Sport Mania No. 38 September 1983

I recently picked up this copy of SportMania on eBay.  It's entirely in French, and I don't speak French.  I ran the cover headline through google translate, and according to them, "femmes de baseballeurs" means "Baseball Women."  Sounds legitimate enough to me.  Here's a look at the two page article with Lori Wallach and Jaque Francona:

If anyone speaks French and feels like translating this in the comments, by all means, feel free.  I'm not going to transcribe the whole article, but here's the opening paragraph:

Jaque Francona and   Lori Wallach who, comfortably seated in front of a hot dog and a soft drink (their supper), explain with a laugh that being the wife of a baseball player does not mean not just go to the stadium and eat popcorn during the game

I imagine the rest of the article goes on like this with nothing too wild or controversial, but I won't be taking the time to find out.   I'm not sure where this magazine fits into my Wallach collection, but it's certainly a unique peice.  That said, there's been a few oddball items over the years that I've throw this offer out on, and am doing so again with this magazine, if a Wallach family member happens to be reading and wants this issue for their own collection, feel free to email me and I'll send it your way.

The rest of the magazine has some articles on topics ranging from tennis to aerobics.  There's a couple of nice posters, including the one below, and a centerfold of a trio of Montreal Canadian Hockey players that is too large to scan.

Baseball Magazine Vol. 18, No. 3, June 1986

 

This Baseball Magazine is from June of 1986.  It included an unused score card inside of it.  I'm assuming the Expos would put out a couple of these a season, and stick a fresh scorecard for the days game in each one.  The scorecard that came with this one is for a game against the Reds, and the only time the Expos played the Reds at home in 1986 was from July 10-13.  So I can't imagine they made too many of these in a given season.

It's a nice article on Wallach with some good quotes.  I've scanned the entire article if you want to click the images and try to read it.  I find the way it interchanges between French and English a little annoying, but once you figure out the format it's easy enough to follow.  Here's a quote from the article:

"As long as Tim plays the way he's capable of playing, no one's going to come near his 'Gold Glove.'  He's the best third baseman in the National League - both leagues - until it's proved otherwise." 

- Buck Rogers, Expos manager

 

 

Les Expos Magazine 1987 Numero 5

All of the other magazines I've come across featuring Wallach, have been at least 50/50 English/French.  Every word of content (sans ads) was printed in both languages.  Either from paragraph to paragraph, or the articles would be repeated somewhere else in the magazine.  That wasn't the case with this one.  This one is 90% French.  Fortunately the article on Wallach was one of two things in the magazine printed in both English and French, everything else just French.  It's an ok article, pretty boilerplate, but did have some interesting quotes I've copied below.  The centerfold is also the worlds worst looking Wallach poster.  One that I have no desire to pull out and frame.  I'm perfectly content to leave it intact in the magazine.

Thats the English version of the article on the left, part of the french is below just to show the different photo they used.

Here some quotes from the article:

"I don't feel the need to be in the limelight.  I don't have any problems with my ego," he says when someone mentions that his talent is virtually unrecognized.

"I've been here for seven years and the younger players study the reactions of guys like Hubie (Brooks), Rock (Tim Raines), Smitty (Bryn Smith), and me.  I know that when I first joined the Expos I 
used to watch the way the older team members acted and I was always in impressed with the fact that those guys were persuaded that they could win every single game."

"Mike Schmidt deserves whatever has been coming to him.  His accomplishments have been very impressive this season, namely hitting his 500th home run and making his 2,000th hit.  I think he deserves to be the people's choice for the All-Star game."  (ed note, I didn't)

"At the end of last season, Murray (Expos GM Murray Cook) told me that my name would likely be mentioned in several trade rumors.  Not because the Expose were necessarily looking to trade me, but because a few teams had expressed their desire to acquire him.  He also said that if the offer were good enough, I could very well be traded."

"If I do want to be traded one day, you can be sure that I'll tell the team's management and no one else.  I have far to much respect for the Expos to conduct my negotiations in public."

He would like to be remembered once his career is over, as a player who always gave it all he had and was always reliable.  "I don't play just to be remembered.  I want to do my job as best I can."

Below are some ads from the magazine:

 

The center-fold Poster:

Sportsnet Magazine

If you live in Canada, or somewhere they sell this magazine, go ahead and check out the short little blurb they did on this blog in their latest issue.  I for one was not familiar with "Sportsnet."  It's not sold in New Mexico.  I haven't even been able to obtain a copy of this magazine (though they've promised to send one).  I went ahead and bought a digital copy, these are screen shots from it.

Sportsnet got wind of this blog by way of the Baseball Prospectus piece a couple of weeks ago.  They also had me do a brief follow up interview on their radio station Sportsnet 590 AM Toronto.  I spoke with a guy named Jeff Sammut on the air for about 5 minutes.

My only gripe with the magazine write-up is they quote me saying "'em" a lot.  I don't know if that's a regional thing, but it's not a "word" I use.  Maybe they just misunderstood me, I definitely thought they had accents, so I'm sure that cut both ways.  But it's mentioned on the cover, so if I ever do get my hands on the copy, I plan to frame it up nice.

Baseball Magazine Vol 17 No 4 July 1985

This is the 2nd "Baseball Magazine" I've picked up with Wallach on the cover.  I still don't know much about it.  I'm assuming it was put out by the Expos, as everything is written twice (French/English) except the ads which are only in French,  and there is no mention of any other teams.

The article on Wallach isn't anywhere near as interesting as the one in the 1983 Baseball Magazine.  It's more or less some generic stuff on how good of a fielder he's become, and almost somewhat disparaging in it's assertion that his bat was supposed to be great (but is only pretty good).  It does lobby for him to make the All-Star team (which did), and Wallach has some interesting quotes to the effect of not expecting to win the fan vote due to playing in Montreal, but might have a chance were he a Met or a Dodger.

There were a few other interesting pieces in the magazine.  An article on Joe Hesketh, who I used to always like despite never ever actually seeing him pitch.  Joe was .500 or better as a pitcher in each of the seven seasons he pitched for the Expos, but never won more than 10 games.  This looked good on the back of a baseball card.  

There also a pull-out poster of Hubie Brooks, a article on Herb Washington, and a somewhat strange family photo collage of Vance Law.  

Also included was a score card, which leads me to believe these were sold at Olympic Stadium.  

Some the ads are sort of neat too.  Including a couple for Hygrade Meat, which do shed some light on the '82 Hygrade Meat Expos cards.

Baseball Magazine Vol 15 No 3 June 1983

I know next to nothing about this magazine.  It was just a random ebay pick-up.  The articles are all printed twice, once in French, than again in English, but they use different photo's each time.  Besides the article on Wallach there was an indepth piece on the Pittsburgh Pirates Parrot mascot, and full page ad for Expos gear that can be bought.  I went ahead and scanned in the later.

 

Quotes from Wallach in the article:

 "If I get a hit, then the next time I'm in the on-deck circle I'll try and remember just what i did before," the slow-spoken slugger explains with a grin. "If I used the pine-tar rag, I'll use it again.  And if I used the metal donut we have there, I'll use it again.  Sometimes I eat the same foods all the time I'm hitting real well,but not so often."

"The guys who hit .330 have bad streaks too, but those streaks don't last very long.  Like, I think 'Scoop' (Al Oliver) had just one time last year where he went three straight games without a hit.  That's consistent."

"People ask me why I don't smile more when I hit a home run.  Well, you do have to enjoy the times you're hitting well.  But I'm going to strike out sometimes, too, and I'm not coung to cuss and throw a temper tantrum whenever I strike out.  You've just got to stay on an even level and keep working at it."