Baseball DIY

This past Christmas, my wife took my ever-so-subtle hints that I wanted a Montreal Expos hat. I didn't really have a good reason for wanting one; I just figured, "if not now, when?" The idea of wearing a deceased team's hat certainly appealed to me, and the Expos' logo is or was undeniably cool. Other than that, I wasn't aware of any other reason for wanting one.

Fast forward (or, for you bookworkms, flip ahead) a month, and my department at work learns that our existence will soon come to an end, as our jobs will be packed in styrofoam peanuts and shipped to the company's Philadelphia office. Nothing makes you grow up (at least a little) like getting laid off. All of our hard and good work, apparently, wasn't needed or, worse, wasn't efficient enough. So by the end of the year, St. Louis Issue Management will go the way of the Expos.

Yesterday, in the produce section, I realized that my Expos hat, which I had sworn not to wear during baseball season but wear just the same, had taken on new meaning for me. The Expos, like all of the good (and bad) people of my department, deserve to be remembered. I'm sure the Expos brought joy to many fans, Quebecois and otherwise, over the years, and now they've morphed into an American team that reincarnates another deceased team (if you haven't heard by now, the Senators were called the Nationals for much of their existence). My job is basically to make authors and editors (and, if necessary, advertisers) happy, which I do on a regular basis. But, for whatever cosmic reason, our respective runs have come to an end (technically, I'm cool to December, but who wants to wait around for his own funeral?).

The mature part of me, though, takes a wider view. Yes, the Montreal fans lost a team. Washington fans, however, gained one, much like Philadelphia will gain jobs. There is no net loss, just a shifting of resources. I'm only mad because I'm in St. Louis; were I a Phillies fan, I'd jump up and down. It's hard to look at it objectively, but it's also something of a lukewarm comfort.

I've concluded that I wear my Expos hat for the broken-hearted fans of Montreal, for myself, and to point the finger at Seligistic mistakes wherever they occur (it didn't have to be this way, Bud).

Most of all, though, I wear it for that kick-ass logo.