The Biggest Moments In Olympic Stadium History

Last weekend, Olympic Stadium was once again filled with baseball fans (via David Shemie).

Last weekend, Olympic Stadium was once again filled with baseball fans (via David Shemie).

Last weekend, the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Mets played a pair of exhibition games at Olympic Stadium in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It seemed like a heck of a lot of fun, and it pains me that I wasn’t able to make the six-hour trek (especially since the games coincided with the release of Jonah Keri’s excellent book, Up, Up & Away [check out a review here]).

It really, genuinely seemed like a great weekend for baseball fans, and especially those would-be Expos fans who no longer have their local Nos Amours to root for.

The weekend, coupled with Jonah’s book, has resulted in plenty of Expos nostalgia. The history of the franchise is one with more bad memories than good ones, but it’s also a history littered with some truly incredible moments. Olympic Stadium isn’t exactly an inviting masterpiece, but it’s been home to some of the most exciting and touching moments in baseball. So, in no particular order, here are the 10 best moments in the history of Olympic Stadium.

Hono(u)rable Mention

♦ On July 6, 1977, Pink Floyd played in front of an Olympic Stadium-record crowd of 78,322, who paid an at-the-time obscene $10 for the chance to be spit on by Roger Waters.

♦ The 1976 Summer Olympics were held at Olympic Stadium (do you think that’s how it got its name?), hosting the opening and closing ceremonies, athletics, equestrian (!!) and the soccer finals. Of note: East Germany’s victory over Poland in soccer had 72,000 in attendance, a Canadian record for a soccer crowd; Bruce Jenner set the points record in the decathlon; 20-year-old Edwin Moses set the 400-meter hurdles record in his first year of competition.

♦ Believer Fever: In 2003, with Death knocking at the Expos’ door, Montreal took the first three games of a four-game set from the Phillies. A win in the final game of the series would have created a tie for the Wild Card with a month to play. The crowd was electric, and while the team stumbled down the stretch (no September call-ups? C’mon son), it was a final sign that the city would support the team, even as the fans were getting crapped on.

♦ It may have been only June, but it stands as one of the single biggest in-game moments at Stade Olympique: Cliff Floyd absolutely golfing a Greg Maddux offering on June 27, 1994 to pull the Expos within a game and a half of the Braves in the division standings.

The New Stadium Opens…
After playing for far longer than expected at Jarry Park, the Expos finally moved into Olympic Stadium on April 15, 1977. Unfortunately, Steve Carlton was on the bump for the visiting Phillie and pitched a terrific complete game to sink the Expos 7-2. Ellis Valentine’s third inning home run, the first ever in the history of the park, stands out as the key highlight.

And the End
The stadium also was home to a loss in its final game, with the Expos dropping a 9-1 decision to the Florida Marlins on Sept. 29, 2004. Carl Pavano – whom the Expos had dealt in 2002 for the returning Cliff Floyd and Wilton Guerrero – held the home side to a run on seven hits over seven innings. The last player to hit a home run at the park? He’s pretty good. A crowd of 31,395 turned out, more than for any other home game that season.

Gary Carter Says Goodbye
This one may be self-explanatory. Sept. 27, 1992, Gary Carter – back with the Expos after seven seasons away – ropes a go-ahead double over the arm of Andre Dawson in the bottom of the seventh inning. The run would stand as the deciding factor in a 1-0 victory, and Carter would get an appropriate reception from the home crowd as he was pulled for a pinch-runner. It’s tough to imagine a better way to go out than that.

A Hardball Times Update
Goodbye for now.

Darryl Strawberry Homers off the Roof
On Opening Day in 1988, the Expos surrendered six home runs to the Mets, two of them to Strawberry, one of which went an approximate 5,000 feet, were it not for the pesky roof getting in the way. Bad start to the year for the Expos, to say the least.

Jerry White’s Walk-off
It’s Oct. 17, 1981, and the Expos are tied 1-1 with the Dodgers in the NLCS and 1-1 in Game Three. Enter Jerry White, who clobbers a walk-off three-run home run down the left field line, giving the Expos the win and the series lead. They’d lose the series 3-2, but this one surely stands as the best postseason moment in franchise history.

Tim Raines Comes Back as an Expo
The would-be third Expo in the Hall of Fame, Raines made a 2001 return to the Expos after a decade away to a raucous reaction. While the four-pitch walk (and, later, his move to the Orioles) isn’t quite the tidy book-end Carter was afforded, it still seems a pretty great moment. If I can recommend you do anything today, go look at his player page and then try to get this guy in the Hall.

1982 All-Star Game
Tim Raines, Andre Dawson, Gary Carter and Steve Rogers, all starting in the All-Star Game, at home, with Al Oliver also on the team as a reserve. Rogers got the win after three innings of work, Raines walked and stole a base, Dawson singled, Carter drove in a run, and Oliver had a single and a double once he entered the game. Somehow, a team this loaded ended up just third in the division, though the Expos’ run differential was indicative of an even better record. (It still would have been short of the Cardinals, however).

