Gallagher: Curtis Pride produces heartfelt autobiography

Former Montreal Expos outfielder Curtis Pride has recently released his inspirational biography.

March 6, 2025

By Danny Gallagher

Canadian Baseball Network

On Sept. 17, 1993, Curtis Pride was sitting on the bench when Expos coach Tim Johnson strolled over to him in the seventh inning and told him to get a bat.

The Phillies were leading 7-4. Pitcher Chris Nabholz was due up but manager Felipe Alou decided to bring Pride in as a pinch hitter. Alou knew what Pride did in the minors.

With men on first and second and one out, Pride told himself to be aggressive and that he was going after the first pitch. He drilled the first offering he saw from Bobby Thigpen into the gap in left-centre for a double, scoring Randy Ready and Sean Berry.

Bedlam broke loose. The score was 7-6 and the crowd of 45,757 exploded with a long standing ovation for Pride as he stood as second. He could not hear the cheers because he was deaf. He couldn't understand all the commotion.

With time called as the Phillies made a pitching change, Expos third-base coach Jerry Manuel quickly came over to see Pride, who asked if he was being given the green light to steal third. Manuel said nothing but pointed at Pride's helmet. Pride then thought he needed to replace his helmet, figuring there might be something wrong with it.

As Pride described it, Manuel put his hand around Pride's shoulders and turned him around to face the crowd.

"The fans are cheering for you. They want you to tip your cap,'' Manuel told him.

"I did a slow panorama of the stadium, scanning the sellout crowd as one. Now I had chills like everyone else,'' Pride wrote in his excellent new memoir I Felt The Cheers: The Remarkable Silent Life of Curtis Pride.

Second-base umpire Gary Darling also came over to Pride and told him to smile. When Mike Lansing stepped in as the next hitter for the Expos after a Phillies’ pitching change, the din of the crowd was still overpowering. This lovefest lasted about seven minutes.

One of the most spectacular moments in the 36-season history of the Expos.

"If they had one of those meters where they measure the decibel level, it would have been off the charts,'' Manuel told Pride.

Pride would later tell people the vibration of the crowd made him feel the cheers in his chest. Thus, the title of his book. Pride scored the tying run in the game and the Expos won 8-7 in extra innings. The easy lede for all the journalists on hand centered around that special moment after the double, his first hit and first RBIs in the big leagues.

Pride comes across in the book as humble, revealing, blunt and full of nuggets many people would never have known before. His story about proposing to his wife is priceless.

Pride also played for the Expos in 1995 and 2001 but that performance, that moment, in the heat of a battle for a divisional title in 1993 was one of the most exciting moments of his life.

Overcoming all odds and difficult challenges in life, even some opposition from minor-league teammates and kids taunting him at the playground, he achieved a goal he had been dreaming about for a long time: a call-up to the major leagues with the Expos.

On the night of Sept. 10, 1993, sitting in an idling Ottawa Lynx bus in Rochester, New York, Pride was playing cards when a teammate came up to tell him manager Mike Quade wanted to see him in his office.

The Lynx season had ended and the bus was ready to head back to Ottawa. Quade had stayed behind in the visiting team's manager's office for a few minutes to talk on the phone with Expos personnel, who advised the skipper to tell Pride he was heading to the majors.

Pride didn't know what to truly expect but he had an inkling he was being called up. So did many of his teammates.

He entered Quade's manager's office at aging Silver Stadium. Pride turned lip reader to understand what Quade was telling him. Lip reading had become an art form for him, just like it has been for me because of my lifelong hearing problem.

Pride's hearing dilemma occurred at birth and because he was deaf, reading lips helped overcome many obstacles for him.

"Congratulations, you're going up to the big leagues,'' a beaming Quade told Pride, who was shocked, thrilled and overcome with emotion.

All of this is contained in Destiny's Call, the opening chapter in the book.

Pride headed back to the bus, receiving high-fives along the way. He returned to playing cards but his hands were trembling from the emotion of getting that great news from Quade.

When the bus arrived in Ottawa at 5 a.m. Eastern time, he called his parents and headed to the house of his host Lynx family, grabbed his belongings, got in his car and headed to Montreal -- with no sleep. 

He headed straight to the ballpark, met up with Alou, who reminded him about the long home run he hit in the minor leagues. Pride reckons it went 475 feet. He was activated to begin his service time on Sept. 11 but he didn't get to make his debut until Sept. 14 -- he entered the game to play left field and later flied to centre on the first pitch he got from Todd Burns of the Cardinals.

On Sept 15, he pinch-ran for Darrin Fletcher. On Sept. 16, he sat on the bench.

The Expos were in the midst of a run for the NL East title with the Phillies so he didn't get to see much playing time.

Then that moment in time on a Friday night, the 17th, made it all worthwhile.

“Great story, Curtis Pride,’’ said Dan Duquette, who brought Pride on board as a six-year, minor-league free agent. “In many ways, it highlighted the organization’s ability to identify talent and then to dig deeper into the individual player’s circumstances and challenges.

“We were aware of his hearing issue but understood there were alternative ways to communicate. I mean who wouldn’t want Curtis Pride on their team? One of the great highlights of my time as GM of the Expos was the day Curtis hit an RBI double to rock Olympic Stadium and he could feel the love of the crowd standing on second base,’’ Duquette told this reporter a few days ago.

Pride also played for the Detroit Tigers, Boston Red Sox, Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Angels and New York Yankees but that famous moment in 1993 identifies him more with the Expos than any team.

The book was released by Kensington Publishing and co-written by seasoned journalist Doug Ward. It comprises accolades from various baseball personalities, including a Foreword by Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr., a fellow Maryland native like Pride. Ripken wrote he was astonished Pride could accomplish so much with his hearing problem.

Former world figure skating champion Michelle Kwan and former major-league managers Joe Torre, Mike Scioscia and Bobby Cox were among those who wrote in favour of Pride on the back cover. A glossy section of 16 pages of photos gives readers an extra treat.

“To us, he’s a ballplayer. He’s not a deaf ballplayer,’’ wrote Scioscia, Pride’s manager with the Angels.

Pride talks candidly about all of his minor-league and major-league stops and he thanks many people who were in his corner, especially Tracy, who was in attendance at that famous game behind the plate. His agent Joe Strasser comes in for high praise because he worked the phones to get Pride jobs when other opportunities waned.

Pride was proud of what he did. He played for no less than 26 pro teams. Imagine. He was able to stick around for so long because of his love for the game and pride in his profession.

The book is a must-read. You might even get misty-eyed at what he wrote. He proved the Doubting Thomases wrong.

Curtis Pride is signing copies of his book March 16 from 2-3:30 p.m. at Paragraphe Books in downtown Montreal. The book will be available soon at a number of Indigo stores in Canada.