For me, this was a good book looking back to when Montreal had a baseball named the Expos. I did remember them hiring Dick Williams as their manager after he left the A's after winning two of their three World Series in a row he then ended up in Montreal after a short stop with the Angels. it was like all of my teen and early twenties when I was into following sorts was coming back reading this book with the Expos having Gary Carter, Andre Dawson, and Tim Rains to name a few. When you get to 1981 he takes you through that year and of course the strike and then the playoffs with the Expos so close to going to the Series only to be denied by Rick Mondays' homerun. Later they would move to D.C. and become the Nationals. Overall a good book.

There's no rule that saying a major-league sports team has to win eventually. Chances only come up so often, and if the team doesn't capitalize on that window of opportunity - which usually only lasts a few years at most - they usually are doomed to wait much longer.

Teams like the Cubs and Red Sox went decades before finally breaking through. More recently, hockey's Washington Capitals always seemed to know how to disappoint their fans in the spring ... until finally breaking through in 2018 with a Stanley Cup championship.

At least those teams finally got a chance. Others aren't so lucky. Exhibit A might be the baseball's Montreal Expos. Their best team probably was in 1994, when a labor stoppage forced the cancellation of the end of the season. That stopped Montreal's opportunity to claim a World Series crown, and perhaps led to the team's departure to Washington.

But their other big chance came on the field. And that's the one that author Danny Gallagher examines in his book "Blue Monday."

The Expos, who were born in 1969, needed about a decade to become competitive. Slowly but surely, they collected enough talent to be a title contender. There were three future Hall of Famers on that roster - Tim Raines, Gary Carter and Andre Dawson. After coming close to the postseason in 1979 and 1980, Montreal finally broke through in 1981. That was the year of another labor dispute and a split season that led to an extra round of the playoffs. The Expos knocked off the Phillies, three games to two, and met the Dodgers for the right to go to the World Series. What's more, after a pair of wins on each side, Game Five was in Montreal.

That deciding game was still tied in the ninth inning when manager Jim Fanning - brought on late in the regular season to replace Dick Williams - called on ace starter Steve Rogers to pitch. Rogers might have been the best pitcher in Expos history, but he will be remembered by some as the man who allowed a game-winning homer by Dodgers' outfielder Rick Monday. That was as close to a world championship as the Expos ever got, and it made Monday about as popular in Montreal as Bucky Dent was in Boston in late 1978.

Gallagher may not be the biggest single collector of information about the Expos alive, but he's certainly in the ballpark. The author has written four other books on the Expos after serving as a beat reporter for a Montreal newspaper at one point. No one can doubt his enthusiasm for this project. He talked to dozens and dozens of people who were involved in that game and team - virtually everyone who is alive, and in the case of the deceased Williams, his son.

Does all of this information work? That's more of a mixed bag. The book seems a bit padded by most standards. Play-by-play broadcasts are quoted for long stretches, and some of the players' quotes do tend to go on and on with some odd tangents. Some of the facts and anecdotes are repeated and not in any particular order. There are chapters about such players as Terry Francona, then just a young players with the Expos but someone who later made some baseball history by managing the Red Sox to a World Series title. Monday's baseball life story gets lots of room, although the Canadian target audience for a book like this probably is more interested in the effects of the loss on the team in the short term.

In addition, Gallagher comes off as a little too much of a fan of the Expos along the way here. A book like this is supposed to provide some dispassionate perspective on a turning point in franchise history, and it's a little surprising that the author approached it this way. Maybe he's trying to please his audience, which certainly mostly lives in Canada.

Moments like the Monday home run due come up frequently in baseball, which is what helps to make October so dramatic. Ask the Milwaukee Brewers, who a day before this was written looked poised to take a big lead in the NLCS. Alas, Justin Turner's homer may change the direction of the series for good. We'll see.

In the meantime, "Blue Monday" certainly will fill you in on the details of another one of those moments. It could have been better, but those still carrying the Expos' torch after all these years will find it interesting.

Quick, informative read about the only postseason series in the history of the Montreal Expos and the players that made it happen. While the story does not end positively for the Expos, fans can gain some insight into the personalities on the team and what transpired to get the team into the postseason.

This a dive into the experience of Expos fans and focuses explicitly on1981 and the lost chance to make it to the World Series. They probably should have had it not been for Rick Monday of the Dodgers in a one-game playoff on a Monday. - It is a day that will live in infamy in the annals of Canadian, especially Montreal, baseball history.

There are many exciting insights through interviews of multiple players on both sides. Baseball people will delight in the names. Many not so well known at the time that goes on to greatness on the managerial side of the lines. Many well known that enshrined in the Hall of Fame today. Names like Bill Lee, Rick Monday, Tim "Rock" Rains, Larry Parrish, Manny Mota, Steve Rogers, Jerry White, Bobby Winkles, Norm Sherry, Peter O'Malley, Andre Dawson, Warren Cromartie, Bill Gullickson, Don Fehr, and Terry Francona to name a few.
In the end, this is a bittersweet melody. A love story with a team that was probably one of the best constructed, but as baseball goes, inches can change the history of a game. And on this Monday, a catch by Rick Monday and many smaller decisions changed the course of History for the franchise and Major League Baseball in Montreal forever.

