The Montreal Expos Hurricane Experience

With Hurricane Irene blowing through the northeastern part of the United States this weekend, a lot has been made about how sporting and enterntainment events have been postponed or moved.  Numerous baseball games were cancelled and the Red Sox played through the rain for 11 hours in a sweep of the Oakland Athletics.  Even Kenny Chesny moved his concert in Massachusetts scheduled for today to a a different day earlier in the week (And I thought country singers were tough).  Several years ago, even the Montreal Expos had their plans changed because of a hurricane hitting the East Coast.

Back in 2004, the year before the Expos departed Montreal for Washington D.C., the Marlins and the Expos were to play a series in South Florida.  Earlier in the year, the Marlins had a series with the Chicago Cubs postponed because of a different hurrican and traveled to Chicago to play those make up games.  As they were preparing to leave Chicago for Miami to play a series against the Expos, Hurrican Ike forced a change in plans as it made no sense to have the two teams fly to Miami into a Hurricane.  The solution was to fly the expos into Chicago to play the Marlins at U.S. Cellular Field, the home of the Chicago White Sox.  So Montreal and Florida were playing each other in Chicago (and it wasn't even Wrigley Field!).

In Game 1, Josh Beckett pitched a strong game for the Marlins, but were still trailing into the bottom of 8th, 2-0.  Affected by three errors in the inning, the Marlins went on to score five unearned runs to eventually win Game 1 over the Expos 6-3.  The Expos' loss catapulted then to 25 games under .500

In Game 2, led by home runs from Jeff Conine, Miguel Cabrera and Alex Gonzalez, the Marlins again beat the Expos, this time 8-6.  And similar to Game 1, the Expos gave up five unearned runs.

Neither game drew spectacularly well, averaging about 5,000 in attendance for the truncated two game series - of course, they were playing an unexpected game in a neutral field.

It proved to be the last games that the Montreal Expos played in Chicago as the team moved to Washington the following year.

Bill Masterton's and the North Star's Legacy

It was a sad day, that day in January 1968.  The Minnesota North Stars and the Oakland Seals were playing each other in the North Stars' first season in the NHL.  The Seals weren't that good, but the North Stars were fighting for a playoff berth.  The team's first goal-scorer, Bill Masterton, just made a pass to a teammate when he was checked by two players for the Oakland Seals.  He lost his footing, fell backward and hit the back of his head on the ice.  Blood gushed everywhere as Masterton suffered a brain hemorrhage.  As teammates filed in around him, it was clear that it was a serious injury.  Unfortunately, he died two days later.  Unbelievably, it took another 13 years for the NHL to smarten up and require players to wear helmets.

Masterton was remembered as a hard working player who rose through the ranks of the College and minor league hockey to make the NHL in that star-crossed season in 1967-68.  His hard work, perseverence and dedication to hockey was the exact reason why he was so beloved in Minnesota.

One thing they got right though was to name the Award for Perseverence and Sportsmanship after Masterton following the 1967-68 season.  Many stalwarts of the NHL have won the award, including the following players who came back from illness or serious injury

1972  Bobby Clarke

1993  Mario Lemieux

1994  Cam Neely

1995  Pat LaFontaine

1999  John Cullen

What's interesting is that according to a recent story in a British tabloid (of all places), it was that same perseverence and dedication that caused his death as earlier that season Masterton suffered a severe concussion.  But because he was a struggling player trying to make a name for himself, he shook off the serious injury and continued to play.  It is contended that that concussion led to the severity of the January 1968 hit being that much more severe.