Jonah Keri

A needed but somewhat surface look at one of the forgotten franchises of North American sports. Anyone who has read Keri's work, whether The Other 2% or his writing on Grantland know that his writing is solid, if a bit unspectacular, and this book is no different. While providing a history, and extracting great anecdotes from those involved in the franchise, Keri's seems to not want to delve deeper into the root causes that doomed the Expos (and are now faced by both the Rays and A's), instead focusing back on his own nostalgia for the team. Overall a solid B. If you love the Expos like I did you will easily devour this book in two days.… (meer)

A fun book, a sad book, by Jonah Keri, who was an Expos fan before he was a baseball writer. It shows. The book's the product of several dozen interviews, lots of newspaper account research, other reading, and just growing up with the team. The acknowledgement section of this book may be the longest I've ever encountered.

The book covers the business side of the team's history extremely well. His description of Charles Bronfman is generally favorable, of Claude Brochu (and especially his business partners) borders on angry, and his description of Jeff Loria's more sympathetic than most baseball fans would offer. The final chapter, on the team's years under MLB management, is pretty painful, though his description of Omar Minaya's situation is empathic.

But the book never loses sight of the game on the field. That part's often joyful.… (meer)