The Montreal Expos were very important to me. Baseball was of course a summer sport and my buds and I definitely played some ball in between swimming in Lower Grant lake and goofing off at Chester Race Week. Our coach was a man by the name of Paul Gale, now 'Pops' i believe, and he taught us the best way he knew how. We were like the Bad News Bears at times but what fun we had. Pops would later play basketball with us in various pick up leagues and still to this day remains a figure we look up to. Montreal was our team.
The Expos, with their baby blues, Youppie and a catcher named 'The Kid' would tantalize us all summer with grace and power. I can still picture them all in my head, Tim Raines, Cromartie, Andre Dawson, Gary Carter, Tim Wallach, Francona, Parrish, Scott and the infamous Steve Rogers who in the end gave us what we all know as 'Blue Monday', a starter coming out of the bullpen (instead of Jeff Reardon, who maybe should have) in that fateful 5th game of the NLCS to serve up a crushing homer to Rick Monday and the Dodgers. I'll never forget my friend Garnet and I watching the game together and losing our minds when it happened. I think we beat up my brother actually. We cried as well. That's how big of fans we were. They, like the Ottawa Rough Riders, left and took a piece of our hearts, leaving another league I really don't feel like watching anymore. The memories will always stick though. Even the announcers were the greatest! Dave Van Horne and The Duke! Gary Carter had the 'check swing' homerun (my brother still laughs when i say that), The Hawk patrolling centre field and Tim Raines stealing bases with ease. It was magical.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the LA Lakers....A book was given to me about a guy named Lew Alcindor. I knew him to be Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as I followed the Lakers and had heard about his UCLA days with John Wooden. What I didn't know was how interesting a man Kareem really was. A good portion of the book was devoted to the relationship he formed with Bruce Lee during his early years in the NBA. He was actually a student of Lee's, who taught him martial as well as meditation. Kareem used this new found learning to help him in his sport and as many of you know, Kareem went on to be the most prolific scorer in the NBA, amassing over 40 000 pts with his patented Sky-Hook that to this day has never been used or perfected by any other player. All of those Laker-Celtic battles that happened so frequently in the 80's were watched by my buddies and I and then we'd go out, no matter the weather, and battle it out on the court ourselves. If you weren't a Lakers fan, you didn't like Kareem and you absolutely despised his hook shot and laziness. I loved it!
It's not hard to tell from these last two sports posts what really motivates me. I have a passion for all of these teams and players and whether they were forced upon me or just draped on my upper torso, I have never given up on them and that includes the ones that have disappeared. If you see me on the couch watching Green Bay or the Canadiens in the play-offs, well you better be prepared to see me on the floor in agony or jumping with a fist in the air. Nothing in this world makes me as nervous as watching them. I believe the only time that this will change is when I decide to try coaching a team by myself. Those poor kids won't know what hit them!...The 'Drive' comes from the 'Passion'......
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