It was a long time coming. We all knew it. We could see the writing on the wall, but the owner of the team, