The story of CBA's Quebec gamers (or
GMs) and the Dawson division is a
very relevent one (a story for the
ages) at this time as baseball makes
its comeback for a spring in
Montreal Canada. In essense, the
CBA is perhaps a microcosm of the
fans of baseball in Quebec who
called their team
Nos Amours
(To our Loves in English). The
true baseball fan still resides in
this Canadian province as it has for
well over a century. Perhaps now
they are at home waiting for it to
happen again. Or at least they're
home playing Strat-o-matic baseball
for leagues such as the CBA or the
QSBL {Quebec Strat-o-matic Baseball
League}.
Did you know that
baseball's earliest roots date back
to Montreal? We all know about
Montreal having the Brooklyn Dodgers
farm team including the well
documented fervor they greeted
Jackie Robinson with when he
arrived. But, did you know that
baseball can be traced back to 1838
in Canada? A version of baseball
with 5 bases was played and by 1860,
a team in Southwestern Ontario
adopted the 'American" rules.
Further, the London Tecumseh's of
the International league won the
1877 Championship.
Thus,
"Baseball" is not just American.
It's truly international! However,
with the destruction of the Montreal
Expos, the Canadian CBA gamers lost
their MLB spirit. But Strat-o-matic
kept baseball alive for so many fans
in many other ways. Many of the CBA
GM's kept their hopes alive, thus
satisfying their baseball addiction
for sports by playing Strat-o-matic
Baseball. The QSBL league still
operates today after about 18 or 19
seasons. They have a hockey league
as well.
The first
commissioner of the CBA, Claude
Lamarre, and his co-Commissioner,
were die hard Montreal Expos
fans. Originally they attributed the
names of their baseball heroes with
the CBA division title names. Our
league divisional names are the
Carter division, the Rogers,
Schmidt, Monday, Parker, and Dawson
(this includes three Expos so
named). Key players, with key
cards, who were so pride and proud
about their baseball performances.
Enduring names reflecting the
passion these Expos fans had for
their beloved players and team who
were a symbol of great competitors.
But then something
happened that threatened to steal
the heart and soul from these loyal
Expo fans. Baseball armaggedon we
could say, Mr. Lorie came to town.
Personally I do recall in my
conversations with our Quebec CBA
mates, their sadness as they felt
the pending and threatening baseball
exodus of THEIR TEAM. As years
went on and the Expos were being
dismantled by Lorie; the fans
(include our dear Claude) knew the
were getting a raw deal. Thus
interest in baseball as a whole
started to greatly dimish in
Quebec. After all, true fans can
only be taken for fools for just so
long. The fans absolutely knew they
were being misled. I swear, our CBA
friends from Canada knew something
bad was coming for the Expos fans
for sometime before it actually was
finalized, and it sho'nuf, it did
with their pure baseball hearts left
bleeding in their batting gloves.
With tears, the Expo
fans including our CBA extended
family from Quebec trudged on in
the CBA. With the foreboding
presence of a franchise relocation
imminent, some of our CBA players
gave up hope and left when MLB
baseball in Quebec died. Our
Canadian friends had had enough.
Who could blame them? Not I! My
pleas were futile as Lorie did the
damage according to one GM. They
knew they had to say so long to
their dreams of baseball for a
time. Maybe even, say so long to
some friends in the CBA because of
it. The GMs in Quebec did say
however, that someday they may
reconsider and would not forget
their close friends and associates
from over the years. The nearly
extinguished fire was at least,
still barely smoldering.
Then of course, years
passed. The Division which
contained most of our Canadian
members, Dawson, saw in 2005, one
final salute to baseball and to it's
past CBA GM's, whose hearts had been
broken -- the 2005 Longue Pointe
Loggers. The team that replaced the
former commissioner's team, came
from out of nowhere from qualifying
for the last wildcard spot with a
speedy, small ball team. No power,
some pitching and for sure a
great underdog. A team as unlikely
to do well as the Expos of that year
when they were ripped from their
fans. A little team that could
managed by Dennis Concepcion.
Concepcion
faced a perennial
powerhouse, the Philly Phantastics,
who had previously won 120 games in
a season. No one gave this lonely
Dawson division small ball team a
chance against a staff that featured
guys like Kevin Brown and Randy
Johnson and a lineup that featured
one slugger after another. The CBA
press releases at this time were
specifically directed to make it
sound as if the baseball tradition
in Quebec was continuing. The
profiles reported, the pictures
images were created to create a
whole simulated aura of if a World
Series was taking place in
Montreal. Thus, there was a lot of
yahoogroup mail list chatter amongst
the GM's that season in 2005.
