the Expos organization that really need to be told, even ones that may seem insignificant to the most casual of baseball fans. So, I decided to stray wayward from one of my rules, I decided to buy an Expos Cooperstown Collection cap from Lids that truly defies the concept of being a Cooperstown Collection cap. Back on February 16^th I wrote about the true Cooperstown Expos cap, the one they wore from 1969-1991 which looks almost identical to this with the exception that blue panels stretching around on either side of the front white panels are red.

With this cap I had debated on writing about Dennis “El Presidente” Martinez, most of which revolved around to 100 wins he had as an Expo which put him in the rare club of one of nine players in Major League Baseball history to win at least 100 games in both the American League and the National League. The other hot topic of course is the fact he is the only person in Expos history to throw a perfect game. Yah, you could debate that the Washington Nationals are still technically the Expos, at which I would retort with, “Go to Montreal and state your case with any still-heartbroken fan and see where that gets you.” On a personal note, the crazy thing about the perfect game, which I recently found out about, is that my childhood friend Bryan Gildner’s brother Joel was at that game with his father at Dodger Stadium on July 28, 1991. Since Joel now lives in Austin, Texas and because I had already marked up this cap, I decided to postpone that story for a while, at least until another awesome custom Expos cap comes into my possession. Hopefully soon.

6/5/86: I came across this date accidentally and am forever grateful that I did. Like with a lot of my other posts which rely heavily upon a specific date in a team’s history I found this on one of the random “This Date in Baseball” Web sites that I sift through regularly. The story really starts back in the 1940s at the time when The United States of America and Canada had entered into World War II. Major League Baseball players were lining up at the local enlistment offices in droves, ready to do what they could to help out with the war effort. With most of the notable names overseas the owners did their best to capitalize on making money by still promoting baseball by any means necessary. By any means necessary this of course also meant that they didn’t hesitate to organize an all-female baseball league. It was called the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League and it lasted 12 years from 1943-1954. For five seasons one of the best players in the league’s history was a woman named Helen Callaghan Candaele St. Aubin from Vancouver, British Columbia who went by the shortened name Helen Callaghan.  

As a rookie with the Minneapolis Millerettes Callaghan hit .287 in 111 games, for second in the league. She also finished third in total bases, hits, runs and stolen bases (112), while tying for third in home runs. The Millerettes could not compete attendance-wise with the Minneapolis Millers, so the team moved in 1945, becoming the Fort Wayne Daisies. That year Callaghan had her best season, batting .299 to lead the AAGPBL. (The league average was .198 that year.) She tied for the league lead in homers (three), led in total bases (156), was second in steals (92), first in hits (122), second in runs (77) and first in doubles (17). Callaghan was often called the "Ted Williams of women's baseball". The league was not yet giving out Player of the Year or All-Star honors, but it is clear she was a candidate for both. Ft. Wayne finished second and advanced to the championship, but fell four games to one despite a .400 mark from the younger Callaghan. Callaghan slipped drastically in 1946, hitting just .213, even though league averages rose about 10 points. She still tied for third in steals with 114. After missing the 1947 season due to illness, she returned for part of 1948 after getting married and having her first child. However, that year she hit just .191 as a bench player. She finished her career with Kenosha in 1949 as Helen Candaele, bouncing back to a .251 mark, tied for seventh in the league. She was ninth in total bases (113), eighth in steals (65), sixth in doubles and tied for eighth in triples. In a five season career, Callaghan was a .257 hitter (355-for-1382) with seven home runs and 85 run batted in 388 games, including 354 stolen bases, 249 runs, 35 doubles, 15 triples and 221 walks while striking out 161 times. Her on-base percentage was approximately .359, while she slugged .319.

The now Candaele gave birth to five sons. Her son Kelly produced a short documentary back in 1987 for PBS entitled A League of Their Own, which covered the history of the AAGPBL. The documentary inspired director Penny Marshal to make a film with the same name in 1992. One of Candaele’s other sons, Casey, decided to follow in his mother’s footsteps and make it big in professional baseball. 

Casey was born on January 12, 1951 and was raised in Lompoc, California which is northeast of Santa Barbara. He attended the University of Arizona and was even a part of the 1980 College World Series team which also featured Craig Lefferts, Dwight Taylor and the tournaments Most Outstanding Player Terry Francona. Candaele went undrafted but the Expos offered to sign him as a free agent in August of 1982 which he happily signed. From 1983 through 1985 Candaele worked his way up the minor league chain starting with the Class-A West Palm Beach Expos to the AA Memphis Chicks in his first season, the AA Jacksonville Suns in 1984 until finally landing with the AAA Indianapolis in 1985. Candaele’s numbers were pretty decent during his ascent; however, due to the fact that he was a second baseman, shortstop and outfielder, the Expos didn’t have room for him on the roster as the likes of Vance Law, Hubie Brooks, Tim Raines and future Hall of Famer Andre Dawson stood in his path. The only way that Candaele was going to make it to the Majors was if someone got hurt or he had the best season of his career to motivate general management to call him up. Well…

When 1986 rolled around Candaele got off to a blazing start at the plate. He was hitting over .300 and showing strong discipline at the plate with very few strikeouts and a decent amount of walks. When June rolled around the front office couldn’t ignore his progress and made the call for him to pack up and head to the show. On June 5, 1986 Candaele was put in to pinch hit for Dan Schatzeder, thus making him the first and only mother/son combination to play at the top level professionally. Candaele promptly struck out to Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Charles Hudson, but it was still a pivotal moment in baseball history.

