Former Expos beat writer revisits fateful home run
Author Danny Gallagher signing copies of latest book Saturday
Many Canadian baseball fans remember where they were when Rick Monday hit the home run that crushed the Montreal Expos’ 1981 World Series hopes.
The ninth-inning home run off Steve Rogers in the fifth and deciding game of the National League final at Olympic Stadium was the closest the Expos ever got to the World Series.
Author and former Expos beat writer Danny Gallagher revisits that fateful moment with all the key players in his latest book
Blue Monday: The Expos, the Dodgers and the Home Run that Changed Everything.
Gallagher, 67, will be at the 180 Hunter Street Pub on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. to sign copies of his book. Former Peterborough resident Kevin Ready, a long-time friend of Gallagher, helped organize the book signing.
Gallagher was a budding sports reporter at the Sudbury Star, and competitive adult baseball player who loved the Expos, in 1981. He recalls watching the game at a local pub and experienced the disappointment as a fan. He’d later cover the Expos from 1988-94 for the Montreal Daily News. This is his fifth book on the Expos.
“It’s amazing the number of people who recall the game whether they were watching it at the stadium or watching it on TV or listening to it on the radio,” said Gallagher. “I wanted to show some tribute to the ’81 Expos because it was the only team in franchise history to make the playoffs. It was kind of an awkward year with the strike and everything. They had some good teams in ’79 and ’80 but they weren’t good enough to make the playoffs. The Pirates beat them out at the end of ’79 and the Phillies beat them out at the end of 1980.”
He talks to all the key players including Monday who revealed things in the book he says he never told Los Angeles media. Monday became somewhat of a villain in Montreal as a result of his home run.
“Over the years after that home run he got a lot of flack from Expos fans. There was one time he went into a washroom down the hallway from the press entrance at Olympic Stadium and somebody said to him, ‘You ruined our franchise.’
“On several occasions he went into the airport in Montreal and the customs people slowed him down and put him in the back room to try to delay his entrance onto the plane. Rick said he would ask is this because of the home run and they said, ‘Yeah.’ Ever since social media started up he says they’ve been giving him a hard time. He kind of takes it in stride. What bothers him is how people criticize Steve Rogers for the home run. He says Rogers was a tremendous pitcher before and after the home run and he has the greatest respect for Steve Rogers.”
Among the 75 people Gallagher interviewed for the book were the majority of Expos including Rogers, Andre Dawson, Tim Raines, Warren Cromariie, Larry Parrish and reliever Jeff Reardon who warmed up beside Rogers expecting to get the call to finish the game.
“Jeff Reardon told me he thought Steve Rogers was warming up for the World Series. Jeff Reardon thought he was going into the game,” said Gallagher. “They replaced Ray Burris after eight innings and Ray Burris didn’t want to come out of the game. He was pitching a hell of a game and was still going strong. Jim Fanning took him out and replaced him with Steve Rogers who hadn’t pitched in relief since 1978. The story on Jeff Reardon was that he had back problems but that particular game he had no bak problem. He had a sore arm but he had the OK from the training staff to pitch in that game.”
Reardon revealed to Gallagher he battled a back condition called spondylitis from birth.
“In the third or fourth inning of every game he ever pitched in during his career he had a massage done by the training staff to get him ready to pitch later in the game,” said Gallagher.
Gallagher starts his story in 1976 when Dick Williams is hired as Expos manager which Gallagher says started their rise but the greatest focus is the ’81 season.
Gallagher recalls Peterborough’s tradition of strong senior Tigers baseball teams and Roger Neilson’s Keene Expos. It’s part of why he wanted to make the cityone of his tour stops. “I just remember it as being a great sports town,” said Gallagher.