This was a rare moment in time. Best friends and teammates with the young Montreal Expos during their first full season with Felipe Alou as manager. Grissom and DeShields were proud, at times defiant – Grissom had just lost a contentious arbitration case – at the beginning of their big league journey that would eventually take them to the post season, but not before they were traded out of Montreal.
I don’t remember if Garber and I had originally planned to do a full hour or if Mitch called an audible once they arrived at the Cable 9 Studio on Ogilvy Avenue (same as CFCF). It was a coup to get both players on the same show and we spent a lot of the time dealing with some serious issues – racism, fatherhood, family and the economics of baseball – and their strong bond.
I loved both these guys. They were quickly emerging as two of the brightest stars in baseball. But in the post Charles Bronfman era, we didn’t know when we’d have to say goodbye. Grip and Bop. Bop and Grip. What a treat they were to watch at the top of an Expos batting order that also featured Moises Alou, Larry Walker, Sean Berry, Wil Cordero, Darrin Fletcher and, at various times, Mike Lansing, Greg Colbrunn and John Vanderwal.
DeShields had a strong sense of history (“The two political leaders that did the most were John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King and they were both killed. Somebody didn’t want them around.”) while Grissom had all but given up hope that meaningful change was around the corner (“I don’t believe in nothin’ – I don’t trust anybody”).
This conversation took place at some point during the 1993 season. A season that started late for DeLino who was quarantined with chicken pox. But all that did was open the door for Felipe favourite Lansing to grab a job and not let go, whether that meant replacing DeLino at second, Berry at third or Cordero at shortstop. Ultimately, in a twist of irony, Lansing’s strong rookie season made DeLino expendable and during the off-season he was sent to the Dodgers for a skinny middle reliever who eventually found a home in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
The 1993 Expos were a good team that suddenly became great after GM Dan Duquette traded veteran ace right hander Dennis Martinez to the Atlanta Braves for first baseman Brian Hunter. It was a money move but the Expos also needed help at first. Colbrunn was a hard nosed catcher with plenty of promise but could no longer catch because of a shoulder injury. He was a line drive hitter who was adequate at first but didn’t supply much power. Vanderwal was there too. Does anybody remember Oreste Marrero? And then there was a rare Duquette whiff named Frank Bolick. A switch-hitter who had shown an impressive combo of power and good eye at the plate while playing in the minors for Seattle but was a bust with Expos. At some point during June, Duquette was my guest on CIQC Radio taking calls before a game in our makeshift studio across from the Expos clubhouse. He was getting progressively angrier with each critical call, at one point waving his hand across his throat in an effort to get me to cut off one of the callers. As I told him during a break, “You’re the GM, I’m the radio host.” The fan base was not happy. The team looked promising but was not winning enough. When our final caller pleaded with Duquette to make a trade for San Diego firstbaseman Fred McGriff, who was on his way to his sixth consecutive season of 30 or more home runs but pricing his way out of that franchise’s willingness to pay him, Duquette’s wry response was, “I can guarantee you that Fred McGriff will be here tonight in uniform.” The Expos opponent later that night was the Padres. (I was told that Duquette had indeed made a significant offer to pry McGriff away. It was a 3 for 1 that included rookie outfielder Rondell White, lefty Chris Nabholz and one other roster player. But McGriff, who began his MLB career in Toronto, had no interest in returning to Canada, proclaiming publicly “I’d rather play in Cucamonga than Montreal.” The Padres Triple A affiliate was located in Rancho Cucamonga, California. Fuck you Fred. On July 18, 1993 the Padres did trade McGriff – to, of all teams, the Braves (for Melvin Nieves, Donnie Elliott and Vince Moore. See, the Expos weren’t the only team in the salary dump business) who were locked in a fierce battle with the SF Giants in the NL West. The same Braves team that was loading up for the post-season and thought they had also acquired Dennis Martinez. But Dennis exercised his right to veto the deal after he discovered the Braves planned to use him out of the bullpen. Even at age 39 Dennis remained a top notch starter. He won 16 games the season before and would finish the ’93 season, his last in Montreal, 15-9. The non-trade seemed to galvanize the Expos who went on a wild run. But even as late as August 20, the Expos were 14.5 games out of first place. Then came a second but more prolonged stretch of winning that would eventually take them to a 94 win season, the second most in franchise history. And a very memorable late September series against the first place Phillies at Olympic Stadium (Curtis Pride pinch hit double against Bobby Thigpen; Cordero game winning double down the line in left off Mitch Williams) that moved them to within 3 games of their Eastern Division rivals. Anybody who watched the ’93 World Series between the Phillies and Blue Jays (“Touch ’em all Joe!”) knew just how close the Expos were to greatness.
Marquis Grissom finished the ’93 season batting .298 with 19 home runs. He led the team in runs (104), runs batted in with 98 and stolen bases with 53. He was brilliant in centrefield, winning the first of four Gold Gloves. He was a NL All Star and finished eighth in balloting for the MVP award. He’d no longer have to worry about arbitration cases. Grissom was able to take good care of his large family with career earning of over 52 million dollars. After leaving Montreal, he appeared in three consecutive World Series, winning the first one with Atlanta before losing with the Braves and then Cleveland.
DeLino DeShields mostly slapped his way to a .295 season while leading the team in on base percentage at .389. His 72 walks, in just 123 games, were second to Walker’s 80. DeShields also had 43 stolen bases. About seven weeks into the off-season, Duquette shocked (and angered) many of us by trading DeShields to Los Angeles for Pedro Martinez. DeLino never seemed to be a fit in LA. He went from playing for Felipe Alou to playing for Tommy LaSorda. He couldn’t wait to leave the west coast after three seasons to sign as a free agentr with St. Louis where he re-established his career. He also enjoyed three mostly successful seasons in Baltimore before wrapping up his 13 year career with the Cubs at age 33. Each time I walk past or through Staynor Park in lower Westmount I think of DeLino playing pick up basketball there. And the infant son DeLino talks about in the show (he was less than a year old) grew into a big league player of his own. DeLino Jr. is about to begin his first season with Cleveland after spending the first five seasons of his career with Texas. One of DeLino’s (Sr) teammates with the Cardinals was infielder David Bell who helped back him up. Bell is the current manager of the Cincinnati Reds. One of his coaches is DeLino.
Yesterday when we were young. Grip and Bop with Garber and Melnick from 1993.
Part Two
