Veteran Canadian sportswriter Danny Gallagher has contributed pieces to a variety of newspapers, including the Toronto Star and the Montreal Gazette, since 1972. In 1997, he published his first book, a collection of stories about the Montreal Expos and its best-known and lesser-known players. So far, he has published 10 books of stories and anecdotes about Nos Amours.
Gallagher’s reason for writing these books that has made him a recognized Expos historian? “I want to keep the Expos legacy alive,” he said during a recent phone interview.
His 11th book, The Tragic Story of Willie Davis, continues Gallagher’s quest of keeping the legacy of the Montreal Expos alive, since the team pulled up stakes and became the Washington Nationals after the 2004 season.
Usually, he profiles a certain Montreal Expos player within a single chapter. For Willie Davis, who was acquired from the Los Angeles Dodgers in late 1973 and quickly rose to be selected as the Expos’ Player of the Year of 1974, his story was broad enough to expand from one chapter to the book’s first five chapters.
“I really scored a coup when Davis’ first wife Gina agreed to be interviewed. It would have been one chapter. But she gave me so much information, I knew I had to write five chapters about Willie Davis,” he said.
According to Gallagher, Willie Davis was a good, solid player during his 13 years with the Dodgers; however, he became a nuisance to the team owing to his increasing drug problem, his hardcore dedication to Buddhism, and his peculiar behaviour, which included sitting in the middle of center field or walking out of a game for no particular reason.
“Davis was traded to the Expos in December of 1973 for pitcher Mike Marshall, who proved to be a nuisance to the Expos,” he said. “But Willie Davis was a speedy outfielder and a good RBI player. He was still a good player in 1974 and showed it, which earned him the Expos Player of the Year honour that season. But his many personal issues led to the Expos organization not giving him a one-year contract extension for the 1975 season.”
Besides Willie Davis, Gallagher also highlights in his book the many past Expos players — such as Ty Cline, Gary Sutherland, Razor Shines and Tim Spehr — who may have had short tenures with the team, but had solid careers in Major League Baseball. “These players were truly the unsung heroes of the Expos. They might not have been superstars, but these third-level players were solid, middle-of-the-road players who contributed greatly to the team,” he said. “I wanted to give them the credit and publicity that were due to them for what they have done for the Expos.”
As well, Gallagher shines the spotlight on those unsung hero players who not only briefly played for the Expos, but somehow brought something to the table that had far-reaching effects on the Expos in particular, or Major League Baseball as a whole. One example is Charlie O’Brien, who was a catcher for the Expos in 2000. “In 1995, Charlie developed a prototype for a new kind of catcher’s mask that was based on a hockey goalie’s mask, which he hoped would be used in Major League Baseball; however, he got a lot of hassles from the Major League Baseball head office in New York, because they thought it was too much of a novelty. In 1996, his mask finally got approved and it’s used by a majority of catchers today,” he said.
It’s been 22 years since the Expos moved south, yet the Montreal Expos are still in the hearts of minds of past fans and fans who never got the chance to see the Expos play. Gallagher simply explains it this way: “Although they have been gone for 22 years, the Expos still have lots of fans, because they have great memories of the team and it keeps the Expos in the limelight,” he said. “And it shows that Major League Baseball can award an expansion team to Montreal. It would attract a great number of fans in its second go-around.”
However, no matter how much momentum there is to revive the Expos from fans, former players, and grassroots organizations, Gallagher is a realist about the uphill battle associated with such a movement.
“There are a lot of factors involved. These days, it costs about $3 billion to establish a Major League Baseball franchise, as well as build a brand new ballpark in downtown Montreal,” he said. “It’s all a matter of getting somebody with deep pockets, as well as getting some side partners. And if those people can convince the municipal, provincial and federal governments to pitch in towards building a new stadium, then this movement can work.”
Until such a vision becomes a reality, we can be content with Danny Gallagher’s books about the Montreal Expos, including The Tragic Story of Willie Davis, to keep the team — and the dream — alive. Through the many interviews with past players, diligent research, and Gallagher’s sharp journalistic skills that help tell a good story, his books can proudly say that for 36 years, Montreal once had a baseball team…and a damned good one!