Candaele spent 30 games with the Expos that year before getting sent back down. He resurfaced the following season hitting .272 with 122 hits and 23 RBI while only striking out 28 times in 138 games. He finished in fourth place for the Rookie of the Year Award that season. Candaele played for seven more years at the Major League level; one more season with the Expos, five with Houston Astros and two with the Cleveland Indians despite his final season coming in 1997. He spent quite a bit of time in the minors. Nonetheless, Candaele will forever be etched into the baseball history books.

#44- Carl Morton was born in Kansas City, Missouri on January 18, 1944 and grew up in West Tulsa, where he played baseball on the same Webster High School team as future major-leaguer Rich Calmus. He went to college at the University of Tulsa before moving on to the University of Oklahoma where he continued his baseball dreams as an outfielder for the Sooners under head coach Jack Baer. In 1964 Morton was signed as a free agent by the Atlanta Braves who wanted to convert the outfielder into a pitcher. From 1965-1968 the Braves kept him in their minor league system where he showed signs of promise. His best season came in 1968 as a member of the AA Shreveport Braves where he went 13-5 with a 2.72 ERA and 130 strikeouts; however, the Braves didn’t have enough faith to hang onto him as the first leg of the 1968 Expansion Draft on October 14^th. See, back in 1968 the Expansion Draft was broken up into two legs; the first was for the Expos and the San Diego Padres in which they could only pilfer through National League roster to build their teams. The second leg was held on October 15^th between the Kansas City Royals and the Seattle Pilots in which the two could only raid American League teams. Fun fact about that draft is that only one future Hall of Famer was in the mix, Hoyt Wilhelm. Anyway, Morton was selected by the Expos with the 45^th overall pick.

Without much of a farm system established, the Expos threw Morton out to the wolves on April 11, 1969 where he only lasted eight games before getting hurt. That year he went 0-3 with a 4.60 ERA and 16 strikeouts in five starts. With a taste of the Major Leagues out of the way, Morton was determined to do better the next season when he got back to 100%. Not only did he do that, Morton was phenomenal in 1970. In 37 stars, 43 games overall, Morton went 18-11 with a 3.60 ERA and 154 strikeouts. He unfortunately walked a league-high 154 batters, but it didn’t matter. Morton was voted as the NL Rookie of the Year and even finished ninth for the NL Cy Young and 27^th for the NL MVP. While the rest of his career never quite matched the gusto of his 1970 season, Morton went on to play two more seasons for the Expos before getting traded to the Braves for Pat Jarvis before the 1973 season.

Morton played four decent years with the Braves, finishing with 15 or more wins in his first three years, but he only won four games in 1976. As a result of his falloff year the Braves traded him to the Texas Rangers along with Roger Moret for former-AL MVP Jeff Burroughs. Morton, sadly, never pitched in the Majors again, and only spent one last season in the minors before hanging it up for good at the age of 33.

With his playing career over Morton moved back to Tulsa. On the morning of April 12, 1983 Morton went out for a jog and when he arrived at the home of his parents he suffered a heart attack in their driveway and was pronounced dead shortly thereafter. He was 39-years-old. One of the more tragic realities that came from Morton’s death involved another death less than a year before his passing. On August 2, 1979 New York Yankees former AL MVP and beloved catcher Thurman Munson was killed in a plane crash. Back in 1970 Munson had also won the Rookie of the Year honors in the AL. It is the only time in baseball history that two Rookie of the Year winners from the same year would come to premature endings.

June 23- Jacksonville Expos

It all started a few weeks ago when I got a text message from my friend John Beare (@Interstate19) some time around 9:30 in the morning. I had literally just woken up when I read, “Did you get an email from New Era?” which sent a light surge of adrenaline through my body and motivated me to immediately see what he was talking about. Sure enough, there it was. He and I had both been invited for a weekend visit to New Era’s headquarters in Buffalo, New York. I quickly texted him back to let him know that I had received the same email. There was something in the bottom of the email which I may have misread about confidentiality, which I took as “be sure to keep this a secret.” I didn’t bother asking about it and decided to that the best course of action was to remain quiet until further details were provided. I also kind of figured that it would be better to keep any mention out of public view for the sake of anyone who may become sad or upset by not receiving an invite as well. The last thing I wanted to do was rain on anyone’s parade.

