February 4, 2022

By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

Early in the 1978 season, my boss called me into his office.

I’d only been called in a few times, but this was the legendary Eddie MacCabe, who had covered the 1954 Montreal Canadiens and then took over as sports editor from Bill Westwick. The walls only went 3/4 of the way to the ceiling and he could get loud. So it was a closed-door meeting but everyone could hear.

MacCabe was the start of a string of excellent sports editors I had: Graham Parley, Wayne Parrish, Big Mike Simpson, Jim O’Leary, Scotty Morrison and Pat Grier.

My apprehension didn’t last long.

“We’re going to make a change ... you’re now going to share the Montreal Expos beat with Bob Ferguson, you’re going down there tomorrow night,” he instructed. “A lot of our readers are really into this team. I want you to get to know people ... I want them to know you are a regular ... not some once a week, drop-in, green fly.”

I’d gone to Montreal and done features, covered big series or opening days before. This was something different. I phoned Richard Griffin, the Expos crack P.R. man and arranged for a pass.

The next night I got to the Olympic Stadium early and talked to a couple of players in the clubhouse before going out for batting practice.

I forget who won the game, but I do remember my first game story -- the New York Mets edged the Expos 3-2 in 10 innings in the 1978 opener thanks to a Tom Grieve homer in the ninth and an unearned run in extras. Rudy May took the loss.

I had asked Hank Aaron a stupid question once at Jarry Park in 1969 and was naïve enough to wear a blue suit -- ball scribes don’t wear suits -- to interview Ross Grimsley, on his way to a 20-win season in 1978. I can remember rookie Bill Gullickson asking me, “Are you Mr. Grimsley’s agent?”

Once again I am backing into the story. The next day MacCabe called and asked whom I had talked to -- besides the people quoted in the game story. I explained I spent about an hour and a half during both batting practices talking to broadcaster Dave Van Horne. And how insightful it was.

Now, in the 1960s and the 1970s (some might say the 1980s and 1990s) newspaper writers and TV/radio people did not always get along.

“You spent that much time talking to a non player!!! I expect you to get to know Gary Carter, Larry Parrish, Andre Dawson, Ellis Valentine and Steve Rogers,” McCabe said his voice rising.

I took a deep breath before answering ...

“Edward with all due respect ... Dave Van Horne was there for the first pitch at Shea Stadium, he was here before Carter, Parrish, Dawson, Valentine and Rogers. And he’ll be here long after those players have retired. I’ll get to the other guys. But I listen to games at night from Pittsburgh, Chicago and Detroit. Dave Van Horne is better than Bob Prince, Harry Caray or Ernie Harwell ... some day he’s going to Cooperstown.”

* * *

Van Horne addressed the crowd at Doubleday Field in 2011 after winning the Ford C. Frick award.

The question is why are we writing about Van Horne in February?

Van Horne won’t be back for the start of the 2022 season -- whenever it begins. After 53 seasons broadcasting the Expos (1969–2000) and the Florida/Miami Marlins (2001–2021), he is hanging up the head phones. Prior to that, he worked three years at triple-A Richmond.

Legend has it John McHale and his Atlanta Braves played an exhibition game at Richmond, the clubhouse radio was on and McHale asked someone after hearing Van Horne’s voice, “Who is that?” And thus was the start of a long-term relationship.

Van Horne became the voice of the Expos, he taught Canadians the game, painted word pictures and was always first class. Remember this was when the Expos were Canada’s team making post-season play in 1981 and just missing in 1979 and in 1980.

Games were televised on CBC on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The rest of the time, whether it was driving, or at the cottage, in the backyard or even at September weddings -- people listened to Dave.

Duke Snider and Van Horne wore the CBC red jackets until the 1976 Olympics and then all CBC sportscasters wore gaudy blazers which were either salmon, peach or orange ... take your pick. Neither liked the jacket and once we clocked Snider removing it three seconds after the game wrap-up ended.

* * *

The final line -- as they used to say in the press box when a starter made his exit -- on Van Horne ...

