Customer Reviews

My Turn at Bat: The Sad Saga of the Expos

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Claude Brochu reveals just what it takes in running the Montreal Expos. The first-third of the book starts off well as details are provided on what are key ingredients to keep a sports franchise running: Mr. Brochu is appointed the chief of operations of an ownership consotium.

The middle-third is still entertaining but the storytelling starts to get uneven. The good parts are the downtown ballpark project and his views on each of the partners of the consortium: they were either with him or against him. However, Mr. Brochu does not shed much light into some other significant events that happened to the team during this period (such as the hiring and competence of then General Manager Jim Beattie).

The last-third imitates Brochu's last months on the job: everything starts to crumble. This is the most frustrating part to read. Only bits and pieces of a much larger puzzle are revealed.

There is an appendix at the end, with copies of faxes and letters in response to serious issues that arose with the ball club during Brochu's tenure.

All in all, a whole lot of what went on behind the scenes that was not originally revealed accurately (or without personal bias) by the Montreal press core finally is described in this book. The biggest surprise is who Mr. Brochu classifies in his good book and in his bad book.

Brochu gives valuable insight to his tenure as Expos president and the multiple dismantlings of the team -- including the disintegration of the downtown stadium plan. However, too much of this book is him defending himself from gripings of the limited partners and the media. Brochu's continual passing of the blame gets tiresome, however much truth is in it. I wish there was a book out there with both sides of the story, as the one-sidedness comes through in "My Turn At Bat." I am convinced after reading, however, that Brochu wanted to keep the Expos in Montréal, despite conspiracy theories that state otherwise. The truth is obviously somewhere in between Brochu's account and that observers saw when the team was sold to Jeffrey Loria (whom I think DID want to move the team) in 1999.

Brochu gives valuable insight to his tenure as Expos president and the multiple dismantlings of the team -- including the disintegration of the downtown stadium plan. However, too much of this book is him defending himself from gripings of the limited partners and the media. Brochu's continual passing of the blame gets tiresome, however much truth is in it. I wish there was a book out there with both sides of the story, as the one-sidedness comes through in "My Turn At Bat." I am convinced after reading, however, that Brochu wanted to keep the Expos in Montréal, despite conspiracy theories that state otherwise. The truth is obviously somewhere in between Brochu's account and that observers saw when the team was sold to Jeffrey Loria (whom I think DID want to move the team) in 1999.