Quebecer Éric Gagné was 15 when Jeff Fassero made his major league debut in 1991, playing for the Expos. Today, these two former pitchers live in Scottsdale, Arizona. Very good friends, they will be traveling on the same flight to come to Laval this weekend for Expos Fest.
“We live about five minutes apart and originally it was our wives who were very good friends. That’s how I met Heather, explains Gagné summarily. I remember I was studying at Édouard-Montpetit high school and going to the Olympic Stadium when Jeff was pitching for the Expos. Never in my life did I imagine at that moment that he would one day become such a close friend. We see each other about two to three times a week.”
“I already knew Eric a bit as an opponent, but we never played together,” said Fassero, who played for a total of nine teams during his career in the big leagues. We got to know each other a little better when we were still playing, more than 15 years ago… We met in a Ja Shin Do class in Arizona. It is a form of mixed martial arts that is practiced in a sauna. After the first session, I was sure that Eric was going to leave in the ambulance, it was so hot.
Receiver Russell Martin was also present at this famous course led by Andy Bauman, now deceased. His clients were athletes wishing to maintain their physical fitness during the off-season.
“I remember it and it was really hot,” confirms Gagné, laughing heartily as he validates the anecdote.
A career of 16 seasons
While Gagné was still a teenager, Fassero was 28 when he played his first game at Olympic Stadium on May 4, 1991. Having worked for a long time in the minor leagues in the St. Louis Cardinals organization, the left-handed pitcher said grateful to the Expos who finally believed in him. If the firing of Buck Rodgers in favor of Tom Runnells is consistent with more frequent use in Montreal, Fassero identifies Jerry Manuel, manager of the AAA branch when he joined the Expos, as the one who trusted him.
“At 27 or 28, I had a discussion with the one who became my wife [Cathy] and we decided that I had to try again,” recalls Fassero.
The bet was won hands down, as Fassero ended up playing major league baseball for 16 years, until he was 43 years old. His stay in Montreal, during which manager Felipe Alou had the flair to turn him into a reliever when he started, was from 1991 to 1996.
Family vacation
Still happy with Cathy, the couple have three children: Trevor (30), Blake (28) and Chelsea (25). A few years ago, the Fassero family came to Montreal to spend the Christmas holidays.
“I wanted to show the city to the kids and it was also fun to come back,” says Fassero, who happened to be playing for the Expos when his three children were born in the United States.
At this time of year, the former pitcher observed, however, that it was much cooler in Montreal than in Arizona. And even less than during a mixed martial arts class in a sauna. Talk to Eric Gagné!
Both Fassero and Gagné hope one day for major league baseball to return to Montreal, despite the abandonment of the sister-city project involving the Tampa Bay Rays.
“Montreal deserves a second chance,” said Gagné. It would be good for young people in Quebec to experience a return to the Expos. Without the Rays, maybe it’s for the best, with what would be a full-time club.”
– About Expos Fest, the charity evening featuring several former baseball players is sold out. It is still possible to take part in fundraising in order to collect money for research on brain tumors in children by participating in an online auction: exposfest.encanpro.ca.
Memories of Darrin Fletcher and… Gary Carter
Coming to Montreal to take part in Expos Fest on Sunday, March 27, former pitcher Jeff Fassero feels like he’s blowing on the dust to better dive back into an old scrapbook.
If he will find several members of the famous 1994 edition at the event, namely Sean Berry, Denis Boucher, Cliff Floyd and Rondell White, the left-hander also remembers the various receivers he rubbed shoulders with.
His main accomplice will have been Darrin Fletcher, but this one, who was also to be at the charity evening, must finally undergo knee surgery this week. Hard, hard, the profession of “catcher”!
“I was lucky with the Expos to have such good receivers,” Fassero said. In Fletcher’s case, he’s an Illinois guy like me. We got along well. Fletcher also had a good relationship with [le gérant] Felipe Alou and he helped me understand the game and the strategies.
“A wonderful person”
For one season, in 1992, Fassero also had the pleasure of working with the legendary Gary Carter behind the plate.
“We knew he was a future member of the Hall of Fame, noted Fassero, regretting the death of his former teammate which occurred in 2012 at only 57 years old. Gary Carter was not only a good baseball player, he was a wonderful person. He had already retired, but his time with us had left its mark. Indirectly, I am convinced that he helped us to be successful in 1993 and 1994.
Like his 1994 teammates and many fans, Fassero believes the Expos, had it not been for the labor dispute, could very well have won the World Series that year. However, the end of this chapter will never be written.