Montreal Expos – The Sports Fan Project

The Fan Teaser Solution: Week 147

August 17, 2025August 16, 2025DouglasTHill2 Comments

**^{This Montreal rookie went onto accomplish big things.}**

Randy Johnson was a big deal. A very big deal.

Physically, the lefthanded Johnson who stood 6-foot-10 was the tallest pitcher in the Major Leagues for the lion’s share of his 22 seasons.

Performatively, there were few who could measure up to the numbers he amassed during his career. He won five Cy Young Awards (1995, 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2002 … yes, that’s four straight!), led his league in strikeouts nine times, and finished his career with the most strikeouts (4,875) of anyone not named Nolan Ryan.

He clearly lived up to his nickname, “The Big Unit.”

He was twice a top five round MLB draftee. First, by the Atlanta Braves in the fourth round of the 1982 Draft out of Livermore (CA) High School (Can you imagine a late-1980s rotation featuring Johnson, Tom Glavine, and John Smoltz? Would Greg Maddux have even thought about coming to town?) . Then, following three seasons pitching at the University of Southern California, in 1985’s second round by the Montreal Expos.

Randy Johnson and George Bamberger — **^{Twenty-five-year-old rookie Randy Johnson, left, receives some pointers from visiting pitching coach George Bamberger during the Montreal Expos Spring Training in 1989. (Sports Illustrated photo)}**

This week’s Fan Teaser photo shows Johnson, during Spring Training with the Expos before the 1989 season in West Palm Beach, FL, with pitching guru George Bamberger who was visiting camp for 10 days as a favor to Manager Buck Rodgers, who succeeded Bamberger as manager in Milwaukee. Following a 0-4 record and 6.67 ERA over six starts that season, Johnson was traded by the Expos on May 29, 1989 (along with Gene Harris and Brian Holman) to the Seattle Mariners for Mark Langston and Mike Campbell.

His biggest accomplishment might have been the 2001 World Series when Johnson won three games (two as a starter and one out of the bullpen) for the Arizona Diamondbacks in their seven game victory over the New York Yankees. Johnson, who was named co-World Series MVP, finished the Series 3-0, allowed just nine hits, and fanned 19 over 17.1 innings pitched.

He was first-ballot Baseball Hall of Fame selection in 2015. Check out his HoF page here.

Today, Johnson’s an accomplished photographer. You’re able to view some of his work at his webpage here.

^{Randy Johnson’s dominant World Series performance highlights.}

Just to review, The Fan Teaser was the creation of former Ann Arbor News Sports Editor Geoff Larcom. Longtime friend and fellow Ann Arbor News alum, Pat Schutte, took it to heights previously unknown. We aim to keep it alive here at The Sports Fan Project. The cropped photo and the accompanying clue give you an idea as to who or what the image is of. We invite you to use the Comment option to take a crack at solving the Teaser and, if you’re so inclined, participate in some good-spirited banter with your fellow sports fans. The Fan Teaser will appear each Friday morning with the reveal coming to you Sunday.

The Fan Teaser: Week 141 Solution

July 6, 2025July 4, 2025DouglasTHill1 Comment

**^{Don’t fumble this week’s easy Fan Teaser conversion.}**

In celebration of the USA’s Independence Day, we figured why not use the nation’s most-celebrated Patriot (at least on the athletic field)?

Say hello to what might have been, if only future Pro Football Hall of Famer Tom Brady had taken the Montreal Expos up on their generous offer to an 18th round draft pick in 1995. (The club was rumored to have offered him a signing bonus similar to that of a late second or early third-round draft choice.)

Brady, of course, chose to attend the University of Michigan on a football scholarship and things worked out OK for the 7-time Super Bowl champion quarterback.

The photo used today is from a Bowman Chrome baseball card produced by the Topps Company in 2023. The story, however, gets better. Because Brady never signed with the Expos and never, so far as anyone is aware, even tried on a cap, this image on the card is, understandably, Photoshopped.

