Several days later Steve Moore called again.
He was going away for a week, and my one day audition would have to be postponed for one week.
The Next day the phone rang again.
CKGM the soon-to-be all-sports station had some news for me. They were set to launch May 1st as The TEAM 990 and were about to announce a two year deal with the Montreal Expos.
On the other end was Ian MacLean, CKGM’s program director:
Would I be interested in coming in and talking about the job as Expos lead play by play announcer?
Yes I certainly would!
Would it be okay to bring along my agent to handle negotiations ?
“Well” said Ian “We don’t really like to work that way.”
I thought it over and decided not to create any waves for now.
“How much do you want?” asked Ian.
I hated this crap and that’s why I would have preferred to have someone else handle it.
“How much does the job pay?” I wanted to know.
“How much do you want?” came the question again.
“A lot!” I responded, “I’m just about on my way to St Louis. I have a lucrative offer on the table.”
I wanted to ask for six digits but mentioned year round employment at about 85,000 dollars for 162 games as lead play by play announcer plus some off season work, a healthy vacation and spring training.
I thought about the possibility that baseball would die in Montreal real soon and that I would end up empty handed again and seriously considered opting for St Louis.
I mentioned this to long time radio partner Mitch Melnick who would be hosting the new morning show on the station and his email was to the point.
“You’ve been waiting forever, how will you feel when you hear someone else doing YOUR job?”
The cell phone rang the next day while I was on the golf course. It was Ian.
He was offering 65,000 dollars a year. Just for baseball play by play. I couldn’t understand why they didn’t want to use me for next to nothing for the rest of the year. I demanded 70 thousand and a two year deal and he finally agreed.
I asked why they wouldn’t toss in just 15,000 more for the rest of the year while getting expertise at a sports radio station from someone with twenty plus years in the business and was told there was nothing else for me to do. He said I should come in the next day and get the contract done.
I was finally about to be Elliott Price – the voice of the Montreal Expos.
When I arrived at the radio station the contract was already written up. It needed some changes.
There was the matter of the impending labour unrest with the players-owners basic agreement coming to an end after the coming season I wasn’t about to leave myself in a no pay check situation. I had just gone through that in the past year.
They would not agree to give me basic employee dental and medical insurance coverage. As a contracted hiring, I wouldn’t be considered a full-time employee. Who knew how much that would come back to bite me in the ass?
I made sure that the following year’s spring training in Florida was part of the contract language. Ian wanted to write in special language in case of a players’ strike and that would have suited me fine since that was not about to happen.
I was certainly the honest one here as it turned out later.
The language would be players work disruption. Ian was not a sports person and didn’t know a lockout from a strike and when it all came down, I wasn’t looking forward to fighting the technicality. In the end, the addendum (in writing as opposed to the rest in print) stated that in case of a work stoppage, the station was obliged to find work for me to do. I looked it over and signed it.
I then called St Louis to let them know that I wouldn’t be coming.
The station manager wasn’t there and the program director was on vacation. I didn’t want to leave a message on an answering machine but was left with no choice. It surely would have been worse for them to learn about it through a press announcement.
How did this deal get done where it couldn’t before? Firstly, Expos ownership finally realized that they would have to move from their firm stance of demanding a rights fee for the broadcasts. Perhaps Major League Baseball pressured them to make a deal after looking ridiculous the previous year.
Most of the thanks however should go to Sam Eltes.
Sam was the owner of the Silver Star Mercedes-Benz dealership. After he called Melnick to ask how much it would cost to get the Expos on the air, he was told at least six figures. And that’s how Silver Star became the title sponsor of Expos baseball on The Team 990.
We had already missed the opening month of the season but would fly with the team to San Francisco in early May to begin a new relationship. It took 22 years but I was where I always wanted to be. Doing what I had always wished and hoped for.
It’s not like I hadn’t been doing baseball play by play. Not like I hadn’t had my plate full of thrills at the microphone despite limited opportunities. Not like I couldn’t have gone on in my previous role as Dave’s back up and been reasonably happy with my position until the cows came home. I had worked nine seasons as Dave Van Horne’s back-up, but this was different.
