3 year old Vlad Jr. showing early signs of greatness on September 29th, 2002...
In 2002 the word on the streets was the Expos were leaving town... I grew up in Cotati, California, 45 minutes north of the Golden Gate Bridge, and I was 1000% the only Expos fan I ever met, and possibly the only California resident Expo fan. My Dad was pretty much the greatest "Sports Fan Dad" a kid could hope for, and we always caught a Giants-Expos game or three at Candlestick, then later Pac Bell....And while I became a fan on the merits of Raines, Wallach, El Presidente, Floyd Youmans, etc, I grew into the biggest Larry Walker fan I was aware of....I even have a signed home run ball from him that---how magical is this? And 100% fact---he hit on my birthday, July 9th, 1991 during a double-header in Philly (Thanks Dad!!!), and then signed a year later on my birthday in San Francisco...Greatest thing ever for lifelong Spos fan just entering high school... But while I loved many Expos and loved them hard (despite all the second place finishes and accompanying heartbreak), eventually fate stepped in and delivered my all-time undisputed favorite/most fun to watch player ever, Vladimir Guerrero (he wasn't "Sr." yet...)
I'll spare you a "How Great Vlad Sr." speech... That's what YouTube and Tim Kurkjian are for... But he was my guy. And when it seemed painfully inevitable that the Expos were likely leaving after the 2002 season (in fact, they stayed 2 more, but we didn't know that then), my Dad, Spencer Martin, my son's namesake---He's the cute infant in the "Baby's Got Good Aim" video ( • Baby’s Got Good Aim that his baby boy Expos fan had to be there for the final games.... Which, come on, that's dope... Even more so when you consider he had 8 kids on 1 cops salary... He would cut corners with generic mac and cheese and announce the price of the PG&E bill to the penny to the kids, but we did have 4 Warrior season tickets during the "Run TMC" years and my ticket stub collection honestly belongs in a museum...Just saying...
(Side note: If you have read this far and appreciate true fandom and have a knack for deductive reasoning, I'm pretty sure you can already answer the question, "HOW F-ING GREAT WAS MY DAD!?!?!?!?!? Right?")
OK, so my point is that my Dad took me (via TRAIN of all things...which was LONG but cool, and we got to hang out with my international model younger-but-far-more-popular-and-successful sister Lizz in New York on the way (see: • My Sister Lizz Modeling on Hard Copy ) to the last four game set, possibly in Montreal Expos history (again, turns out not, but whatever), and that's how I came to be holding my trusty camcorder and using it to record the death knell of the Expos, and a priceless Father-Son experience along with it.
I honestly don't really recall how I came to film this 3 minutes (other than I was constantly filming), but here it is, captured beautifully and amazingly, and I even have a mildly decent commentary performance where I don't sound like a total douche and, in the end, a little prophetic...
So this is what that all means to me... To me, this video captures the magical connection between Dad's (and Mom's) and Son's (and Daughter's) and sports... And while I can't quite articulate the exact brand of "Circle of Life" this represents, I think most people actually get it perfectly and easier the less it is described. Me and my Dad on a Martin-Guy pilgrimage to see my favorite team and player, somehow capturing a "cool-at-the-time" moment that future events would turn into pure golden magic... The connection between Vladdy Jr. and his Dad, Me and my Dad.... It's all just kind of perfect.
Go Expos!!! 1994 World Champs and undefeated since 2004....
Much love,
Mark Spencer Martin
PS Reading some of the comments makes me happy I posted this, as not only are people enjoying it just to enjoy it but they are also feeling their own warm fuzzies about sports and family and all that jazz...Nice...
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