R.I.P. Wayne Quade: Fan from Upper Ottawa Valley town loved Expos
Pembroke, Ont., native Wayne Quade, a huge Montreal Expos fan, passed away from leukemia on September 17. Photo Credit: Facebook
By Danny Gallagher
Canadian Baseball Network
When the Expos left for Washington, D.C. following the 2004 season, Wayne Quade was heart-broken.
He was a typical Expos fan from 1969-2004, who was so representative of the love the team enjoyed all across Canada.
"When the Expos left Montreal, I left baseball,'' Quade told me in an email four years ago.
Yes, there were many fans who dropped baseball after the Expos departed.
"Occasionally, I will watch the Jays but it’s not the same,'' Quade said. "I sure do hope the Expos return and very soon. Now that I am retired I would have lots of time to take trips to Montreal.''
Quade had longed for years to see baseball back in Montreal. He was looking forward to my speaking gig at Algonquin College in Pembroke, Ont. Oct. 25 about my book Blue Monday but he won't realize those goals because of leukemia.
The horrible disease took his life Sept. 17 at Ottawa General Hospital. He was 66. He was diagnosed about two and half months prior to his death.
Just as I was getting into my car to head back to my home in Uxbridge, Ont. from a work gig in Port Hope, I checked my emails to see the bad news from friend Mike Moriarty. As I drove down the 401, it hit me. My legs and arms just stiffened up in shivers, thinking of Quade's love for the Expos.
Quade had spent many years in his adopted hometown of Pembroke, although his growing-up days were in nearby Douglas, which is also where I grew up.
We were teammates on the 1970 Douglas Expos in the South Renfrew Senior Baseball League, the last year the village fielded a team. We actually fielded a squad to play one August weekend in 1971 against the Corunna Giants in the Ontario Baseball Association intermediate playdowns.
Because many of our players worked in Ottawa or elsewhere and because Douglas was miniscule, we just didn't have enough bodies to keep fielding a team year after year.
Quade attended St. Michael's School and Opeongo high school, both located in or near Douglas, and began working for the Renfrew County Roman Catholic Separate School Board shortly upon graduation. After two years with the board, he went to Ottawa to work as an insurance salesman for Avco Finance from 1973-75. It was in Ottawa that his love for the Expos really took off.
He remembers taking trips organized by Big Daddy Bus Lines from Ottawa to Jarry Park and if not mistaken, he thought the cost was $10-15, including the ticket to the game. The bus would leave at 5 p.m. and return to Ottawa following the game. Over that span of time, Quade took in about 50 games in Montreal.
But really, his interest in the Expos began in 1969 when they commenced play.
"Like you, I can remember listening to ball games on our small Sanyo transistor radio,'' Quade told me in 2014. "When my beloved 'Spos joined the league in 1969, I can remember sneaking off to bed with the transistor and listening to the games from the west coast with Dave Van Horne. It was probably one of the reasons I never did real well in school. I was too tired the next day to pay attention. I believe the games at that time were carried by CKBY out of Ottawa.
"I breathed, ate and slept the Expos. I keep looking on the internet for any stories about the ‘Spos but haven't heard much in some time. I'm not getting any younger and would love to be able to take my grandsons to ball games in Montreal before the lights go out.
“I know that MLB is waiting for the Tampa and Oakland situations to be settled before they consider expansion, but it seems this has been ongoing for years. How long are they going to allow this situation to go on?''
Quade would often organize bus trips from Pembroke to go to Montreal to see the Expos. More often than not, before he and his wife would leave the house for nights out, he would tape Expos games and watch them later in his free time.
"When we came home, the kids knew it was quiet time until the game was over,'' his wife told me a few days ago. "Wayne loved his baseball and he coached ball for all of the kids as they grew up. He had a quick wit and was never stuck for an answer.''
Quade said he would often go on Youtube to watch some old Expos games and found that the games would jog his memory of some of the players he had long forgotten.
What I remember distinctly to this day is the admiration Quade had for former Expos outfielder Warren Cromartie and his work in beating the drums for baseball’s return to Montreal.
“When Montreal gets its team back, Cro should go into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame,’’ Quade said.
On July 7, Quade disclosed a shocker to me when he said he had been diagnosed with leukemia, a cancer of the blood cells caused by a rise in the number of white blood cells. A few weeks later, he gave me an update.
“I am feeling pretty good, considering,’’ he said. “I just finished 10 days in a row of chemo, along with eight blood transfusions. I am getting my strength back and my appetite. I had lost over 40 pounds but have gained 10 back. I truly believe that the Good Lord is watching out for me along with all the prayers everyone has been offering.’’
Sadly, leukemia beat him.
One of his greatest pleasures in life besides family and the Expos was his 35-year run as the property manager at Canadian Forces Base Petawawa, a sprawling expanse of numerous buildings along the Petawawa and Ottawa rivers. Working with a solider-dominated organization, he took extra pride in his job because he was a civilian.
An avid golfer, Quade leaves Susan, sons Brent, Dean and Derek and daughter Kailyn along with sisters Sharon and Wanda and eight grand-children.
Also close to him were in-laws Gerald Tracy, Michael Gallagher, Bruce Gribbon, Greg Gribbon and Lee-Ann Oliver and many other relatives and friends. His parents were Johnny and Doris Quade and the family lived a home run away from the baseball diamond in Douglas where he played.
You left us much too soon, my friend. Adios.
Danny Gallagher's book Blue Monday will be officially released Oct. 13, although some stores already have it on their shelves. Coles in Gallagher's hometown of Uxbridge, Ont. has informed him that 10 copies are faced out on a shelf in that store.