My plane flew out around 6:30 AM on the morning on June 23^rd, which meant that I had to wake up somewhere around 3:00 AM to wake up and get ready only to then hike a mile-and-a-half to the train which then took an hour to get to the airport. Luckily for me, I was smart enough to print my boarding pass off at home so that all I had to do was get through security as soon as my train pulled into the airport. I was surprised to see the security lines so short. Normally when I’m in a hurry I’m “blessed” with having to wait over 45 minutes to get through the metal detectors. No this time. I got through in about 20 minutes and still had about an hour-and-a-half to kill before my plane started boarding. Having not eaten breakfast before I left the house I decided to get a breakfast burrito from the Mexican joint next door to my gate. The other thing I decided to do was grab an AM ale as well since the airport is the only place in Oregon one can legally purchase alcohol outside of the designated hours (7 AM- 2:30 AM). The beer was pretty good, a Drop Top Amber Ale; however, my burrito was questionable at best. 

I had ordered it to contain eggs, cheese and bacon only, but it arrived with ham instead of bacon. One could easily argue that both products come from the same animal and I really had nothing to complain about. To that person I say, “You just don’t know swine my friend.” I sucked it up and devoured about 75% of it before I got my fill. It was also in this moment that my stomach decided to go through a turn of the “mumbles and grumbles.” Having to be on a plane for the next six hours, with a brief layover in Chicago, I knew this was not going to make the trip an easier… but I managed.

The plane landed in Buffalo around 3:30 PM EST. I quickly rounded up the one bag that I brought with me on the journey and headed out into the terminal. New Era had hooked it up with a ride from the airport so I dashed out as soon as I could just in case someone else had landed close to the same time as I had who also happened to be catching the same ride as me. Sure enough, this became a reality, and this is how I met Van (@VanLe23). Van hails from Seattle, which is about 180 miles from my stomping ground of Portland. He has been an avid collector for a few years longer than myself, specializing in a lot Seattle-based team caps which he displays on his YouTube page under the user name: Van Le. The whole time I walked out of the terminal and down to the car I had meant to snag a photo of the driver holding a sign with my name as I had this series of photos and tweets I wanted to send out as homage to John McClane and Argyle in the film “Die Hard.” Unfortunately, this didn’t happen. Sorry. What did happen was that Van and I chatted the whole way to the hotel, getting to know one another as neither of us had spoken to one another prior to that moment. In fact, it wasn’t until we were in the car together that I came to the realization that we were on the same plane together from Chicago to Buffalo; which is all made funnier by the fact that we both said that we were looking for anyone wearing a New Era Cap.

We arrived at the hotel in about 15-20 minutes, passing by Coca-Cola Field where the Buffalo Bisons, the AAA affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays, play during the third game of their four-game series against the Durham Bulls. After the driver dropped Van and me off at the hotel I can only assume he was in a hurry because he got right back into the car and took off as I was trying to hand him a $5 tip. Or, things are done just a little bit different in Buffalo. When we got inside I let Van take the lead to check-in first. Once the desk clerk brought up his information on the screen, she turned around and picked up two bags off of the floor and handed them to Van. She then did the same for me. We then hopped in the elevator up to our rooms to decompress a little bit, as well as to see what was in store for us.

The Hotel Lafayette is a pretty classy establishment. It has a very classic, turn-of-the-century (20^th) look about it in the lobby, but then becomes very refined with a mix of hipster once you get into the rooms. It reminded me of the hotel that my girlfriend Angie (@sconnieangie) and I stayed in when we visited Tampa in April, but with a larger bathroom. I had a about an hour to kill before everyone else arrived meet in the lobby at 5:30, so I took the time to crack open my gift bags in case there was a note or anything I needed to look over before heading out. Sure enough, there was. The first bag was a little white goody bag, which contained a letter from one of our hosts from New Era as well as a bottle of Frank’s Red Hot sauce and some chocolate sponge candy, both which have obvious ties to the Buffalo area; a very nice touch. The other bag contained this…

an explosion of New Era-related paraphernalia which included a lanyard (which I needed), a belt (which I really needed), a water pouch, Sharpie (awesome!), headphones, buttons, a mini New Era Cap and a Two-spot travel case with a custom New Era Cap and a Bisons cap inside. Not a bad way to start the trip.

Not too long after I examined my gifts I got a text from John that he had arrived to the hotel after his long flight from Los Angeles. John and I had become well-acquainted through Twitter over the last year, but we had never met. Unlike most people I meet over the internet, I wasn’t too worried with John. I put a lot of faith in New Era on this one and didn’t think I was about to come face-to-face with an ax murderer or something. Kidding. In fact, John and I pretty much continued our conversations without skipping a beat, on top of the “nice to meet yous” and bro hugs that we exchanged as well; standard practice really. But the one thing that caught me off guard was a gift that John had for me. This…

a Modesto Athletics jersey from around 2005. At that immediate moment I looked like an ass because I didn’t have anything in return for him, but then again, that’s kind of the way gift-giving usual works, unexpectedly. I do have a little something-something on standby for John in the future though.

5:30 was only a few minutes away so John and I grabbed what we needed from our rooms, left what we didn’t and headed down to the lobby to meet the rest of the crew. As I mentioned at the top, because I didn’t say anything publically about this event, I didn’t know who I would be meeting. John, on the other hand, had been chatting with a few of these guys for a while and had nothing but great things to say, so I wasn’t too worried. 

