Nos Amours: Expos MiniFest in Dorval

The spirit of the Expos was resurrected on a smaller scale at Dorval’s Sarto-Desnoyers Community Centre on Sunday.

The ExposFest Mini/Celebration Nos Amours 3.0 had about 20 fans, children and Expos experts come together to support Dorval Youth Baseball with raffles, Expos memorabilia and guest speakers “La Voix des Expos,” Jacques Doucet and author Bill Young.

Dorval Baseball was started five years ago by resident Christopher Chartier. The free program makes baseball accessible to anyone over the age of five regardless of income or disability.

Chartier was inspired to start the team when he was walking past a field one day and saw some children playing with sticks and rocks. When he asked what they were doing, they responded that they were playing baseball. He asked where their bats and gloves were, and the children said they couldn’t afford them. That’s when Dorval Baseball was born.

“I thought, ‘why should kids have to pay for sports?’” In 2012 Dorval Baseball had eight children on the team. They now support about 30 families.

But Dorval Baseball is beyond playing a game. “We do the baseball experience,” said Chartier. The kids have been to games in Vermont and this year have support in donated tickets from teams in Quebec.

Events like the MiniFest account for about 20 per cent of the funding, according to Chartier. The rest comes from donations, but largely out of his own pocket. His love of baseball is simple. “It’s a family sport. A baseball game, for a family of four, is cheaper than a movie.”

The MiniFest is in conjunction with the ExposFest, with former Expos players, batting cages and games, that will take place in April to raise money for DIPG, a rare pediatric cancer.

Little Fans

“We lost a whole generation of baseball fans,” said Chartier, something that legendary sportscaster Doucet agrees with.

“[Events like these] are where it starts,” he said. While the Expos still existed, Baseball Quebec had about 60,000 members, explained Doucet, who is also an ambassador for the organisation. After the team left membership dropped to about 20,000 across the province. “We noticed that in the last five years, membership has increased almost 10 per cent per year,” he said.

After losing the Expos and the Nordiques, Doucet believes that “the province of Quebec deserves to be represented by a team, whether it’s the NHL or Major League Baseball,” he said. And he’d like one fast. “I hope they do it soon, because I’m getting old,” laughed Doucet.

Dorval Baseball’s next season will start in May. To donate, visit gofundme.com/frjzpttw