By Danny Gallagher
Canadian Baseball Network
The day Sept. 7, 1981 was the morning the course of Expos’ history changed. 35 years ago.

It was the day Expos president John McHale shook up his manager’s spot. He fired tough-minded Dick Williams, who had managed the team almost five full seasons. His replacement: easy-going Jim Fanning.

The wheels in motion actually took place Sept. 6 when McHale, from the road, called Fanning at his Expos’ Olympic Stadium office to see if he was interested in taking over as manager.

A bit taken aback at first, Fanning quickly said yes. No way he was turning down his long-time friend. He hadn’t managed since the 1960s but he was good to go.

As they say, the rest is history because the Expos went on to win a berth in the playoffs before being ousted by the Dodgers in the fifth game of the National League Championship Series.

“In 1981, Jim and I had been dating five years,’’ Fanning’s wife told me the other day, in recalling the scenario. “He called me up that week of September and said there was something he had to discuss with me. 
He came over and told me that Williams was going to be let go as the team’s manager.

“He said John McHale would be hiring a new manager.’’

As the conversation evolved, curiosity got the best of Maria Malandra, as she was known before she was married,

“I asked Jim who it might be,’’ Mrs. Fanning said.

“It might be me,” Jim Fanning told her, laughing. “In fact, it is me,’’

“I congratulated him,’’ she said. “He told me it meant that he would be with the team travelling and spending even longer hours at the ballpark. And that it meant the time we could spend together would be drastically reduced.

“I told him I understood the nature of the game and the intense role of manager. I also told Jim, ‘ I will support you in everything you have to do.’ He replied, “That’s all I needed to hear.”

For the only time in Expos’ history, the team would make the playoffs and Fanning was the manager.