The first person I made sure to meet first was our hosts Erin, Seth and Katherine for setting the Fan Appreciation event up. Then it was on to the other collectors: Ricky Ruby from Atlanta (@RickyRuby), Andrew Mitchell from Toronto (@Amitchell_416), Chris Cornolo from Milwaukee (@ccornolo) and Derick Chartrand from Montreal (@LeKid26), as well as John and Van who I mentioned earlier. Unfortunately, three of the other members of crew hadn’t shown up yet, but I’ll get to that in a little bit. The first thing that I noticed was that Derick was wearing a Cooperstown Collection Oakland Athletics cap while I was rocking this Jacksonville Expos lid. It was pretty much guaranteed that we’d be good buds throughout this experience. With all of us accounted for at the moment, it was time for the field trip to get underway.

For the first part of our trip we all packed into two SUVs and made our way to Niagara Falls. I had only been to Buffalo one time prior in my life, coincidentally enough, it also happened to be for a New Era-related event. It took place in August of last year and my total time in the city was approximately three hours as I had to rush to Cleveland immediately afterward for an Athletics/Cleveland Indians game. So with that, I didn’t have time to really check out the city or the surrounding area. I was pretty excited to go, that’s for sure. The SUV I was in consisted of John, Andrew, Derick, Seth behind the wheel and me. It was a cool little 25-30 minute drive. We swapped stories, told a few jokes and I even managed to totally embarrass myself as I came to the realization that Seth and I had met around the end of July in 2012 in Toronto at a Blue Jays game in which they were playing the Athletics. In fact, I was in a beer line, had just gotten done doing the Bernie Lean after a Brandon Inge home run when he spotted me from afar. Classic! But apparently the Molson Ice, or whatever I was drinking, proved too much and killed my memory until mid-trip. Womp womp. Once that moment of awkwardness subsided, it was back to New Era Cap stories and shenanigans ranging from border security issues (guilty) to general sports smack talk.

When we got to the Falls we all piled out and stuck together in a surprisingly organized manner. I guess all those lessons we learned in elementary school really did pay off into our adult years. We went to the visitor’s center first, just to grab a few photos before heading down to rail just to the right of the top of the falls. The view that I had seen from film and television always made it seem as it were a lot taller, but upon closer inspection it wasn’t that bad, just wide. Andrew and Derick were talking about how both had seen Niagara Falls before, but only from the Canadian side, which sat about a half-mile away. In fact, this trip was Derick’s first time out of the country as well as being on an airplane. We all took turns snapping photos and just enjoying the moment.

I’m a sucker for natural bits of awesomeness like this, so I was a happy camper. After about 15 minutes we headed to the opposite side, which took a little bit, but it gave us time to get to know one another. 

From left to right: Ricky, John, The Shark, Chris, Van, Andrew and Derick

Andrew and I hit off pretty quick as we talked about when and where we’d get a New Era tattoo, as well as what celebrities we looked like. He started with saying I looked like RA Dickey (totally plausible) and I said he looked like Tim Duncan, which he’s heard all of his life. It makes sense too; the man is 6’7’’. That’s how it went, for everybody. We all hit it off immediately and truly enjoyed each others’ company.

After the Falls we headed back to Buffalo for dinner at an Italian joint that had opened just a few days prior to our arrival. I’m a bit hazy on this part, but at some point between when we left the hotel and headed to Niagara Falls someone mentioned that we should use a specific hashtag on Twitter and Instagram for our trip. Being the over thinker that I am, I stewed on it for a few hours before spouting out “Crew Era” before we got to the restaurant. To be honest, I thought everyone was going to shut it down. Turns out the exact opposite happened; nice, simple, to the point and catchy. When we got to the restaurant we ordered a round of drinks before we broke bread. Katherine did all of ordering and everything was served to us “family style,” in that everything was brought to the table in waves and essentially consisted of everything on the menu. Around the time thee appetizers started hitting the table, Alex Mendoza (@Type1SXC) from Chicago and Leif Johnson (@Permabox) from New York City arrived, with only Gary Thomas (@24HClnc) from the Bay Area unable to attend due to a family-related matter. Alex sat down next to me and Leif took to the table behind with a lot of the other collectors, while Andrew, Van and I sat with our hosts. Here’s a brief sample of what there was to eat…

Yah! Filling to say the least. Even with the addition of Alex and Leif the atmosphere never skipped a beat. It was reminiscent of all the dinner parties I through for my friends back in Eugene while I was attending the University of Oregon. With everyone being so busy I was always nice to gather once-a-week to catch up, eat and just enjoy one another’s company. What’s most amusing about all of this is that this was just the prelude. We still had an action-packed day ahead of us at New Era headquarters.

Our night at the restaurant concluded with the Discovery Channels broadcast of the Nik Wallenda tightrope walk across the Grand Canyon, which was especially ironic as he had done the same thing across the mouth of Niagara Falls just the year before. Go figure that we would all be watching it after having just visited it. I always love when weird little things like that come together.

