31,000 cards: Montreal woman passing along father's extensive collection of Expos baseball cards
A Montreal woman is passing along her father's extensive collection of over 31,000 Expos baseball cards.
April Whitzman's father, Steve Whitzman, collected the cards from 1969 to 2016. A huge Expos fan, he's got every player covered.
"I know they say there's no crying in baseball, but I think that was one of the few times I saw my Dad cry, during that last game. The Expos were very much everything to him," April told CTV News.
April Whitzman is passing along her father's extensive collection of Montreal Expos baseball cards. (CTV News/Christine Long)
Today, Steve is in ill health and lives in a nursing home.
"My Dad now has Alzheimers, so I decided to take the collection and, one-by-one, record every card that you see here."
After carefully cataloguing each card, April says it's time to send the collection off to a new, loving home.
"I've a good idea of what each card is worth, but I do believe as a collection, it's worth more to the right person, whether that's from Dad's love that he put into it," she added.
Steve Whitman amassed a huge collection of Montreal Expos baseball cards between 1969 and 2016. (Courtesy photo)
Perry Giannis is the founder of Expos Fest, an annual event for fans of the franchise, which relocated to Washington in 2004.
He's also a big-time collector of Expos memorabilia.
"It's a great story about her Dad and his passion for the Montreal Expos, and as a collector I completely get it. I collect everything else, besides cards: jerseys, helmets, bats, whatever else there is out there," Giannis said. "Everything must go at a certain time, it's gonna be the same thing with me one day."
April hasn't had all the cards appraised yet, but has a buyer on deck.
The Whitzmans are hoping the pay-off pitch is down the middle and the collection will go to a loving family -- just like the one that gathered it.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING | Ottawa gives final approval for Rogers $26B purchase of Shaw
Rogers Communications Inc's $26-billion takeover of Shaw Communications Inc. cleared the last regulatory hurdle Friday, more than two years after the deal was first announced.

Donald Trump indicted; 1st ex-president charged with crime
Donald Trump has been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury, prosecutors and defense lawyers said Thursday, making him the first former U.S. president to face a criminal charge and jolting his bid to retake the White House next year.
Police find 6 bodies, including 1 child, in St. Lawrence River
The bodies of six people, including one child, were found in the St. Lawrence River Thursday afternoon after an air search involving the Canadian Coast Guard, the Akwesasne Mohawk Police said.
These are the conditions -- and penalties if violated -- of the Rogers-Shaw deal
Canadian Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne has approved Rogers Communications Inc.'s $20-billion takeover of rival telecom Shaw Communications Inc., but there are conditions attached and penalties of up to $1 billion if the companies violate them.
BREAKING | Oscar Pistorius denied parole as Reeva Steenkamp's parents oppose his early release
Disgraced South African Paralympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius has been denied parole, the lawyer for Reeva Steenkamp's parents said after the parole hearing.
Syphilis cases in babies skyrocket in Canada amid health-care failures
The numbers of babies born with syphilis in Canada are rising at a far faster rate than recorded in the United States or Europe, an increase public health experts said is driven by increased methamphetamine use and lack of access to the public health system for Indigenous people.
House abandoned by couple who 'disappeared' years ago nightmare for neighbour on upscale street
A Toronto man, whose neighbours vanished eight years ago and left their home completely abandoned, said he's fed up living next door to a property that is in complete disarray.
Former Conservative leader Erin O'Toole not seeking re-election, leaving this spring
Former Conservative leader Erin O'Toole says he will not seek re-election and plans to resign his seat this spring. The Ontario MP led the Conservatives and served as official Opposition leader from August 2020 until February 2022, when a majority of his caucus voted to remove him from the post.
Trump's indictment in New York: Here's what to know
The vote of a Manhattan grand jury to indict the Republican former president on charges related to hush money payments made on his behalf during his 2016 presidential campaign catapults the now-candidate Donald Trump into a new era of legal risk and complicates his attempts to return to the White House.