I could now show my face in public and maybe jut it out a little bit. Shame had turned to triumph. Manush had passed away the previous year prior to spring training. He hadn’t had to go through my unemployment year. I hoped he was looking down with a smile now.
Part of my salary conversation centered around who my broadcast partner would be. I suggested former Expos pitcher Claude Raymond, who had been an all-star reliever during his 11 year career. He became a longtime baseball analyst on French radio and television but was currently under-utilized. He knew the game, he had been around the team since his trade to the Expos late in their first season. Claude and I got along great and still do.
I knew they would be most afraid of putting Bill Lee on the air every day for four hours, though I asked for him as well. Bill was sharp, he could see the whole field and knew what it all meant. He was and is as funny as they come, tells unbelievable baseball stories but is also capable of saying just about anything, and that was the biggest issue. “Anything” might not be what you want your 10 old to hear on a Sunday afternoon.
In the end, the job went to Terry Haig. A surprise to be sure. He covered the Expos for a short lived Montreal daily several years earlier and had also hosted an Expos post game show on the radio called “Play at the Plate”.
New York born and significantly older then me, Terry was working as a part-time actor, occasional news reader and sports columnist for the alternative weekly Montreal Mirror.
They don’t come any nicer than Terry Haig. Or, as I discovered, any more sensitive.
Baseball colour was work he had never done before. Clearly not as easy as it might sound. The pre-game interviews were better than any others I’ve heard, easily his best work. Terry asked questions that nobody else seemed to ask and thus got the thinking man’s player drawn into the conversation instead of the usual cliché ridden Q and A. But for the analysts role, he would not have been my first choice. Or my 10th.
He knew the game very well along with the history of the team. But there were things that bothered me and I told him.
It appeared as though some of the technology had passed him by. He didn’t use the computer he was given and rarely watched highlights after games. His radio work pretty much started and ended when the games did. That’s just not the case for most others who do what he was being asked to do. We had some arguments on this subject but I only managed to hurt his feelings. In the end Terry would more than make up for those shortcomings in the way we meshed together. He wasn’t like I wanted him to be but I’m sure there were some fans that felt I wasn’t what they wanted me to be. C’est la vie.
Bottom line on baseball broadcasts is that it’s entertainment. I sure felt like we made for an entertaining duo and fans seemed to genuinely enjoy the two of us.
Several things were clear about the 2001 Expos.
They were not going to be very good and Felipe Alou was not going to make it through the season. The speculation had begun the previous season. Actually, pretty much from the first day of the new ownership. It was no secret who was going to get the job. It was only a matter of time. In fact, I didn’t think Felipe was going to make it through our first road trip with the team.
Everybody knew that eventually, owner Jeffrey Loria was going to replace Felipe with his friend Jeff Torborg. The speculation was rampant until it finally came to pass. As I wrote earlier, Felipe was the master of manipulation and that included those above him in the pecking order.
In late April 1995 after the big cost cutting trades that had rocked the team to it’s core, the Expos picked up pitcher Luis Aquino. There was a game in Atlanta in late June when the situation clearly called for another pitcher to be on the mound. Late in the game, with the Expos clinging to a slim lead and much better arms in the bullpen. A bullpen that despite the departure of John Wetteland still had effective pitchers like Mel Rojas who would go on to lead the team with 30 saves. Still there was Aquino on the mound trying to protect the lead. He promptly served up the game winning run.
It made no sense and bothered me for quite awhile. You already know why I didn’t take the questions to Felipe. Eventually I laid it on pitching coach Joe Kerrigan. His explanation was that Felipe never wanted Aquino in the first place and here was a chance to show those that did what their pitcher could or more precisely, couldn’t do.
A month later Aquino was traded to San Francisco for pitcher Lou Pote. Yes that Lou Pote.
The same scenario seemed to play out again in 2001. This time with lefty Chris Peters.
Facing the New York Mets in a May series at Olympic stadium with a 2-1 lead, the very hot Tsuyoshi Shinjo was coming to the plate. It did not appear to be the spot you wanted Peters to be in. Shinjo had a pair of two hit games to start the series and his batting average was over .300. Get Peters out of there I thought, pitch around him, do something, but don’t pitch to him.
The two run homer put the Mets up for good. No pitching coach confirmed my suspicion this time. Peters was gone five days later never to throw another major league pitch.
