Washington Nationals: Midday Reading: Montreal Expos' Call-Ups...Derek Norris Talks To The Washington Times.

(ed. note - Before linking to the interview that Jay LeBlanc, an assistant news editor and blogger at the Washington Times conducted with Nationals' catching prospect Derek Norris...While everyone has September call-ups on their minds, I'd just like to remind Washington Nationals fans who thinks this is as bad as it gets what it was like for Montreal Expos' fans back in the years before the franchise moved to DC...Back in September of 2004, New York Times' writer Murray Chass talked to Boston Red Sox' shortstop Orlando Cabrera, who had left the Expos in a trade after turning down what was, according to Mr. Chass, a 4-year/$30 million dollar deal, which seems like a reasonable offer, but it wasn't the dollars or years that influenced his decision according to Cabrera, who told Mr. Chass:

"'It wasn't about the money...After you play for five or seven years, you make money anywhere. It was a bad situation all around. It's my career.'"

The bad situation Mr. Cabrera's talking about? He explains a few paragraphs later, as quoted by Mr. Chass:

"'Last year, Sept. 1,'' Cabrera said, off on the date by only three days, ''we were tied for first place for the wild card, and we can't have September call-ups. We couldn't do any trades. We couldn't go after anybody. The team that won the wild card won the World Series. We had the possibility to win and they don't care. They didn't want us to win.'''

...So I guess the message is, Enjoy your September call-ups for those of us who weren't allowed to have any back in the day...You all would have loved Orlando "Money' Cabrera...and did I ever tell you about Vladi???

LINK:

Derek Norris, the Washington Nationals' hard-hitting 20-year-old backstop, a 4th Round Draft pick taken 130th overall in 2007 by DC, didn't get the call to come to Washington this year, but he'll be catching the likes of Stephen Strasburg and Drew Storen when his fellow Nationals' prospects pitch for the AFL's Phoenix Desert Dogs this fall, and he conducted an interview with Washington Times' blogger Jay LeBlanc for an article entitled, "Norris knows there's still work ahead", at the Times' National Pasttime blog. In the interview, Norris talks about the '09 campaign, the upcoming AFL season and what he thinks it will take to make it the Majors. Get to know Norris, he's going to get a lot of coverage this fall...