The Olympic No-hitter
On May 10, 1981, Charlie Lea threw a no-hitter in the second game of a doubleheader against the Giants, one of four no-nos in Expos history (two were by Bill Stoneman, one was Dennis Martinez’ perfect game). This was the lone such outing at Olympic Stadium, however, and the win moved the Expos within a half game of the division lead.

Le Grand Orange Returns
The first star the Expos had, Rusty Staub was in Montreal from 1969 to 1971, a short stint that had a lasting impression. In 1979, Staub returned to the Expos for the stretch run, OPSing .773 in 38 games for a team that won 95 games and somehow missed the playoffs. Staub returned to Olympic Stadium for a double-header on July 27, pinch-hitting in the eighth inning of the first game. Video seems to be unavailable, but by all accounts the response was one of the biggest in Montreal baseball history.

Curtis Pride Feels the Love
On Sept. 17, 1993, Curtis Pride pinch-hit with the team down 7-4. It was a somewhat surprising call given that, to that point, he was 0-for-1 as a major leaguer, and this game was a crucial one. Well, he smacked his first career hit, driving in two runs with a double to left-center. That’s not the important part here, though. The Olympic Stadium crowd gave Pride – the first deaf player in baseball since 1945 – such an enormous ovation that, according to Keri’s book, Pride later claimed he could feel it through the turf. Keri wrote:

And Pride, standing there on second, this rookie, this bit player who couldn’t even hear, tapping his chest, telling us that he couldn’t process what was happening with his ears…but he could with his heart. In all my years as a baseball fan, this was the moment I wished I could stick in a bottle, and keep forever.

References and Resources

  • Credit for finding some of these glorious videos belongs to ExposNation.com.


Blake Murphy is a freelance sportswriter based out of Toronto. Formerly of the Score, he's the managing editor at Raptors Republic and frequently pops up at Sportsnet, Vice, and around here. Follow him on Twitter @BlakeMurphyODC.
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Dan M
9 years ago

A couple of points to this article:

Believer Fever – games two and three of that series were both Expos comebacks. Game 3 the Expos overcame a seven run deficit to win 14-10. The last game was a weekday afternoon and over 20,000 attended. I still have the radio broadcast and Mitch Melnyk and Eliot Price talked about the crowd still buying tickets in the foyer even though the game was underway. The Expos only had limited ticket windows open to address this sudden crowd.

Gary Carter’s Return – the cleats Carter wore from that game are now in the Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame. An individual discovered the spikes in Carter’s locker at the end of the game and somehow knew someone in Saskatchewan and sent them there. If anyone is ever visiting North Battleford Saskatchewan drop in and see his spikes. Also noteworthy is a baseball signed by the Brampton Ontario National Pee Wee Champs (the championship took place in North Battleford in the 1970’s) The winning pitcher in the championship game signed the ball. The pitcher is Wayne Gretzky.

Avory
9 years ago
Reply to  Dan M

Long story why I, a Cleveland Indians fan, was hanging on every word of Eliot Price during that memorable comeback series, especially game 3. I must have played that game back four or five times in the MLB archives, now it’s gone. The crowd was so fantastic and the broadcast so memorable that I emailed Price when the Expos left to tell him how much he contributed to my enjoyment of Expos games on the radio. Is it possible that I could obtain a copy of that Game 3 radio broadcast? I would love to have it; such a poignant reminder of what was once.

Elliott Price
9 years ago
Reply to  Avory

Thanks Avory, looking for a copy myself, awesome memories!

Dan M
9 years ago
Reply to  Avory

For those interested send an email

dashdog92@hotmail.com

Which One's Pink?
9 years ago

Re: Floyd/Waters/spit/’waters’

Well, at least one lucky fan got that honour. Keep your ticket stubs, folks…
For better or worse, Waters’ guilt- dare I say angst? (I do daresay, it’s Waters, after all) led to him writing The Wall. So, something came out of it. No ‘Comfortably Numb’ without this particular ‘rainout’… and a very personal one, at that.

bucdaddy
9 years ago

“Olympic Stadium isn’t exactly an inviting masterpiece”

This right here is the most massive understatement I’ve ever read.

mike
9 years ago

Jerry White’s home run was in the sixth inning, according to the announcer. How could it be a ‘sayonara’ home run, as they say in Japan?

John Hamilton
9 years ago

While a lowlight in Expo’s history, a highlight of Olympic Stadium history has to be “Monday on a Monday in Montreal” — Rick Monday’s NLCS Game Five 9th-inning homer in 1981 that beat the’Spos and sent my Dodgers to the Series.

John Hamilton
9 years ago

The greatest of the many tragedies of the 1994 strike was that it destroyed a great Expos team. If that team had won a World Series and if it was able to stay together the Expos might still be in Montreal.