Three days later, on May 31, Felipe was fired.
Felipe Alou had waited so long to manage in the big leagues. By 1994 he was presented with a young future champion just waiting to explode. But they stole those players right out from under his nose without ever seeing what might have been.
Now that they couldn’t win with the roster that was left, it was his fault.
Four key moves by the Loria regime had set this organization up for future failure:
-The signing of free agent reliever Graeme Lloyd to a contract far above market value.
-The acquisition and signing of first baseman Lee Stevens.
-The trades for both overrated pitcher Hideki Irabu (known as ‘I rob You’ in New York) and done-like-dinner third baseman Fernando Tatis and his overblown contract from St Louis.
The real problem was when it came back to hurt the most, these guys (Loria and David Samson) were about to win a world series in South Florida. (You’ll have to read on ahead if you don’t know how that happened.)
Who knew there would be several things to worry about concerning that two year contract I had signed, and that neither would be the possibility of the game shutting down because of a labour disruption.
How about no baseball ever again in Montreal, thanks to contraction.
That was the announcement from a MLB owners meeting in Chicago on November 6. My belief from the outset was that it was just another ploy by ownership, something else they could use in negotiations with the players.
A brand new bargaining chip.
The big issue locally, and for me, was that by threatening the Montreal Expos with extinction, (as soon as they could find another team to lop off at the same time of course) they were forcing my radio station to shut down another chance to go out and pre-sell the product.
Year One they started trying to sell their new product in May when of course the season had started in April, spring training a month before that. All other teams had begun with a pocket full of returning sponsors and a whole winter to fill in the gaps. Now they couldn’t sell in the off season again, well, because, there very well might be nothing to sell. So they didn’t.
A more in depth read of my contract at this juncture threw out another surprise. It was right there in the small print, nestled in the middle of nowhere. The right of my bosses to cut me off at anytime simply by paying me two months salary.
How could this be?
I purposely negotiated a two year deal, that was clear. The only signed addendum clearly spelled out in handwriting what would happen should there be a work stoppage. Why would that be in there at all if they could just dispose of me at a snap of the fingers?
Ian MacLean’s voice rang in my head,
“An agent? We don’t like to work that way”
No, I thought, honesty clearly doesn’t work that way.
I was steamed.
Of course if there was to be no baseball, there wouldn’t be much baseball play by play now would there? However if contraction didn’t play out as I assumed, there was always the minor detail of Major League Baseball getting together on a new basic agreement without a work stoppage, and when was the last time that happened?
Another tough winter followed with a regular check of the news, not to mention what other jobs were out there. Eventually the contraction hoax passed. The American League candidate was the Minnesota Twins. But the state of Minnesota going to court rained on baseball’s little gambit. The commissioner finally let everybody know the first week of February with the caveat that he fully expected to go ahead with contraction the following year.
The players and owners got together on their deal and I was ready to go. I called station manager Lee Hambleton to ask what our next step was and to vent about that little surprising change in the contract language. I wondered how he would have handled the situation if the worst had come to be.
He replied that CHUM radio takes care of it’s people.
I told him he was full of shit. Perhaps not exactly those words or since they wouldn’t spring for the usual company benefits then I guessed I really wasn’t one of their people. The radio station was once again ill prepared for baseball having been unable to sell during the contraction talk.
I asked when I would be leaving for spring training. I was told I wouldn’t be.
Now I was livid. It was clear in the contract that I’d attend spring training. But Lee wouldn’t hear of it. The station had lost a ton of money the year before and with all the stuff that had gone down it wasn’t looking much better for 2002. I was told I could simply take the month of March off. Every other major league broadcaster was in Florida or Arizona but me.
The contract language for spring training was clear. It was a perk and negotiated as one.
So I called the lawyer who had handled my child support case.
Zavy Levine is well known in the radio business in Montreal. He said he would give Lee a call and did. It didn’t take long to get my return phone call. It was a non-starter.
Once again it was explained to me that they weren’t asking me to work for a month. I was being given it off. I reiterated that it was a negotiated perk.
No go.
It would have been nice to know that Lee Hambleton and Zavy were such good friends. Many people apparently knew this. I had no idea. Maybe I should have had an agent.
Hell, if they wouldn’t pay for spring training, I figured I would pay to go to Florida myself. We’d stay a couple of weeks at my sister’s house on the other side of the state. I would only see them play two games that but at least I could introduce myself to all the new people, including the new boss.
And what a new boss. Unlike any other anywhere in sports, ever.
Major League Baseball now owned the Montreal Expos. Jeffrey Loria got a sweet deal to leave the Expos behind. He got the Florida Marlins and everything that wasn’t nailed down in Montreal. Rumours are that they grabbed furniture, computers, all the baseball computer files, even life-size cardboard cut-outs of star outfielder Vladimir Guerrero. (ed note – this is true. the life size cutout of Guerrero was on display in Loria’s private office on East 72nd in new York City.)
They took manager Jeff Torborg and the coaching staff with them as well. Plus trainers, clubhouse staff, front office employees and scouts. First base coach Perry Hill wanted no part of the move and called the office of major league baseball several times to let them know. Perry wanted to stay in Montreal whatever the situation but MLB never called him back and he was transferred like the rest.
The manager and coaches were nice people.
Jeff Torborg was perhaps too nice to manage in this day’s big league ball. Never would a bad word about his players pass his lips, no matter what they did. And then there was the new manager.
Say hello to Hall of Famer Frank Robinson.
He would manage the revamped Montreal Expos. Mets assistant GM Omar Minaya would be the General Manager and Tony Tavares would be the interim President. It was all part of a one year plan of course since Commissioner Bud would be killing off the franchise via contraction the following year.
When I was growing up, my all-time favourite baseball player was Frank Robinson.
It was a treat to now be dealing with him on a daily basis. He would make some moves that raised plenty of eyebrows along the way, including mine but I have always maintained that I would find fault no matter who the manager was. In fact, if I was the manager, I probably wouldn’t agree with every decision I’d make. It’s just the nature of the beast.
The stories of how nasty he could be as a manager and player were legendary. He certainly had mellowed however, even if it bothered him to hear that. He had spent some time watching the game as baseball’s chief disciplinarian, handing out punishment in the form of suspensions to those who transgressed the rules of the game.
Still, he was old school and many a player didn’t get where he was coming from. But Giants television broadcaster Mike Krukow had played under Frank in San Francisco and thought the world of him
“If you don’t understand what he’s trying to do, you just don’t get it, period. First and foremost, he just wants to win and will do whatever he thinks is necessary to get there.”
Several Expos players didn’t see it that way, and they didn’t see it that way right off the bat. The trouble with Frank didn’t come to my attention until a third of the way through his first season.
I walked into the Expos clubhouse in Atlanta and mentioned something about Frank to shortstop Orlando Cabrera and the usually amusing and upbeat Colombian grabbed me gently with one arm and a locker room chair with another and sat me down. He then proceeded to tell me how the Latin veterans on this team weren’t respected by “the person in that office” and you know in which direction he was pointing.
I tried to tell Orlando that he was being a little thin skinned, that for the most part of Frank’s career as player, manager, disciplinarian and baseball executive, Frank treated everyone the same – he disliked most of them. He was not amused this time and to make his point he stopped one player after another, asking the same question. They all came back with a thumbs down on the manager, From the usually reserved Andres Galarraga to Wil Cordero, who had been reacquired just three weeks earlier.
Though many would come around over the next three years, I don’t think Frank Robinson and Orlando Cabrera ever quite saw things in the same light right up until the time my good buddy Orlando was sent to find his world series ring in Boston at the trade deadline two years later just prior to the end of baseball in Montreal.
I, on the other hand, enjoyed being around Frank more and more. Some days the meetings in the manager’s office before the game consisted of three voices plus Frank.
Or should have.
There are so many that cover the game for radio, television and even print that just don’t understand the game.
It amazed me the patience with which Frank dealt with these people. Much like Felipe before him, his larger than life presence intimidated more than a few.
Those folks spoke not at all. Filling their notebooks, recording devices and television cameras on the backs of those three. Gazette beat writer Stephanie Myles and MLB.com’s Bill Ladsen started saving their best for after the rest of the media throng disappeared.
That left many a day where the conversation in the manager’s office was a dialogue.
Frank and me.
