Nos amours, we miss you.

From the Fitted Hat Files

Growing up, every spring, the Montreal Gazette would put out a full-page calendar of the upcoming season’s Expos games.

I would put it up on my wall and I’d write a W or an L on each game as the season went. Baseball is a game of rituals and that was one I enjoyed.

I do it with Habs games with my kids now, but it’s not the same because it’s not virtually every day like baseball.

Before the 2020 season, we adopted the Tampa Bay Rays as “our” team until whenever it is that baseball comes back to Montreal. Promising as that project looks, it’s going to be a while. It might end up be the Rays moving here, but as much as I want a team, I don’t want to see Tampa fans lose their team like we did.

Kids invest so much heart and soul into their pro sports teams and no game pulls at the heart strings as much as baseball. I call it “The Game of Eternal Optimism” because it’s the only sport for which every single fan of every single team, no matter what happened the year before, no matter what the pundits are saying, believe this is our year.

I like the Rays and I’m happy to cheer for them, but I miss that feeling… It’s just not the same when the team isn’t from your own city. I recently subscribed to MLB TV, so I’m watching a lot of Rays games during the day while I work or at night with the kids. I just enjoy the sound of baseball — it’s the best sport on radio.

Nos Amours, I miss you so much.

About the hat

This hat is part of the Hat Club “Green Eggs & Ham” collection. It’s green for the eggs and you can’t really see it in the picture, but the under visor is pink for the ham. It’s a cool concept that came out really well. I also got my dad the Rays version from this collection.