It is not the best-written book I have ever read, but as a baseball fan, it is filled with riches and well researched. It took me back to my more youthful days. Especially a day I recall from the LA side of the story. I heard it over the radio. Now I know the rest of the story.

In October 1981, Major League Baseball was in the midst of a postseason that went longer thanks to a players’ strike in the middle of the regular season. The National League Championship Series (NLCS) between the Montreal Expos and the Los Angeles Dodgers was a tense 5 game affair (the series was a best of 5 format at that time) that the Dodgers won on the strength of a home run by outfielder Rick Monday. Because the home run denied the Expos a chance to go to their first World Series and the fact that the game was on Monday, October 19, that day has been known as “Blue Monday” in Canada. The significance and sadness of the game in Canada only grew over time as the Expos never got that close to the World Series again before leaving Montreal in 2004. That game, the main men involved and how the Expos got that that point is chronicled in this book by sportswriter Danny Gallagher.

Blue Monday actually had its beginnings at the end of the 1976 season when the Expos, coming off a season in which they lost 107 games, fired manager Karl Kuehl and hired Dick Williams. Williams was a proven winner, having won pennants and World Series titles previously in Boston and Oakland. Between good drafts and trades by general manager John McHale and Williams changing the culture of the franchise, the team had come very close to making the postseason in 1979 and 1980, finally breaking through in 1981 thanks to the split season format enacted after the player’s strike. By winning the National League East Division in the second half, the playoff format that year had the Expos facing the first half winner, the Philadelphia Phillies. After winning that series, the Expos met the Dodgers, with the teams splitting the first four games, setting up the epic showdown for the National League pennant.

The book leads the reader up to this moment completely, from the hiring of Williams to the rise of many key Expos players such as Rogers, Andre Dawson, Warren Cromartie (more in him a little later) and Gary Carter. There were surprises along the way, such as the shocking firing of Williams as manager in September 1981 and replacing him with Jim Fanning. This was not a completely popular move and it led to the biggest question asked in the history of the Expos – why did Fanning send Rogers out to pitch in the eighth inning of game 5 of the NLCS?

Gallagher asks the question and gets many responses from many people, including the main three – Fanning, Rogers and Monday. Without giving away any spoilers, it is safe to say that the reader will have plenty of information to determine whether that decision was justified or not. There is also similar analysis with other questions, such as if the Expo starter in game 5, Ray Burris, could have stayed in the game and why Williams was fired. These not only are analyzed with serious information, there is also a bit of humor in each one. The humor may come from other sources or from Gallagher himself. For the former, try this quote from legendary Los Angeles sports writer Jim Murray, writing about Burris who played with several teams before the Expos: “…Ray Burris, one of those pitchers who has been through more towns than a steamboat trunk.” For some humor from the author, try this for a reason that Dick Williams was fired: “ Youppi! didn’t want to be manager.” (Note: Youppi! was the Expos’ orange furry mascot)

While the book overall is a decent read, those who were Expos fans or followed the team during its existence will want to pick this up to learn a little more about the man who broke Canada’s heart, Rick Monday. Gallagher’s interviews and writing about Monday since that home run give the reader an inside glimpse into the man that many baseball fans have never seen. For that reason alone, it is a worthy addition to any baseball library.

I wish to thank Dundurn Publishing for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

BLUE MONDAY by Danny Gallagher fondly recounts the 1981 Montreal Expos, the first time the franchise made the playoffs only to be defeated by LA Dodgers and Rick Monday, who hit the game and series winning home run in Game 5 of the National League Championship, keeping the Expos out of the World Series. Gallagher walks the reader through how the 1981 team got to where the are, from the five year plan that was created in 1976, to the acquisitions and maturation of the current players, and to the leadership choices that, good and bad, the resulted in having the 1981 Expos team making the playoffs for the first time.
Gallagher's book is well-researched and full of colorful tales of players, coaches, and games. It's clear that Gallagher has a strong affinity for the Expos and it shows in his writing. Gallagher does his best to find positives in every choice, every story, every person in the book, even when perhaps it/they don't deserve it. Gallagher took special care to consider as many of the controversial events from as many sides as possible; good, bad, and third party. Gallagher admitted several times that he wanted certain party's stories and they were either unavailable or unwilling to share. When carrying the reader through the season and the playoffs, the pacing at times in the book was haphazard; sometimes spending a long time on one event that might or might not be memorable and other times flying through a playoff game recap to then spend a long time telling vivid stories about events that happened between games. But it was not lost on me that everything in the book added color and texture to the entire 1981 Expos, just maybe a little more consideration regarding flow could have progressed the book more smoothly.
For a baseball nut like me, BLUE MONDAY was a fun read, full of stories and tidbits I had never heard before. There is no doubt that Gallagher know his Expos stuff and I found myself wanting to read his other books after finishing this one.