MONTREAL – Professional athletes tend to best remember the teams with which they win a championship. Jamari Lattimore Packers Jersey . A bond is forged for life. A group gets together, slogs through the adversity of a long season, plays its best when the games matter most and shares the glory of its achievement. The 1994 Montreal Expos didnt win the World Series. Nobody did. A players strike saw to that. But theres this lingering feeling among the nearly two-dozen players and coaches who gathered to celebrate their special team that they would have been champions, that the 1994 Expos would have secured a third-consecutive world championship for a Canadian-based team. “I think thats the one thing that sticks around too much,” said Cliff Floyd. “If youd played it out, youd feel better about it. If we lost you still feel better about going and getting the opportunity to play. When you dont play it out you wonder what if wed gotten the opportunity to play in the playoffs.” “We built a special bond in 1994,” said Marquis Grissom, a two-time All-Star in a 17-year career. “It didnt just start in 94, it started in 1990, in 1989-1990 when we were all in spring training trying to make the team. It just festered all the way up to 94 to where we all came together for one common cause and that was to win a World Series. We didnt expect to do anything less.” Championship baseball teams need a lot to go right. They must do the obvious, like outpitching and outhitting and outscoring their opponents on more nights than not. Emerging clubs - that Expos team was still so young - must also experience breakthrough moments. Floyd, a rookie that year who would go on to play 17 seasons in the big leagues and make an All-Star Game, provided such a moment. It was June 27. The Expos were hosting the then-National League East-leading Braves. Floyd blew open a close game with a two-out, three-run home run in the seventh inning off of future first-ballot Hall-of-Famer Greg Maddux. Montreal won the game and closed to within a game-and-a-half of the division lead. By the time the strike started a month and a half later, the Expos led the Braves by six games in the standings. “I think about that a lot,” said Floyd. “I think about when I walked up to the plate that day. I think about what was on my mind that day. I just told myself get a good pitch to hit. The type of team we had then, the expectations and what I did in the minor leagues, they were showcased in 94 but I just said if I can just help us go out and win some games, you dont know what games or how important theyre going to be when you do it but that was one of the biggest moments of my life was for me to get that home run.” Felipe Alou pulled the strings from the dugout. Hell be 79 in May and he speaks of the 1994 team like a proud father. He is, in a literal sense, because his son, Moises, was among the clubs many young stars. Charged with cultivating that entire unit, two decades later Alou marveled at the talent the franchise had assembled. “The 1994 club was hard to compare with anybody because we had three closers, we had incredible starting pitching and we had speed, power and defence,” he said. “Not too many teams can say that and they were young. They were getting better.” Surely the manager deserves some credit? “Anytime you have a team like that youre a good coach,” said Alou. Much has been theorized about the breakup of the team in the aftermath of the strike. Larry Walker, a could-be Hall-of-Famer whos yet to be voted in and would like an Expos cap on his plaque if the day comes, didnt want to leave. He signed with Colorado when the strike ended and embarked on a tremendous 10-season run with the Rockies before wrapping up his career in St. Louis. “There wasnt a contract on the table for a lot of us and the game kind of dictates that and you move on,” said Walker. “Its the nature of the game. I didnt leave because I hated anybody or hated the city or anything crazy like that. I know theres been some dumb stuff written about it from what Ive been told but I was just another ballplayer trying to win. We had a winning franchise that got broken up.” Grissom insists a group of top-end players went to ownership to try to persuade the group to keep the young core together. “We took it upon ourselves to try to go upstairs and tell them, hey, well take less money to stay together,” said Grissom. “We dont know how much less that would have been but, really, the strike took effect on us and there wasnt anything we could do. Even if wed taken less money I still dont think we would have stayed here.” There are more gray hairs. In