We would get to know each other.
I learned that a lot of Frank’s gruffness was what he wanted you to believe. Like Felipe, he wanted you to feel intimidated. It made his life easier. He learned that at least one Canadian knew the history of the game and he made me feel like he respected my opinion. Even if, every time I walked into an office full of other reporters Frank would say, in his semi-Bill Cosby impression:
“Look who’s here, it’s trouble, careful what you say.”
Than Frank and I would talk on some days as if nobody else was in the room and he seemed to answer questions he wouldn’t touch otherwise. Few others could get Frank to talk about his career.
On the field, the Expos started 14-8 but fell back to .500 at 20-20 and hovered there almost all season before winning their last four to finish 83-79. There was however one big stretch in late June that offered hope. It was an eight game winning streak that took them to 39-33, into second place, just four and a half games behind the Atlanta Braves.
The win streak ending ironically enough at the hands of Cleveland’s Bartolo Colon though the team would complete the home stand the next day at 8-1. Expos General Manager Omar Minaya saw a flickering light and under the impression that he very well could be out of the job when the team was disbanded at season’s end decided to seize the moment.
Hell it wouldn’t hurt his future at all to make a big splash.
Rumours were swirling as the team headed out on the longest road trip of the season – 13 games through Pittsburgh, Toronto, Atlanta and Philadelphia. After losing the first two games to the Pirates, the Expos left Pittsburgh with a victory and a shocking acquisition:
Bartolo Colon from the Indians, along with Tim Drew for Lee Stevens and the cream of the team’s disappearing minor league talent – Brandon Phillips, Cliff Lee, and Grady Sizemore.
Montrealers still interested in baseball were stoked. Finally a star coming, not going for prospects. Though the cognoscenti warned of the minor leaguers futures, the fact of the matter was, it was thought that this team would have no future after this season, so why not?
Frank Robinson was somewhat impressed but not overwhelmed.
“It wouldn’t hurt to have a big bat you know,” Frank said certainly with tongue at least half in cheek.
The road trip was not going in the right direction. They lost four of the next six including two of three to the division leading Braves. But then finished off with three wins and a devastating loss in Philadelphia. A four game sweep awaited to take them to the all star break but the bullpen threw it away.
The Phillies also got some help from the men in blue.
The Expos went up 8-5 in the seventh on a Brian Schneider RBI double and Cordero’s two-run homer into the upper deck off Carlos Silva. After Cordero’s homer, Silva brushed back Brad Wilkerson who jawed with the pitcher prompting home plate umpire Paul Emmel to intervene, warning both benches. At 8-6 in the bottom of the inning lefty Joey Eischen, having a career year, was brought in to face Marlon Anderson with Jeremy Giambi on third. Eischen hit Anderson with a looping 1-2 slider.
Emmell threw Eischen out of the game for intentionally hitting Anderson.
Now why would Eischen hit Anderson and bring the go ahead run to the plate when going after him at two balls and two strikes could have sent the Expos to the eighth up by two? And if you were hitting someone, why with a slow breaking ball? It made no sense at all, especially to Frank Robinson:
“It was one of the worst judgment calls I’ve ever seen. He took us right out of the game,” said the Expo skipper.
Eischen was stunned
“I just tried to overthrow a slider. It came out of my hand early and hit him in the rear end.”
It went to hell from there.
Instead of Eischen and his 1.50 ERA it would be Graeme Lloyd and his almost six ERA that the Phils tied the game. They would beat Matt Herges with two more runs in the eighth.
The Expos had fallen nine and a half games behind the Braves but the wild card was still in sight, five games away. So Omar Minaya got Frank his hitter. Former Expo Cliff FLoyd was coming back, announced the day the all star break came to a close.
Vladimir Guerrero would be very happy. The trade also brought his brother Wilton, Claudio Vargas, and cash for Graeme Lloyd, Mike Mordecai, Carl Pavano, Justin Wayne and player to be named later (Donald Levinski).
Expos fans were now treated to two prime time additions after years of top line subtractions. How did they feel about it ?
The attendance for the four game Atlanta series, even though the deal was announced on the first day of the series and the team dropped the first two after the break: 11,000 plus on Thursday. More than 14,000 on Friday, more than 17,000 on Saturday and over 25,000 on Sunday.
