My Turn at Bat

The decline and fall of the Montreal Expos. In 1969, the Montreal Expos played their first game. Thirty-two years later, the team that once boasted baseball’s best farm system is nearly dead. In this book, former Expos president Claude Brochu gets to the bottom of the Expos’ story. From his successful marketing career at Seagram’s, Claude Brochu was thrust into the role of Expos president in 1986. Back then, the Expos were a team with terrific potential. But as the years went by, attendance began to slide. Whenever owner Charles Bronfman attended a game he would shake his head, discouraged: “Why don’t they come? What do we have to do?” The answer — field a winning team — seemed so simple, yet so elusive.

And then, after 21 years, Bronfman decided to sell the team. He entrusted the sale to Brochu, who took up the gauntlet: “I made it a personal challenge. Businessmen are often portrayed as cold, emotionless people, who make decisions only on the eventual possibility of making a lot of money.… But that’s not it at all. What fascinated me, what motivated me, was keeping the Expos in Montreal, in the hands of Quebecers. One of them being me.…”

AUTHOR

Mario Bolduc

Screenwriter Mario Bolduc has written three novels featuring Max O’Brien, originally published in French. The Kashmir Trap starts the series and Tsiganes (The Roma Plot) won the 2008 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Book in French. Mario lives in Montreal.


AUTHOR

Claude Brochu

Claude Brochu was appointed president of the Montreal Baseball Club in 1986 and formed the consortium that bought the Expos in 1991. He left the franchise in 1998. Stephanie Myles covers the Expos beat for the Montreal Gazette.

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The decline and fall of the Montreal Expos. In 1969, the Montreal Expos played their first game. Thirty-two years later, the team that once boasted baseball’s best farm system is nearly dead. In this book, former Expos president Claude Brochu gets to the bottom of the Expos’ story. From his successful marketing career at Seagram’s, Claude Brochu was thrust into the role of Expos president in 1986. Back then, the Expos were a team with terrific potential. But as the years went by, attendance began to slide. Whenever owner Charles Bronfman attended a game he would shake his head, discouraged: “Why don’t they come? What do we have to do?” The answer — field a winning team — seemed so simple, yet so elusive.

And then, after 21 years, Bronfman decided to sell the team. He entrusted the sale to Brochu, who took up the gauntlet: “I made it a personal challenge. Businessmen are often portrayed as cold, emotionless people, who make decisions only on the eventual possibility of making a lot of money.… But that’s not it at all. What fascinated me, what motivated me, was keeping the Expos in Montreal, in the hands of Quebecers. One of them being me.…”

Reader Reviews

Details

Dimensions:

250 Pages
9in * 6in *
0.77lb

Published:

January 01, 2002

City of Publication:

Toronto

Country of Publication:

CA

Publisher:

ECW Press

ISBN:

9781550225129

Book Subjects:

SPORTS & RECREATION / Baseball / General

Featured In:

All Books

Language:

eng

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