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More than 36 years have passed since Daniel Plamondon met an...

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 18:52:08 -0500

More than 36 years have passed since Daniel Plamondon met an energetic, young Californian named Gary Carter, but his memories of “The Kid” are still fresh.

A former bat boy and batting practice pitcher with the Montreal Expos, Plamondon was a big-league “rookie” in the same year as the future Hall of Famer. And starting in 1975, the-then wide-eyed 17-year-old formed a brotherly bond with Carter who was four years older than him.

Carter, who spent 12 of his 19 major league seasons in Montreal, would assist Plamondon with his homework, while the francophone teen would help Carter hone his French. The duo would grow up together in the clubhouses at Jarry Park and Olympic Stadium, and few would come to know Carter as well as Plamondon.

In fact, it was Plamondon whom Carter entrusted to hold his first daughter prior to a game when she was a baby.

“I remember it was a father and son day and Gary just had his first daughter, Christy, and Gary and Sandy [Carter’s wife] had to go take some photos together, so I held her,” recalled Plamondon. “I’m holding the baby then all of a sudden doesn’t she leak all over me? Gary has two sets of pants, so he can afford to have something like this happen, I only had one pair. This was the pre-game and I’m thinking give me a break. We had white pants. He and his wife got a chuckle out of that.”

That incident aside, Plamondon loved Carter because the longtime Expo, who belted 324 career homers, treated him like a teammate. Plamondon continues to hold a special place in his heart for Carter and has been following his friend’s battle with brain cancer through Carter’s daughter’s blog (http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/TheKid8).

“Gary’s competitiveness was unrivaled,” said Plamondon. “That’s why the first time I heard about him being sick, I said, ‘Gary is going to fight it.’”

Plamondon first witnessed the fight in Carter when the future Cooperstowner learned to become a catcher in the mid-to-late ’70s. Though it’s hard to fathom now, Carter was employed primarily as an outfielder by the Expos for his first two big-league campaigns.

Hard worker

“Right through the late ’70s, Gary was still learning on the job to be a catcher,” said Plamondon. “Gary was always working, always trying to better himself.”

But playing baseball didn’t appear to be work to Carter. Plamondon says Carter loved to be on the field more than any player he has ever been around.

“When you took Gary out for a rest and sat him on the bench, he was irritable,” recalled Plamondon. “Nobody could be around him. He was on the bench holding his bats ready to go in and pinch-hit.”

In his five seasons with the Expos from 1975 to 1979, Plamondon also threw batting practice. In one memorable session in 1976, the youngster plunked veteran Jose Morales, the club’s best pinch-hitter, twice in the ribs with pitches. That inspired Expos infielder Pepe Frias to nickname Plamondon “Wild Bird.”

“So Carter says to me the next day, ‘Hey Wild Bird, can you come out and throw baseballs at me?’” recounted Plamondon with a chuckle.

Plamondon was also impressed by how Carter immersed himself in the city of Montreal.

“I think Gary was the only Expos player that I would see take a French newspaper and read it,” he said. “Gary took the time to learn the language. Gary loved the people in Montreal and the people loved him.”

Carter, who still operates a foundation in his name that supports programs for children, has always had a charitable side. One of Plamondon’s most poignant memories of his tenure with the Expos was the relationship Carter forged with a young boy dying of leukemia.

Big heart

In 1977, that child came to Olympic Stadium to visit Carter three times. Sadly, the third time the boy was on a stretcher and couldn’t be brought down to the field. Plamondon said the stadium’s security team hooked Carter up with a walkie-talkie so he could communicate with his dying fan.

“Just Dick Williams and myself were on the bench and Gary was talking loud into the walkie-talkie and he blurts out, ‘I’m going to hit you a home run tonight,’” recalled Plamondon. “No word of a lie, Dick Williams and I turned and looked at each other and we were thinking, oh geez, Gary put his foot in his mouth again. Then comes the game, and doesn’t Gary hit a home run? It was just like Babe Ruth promising the home run. Not long after that, the little boy apparently passed away.”

Plamondon, now 53 and working as a researcher in the workplace safety field in Montreal, says Carter is still beloved in the city.

“When you think about the Expos, you think about Gary Carter. It’s as simple as that. He’s in the same rank as Maurice Richard with the Canadiens,” he said.

Plamondon hasn’t spoken with Carter since 1996 when the Expos great returned to Olympic Stadium as a TV broadcaster with the Florida Marlins.

