WATCH ABOVE: Montreal Expos fans, Adry Laurin and Gabriel Morisette, travelled across North America to visit all the Major League Baseball stadiums and they’re behind Mayor Denis Coderre’s baseball plans for the city. Rachel Lau reports.
MONTREAL – Baseball. It’s a sport Montrealers have been holding onto dearly for the last decade.
“I played for 10 years and it just represents everything in my family,” explained Adry Laurin, a die-hard Montreal Expos fan.
In fact, Laurin is such a fan, that she and her boyfriend Gabriel Morisette travelled over 20,000 kilometres, visiting all the Major League Baseball cities across the United States.
“San Diego, Baltimore… we had a great time in Tampa Bay,” said Laurin.
“We were just sitting on our porch in the rain and said ‘hey, we could go to all 30 MLB ball parks and that would be crazy,” added Morisette.
The couple’s journey was all part of an effort to bring baseball — and the Expos — back to Montreal.
The couple joined Montreal mayor, Denis Coderre, Friday to prove baseball isn’t a sport best left in the past.
“This is not a dream today,” said Coderre.
“Baseball is alive and well in Montreal.”
“It is part of our DNA. It’s not about nostalgia.”
The city announced an $11 million investment to better preserve baseball diamonds and encourage minor leagues across the city.
“We have a policy that we’ll polish within the months,” the mayor said.
“The resources will be there, we have a plan, we know exactly where we’re going and I think that then we can all dream together.”
What Coderre said he would like to do is encourage kids to play baseball in the hopes that if the Expos ever do come back, they’ll have something to aspire to.
“It’s a matter of it working,” he said.
“It’s going to work. We’re all there for the kids.”
“We’re going to make it happen.”
He said he hopes local children may one day have a team they can perhaps root for — or maybe even play for.
He suggested that bringing professional baseball back to Montreal isn’t just about nostalgia, it’s also about giving kids some local idols to look up to.
“If Major League Baseball came back, I would say within two, three years we would double our 350 kids,” said Lionel Geller, with the NDG minor baseball league.
The League wants kids to be ready for the sport’s return, so that they can better understand where the nostalgia comes from.
“Don’t forget that they have parents and their parents are in their 40s and 50s, which means if they’re baseball fans, they do remember the Expos and they have Expos memorabilia around the house,” said Geller.
The way the city of Montreal sees it, getting kids to play ball may show the Major Leagues that Montreal is ready to have their baseball team back.
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