Expos fan in United Kingdom got into baseball ‘’by accident’’

Nicholas Stevens is a Montreal Expos fan who lives in the U.K. Photo supplied.

July 26, 2020

By Danny Gallagher

Canadian Baseball Network

Nicholas Stevens says he got into baseball and the Expos "by accident.''

Stevens grew up in the county of Suffolk in the United Kingdom, which boasts several U. S. military bases so there were many U.S. manifestations which made their way into society, including the American Forces Network.

"Myself and my friends first got into U.S. culture via the British-American football team, the Ipswich Cardinals,'' explained Stevens. "They used to play not far from where we lived so we started going to watch them and then got into the NFL, watching games on TV and listening to the radio on the American Forces Network.

"We then discovered the board game Statis Pro Football and started playing that. One of my best friends, Shaun, then started to get interested in baseball and MLB and used to listen to games on the radio late at night on the American Forces Network. He then bought Statis Pro Baseball which we started to play.''

Stevens still has his copy of the game and he plays from time to time “with the Expos.” Around the same time, he began to listen to MLB on the radio. How he chose to cheer for the Expos was thanks to a computer game, 'NHLPA/NHL '93' for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis program. Of course, he was greatly attuned to the dominance of the Montreal Canadiens.

"I bought the game and me and my brother played it loads of times and I was a bit of a glory hunter at the time,'' Stevens said. "I was only 14 in my defence so I picked the best team, the soon to be reigning Stanley Cup champs, the Canadiens.

"When it came to picking an MLB team, I used the Montreal connection and also loved the uniform and logo so I picked the Expos. Obviously, they also had a pretty decent team at the time - damn the '94 players' strike.

"And that was it. My love for the Canadiens and Expos was founded in 1993 and I have followed them both religiously for the last 27 years - watching when I can on TV and following on radio, which is much easier to do these days.''

Stevens can remember the heartache of the Expos relocation to Washington, D.C., forcing him to nearly fall out of love with baseball. As a compromise, he reluctantly chose to eventually switch his allegiance to the Toronto Blue Jays, admitting such a move was an act of heresy, although he realizes that at least he took up another Canadian team.

Stevens' only regret was that he never got to see the Expos play live, although his friend Shaun did see them play at Olympic Stadium when he spent some time in North America for his degree.

Stephens was ''very fortunate'' to be taken to Canada two years ago by his wife for his 40th birthday and he at least got to see the Canadiens play twice. He also visited Olympic Stadium and watched the Blue Jays play at the Rogers Centre in Toronto for his first-ever live MLB game. Then he attended the MLB's two-game exhibition series in London in 2019, featuring the Red Sox and Yankees.

U.K. Montreal Expos fan Nicholas Stevens has a decent-sized collection of Expos jerseys. Photo supplied.

Stevens has developed a "nice, little collection of Expos memorabilia'', which includes 15 different jerseys, one of which is a Vermont Expos top.

"I would love to get more Expos stuff but it is hard to come by in the U.K. and very expensive to ship from Canada,'' Stevens said.