It was only about 10:30 PM and none of us were ready to turn in for the night. The hotel had a bar in the back of the lobby that we were going to go for a nightcap; however, it being closed put a little bit of a damper on our fun. I kid you not; every bar within about a 15-20 block radius was closed. No being the type of motley crew that gives up easily, Seth and Katherine steered us in the right direction of a Walgreens that was still open and sold beer. Onward we hiked, picking up the classiest beers a Buffalo Walgreens has to offer: Labatt Blue, Sam Adam Summer Ale and Miller High Life. I’ll let you decided on who picked out the High Life. Unfortunately they didn’t have any 40 ouncers of Mickey’s Fine Malt Liquor, so I had to settle for a standby. *sad face* John decided to stick with Coca-Cola, a move you just can’t knock a guy for, and a move I wish I had copied.

The Lafayette was equipped with an outdoor lounge area in the center of the hotel, but up one flight, and surrounded by all of the interior rooms. It’s amazing that we stayed out there as long as we did before the desk clerk said he received too many complaints, but it was totally worth it. We grabbed all the benches we could, forming a circle with all of the beer resting nicely on the coffee table in the center. I timed it; we were out there for two hours just shooting the breeze, cracking jokes, wishing that Gary could have been there with us, going back-and-forth about great games in MLB/NBA/NHL history, and of course, gabbing away about New Era Caps.

When we wrapped things up we all had the “buzz” feeling that we all experienced when we were kids around Christmas time. Our hosts had done a fine job of not spoiling anything, but we all new that great things were to come… and hangovers, massive hangovers awaited us in the morning (except John). Me especially because I was up for another two hours writing articles for the Web sites I write for. Gaaaaahhhh!!!

Onto the hat! I have John to blame for this one. Back in February he made me jealous with an old snapback Jacksonville Expos cap from the mid-to-late 1980s. Even though it was a snapback, it was gorgeous. I’ve always been a sucker for any variety and style of Expos hats, especially ones that are game-style specific which, if you didn’t know, is an incredibly small list. Shoot, I’ve all ready written about two of the three they wore on the field throughout their 35-year history on February 16^th and April 6^th. The problem with trying to track down a Jacksonville Expos cap is that they, or so I thought, weren’t being made anymore. That is until the day that Angie and I went to the New Era Miami Flagship Store.

I didn’t have any intentions of buying anything that day as my money was pretty tight, but I knew better not to believe that I was going to reserve any kind of restraint. We were greeted within seconds by one of the employees, the manager I think, named Woo. He quickly remarked that I looked familiar and knew straight of the bat that I was a huge hat collector based on the numbers I mark my caps with. To really test this he asked if I could name the teams of the new caps that had just gotten in. I could (Anaheim Ducks, Asheville Tourists and the Myrtle Beach Pelicans). After we chatted for a bit I made my way toward the wall… where I literally froze like a deer caught in headlights. I asked Woo if they had a 7 3/8, they did, and any hopes of showing restraint jumped out of an airplane without a parachute and a time bomb strapped to its chest (feel free to steal that). I did my best to explain the importance to Angie as to why I was so pumped to find this cap. She smiled, told me she loved me and that she was happy I found it. I know there was a bit of sarcasm in there, but I also knew that she knew how much of a big deal this was to me. Not settling for one cap, I also got the Milwaukee Brewers “YOUnifom” cap which I wrote about on June 4th.

Sadly, this is not the correct color pattern for the actual Jacksonville Expos cap, but that really doesn’t matter. The original ones look like this…

I snagged this photo from John’s blog entitled, “Futility Live Here,” as that was literally the first photo to pop up when I did a search on Google; which only goes to show how rare of a find it is. It’s funny how the subtraction of the blue from the original “M” Montreal logo can still make the graphic look awesome and fitting at the same time. The Jacksonville affiliate, which has been known as the Suns since the 1991 season, originally started out as a AAA club from 1962-1968, but was demoted to AA in 1970 (no, I did not forget 1969), which it has been ever since. From 1985-1990 the team was known as the Expos, while every year before and after that stint the team has been known as the Suns.

If you have an extensive knowledge of any of the Montreal Expos teams of the late 1980s and early 1990s then you probably know that I could have gone with any of the big name guys to mark up my cap. I felt that would have been a little too easy and opted instead to do one well-known, one lesser-known, and one guy who very few have ever heard of. This is how I roll.

#16- Whoever the photographer for the Expos was really made my job incredibly difficult when it came to figuring out exactly what number Marquis Grissom was. Here’s what I mean.

Not just in this card, but as well as in his “Baseball America” Top Prospects card Grissom is shown kneeling down with the handle of the bat blocking the first half of the number affixed to the front of his jersey. I kid you not; it literally took me 23 minutes to confirm that the #1 was sitting behind that bat. So thanks a lot, all-around.

