Baseball card of the month with Kevin Johnstone

As we sit and await the arrival of the first signs of spring, and since baseball spring training is just around the corner, I thought I would harken back to a day and time when the Montreal Expos were Canada's baseball team.

It is hard to imagine now, (especially with the Expos' franchise having moved to Washington, DC) but there was a time when this country's baseball fans were transfixed on little Jerry Park as the centre of Canada's baseball. Patrolling right field was a redhead by the name of Rusty Staub (or "Le Grande Orange"), who would become one of the franchise's most popular players ever.

Montreal joins the big league!

The date was April 8, 1969 and the entire city of Montreal, if not all of Canada, were eagerly awaiting the inaugural game of Major League baseball's first match-up north of the U.S. border.  This date is somewhat forgotten today by the mass media centre that is Toronto, but it should be noted the Expos' first game was actually a more significant event than the Blue Jays' first game.

Professional baseball had finally arrived in Canada via Montreal. By the time the Blue Jays were to play its first game in a snowstorm some eight years later, Americans had grown accustomed to the fact that baseball was becoming an international game.

On that special day, April 8, 1969, The Montreal Expos prevailed 8-7 over the St. Louis Cardinals. The Montreal fans, knowledgeable after having the Dodgers' top minor league team (The Royals) there for several seasons, immediately took notice of Rusty Staub.

"Le Grande Orange"

Rusty was picked from the expansion draft after playing several seasons with the Houston Colt '45s (later known as the Astros). Rusty was quickly adopted as Montreal's favourite from Opening Day onward. "Le Grande Orange" as he was nicknamed for his red hair would go on to play three years in Montreal until he was traded in 1972, only to return in 1979 when the Expos were one of baseball's best teams. Rusty was so popular in Montreal that his #10 was the first number retired by the Expos' organization.

To acknowledge  that historic day in Canadian baseball history I thought I would add Rusty Staub's 1969 Topps baseball card as a fun card to appreciate. It is not a special card, nor an expensive one. In fact, it's a very plain card. In the late 1960s, Topps had some rather drab looking sets, with each year becoming almost a replica of the previous year.

Perhaps it was a sign of laziness or the fact they were the only company producing sets (along with its partner O Pee Chee in Canada), but typically they used the same photo for multiple years. And 1969 was no different.

In 1969, however, something unique emerged with Topps' sets. In the early series, Staub's baseball cap is totally blacked out as it sported his old Houston logo. Topps' later '69 series display the familiar Expos logo on his cap.

Rusty, a very good player, was one of the finest gentlemen ever to grace the field. To this day, "Le Grande Orange" remains a special figure in the hearts of Expos' fans everywhere.

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