Pro baseball in the form of the Frontier League’s Trois-Rivières Aigles and Schaumburg Boomers is set for Montreal’s Gary Carter Stadium on June 3.
We’ve seen pro baseball in Montreal since the departure of the Montreal Expos via exhibition games involving the Toronto Blue Jays at Olympic Stadium (canceled due to COVID and never returned, alas). But the lack of a ballpark has hindered any other regular professional ball in the city: various leagues, including MiLB’s Eastern League, have discussed placing teams there, but all we’ve seen is exhibition games at Gary Carter Stadium (as was the case in 2013).
Last year Gary Carter Stadium, located in Ahuntsic Park, was renovated with a $10 million budget, with synthetic turf and additional seating installed, bringing capacity to 1,000.
Carter is arguably the greatest former Expo — apologies to Andre Dawson and Vladimir Guerrero — especially when you considered how hard Carter worked on the fine art of community service. He was an Expo during the bad times and returned for the final year of his career. His passed away too soon because of brain cancer on February 2012, at the age of 57. He is also honored by a street naming near Uniprix Stadium — the former Jarry Park rebuilt as a tennis stadium, containing elements of the original home of the Montreal Expos. (You can easily make out the curve of the original grandstand in current photos.)