Anyway, Grissom, born in Atlanta, Georgia, was the 76^th overall (third round) pick in the 1988 amateur draft by the Expos out of Florida A&M University in Tallahassee. He had been considered a prospect as both a pitcher and an outfielder, but the Expos decided to have him abandon the mound and work solely as a position player. He made his professional debut with the Jamestown Expos of the New York-Penn League that fall and advanced quickly through the system which included brief stops in Jacksonville and the Expos’ AAA affiliate the Indianapolis Indians. Grissom made him Major League Baseball debut on August 22, 1989, seeing action in 26 total games while hitting .257 in 74 at-bats. With his rookie status still in tact, Grissom started 1990 in Indianapolis for five games and played in another 98 up in Montreal, hitting .257 again with three home runs, 29 RBI and 22 stolen bases which was good enough for a seventh place finish for the Rookie of the Year award. Grissom’s star would only continue to get brighter.

Grissom would play all the way until the players’ strike in 1994 shortened the season and removed any chance of the playoffs and a World Series. This was especially heartbreaking in Montreal as the Expos had the best record in baseball (74-40) and were projected favorites to win their first title in franchise history, let alone make the playoffs for only the second time and win the National League Eastern Division title for the first time. Unfortunately for the Expos, Grissom’s contract was up and he opted to test the free agent waters rather than re-sign with the team who drafted him. He instead jotted his John Hancock on the dotted line with the Atlanta Braves.

In his last few years with the Expos Grissom compiled a rather stellar list of accomplishment: He led the league in stolen bases twice (76 in 1991 and 78 in 1992), made the NL All-Star team twice in 1993 and 1994, won two Gold Gloves in 1993 and 1994 (two more in 1995 and 1996 with the Braves) and cracked the top-15 in NL MVP voting in 1992-1994. He hit .279 with 54 home runs, 276 RBI, scored 430 runs and stole 266 bases during his tenure with the Expos. In Jacksonville He hit .299 with three home runs, 31 RBI and 24 stolen bases in the 78 games he played in.

#23- John Vander Wal grew up in Hudsonville, Michigan and graduated from Hudsonville High School in Hudsonville. He attended Western Michigan University. He was drafted by the Montreal Expos in the third round of the 1987 Major League Baseball Draft. Of anyone who rolled through Jacksonville on the way to the Majors with the Expos, Vander Wal definitely spent the most amount of time there.

Half-way through the 1988 season Vader Wal was promoted to Jacksonville after a 62-game run with the West Palm Beach Expos of the Class-A Florida State League. From 1988-1990 Vander Wal played in 206 games in Jacksonville, hitting .275 with 17 home runs and 78 RBI. The following season Vander Wal finally got his break in The Show as he debuted with the Expos on September 6, 1991, wearing the same number he wore in the minors. Vander Wal played two more seasons in Montreal before moving on to the Colorado Rockies in 1994, where he would spend all of four seasons and part of another, although he never recorded more than 151 at-bats or appeared in 105 games in any of those seasons. On August 31, 1998, he was traded to the San Diego Padres for a player to be named later and went on to appear in the World Series with the Padres, recording two hits in five at-bats.

Vander Wal spent 1999 in San Diego before moving on to the Pittsburgh Pirates in a 2000 trade that brought Al Martin to the Padres. While playing for the Pirates, he posted his best season, appearing in 134 games, and batting .299 with 24 home runs and 94 RBI. In 2001, Vander Wal was traded to the San Francisco Giants, who later traded him to the New York Yankees for Jay Witasick. Vander Wal was a part-time performer for the Yankees in 2002, before moving on to the Milwaukee Brewers in 2003, and the Cincinnati Reds in 2004, where he recorded just 6 hits in 51 at-bats for a .118 average.

Vander Wal played 14 seasons in the major leagues. 13 of these seasons were with National League clubs, where the pinch-hitter is a much more widely used tactic in the absence of the designated hitter. Vander Wal holds the modern Major League Baseball single-season record for pinch hits, with 28 in 1995 while playing for the Colorado Rockies. In his career, Vander Wal contributed 129 pinch hits, which is one of the highest totals of the modern era, behind Lenny Harris' 212. Vander Wal was inducted into the Western Michigan University Athletic Hall of Fame in 2003.

#53- As I mentioned above, unless you’re die-hard Expos fan I doubt you’ve ever heard of John Trautwein. Why is he so special? 

Well, Trautwein, a pitcher, was playing Rookie League ball in Helena, Montana with the Brewers of the Pioneer League in 1984 when his contract was purchased by the Expos at the end of the season on October 17^th. From 1985-1987 Trautwein bummed around the minors, playing in West Palm Beach in 1985 and the beginning of 1986 before being promoted to the Class-A Burlington Expos of the Midwest League and then to Jacksonville for the last bit of the season. In 1987 Trautwein had, not only the greatest season of his professional career, but the greatest ever recorded in Jacksonville Expos history. That year Trautwein went 15-4, the most wins and best win percentage by any pitcher in their six-year history, accompanied with a 2.87 ERA and 85 strikeouts.

