NHL Franchise Boys

The 2015-2016 NHL regular season will come to an end this weekend and so will the 21st season of the NHL Franchise Boys Hockey Pool. Joe D. brilliantly summarizes the season in sharing his thoughts… “I am genuinely pleased with the state of the NHLFB Fantasy Hockey Pool….Not only may we have a new winner this year, the winner may be a first time winner! WOW! Paolo and Steve, who finished 10th and 9th, respectively, last year have transformed their fortunes into finishing in the money this year. Great job guys! And going into the last week of the pool, none of the top 3 spots had yet been decided…all in all….it was another great year and I want to take this opportunity to thank you all for contributing to making it the fun and fantastic year it was”. 

Obviously we all know it doesn’t matter if you win or lose… it’s way beyond that… it’s the draft, the pucks, sticks, skates, faceoffs, goals, assists, overtime, shoot-outs, shutouts, injuries, trades, countless hours of watching games and tracking players, disappointments and surprises, spending hundreds of dollars on free agents, and most of all – the game of HOCKEY.

We wake up every day and check the dreaded box scores, we stay up to the wee hours of the night hoping our goalie gets the shutout, and some of us even add the letter “y” to the end of player’s name when they had a great night. Nothing else matters… the world is absolutely perfect for the entire hockey season. Ladies don’t understand us, kids look at us as mentors and heroes, guys want to be us… WE are the envy of every hockey fan in the universe. It’s never been for the the money, nor the fame…. ok, ok, maybe the bragging rights… but essentially it’s all because we love it. May the passion live forever and see you all next year!

Montreal Expos pitcher Pedro Martinez waves goodbye to fans Sept. 28, 1997

I know… not another “Bring Back Expos” article but I can’t help it. There will be baseball at the Olympic Stadium on April 1st and 2nd when the Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox play a couple of exhibition games. The April 2nd game has been sold out for several months but Nick, Paolo, Joe D., Joe L. and Morgan will be there eating peanuts and cracker jack! There are still some tickets left for the Friday night game. Altogether, about 106,000 tickets in total have been sold for the two games. On Friday night, Tim Raines and Pedro Martinez will be honored during a ceremony before the game, while the late Jim Fanning will be remembered before the Saturday game.

For baseball fans in Montreal, the games offer a chance to pull out their old Expos gear and maybe take a young kid to his or her first ball game while remembering the glory days at Jarry Park and/or the Big O along with memories of Raines, Martinez, Gary Carter, Andre Dawson and Rusty Staub. It’s also a chance to dream that one day Major League Baseball will return to the city.

This marks the third straight year the Blue Jays will play a pair of exhibition games at the Big O and the number of tickets sold has increased each year. Mayor Denis Coderre says that sends a “true, strong message” to MLB that Montreal could support a team in the future. Of course, that would also take a new downtown stadium and a team with a combined cost somewhere around $1 billion. Hence, a return of Major League Baseball will probably never happen in Montreal. There are simply too many hurdles and selling out two pre-season games isn’t the same as trying to sell tickets for 81 home games a season — especially if the team isn’t winning in this city — just look at the empty seats at the Bell Centre courtesy of  the struggling Habs.

The best part about baseball in Montreal will remain the memories. ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪ Let me root, root, root for the home team, if they don’t win it’s a shame. For it’s one, two, three strikes, you’re out at the old ball game. ¸¸.•*¨*•♫