After some sleuthing by eagle-eyed trading card afficianados, it is now presumed Brady’s face was placed on the body of 14-season Major League catcher, Darrin Fletcher. Check out the video below from “Junk Wax Hero” to see who actually might be standing next to Brady when his image was repurposed from a separate photo. As for the picture of Fletcher pounding his catcher’s glove, it seems to have been taken prior to a game played April 10, 1993, against the Colorado Rockies at Mile High Stadium (the second-ever home game for the Rockies); Fletcher did not play.

Two other fun facts about Brady, the Expos, and his card:

First, Brady signed a limited edition 1/1 of this card that sold at auction for $158,600. The highest price ever recorded at auction for an Expos uniformed player. A figure, by the way, that’s just over $10,000 less than what Darrin Fletcher earned for the 1993 season ($170,000).
Second, when Brady retired a second time from the NFL in 2023, he became the final Montreal Expos draft pick to retire from a professional playing career.

A Once in a Lifetime Experience

April 3, 2023DouglasTHillLeave a comment

Rockies Ticket Stub — **^{The ticket stub … check out the price!}**

Thirty years ago this week I was able to do something I’d never done before and, quite likely, will never be able to do again.

I attended the first home contest of a major American professional sports team’s history.

My buddy Mike and I loaded up our rented white Chevy bright and early Thursday morning, April 8, 1993, and headed out of St. Clair Shores, MI, bound for for Denver, CO.

Our immediate destination: His brother Tom’s place where we’d sleep fast and sleep hard.

Our ultimate destination: The right field grand stands of Mile High Stadium for Friday afternoon’s Montreal Expos at Colorado Rockies game. The first home game in the expansion Rockies’ history.

I remember only a few things about the drive out:

As we traversed Illinois and Iowa and Nebraska we witnessed first-hand the damage being done by one of the most catastrophic floods in the history of the upper Mississippi River and Missouri River’s history. If Mike and I said it once during our journey we said it more than dozen times, “There’s a lot of cresting going on.”
When Mike was behind the wheel he had the curious habit of honking the horn lightly whenever he spotted livestock off the side of the highway. To this day, I’m unsure what that was all about.
We visited a Pizza Hut in Iowa City, IA, for our primary sustenance – beyond a couple dozen cookies my mom sent along – on the journey west.
It takes forever to traverse Nebraska! I’ve never had the pleasure of driving across Montana, but it can’t be any worse than the Cornhusker State.

We touched down sometime around 2 a.m. local time after a solid 20-hour plus trek from Michigan and poured ourselves into whatever we slept in that night.

I’d love to say we had a pregame breakfast at 4G’s Mexican (one of my favorite joints in Denver), but I don’t think that was the case. Maybe it was the Breakfast Queen which I recall was near the home Tom rented.

Mile High Stadium Scoreboard — **^{A much younger version of myself following game’s end. Where’d that CMU sweatshirt come from?}**

Regardless, we were in our seats good and early for the 3:05 p.m. start and I was frosty – and still am to this day! You see, I’m a Superstation WTBS kid who watched his share of Atlanta Braves games throughout the 1980s and I was excited to see late-addition to the Rockies’ roster, Dale Murphy, patrol right field. Alas, I was forced to watch Dante Bichette get the start. I may have vocalized my displeasure … repeatedly … that afternoon. At least Murphy made an appearance late and I was able to see one of his six hits in this, his final two months of MLB action.

The game was ELECTRIC! Darn near 81,000 fans were in the stadium that day and when 5-foot-9 second baseman Eric Young led off the home half of the first with a solo shot to deep left center you’d have thought John Elway had finally delivered a Super Bowl victory.

Third baseman Charlie Hayes followed a few batters later with a 2-run shot and the rout was on. Colorado led 11-0 heading into the 9th inning when the Expos scored four meaningless runs.

What we did later that evening or the next day is now lost to time. I do recall, however, that Nebraska still took an eternity to cross that the rivers were still cresting on our Easter Sunday travels back to Michigan and that the Iowa City Pizza Hut once again provided us with the fuel we needed to get home.