On December 7, 1987 Trautwein was obtained by Boston from the Expos in the Rule 5 draft, but was returned by the Red Sox to Montreal in 1988. Hours later, he was sent by the Expos to Boston in exchange for Victor Rosario. In nine relief appearances for the Red Sox, Trautwein posted a 0-1 record with a 9.00 ERA with no saves, giving up 17 runs (one unearned) on 26 hits and nine walks while striking out eight in 16.0 innings of work. After that, he was demoted to AAA Pawtucket for the remainder if his career which ended in 1990.

Trautwein currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife Susie, and his three children. He and his wife Susie are the founders of the Will to Live Foundation in honor of their fifteen-year-old son who took his own life in 2010.

February 8- Washington Nationals

5/20/2014: No matter how many times I’ve kept sending this story out via Twitter, I did it with the feeling that I was missing a lot of vital details which have confused quite a few of my followers since the first month of when I was in the MLB Fan Cave back in 2012. Due to the fact that today is in fact Jayson Werth’s (WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF!!!) birthday AND the Washington Nationals recently came to Oakland to take on my Athletics, I figure today was just a good as any day to fill in a lot of the holes and make some important updates.

First, let’s get the barking situation out of the way. Back on March 13, 2013 I wrote about the Nationals’ “DC” alternate hat which I focused my attention on Gio Gonzalez and Bryce Harper. About a week before Ross Detwiler, Edwin Jackson and Gio stopped by the Fan Cave in early April I was given the punishment/blessing of having to bark like a dog anytime someone said Werth’s name. If I said his name, I would have to do a double set. This little gimmick became a huge hit with kids who stopped by on the weekend for a tour and especially with my good friend Robert Curtis-Hardy, a Boston Red Sox fan who lived next door. Even though this barking was only relegated for the time I was in the Fan Cave, I haven’t let that slow me down for the last two years. It’s obviously become more of an inside joke; however, it’s too fun to let up especially when I’m in random places and his name happens to come up in conversation. This takes me to May 9-11 of this year (2014).

For those of you who don’t know, I actually work for the Athletics in the special events and promotions department; however, I can’t really discuss most of what I do as it’s a bit of a surprise. One thing I can tell you is that I have on-field and behind the scenes access for every game that I work. Some of you know what I do and I would greatly appreciate it if you didn’t mention anything publicly as I would love to keep my job. Anyway, the last time I had seen the Nationals play was in April of last year (2013), when I went to go visit my girlfriend Angie in Southern Florida for a few weeks. Literally the day I flew in when headed 30 miles south to Miami to catch the last game of the series between the Nationals and the Marlins. Due to the fact that we had gotten there a little bit before the game started, I didn’t have time to run down to the dugouts to try and snag a photo with Mr. Werth; however, that didn’t keep me from having a little bit of fun when he came up to bat. 

But here we are, a year later with a much better opportunity to accomplish my goal. Well, sort of.

One of the rules of my position is that I’m not allowed to take photos or ask for autographs (I never ask for autographs) from any of the players of either team nor special guests that we may have singing the National Anthem or throwing out first pitch. I bring this up because two of the members of the band Journey happened to be in town for the Saturday game which was also a Journey-themed fireworks night. I also bring this up because I ended up appearing in photos with them before the game.

One thing that I did come to learn is that Werth always spends time in the visiting team’s batting cage right before the game starts. For those of you who don’t know, the batting cage is located right behind the wall in centerfield, which also happens to be one of the areas that I work out of. In summation, I had the greatest of all opportunities to see Werth before the game started, but unfortunately I was busy doing one job for the first two games of the series, thus preventing me from having some face time with him. Even with what I was busy doing it didn’t stop me from barking when the PA announcer Dick Callahan called out Werth’s name which also happened to be at the exact moment when he came into centerfield gate to take some more practice swings. But, as luck would have it, I had a different job to do for the final game of the series which would give me the opportunity to at least shake his hand or something.

The final game of the series fell on Mother’s Day, which is also Breast Cancer Awareness Day throughout Major League Baseball. Seeing as it’s my first year with the team I made sure to be readily available for anything as I didn’t really know what would be going on. Basically all I was asked to do was talk to some of the cancer survivors while we waited for them to be let onto the field for the pre-game ceremony and honoring. I’ll get into more details on this in a future post, but what I can tell you now is that I had a blast chatting it up with those women and the one guy who happened to contract breast cancer. My mother is a two-time breast cancer survivor so it didn’t make anything we talked about awkward.

Right around the time all of the survivors were being let onto the field Mr. Werth walked into the entrance and into the batting cage. Right after the ceremony ended we all came back inside and I hung around with my co-workers as all of the survivors headed up the ramp and into the stadium. It was within this moment that Werth was just getting done with his BP session so I figured then was the best time of any to at least tell him “good luck” or give him a fist bump before he headed out.