_ First game April 8, 1969 ... Expos at New York Mets, at Shea Stadium.

_ Starters: Mets future Hall of Famer Tom Seaver against Jim (Mudcat) Grant.

_ Outcome: 11-10 Expos win. Neither Seaver nor Grant had a decision.

_ Decisions: WP-Don Shaw, 1-0, LP-Cal Koonce.

_ First homer opening day: Reliever Dan McGinn hit the Expos first home run in the top of the fourth, a solo homer, giving Montreal a 4-3 lead with Van Horne’s partner, Russ Taylor on the home run call. (Taylor had play-by-play for the middle three innings.)

_ First home run calls _ With the Expos leading 7-6 in the eighth, Rusty Staub hit a solo shot off Al Jackson for his first big league home run call. One out later Bob Bailey and John Bateman each singled. On came Ron Taylor (Leaside, Ont.) to face Coco Laboy who promptly hit a three-run homer, Van Horne’s second home run call. Laboy’s homer proved to be the difference in the 11-10 final.

* * *

_ Last game, Sept. 22, 2021: Washington Nationals against Miami Marlins at loanDepot Park. The Nationals won 7-5. It was Van Horne’s 47th and final game of last year’s regular season, as the Marlins cut back his schedule.

_ Starters: Elieser Hernandez, Marlins; Josiah Gray, Nationals.

_ Decisions: Gray, W, 1-2, S-Tanner Rainey (2nd), S, Hernandez 1-3.

_ Final home run calls: In the bottom of the ninth, catcher Sandy Leon homered off Washington’s Ryan Harper, a solo Homer. It was Van Horne’s final “Up, Up and Away. For Van Horne’s final game he was like Steve Rogers ... working all nine innings, a complete game for his farewell. In all, he called five homers that game as Yadiel Hernández, Juan Soto and Luis Garcia went deep against Hernandez. The Marlins homered twice in the ninth: Nick Fortes and Leon.

_ Total games: 8,169 regular season games in Canada, USA and Puerto Rico, not counting spring training or exhibition games.

_ Honours: Named the 1996 recipient of the Jack Graney Award by the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in St. Marys for “a lifetime of media achievement.” ... Presented the Ford C. Frick award in 2011 at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown ... Inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in St. Marys 2014.

_ 2022 season: Van Horne was offered to do a 20-game package this season, but declined.

* * *

I never saw Van Horne in a fight. I did witness umpire Frank Pulli kick in the doors to the umpire’s room at Plant City, spring home of the Cincinnati Reds in 1988.

The Blue Jays were visiting and the park was not finished. Rains came and the grounds keepers rushed the field to apply the tarp and not lose the sold-out crowd of 6,000. One problem. The head grounds keeper had the keys to the umps’ room in his pocket.

Pulli kicked in the new door so he could change and try and beat the traffic onto Route 4. A few times I’d see Pulli and Van Horne pass each other in the hallway. One would say “second toughest man from Easton, Pa.”

Former heavyweight champion Larry Holmes is from Easton. He was a numerous title holder and was the only fighter ever to knock out Muhammad Ali. So, Holmes was No. 1. Pulli and Van Horne are from the same home town of Easton in the Lehigh Valley. The joke was one of them was No. 2 behind Holmes on the toughness scale.

There are three cities in the Valley, east to west: Easton, Bethlehem and Allentown. NFL HOFer, Chuck Bednarik, known as “Concrete Charlie,” last of the two-way players in the NFL was born in Bethlehem, eight miles west of Easton,

Bednarik went to high school in Bethlehem, enlisted in the Army for WW II, then to University of Pennsylvania for football, earned All-American honours and was a No. 1 pick of the Eagles in 1949. He played 14 seasons (1949-1962) with the Philadelphia Eagles earning all-star honours nine times.

Holmes was born in Georgia, but grew up in Easton and still lives there. His nickname was the Easton Assassin. Van Horne said Pulli thought Holmes and Bednarik were the “toughest” to come out of the Valley.