Plamondon, who owns the world’s largest collection of Expos game-used memorabilia, purchased the last base that Carter touched after his final hit, a double on Sept. 27, 1992 against the Chicago Cubs. Coincidentally, the ball went over the head of Carter’s longtime Expos teammate Andre Dawson. Dawson happened to be playing for the Marlins in 1996.

“I got Gary to sign the base and he starts talking and telling me all about his kids,” said Plamondon. “I also got Andre to sign it because the ball was hit over his head. Gary, Andre and I were all there and we were like old ladies chatting about how it was here with the Expos.”

Though he hasn’t spoken with “The Kid” for more than 15 years, Plamondon thinks of his friend often. With the recent revelation that new tumours have been found on Carter’s brain and that all major treatments have reportedly been stopped, a heavy-hearted Plamondon is hoping for a miracle.

“Gary will always be in my thoughts,” said Plamondon. “He’s part of the Montreal family. He’ll never be forgotten.”

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/baseball/opinion/2012/02/gary-carter-beloved-in-montreal-former-expos-bat-boy.html

Maybe I’m Amazed ….Maybe I’m amazed at the way...

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:38:57 -0500

Maybe I’m Amazed

….Maybe I’m amazed at the
way you help me sing my song,
right me when I’m wrong.
Maybe I’m amazed at the
way I really need you

I would buy this shirt. (Actually I would prefer a Hoodie) QBF

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 13:01:24 -0500

I would buy this shirt. (Actually I would prefer a Hoodie)

QBF

Steve Jobs - The Crazy Ones Others have said it better than I...

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 14:25:00 -0400

Steve Jobs - The Crazy Ones

Others have said it better than I could.

Why you should be weird

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 08:54:11 -0400

They told Van Gogh he used too much paint, and Englebart that the mouse was pointless. Galileo and Copernicus were called heretics for seeing the world for what it was. Dylan and Guthrie were told they couldn’t sing and that they had nothing to say. DaVinci’s helicopters and Tesla’s radio waves stayed in notebooks for years, as the ideas were too weird for ordinary minds to understand. Most great ideas seem weird at first. Our minds are used to the old world, the old judgments and the old reasons. Few have the imagination and self-reliance to see a new world when it’s first shown to us. This doesn’t mean being weird, or having a weird idea guarantees you anything. Most ideas, weird, cool or reasonable, fail to take hold. Yet it is certain the first time you hear an idea that will eventually change everything it will seem weird to you. And the first time you pitch a great idea, you’ll be told by even smart and successful people, that you and your idea are weird. This is to be expected. Many great ideas need second chances to show how great they are.

-Scott Berkun

For Steve. The Princess Bride + 8-bit = ROCKS!

Fri, 25 Mar 2011 08:26:33 -0400

For Steve.

The Princess Bride + 8-bit = ROCKS!

Growth of Target, 1962-2008 | FlowingData

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 20:30:15 -0500

Growth of Target, 1962-2008 | FlowingData

Watch the Growth of Walmart and Sam's Club Across America | FlowingData

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 20:25:33 -0500

Watch the Growth of Walmart and Sam's Club Across America | FlowingData

Eephus League

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 13:18:24 -0500

Eephus League:

My new favorite Baseball web site.

Foo Fighters new video. White Limo. Heavier than most of their...

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 14:01:00 -0500

Foo Fighters new video. White Limo. Heavier than most of their recent output, but good. Full album due in April 2011.

Hey Jude flowchart

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 13:46:30 -0500

Hey Jude flowchart

A Look At Call of Duty: Black Ops’ New Map Pack, Due Feb....

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 12:53:38 -0500

A Look At Call of Duty: Black Ops’ New Map Pack, Due Feb. 1

48 Ghosts that MS. Pac-Man wouldn’t stand a chance...

Thu, 13 Jan 2011 09:08:42 -0500

48 Ghosts that MS. Pac-Man wouldn’t stand a chance against.

I’ll post the list of who’s who later.