The downfall however started the very next day, once again a crushing defeat to the Phillies.
With an 8-3 lead going to the 9th inning, Frank decided to reward reliever Jim Brower who had turned in three shutout innings in relief of starter Masato Yoshii. Another inning would garner Brower a save, but he would retire just one more hitter before Ricky Ledee’s 3 run homer chased him. Then, both Pat Burrell and Scott Rolen would go deep off Herges. An eight run Phillies ninth left Olympic stadium in stunned silence. The gruff manager was more than subdued in his post game comments, he appeared almost in tears. The second devastating Phillies comeback triggered a downward spiral of eight losses in nine games. And though they would still be just six games out of the wild card at the trade deadline, the second Cliff Floyd era lasted just 19 days.
An organization that would be euthanized in two months was now worried about Floyd’s impending free agency and shipped him to Boston for pitching prospects Sun-Woo Kim and Seung Song. The rest of the season would be about trying to finish above .500 and if Vlad could become just the third player ever hit the 40-40 mark in a season.
Vlad hit the 40 stolen base mark during a sweep of Cincinnati in the season’s final series, but his 40th home run was erased by what many believed to be a blown umpire’s call. A shot to right field that appeared to go over the wall and ricochet off the auxiliary out of town scoreboard and back toward the playing field was called in play, and Vlad finished with 39 homers.
I called it a home run on the broadcast and it certainly appeared to clear the outfield wall, but alas there was no replay in baseball back then and it was not to be.
Just another slap in the face for the Expos and their fans.
You would think that since Major League Baseball owned the team that perhaps they could cut themselves some slack. That would not be the case and in fact in time we would learn that the complete opposite was true.
Another season had come to an end. Now it was time once again to see if the Expos were finished for good. Once again Expo fans and employees would be put through the torture. Forced to hold their collective breath and wait for the other shoe to fall.
Did they have a team?
Was there going to be a team at all?
Was Major League Baseball simply going to eliminate a franchise or two?
The bottom line for me however was that the team’s contract with the radio station had come to an end, and it was going to be another one of those winters.
Even though it would be decided to play another lame duck season in Montreal while parceling off 22 home games to Puerto Rico of all places, it would be a fight to get the games back on the air. Especially after The Team 990’s claim that it had lost two hundred and fifty thousand dollars on the broadcasts the previous season.
At home we were going to have another baby, probably to be born around opening day 2003. Would that baby’s father have a job ? As the winter dragged on I searched for work. I applied for the opening in Denver after Wayne Hagin was hired to replace the late great Jack Buck in St. Louis. There was still no decision in Denver just before Christmas and so I called the Denver radio station that was handling the hiring and left a message asking if they would please let me know if I was out of the running. While I wanted to make the move, if it wasn’t to be, I hoped to be negotiating a new contract in Montreal as soon as possible.
That call wouldn’t come until January when the Rockies paired the list of hundreds down to five. The call didn’t come until then because I had been in the final ten.
I knew being a Canadian would not help. I have no idea if that entered their decision. The focus was now squarely back on my hometown. The word was that the Expos were trying to drum up a lot of advertising money in Puerto Rico but that it was going to be a tough sell.
I had an idea and I sent this email on March sixth to The Team 990 Program Director Marc Aflalo:
Marc:
Here’s a way to save face and a lot of money.
Certainly between $150,000 and $200,000 or more
(I don’t know what your production costs are)
First off…One broadcaster would save you $60-80,000 with salary and expenses.
(Of course it would save you more if that announcer was me)
You could have the one announcer find folks to help him out on the road.
At home would be easier.
You could hire someone at a much reduced rate to work all the games or
you could have people drop by…or do the same as on the road.
Second:
When I was doing an on line talk show 3 years ago
we used a plug-in (to telephone) comrex that sounded great
No production costs…No producer
Purchase of comrex…2 microphones and announcer plugs in to telephone.
Can’t imagine what your live announcers will do with their time this summer if you don’t carry Expos games…Better get your 7 second delay ready
Of course…Don’t know what I’ll do either.