Allan Ryan of the Toronto Star and I were the last two to leave the park that night ... opening night in Plant City. It was dark -- no lights, no moon -- as we entered the unlit parking lot leaving the park for the first time.

We walked along the sidewalk and suddenly we heard the squish, squish of the mud overflowing the sides of our shoes as we had ventured into the grass.

* * *

Looking back I: ...

Originally published Dec. 9, 2010

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. - Unlike most who fell in love with the Montreal Expos as a youngster and cried when the team moved to Washington, D.C., I still have an outlet.

When I check my phone messages at home I can hear the silky smooth voice of former Expos broadcaster Dave Van Horne.

After hearing his voice on someone else’s answering machine, I was in Montreal for an Atlanta-Expos series. I asked Van Horne in the Olympic Stadium press box, if he’d do me this little favor.

Dave asked: wife’s name? Kids’ names?

He dialed my number.

One take.

The kids are long gone, one to Dieppe, N.B. the other to Oakville.

The message will stay ... until they put me in a box.

Or ‘til it’s time to move to another league.

Tom Cheek was a good friend.

If it wasn’t the Blue Jays broadcaster winning the Ford Frick award on this day, we’re very happy it was Van Horne.

He was the first Expo employee we met. He had a major-league sense of humour, an appreciation and understanding for the game and patience to pass on wisdom to the inexperienced like me. We went to watch his son play a game one spring in Wellington, Fla.

He’s most famous for his “El Presidente, El Perfecto” line at the end of Dennis Martinez’s perfect game at Dodgers Stadium and his ‘up, up and away” home-run calls.

His best post-game interview story involves Rusty Staub. Staub threw out the lead run at the plate in the top of the ninth at Jarry Park. And as so often happens, led off the bottom of the inning.

Yet, instead of heading for the dugout, Staub ran to the left-field corner at Jarry where the home clubhouse was located.

Finally, he strode to the plate and hit a walk-off homer. Staub was Van Horne’s natural post-game guest and the first question was why the delay?

“Well, Dave, they taught us in the minors to get everything into a throw and then let it go,” Staub said. “I haven’t been feeling that well lately and when I let it go, I s--- my pants. So I had to change my bottoms.”

Since there wasn’t any seven-second delay, they went to the out-of-town scoreboard.

Van Horne made one stop on his drive from Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., to the Orlando area after receiving the call from Hall of Fame president Jeff Idelson.

“I stopped at Timber Terrace school to take my 10-year-old Madison out of class and give her the news,” Van Horne said, his voice quivering.

To Idelson he said “you’ve got to be kidding?’ and said to the writers gathered “I wish I had a better response.”

Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos grew up listening to Ken Singleton and Van Horne.

“When his name comes up, the name of the Expos will live on,” Anthopoulos said.

Except ... when asked if he was going into the HOF as either an Expo or a Marlin, Van Horne quickly answered “a Marlin.”

The Marlins HOF front office of Andre Dawson and Tony Perez, along with owner Jeffrey Loria sat in as Van Horne spoke with reporters.

Van Horne spent 32 years broadcasting Expos games with Russ Taylor, Duke Snider and Singleton, as well as Jon Sciambi and Glenn Geffnner in Miami.

His up, up and away home run call?

One night he was driving from Jarry to his West Island home and heard the Expo highlights. There was little difference between the home run calls of Taylor and Van Horne.

Soon a song by the 5th Dimension came on the radio: Up – Up and Away. Van Horne decided to try it.

“I did it for a week, there was zero reaction, so I stopped,” he said. “Everyone asked what happened to up, up and away?”

So, it returned.

I asked Van Horne to tape the message. He dialed my number and said:

“Thanks for calling Elliott Ballpark, Bob’s not here, Claire’s not here. Alicia’s not here, Bobby isn’t here, they’re all ... up, up and away. Please leave a message, just be sure not to leave any men on base.”

People mistake Van Horne’s voice for Jerry Howarth or Cheek:

I’ll have to bug Sir David for a tag line ...

“Thanks for calling ... Dave Van Horne, Hall of Fame class of 2011.”