Would it be the final
curtain call for baseball in the
province? In a grueling battle with
the Phantastics, with all the
trimmings and press releases and
photoshop photos; that little Longue
Pointe Logger team, managed to get
an Al Weis /Bill Mazeroski-like
performances from little known
players. Although it was an Ichiro
homer of all things that outright
won the Loggers the last Staub
Conference championship til 2013, it
was their heroes with names such as
Doug "Miracle" Mirabelli, and Brian
Jordan who made some of the Expos
fans smile, who made the Quebecians smile
too. But sadly still, our
commissioner, and a few other
members had still left to ponder
their baseball fate as the remains
of a smoldering ash still held a
glimmer.
(Note - below are some
photos linked to the 2005 World
Series with the Longue-Pointe
Loggers ...)
![Opening World Series Ceremony at Longue-Point Stadium as the Loggers compete for the 2005 World Series, Ultimate Strat Baseball](CBACanada/UltimateStratBaseball-ws-open-ceremonyA.jpg)
Opening Ceremony at
Longue-Pointe Stadium
for the 2005 CBA World
Series |
![The Quebec Journal reporting on the 2005 CBA World Series Game 1 held at Longue-Point Stadium between the Loggers and the Philly Fanatics, Ultimate Strat Baseball](CBACanada/UltimateStratBaseball-Journal_HEADLINE_WS_G1.jpg)
The Quebec Journal
discussing on Page 3
about the 2005 CBA
World Series results
which happened during
Game 1 vs Philly |
![Road Team Uniforms of the Longue-Pointe Loggers in the CBA Strat-o-matic League, Ultimate Strat Baseball](CBACanada/UltimateStratBaseball_LOGGERS-ROAD.jpg)
Home Uniforms
for the Loggers on your
left and Road Uniforms
on Your Right |
So, a little dim
light continued to stay on, a faint
flicker of hope mostly due to the
CBA's use of social media keeping a
connection with our league and the
game we love. However, we didn't
lose all our Expos fans. One die
hard fan was Our Belfast Brawler
team manager, Derek Adams, who
stayed with us despite the Expos'
move. His love for the game was
relived each season in the CBA as
well as in face to face games he
played with local friends. Expo fan,
Dennis Concepcion, who lives in the
New York City region, was another
broken hearted Expos fan who
remained in our league. Dennis owns
many interesting pieces of Montreal
Expos memorabilia which includes
interesting items used in actual
games. Dennis was often seen on news
clips in support of the Expos when
they were uprooted. He stayed with
strat-o-matic despite his heartache.
With baseball almost
out of the Montreal radar, next to
enter into the CBA is the Montreal
based baseball fanatic, Doug Brunet
who calls his team the Montreal
Crows. Doug took a bare basic
expansion team and crafted a
perennial playoff contender. No
question about it, Strat kept Doug's
baseball mind in the game. The fire
wasn't just smoldering with these
baseball fanatics, it was burning
and has always been a passion.
Dennis, Derek, and Doug are also
league officials. I would be hard
pressed to find any more
knowledgeable baseball /
Strat-o-matic people. CBA also had
until last season, The Limoilou
Wendigos, who were also in the
Dawson division. They remained in
the league despite baseball's exodus
from Quebec. Their GM Jeff, did his
best over many years in the league,
even though his interest, like the
others, fell off a bit as baseball
floundered in his area. Jeff did
manage to win 3 CBA World titles in
his tenure though. Still the coals
glowed, perhaps a bit stronger than
before because the social media
revolution then happened...
But then, last year,
two more of our former departed
Expos fans, our CBA family with a
renewed baseball energy connected
with us using our social media
outlets. They had been following us
for some time and then decided to
rejoin the CBA. Please don't ask if
these former GMs followed the
Washington National baseball team as
they are not the Expos! We were so
thrilled that through Strat-o-matic
and our CBA website on-line with our
social media league news had reached
to our departed former CBA friends
that opened up a special
communication which ultimately led
them back to us. Long time friends
reunited again. We are in our 2nd
season now that Claude Lamarre and
Dino Barnabe, both CBA Hall of
Famers with distinction, returned
and they are back in the swing of
things. Thanks to Strat-o-matic,
old friends are new again.
(Note: When Wolfman joined
the CBA, he took over the Montreal
Royals which was the team run by
another Canadian member from Quebec
who left the league at the end of
2004. Wolfman was able to guide the
Royals to a wild card position in
2005 before he moved the team to
Skokie in 2006.)
So if you ask if
Baseball is alive in Quebec again,
we would answer with a strong
"YES". It is in the form of
Strat-o-matic and these fans are now
still dreaming. Do you hear them
Bud? Thank you Claude, Dino, Judy,
Doug, JD, for keeping baseball alive
in Montreal and Quebec through
Strat-o-matic baseball. With
Montreal back in the baseball talk
this spring, maybe someone out there
will realize that baseball still
lives in Montreal. And it's because
of Strat-o-matic baseball that
baseball wasn't out-right rejected
by our gamers. Perhaps, one day
they can see MLB ball again in their
home province too and not the
exhibition games played by the
Toronto Blue Jays there at the end
of March.