Beyond me how station and team can’t get together
Although I blame most on major league baseball
Elliott
It had already been decided that my partner Terry Haig would not be retained, so it wasn’t like I was stepping on anybody’s toes. Besides, it was clear that just getting one paid announcer through the door was going to be a chore.
Certainly this was do-able.
Minimum, the savings would be thus in Canadian funds:
Announcer salary $60,000
satellite lines $1000 a game x 103 road games $103,000
road producer 103 x minimum ($200 per U.S.) 26,780
Announcer road per diem 110 x 77 11,000
Hotel 110 x minimum ($200 per U.S.) 28,600
——————————————————————————
A minimum savings of 229,000 minus whatever the long distance charges would be and whatever my good friend Jim Duff would charge us for use of the comrex he never returned when the online talk show folks didn’t pay what they owed him.
How could they refuse, and hell, if I saved them all that money surely I could get a raise!
Marc finally got back to me:
All great ideas. To be perfectly honest Lee (station manager Hambleton) is the one doing the talking with the Expos… Money is obviously the biggest issue, but we all understand where we’re coming from and the hopes are there.
How are you hangin’ in?
– Marc
I sent this back:
We are just barely hangin’ in since this is the fourth straight year we’ve been put through this, and we won’t have a paycheck and that’s BS.
The Expos pretend I work for the station and the station pretends I work for the Expos.
If I get a job somewhere else and this opens up, that’s not fair.
If I wait and it doesn’t happen, that’s not fair either.
Got another baby due any day…And so it goes
Could you please present Lee with a copy of my email
and let me know what he thinks or what the f is going on
thanks
EP
And then we did what we had learned to do.
We waited. Nothing happened.
A week to go before the season and still nothing. So I called Claude Delorme, the Expos point man on the broadcasts and he was unclear on what I had laid out for the radio station.
He told me that opening day wasn’t a drop dead date and I couldn’t believe it.
Was this really major league baseball?
How could it be?
It seems to me that you should start with a premise that the games will be on the air and go about finding out how to get that done.
Instead they would find out how to get that done and if they could, then they’d put the games on the air.
A Major League team should find a way and they should be there when it starts.
But not this Major League team.
Then the call came.
The Expos would open in three days, on Monday March 31st.
The first broadcast however would come a week in, Tuesday April 8th in Chicago.
I would have a lot to do.
That included hoping a doctor would induce labour before I left.
And of course, the fun part, a contract for 2003.
In the end they had accepted my plan for the broadcasts exactly as I had laid out.
I had saved them a ton of money, surely I could wrangle a raise out of them.
The meeting with Lee Hambleton once again did not go as planned
“We’re excited about having you on board for Expos baseball again this year however….”
I couldn’t believe there was a however.
“We have to ask you to take a 10,000 dollar pay cut” continued Lee.
Excuse Me?
“Well, we’ve lost so much money the last two years and while we were going to ask for a 20,000 dollar cut, after talking it over with the Expos, we didn’t think that would be fair.”
Oh really!
“You’re kidding right?
No way you get the games on the air if not for me and my thanks is a huge pay cut?”
I wondered aloud.
“You know Elliott, there are people out there, the Expos receive hundreds of tapes,” said Lee.
How could I dignify this with an answer? How could he not feel dirty ?
I was flabbergasted.
What was I supposed to do?
It was hours before opening day and I had no other job.
My wife was about to give birth any second.
Major League baseball would be soliciting cities to find a suitable home for 2004 and what chance would I have at that job if I didn’t continue on with this one? Besides, I was still going to be a major league baseball announcer, even if I was the most underpaid. Still, did they really want an unhappy employee for another year? Certainly something could be done, I thought.
They wouldn’t add another penny.
I called the Claude Delorme and asked if there was anything the team could do. He told me that from a money standpoint it was in the radio station’s hands. I asked if I could be paid by the baseball team instead. I thought that would help if and when the team ever moved south. The fact that I never pursued that option would turn out to be fatal.
I did however get one concession from the Expos.
My family would be able to travel with me when they made their last of three trips to Puerto Rico. I also received a minor addition from the radio station with some free golf. That would turn out to be a total of three rounds after I asked them to hold on to their vouchers until after the busy baseball season. The final one.
It appeased me at the time. However unfair it felt, I knew it was the best I was going to do.
(To be continued)
