Name: Up, Up, & Away
ISBN: 9780307361356

Jonah Keri

The definitive history of the Montreal Expos by the definitive Expos fan, the New York Times bestselling sportswriter and Grantland columnist Jonah Keri.

The Kid, the Hawk, Rock, Vladi, Pedro, Le Grand Orange, Youppi!, the Crazy Business of Baseball, & the Ill-fated But Unforgettable Montreal Expos

Up, Up, & Away

Andrew Marti

Keri was super passionate about the Expos. That passionate is infectious in this book. 

This story is a tragedy, laced with comedy. I wanted to learn more about these characters. The GM slept with the owner's wife. Really? That nugget deserved more than a passing sentence. Dave Van Horne, the great, beleaguered play-by-play man of the Expos called games heard only on the Internet in 2000. I wanted more of Van Horne. He may be worthy of his own book.

Also Keri had too much mixed in here: oral histories, long sidebars, interview transcripts. I wished he had stuck with a straight narrative. The story is that good. It doesn't need gimmicks. 

Despite that, the story is cinematic: this franchise started late and with nothing. It faced so many obstacles: an awful stadium, a strike, bad trades (Gary Carter, Pedro Martinez, Marquis Grissom) an apathetic fan base, worse owners, cocaine, and the Toronto Blue Jays. All conspired to kill the franchise. It wasn't one who was responsible. It was all of the above. 

Toward the end, Keri is part of the history. His passion about those teams in '94 and through the end in 2004 come across memorably. I felt the excitement about those few great teams, and the sadness when the team was pillaged by Jeffrey Loria and when it was shut down for good.

Michael Hessling

I love unabashed fans, and Keri is definitely one. But the writing wasn't up to his usual.

Up, Up, & Away The Kid, the Hawk, Rock, Vladi, Pedro, Le Grand Orange, Youppi!, the Crazy Business of Baseball, & the Ill-fated But Unforgettable Montreal Expos

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