* * *

Looking back II: ...

Originally published July 19, 2011

Before Tom Cheek and Jerry Howarth, but not before Ernie Harwell, Canadians listened to Van Horne’s gentle voice, worrying if that ball was deep enough to be “up, up and away.”

In the pre-Blue Jays days the Montreal Expos had a coast-to-coast radio network. Van Horne and Hall of Famer Duke Snider explained, entertained and educated fans listening on the radio five times a week and twice on TV.

Before the Jays became a force, the Expos were eliminated on the final day of the 1979 season by Philadelphia Phillies Hall of Famer Steve Carlton. On the next-to-last day of 1980 they were eliminated again as Phillies’ HOFer Mike Schmidt homered off Stan Bahnsen. And a ninth-inning homer by Los Angeles Dodgers’ Rick Monday prevented the Expos from reaching the 1981 World Series.

Van Horne’s dulcet tones were always so accurate that you could close your eyes and see the pool beyond right field at Jarry Park, see Woody Fryman shake his left arm between pitches, Tim Raines slide into second head first with another stolen base or even envision Gary Carter’s smile.

On Van Horne’s weekend, former Blue Jays great Robbie Alomar, the first with a Jays logo on his plaque; ex-Toronto general manager Jays Pat Gillick, a Canadian citizen since 2005 and Bert Blyleven, who spent four years in rural Saskatchewan as a youngster, were inducted.

The Frick award goes annually for “major contributions to baseball.” Besides working Expos and Marlins games, it was Van Horne, who suggested the Expos hire as a part-timer a tall drink of water named Thomas Cheek from Burlington, Vt. That led to Cheek’s job with the Jays.

Now, that’s a contribution. The 1982 Expos media guide shows an English radio network consisting of 33 stations in nine provinces - Prince Edward Island took a pass - and three states south of the border: New Hampshire, New York and Vermont. The Blue Jays have never matched that point of saturation.

Ken Singleton was doing 50-to-60 TV games in 1985 when the Expos asked him to move to radio.

“Who better to learn from than Dave Van Horne?” said Singleton, a New York Yankees broadcaster with the YES Network. “Dave taught me the pacing of a game, how to be organized, how to find information quickly. We couldn’t look things up on our laptop back then.”

The Expos had good teams and some not-so-good teams, during Singleton’s years.

Making lopsided games sound interesting is always a challenge, no matter the club.

One night at Dodger Stadium in 1995, Singleton brought his friend, Japanese broadcaster Pancho Ito into the Expos booth as Hideo Nomo was on the mound.

“We sat him between us but we didn’t tell listeners,” said Singleton, who remembered it unfolding like this:

Van Horne: “Kenny you’ve been to Japan, do you speak Japanese?”

Singleton: “Dave, it’s a very difficult language.”

Van Horne: “Give it a try ...”

Singleton: “OK, here’s Wil Cordero.”

Then, Ito jumped in, broadcasting in Japanese.

Van Horne at the end of the at-bat: “Sounds great Kenny, care to do another hitter.”

Singleton: “I’m a little rusty, but it’s coming back, here’s Rondell White.”

Singleton pointed at Ito and away he went in Japanese.

Singleton: “Now it’s Darrin Fletcher.”

Singleton nodded to Ito.

“After the commercial we told the audience what we’d done,” Singleton said. “I get to Montreal and there’s a note obviously from a Japanese-Canadian couple saying how nice it was to hear the game in Japanese. At the end was: ‘P. S. We knew it wasn’t you.’”

Singleton called Van Horne with congratulations on his award in December and thanked him, for he says he wouldn’t have had such a long career without Van Horne’s help.

“It’s still fun, the Yankees are a fun team to cover,” Singleton said. “I tell David Cone all the time there are worse jobs.”

Singleton remembers another Dodger Stadium day in 1991.

Dennis Martinez got Chris Gwynn to fly out to centre for the 27th and final out.

Van Horne gave his famous “El Presidente! El Perfecto!” call.

And Singleton thought “I can shut up now.”