WHEN BASEBALL BROKE MY HEART
A Fan's Goodbye to the Montreal Expos
Montreal, 1994. The best team in baseball vanished overnight.
For one magical summer, the Expos were unstoppable. Pedro Martínez painted corners like Picasso. Larry Walker hit bombs into the Montreal sky. The city, immigrant, bilingual, hungry, finally had something to believe in.
Then came the strike.
No warning. No playoffs. No World Series parade down Rue Ste-Catherine. Just silence where the roar used to be.
When Baseball Broke My Heart is the story of that stolen season, and the boy who never stopped carrying it. From sneaking into Jarry Park at age ten with his little brother, to watching the team dismantle piece by piece in a heartbreaking fire sale, Gabriel Harroch captures the soul of a city and the ache of loving something that disappeared.
This is more than a baseball book.
It's about growing up between languages in Côte-des-Neiges. About fathers who spoke through nods, not words. About brothers who learned loyalty from box scores. About the immigrant experience of finding belonging in a powder-blue uniform-and losing it all when the game walked away.
Part memoir, part elegy, part love letter, this is the story of the team that vanished, the decade that shaped a generation, and the single moment when baseball broke a boy's heart.
Perfect for fans of:
- The Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn
- The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer
- Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger
- Anyone who's ever loved a team that let them down
"Some loves are worth carrying forever... even when they leave you behind."
