Jackie Robinson - A Montreal Royal Forever

I used to watch 'This Week in Baseball' quite a bit in the 1980s - the Golden Age of Montreal Expos baseball for some. Others believe it to be the 60s and 70s were the Golden Age -which would make the 80s the Silver Age I suppose. Labels, labels such a fascination. Anyhow, perhaps on a romantic level it was, but the 80s was an era where the Expos, Nos Amours, were most competitive.

Regardless, I don't watch TWIB much anymore but I recently caught parts of the latest episode on June 5th. And how about that? right off the bat, excuse the mediocre pun, TWIB continued an age old American bad habit of ignoring this city's baseball heritage.

The show stated that the Brooklyn Dodgers were baseball's first integrated ball club. They were not. They were 'Major League Baseball's' first integrated team but not the sport of baseball. That distinction clearly belongs to the Montreal Royal - three time Junior World Series Champions- home to such legends as Roy Campanella, Tommy Lasorda, Don Drysdale and of course Jackie Robinson.

I won't recite the Royals legacy here since I already have in a previous blog but I will say that baseball was enormously popular among all Quebecers - French or English speaking - as attendance figures at DeLormier Downs reveal. Baseball has a 100-year story here, yet Americans never quite appreciated or accepted baseball locating in this province. They always wanted to believe their own perceptions that we Canadians know or knew little of the sport.

That TWIB overlooked this is nothing new. It just continued a long tradition of American media outlets completely ignoring Montreal -which explains the shocking ignorance and indifference they showed with the demise of the Expos. The message was clear; the Expos were a plague. Baseball epic documentaries like Ken Burns' '9 Innings' were also guilty of this. When I watched his brilliant work, I was disappointed at the subtle gloss over of the Blue Jays World Series victory and the role Canada played in the development of this great game. He sadly looked over the Jackie Robinson experience in this town. Selective history does not do justice to history - or in this case to baseball.

Montrealers poured their hearts, souls and energies into the baseball experience. It is unfortunate we failed to market this so that Americans took notice. Today, the diamonds are still filled with garage and organized leagues in the summertime. Sadly, it all feels so empty. The loss and departure of the Expos left a void that is inescapable.

As for, Jackie Robinson, he will forever be a part of the sports fabric of this town; TWIB notwithstanding.