El Presidente's 'El Perfecto' Turns 21 Today...

AllTheGreatnessThatOnceFit
LesExposVille


It was the best of times that would soon get better, but which are forever no more...

Then, after a little sniffing around the Tubez, I read this, with a sense of melancholy, in an on-line piece by Jon Rosen:

Dennis Martinez ready…
...Popped in the air to centerfield, going deep on it is Marquis Grissom… He's got it on the track! Dennis Martinez is being mobbed by his teammates on this 28th of July, 1991, 3:22 p.m. in the afternoon. Dennis Martinez has reached the ultimate: a perfect game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.... 

That it happened at Dodger Stadium, an enduring amphitheatre of pitching greatness, and versus a team of such importance to so many Spanish speakers in the city, are details still fondly recalled by Martinez.

"Being in Los Angeles, I think there's a lot of a Spanish community there that I really envied – Fernandomania – because I never had that kind of support, and I was glad and really grateful to see Fernando had a chance to pitch in front of a lot of people from his country that were backing him up," Martinez said.

"There were some Nicaraguan people around the stadium also that day," Martinez said. "I saw some flags from Nicaragua, and that kind of got me going. As a Mexican, when Fernando was pitching, that kind of might be something special in that ballpark that has a lot of tradition, a lot of blue tradition with the color, because that is a really nice ballpark to pitch in."...


And, as a special Saturday afternoon bonus, The Spaceman explains who and what really killed the Expos...

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