some cases, the bellies are bigger. But the memories came flooding back, the reunion a chance to ask the “what if?” question one more time. If this weekend accomplishes nothing else, its reminded the powers of Major League Baseball that Montreal is a baseball town. Right now theres no ownership and no stadium for the franchise pipe dream but at least one man is hoping that the energy that still surrounds the 1994 Expos will contribute to the momentum to bring a team back to Montreal. “I believe that if we ever get a team back here it will be because of the 1994 team,” said Alou. “That is what the people in these communities, Montreal, Laval, the cities around here, they are holding on to the 1994 club. They believe that this memory, they talk about it. We are here, the 1994 team. Its not the 1993 or the 1995, its the 1994. The people hope and I hope that that club that was so good will help bring baseball back to this city.” Mike Neal Womens Jersey . But what goes up ultimately comes down, and an ugly loss to the Chicago Bears the following week ushered the Seahawks out of the postseason. If their hosting of a first-round playoff matchup was the biggest surprise of the year, than the Hawks not-so-shocking exit in Chicago stood at the other end of the spectrum. While Seattle certainly wasnt expected to make a deep playoff run, dont think head coach Pete Carroll will simply just rest after getting the Seahawks to the postseason for the seventh time in 12 seasons. Brett Favre Womens Jersey . A third-round pick of Jacksonville in the 2011 draft, Rackley started 14 games at left guard for the Jags as a rookie and opened all 11 contests he appeared in this past season.LOS ANGELES -- Keith Yandle scored the tying goal midway through the third period and Jeff Halpern netted the winner with 3:05 left, leading the Phoenix Coyotes to a 4-3 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Monday night. Rob Klinkhammer and Mikkel Boedker scored 63 seconds apart in the first period for the Coyotes, who handed the Kings their third straight loss and took over sole possession of eighth place in the Western Conference. Mike Smith made 36 saves. Marian Gaborik, defenceman Alec Martinez and rookie Tanner Pearson scored for the Kings, who were without captain Dustin Brown for a second straight game because of a lower body injury. Jonathan Quick stopped 23 shots for Los Angeles, which fell to 21-1 when leading after two periods. Yandle tied it with a slap shot from just inside the blue line after he intercepted defenceman Matt Greenes attempted clearing pass from behind the net. Greene was a healthy scratch in the previous eight games. Halpern put Phoenix ahead 4-3 with a shot from the left circle that appeared to carom off Quicks glove and then the post before it bounced to Coyotes captain Shane Doan for another point blank shot that Quick stopped with a sprawling save. But an overhead replay showed that Halperns shot crossed the goal line before it hit Quicks stick. Quick missed a chance to tie Rogie Vachons franchise record of 171 wins. Darryl Sutter will also have to wait for his 500th regular-seaason victory as an NHL coach. David Bakhtiari Jersey. . Yandle leads Phoenix with 49 points, including an assist on Boedkers goal. The Kings outshot Phoenix 15-2 in the second period, turning a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead. Gaborik got the puck in the low slot from Anze Kopitar and took a shot that glanced off defenceman Derek Morris stick and over Smiths glove. It was his eighth goal this season and second in six games since he was acquired from Columbus on Feb. 5. Smith, who leads in games played, starts, saves and shots faced, withstood an early barrage from the Kings before the Coyotes took a 2-0 lead. Klinkhammer scored his 11th goal on a rebound at 6:33, and Boedker added his 17th during a power play. The Kings got within 2-1 when Pearson, in his third stint with the club this season, scored his second goal in 14 NHL games at 17:02 of the first. Los Angeles tied it at 6:50 of the second with Martinezs eighth goal. Phoenixs Martin Hanzal, who returned after missing seven games with a lower-body injury, assisted on Klinkhammers goal. NOTES: The Kings are 126-2-11 in their last 139 regular-season games when leading after two periods. The only other regulation loss was on Jan. 22, 2013 at Colorado. ... Kings F Justin Williams is expected to play in his 200th consecutive game on Thursday. ... Gaborik has 21 goals in 30 career games against Phoenix. ... Pearsons first goal came in his regular-season debut on Nov. 14 against the New York Islanders. ' ' '
