Sunday, November 22, 2009

Jarry Park was a minor-league stadium

The MLB network was showing a 1970 game between the Expos and Pirates. The lighting was so bad at Jarry Park in Montreal that not only do the players have shadows, but when the camera behind home plate follows fly balls to the outfield, you can't even see the outfield fence, because the entire area is in shadows.

5 comments:

Jim said...

I caught part of that game on the MLB Network, and I'm curious as to why they chose to re-broadcast that particular game. It's not the first time they've shown that game either.

Anonymous said...

I've never seen a game played there, but I've read about how little seating there was & some ariel photos. Looked like an awful park. Just checked Wikipedia and it says they had UPGRADE the park to major league standards before the '69 season...to 28,500 seats?!? That still doesn't sound like it was very big

Jim from Downingtown said...

Jim, I only saw the end of the game, but the announcer said there was an inside-the-park grand-slam in the game. That's probably the only noteworthy occurrance in the game.

Using the 10-7 score, and the opponent (Pirates), I found on baseball-reference.com that it was on 9/2/1970, and Pirates shortstop Gene Alley hit the slam.

Just another in the 40-year string of disappointments for the Expos/Nationals.

Jim from Downingtown said...

Devon,

I checked Wikipedia today also. It says the city of Montreal refused to upgrade the 12,000-seat stadium formerly used by the triple-A Montreal Royals. Instead, they expanded the 3,000-seat Jarry Park (formerly a municipal recreational field)!

What a joke. Amazing that the powers-that-be let Montreal into the league with such a flimsy plan!

Anonymous said...

Not only was the lighting bad, but the fences were deteriorating. During a foggy night game against the Cubs, Ernie Banks tagged what appeared to be a home run over the right-field fence, but the umpires could not see it due to the fog. So they went to Expo right-fielder Rusty Staub, who, knowing what was about to happen, resourcfully kicked a hole in the bottom of the fence. Upon inquiry, Staub said he saw the ball bounce into the hole. With only Staub's word to go on, the umps waved off Banks' homer, and ruled it a ground-rule double.

Talk about knowing your position!