Now, this part of the story is going to sound like total BS, but I promise you this is exactly how it went down. Since I was somewhere near the batting cage for the first two games of the series I could hear the rhythm of when Werth was taking hacks at each pitch; after every swing there was about a two-to-three second gap in between. On the final day there was a much longer gap in between a few of his strokes, but I’ll get to that in a minute. As he stepped out of the cage I walked toward him at which he turned his head, locked eyes with me and immediately began walking toward me. Despite the fact that we didn’t personally know one another we immediately began chatting it up about how amazing each others’ beards were. “Gay” is probably an adjective that comes to most peoples’ minds, but I say there’s nothing wrong with two dudes complimenting one another over amazing facial sweaters. This also would have been a great time to take a glorious photo; but like I said, I didn’t want to get fired. Instead, we bumped fists and headed back out onto the field. A few minutes would pass before the hitting instructors that were in the cage with him came over to me to let me know that he kept stopping in between his swings to talk about how “majestic” my beard is. “Majestic,” his words, not mine.

As soon as the bottom of the sixth inning got underway Werth and I had one more encounter as I was standing in the stairwell in right field, waiting for the start of the Hall of Fame Mascot Race that the Athletics do every weekend series. Right after the Nationals got done with their warm-up tosses Werth looked right at me, stroked his beard and gave me a finger point. I of course returned the favor, because that’s what beard brothers do. One of these days I’ll be able to capture, frame and share a photo of our glorious beards together, but for now it’ll have to wait until early June when the Nationals come back to the Bay Area to take on the San Francisco Giants. I’m usually not so weird about these kinds of things, but you all know how awesome this will turn out if I’m able to accomplish my mission. Until then, Happy 35^th Birthday Jayson Werth! WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF!!!

Original post- If there was ever a team with a severe case of schizophrenia, when it comes to hats and uniforms, it might be the Washington Nationals. Since 2005 the Nationals have worn seven different style of hats and 17 variations of jerseys/uniforms. I find this incredibly funny considering that from 1969-2004 the Nationals were the Montreal Expos, and during that time the ‘Spos only had three styles of hats and six uniform/jersey variations. But, I suppose big city life will do that to a person, let alone a team. But I digress; this particular hat was worm from their humble beginning in 2005 through the end of the 2010 season. I’m still a bit confused as to why they stopped using it. To be honest, it was one of my favorite hats, as well as one of the best selling hats after it was introduced. In fact, it was one of the first few hats I scooped up when I really started putting my collection together. The one drawback I have with my cap is that it’s a size too small. Believe it or not, I used to have really short hair.

I brought the hat during the summer of 2010, and at the time I really didn’t have any intentions of ever throwing numbers on it. It was simply just a hat I enjoyed wearing from time-to-time. It was during the summer of 2011 that I really started to go to town on my hats. Only my 1969-91 Expos hat had any kind of a marking on it, but one night after I had a few friends over, I noticed that my old San Francisco Giants hat was missing. I realize as ardent of an Oakland Athletics supporter as I am, something like that wouldn’t bother me so much. My biggest issue with that was that I had owned the Giants cap since my bat boy days in Bakersfield… and it was a gift from JT Snow. So yah, I was furious. From that day forward, I started marking my hats, mostly for the purpose of knowing if someone was wearing one of my stolen hats.

Wow! I really got off topic there. I guess my point of establishing the “why” of marking my hats; it will help explain the numbers on this one. And yes, there will be a lot of barking involved.

#28- JAYSON WERTH!!! WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF!!! Werth has always been one of the guys in the League that I love watching, especially during his time with the Philadelphia Phillies. So, when the Nats gave Werth a huge contract at the end of the 2012 season, I was ecstatic with the fact that he would be the standout player the Nats had needed since moving to D.C. Well, besides Ryan Zimmerman. I should also pint out that this was the first time I had decided to use a white out pen to mark my hats, as opposed to the silver Sharpie that I use now. Hence why it looks pretty lame. I’m not really sure if it was a blessing or a curse however, as Werth’s numbers didn’t exactly cut the mustard in his first year: .232/20/58 in 151 games. Yikes! At the time when I was marking up my caps I didn’t really put much focus on the year in which the cap was used, and the players from those teams, etc. I just wanted to pay tribute to my bearded brother from another mother.

#38- Michael Morse, on the other hand, I added when I was in the MLB Fan Cave. I had left Werth’s number solo for well over a year and needed to make a fine addition. After pulling up the numbers I had once again neglected to give Ryan Zimmerman any love. (Don’t worry, I made up for it on a different hat) 2010 proved to be the breakout year for Morse as he made appearances in 98 games. That season he went .289/15/41 in 266 at-bats. The most important thing to take from that season is that those numbers dwarfed the four years worth of sitting on the bench he had done with the Seattle Mariners. Morse had a lot of promise and the Nats knew how to utilize it in the outfield as well as on first base for the days when Adam Dunn wasn’t playing. But I think the biggest reason I threw Morse’s number down is for the sake of his totally badass nickname, .38 Special. Well, I’ll admit that I’m probably the only guy who calls him that, as BaseballReference.com has his nickname listed as “The Beast.” I don’t care, I’m totally sticking to my guns on this matter.