Jon Foreman - Learning How To Die

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 16:18:54 -0500

Learning How To Die

I’m gonna miss you
I’m gonna miss you when you’re gone
She said, “I love you”
I’m gonna miss hearing your songs

And I said, “Please”
Don’t talk about the end
Don’t talk about how every little thing goes away

She said, “Friend,
All along-
Thought I was learning how to take
How to bend not how to break
How to live not how to cry
But really
I’ve been learning how to die
I’ve been learning how to die”

“Hey everyone,
I got nowhere to go
The grave is lazy
He takes our bodies slowly”

And I said, “Please”
Don’t talk about the end
Don’t talk about how every little thing goes away

She said, “Friend,
All along-
Thought I was learning how to take
How to bend not how to break
How to live not how to cry
But really
I’ve been learning how to die
I’ve been learning how to…
Die
Die
I’ve been learning how to die.”

"The so-called ‘psychotically depressed’ person who tries to kill herself doesn’t do so out of quote..."

Tue, 04 Jan 2011 14:35:00 -0500

“The so-called ‘psychotically depressed’ person who tries to kill herself doesn’t do so out of quote ‘hopelessness’ or any abstract conviction that life’s assets and debits do not square. And surely not because death seems suddenly appealing. The person in whom Its invisible agony reaches a certain unendurable level will kill herself the same way a trapped person will eventually jump from the window of a burning high-rise. Make no mistake about people who leap from burning windows. Their terror of falling from a great height is still just as great as it would be for you or me standing speculatively at the same window just checking out the view; i.e. the fear of falling remains a constant. The variable here is the other terror, the fire’s flames: when the flames get close enough, falling to death becomes the slightly less terrible of two terrors. It’s not desiring the fall; it’s terror of the flames. And yet nobody down on the sidewalk, looking up and yelling ‘Don’t!’ and ‘Hang on!’, can understand the jump. Not really. You’d have to have personally been trapped and felt flames to really understand a terror way beyond falling.”

-

-Infinite Jest (David Foster Wallace)

I am really enjoying this book. I know I don’t fit the target demographic, but it is enjoyable none the less.

"Q: What is your vision for the future of Christianity? What kind of Christian community do you want..."

Mon, 27 Dec 2010 12:11:00 -0500

“

Q:
What is your vision for the future of Christianity? What kind of Christian community do you want to see?

A:
Honestly, I would just love to see Christians following Jesus. He was not an easy guy to follow, especially when he started talking about loving neighbors and loving enemies and going beyond tolerance to live your life with people who are nothing like you and disagree with you. I really want to hammer on some of these points, because I think they are the hallmarks of following Jesus. I don’t think that Christianity, Jesus or the Bible have failed; I think that Christians have failed to believe it and to do it. If Christians would just look at the life and the words, and pursue Jesus, I think they would suddenly find that it’s incongruent with a lot of cultural Christianity and Christian practice. I would love to see Jesus lead all of us about out of this ghetto of Christian subculture. Even if that happened, we’d still be diverse members of one body, so it doesn’t mean we’d suddenly become homogenized. We’d all still have our particular personalities and gifts. Those differences are good. But the most primary and basic ethics that compel us as followers of Jesus should change, and it would change everything and reorient us back to what it actually means to be a Christian: to love.

”

- Chris Stedman: Just Follow Jesus: Interview with Christian Singer Derek Webb

Billy Preston - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Preston is one...

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 11:11:02 -0500

Billy Preston - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Preston is one of several people sometimes referred to by outsiders as a “Fifth Beatle.” At one point during the Get Back sessions, John Lennon even proposed the idea of having him as the “Fifth Beatle” (Paul countered that it was bad enough with four.)

Hidden game in Call Of Duty Black Ops. It’s like Smash TV...

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 15:24:38 -0500

Hidden game in Call Of Duty Black Ops. It’s like Smash TV with Zombies!

Call of Duty: Black Ops - Dead Ops Arcade (via MahaloVideoGames)

Call of Duty: Black Ops Commercial - There’s a Soldier in...

Mon, 08 Nov 2010 07:49:42 -0500

Call of Duty: Black Ops Commercial - There’s a Soldier in All of Us (via ATLGamesExaminer)

The fun begins tonight at 12:01.

It was interesting to watch peoples reaction to this commercial yesterday during the football games at Wings Etc. Most of them didn’t recognize Kobe or Jimmy Kimmel on first viewing, and as it aired during other games, they would stop watching their game to turn and watch the commercial airing on a different TV.

SIGN YOU MIGHT BE LEGALLY INSANE #103: Ted Nugent is standing...

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 13:57:52 -0400

SIGN YOU MIGHT BE LEGALLY INSANE #103: Ted Nugent is standing next to you, and he’s the less crazy one.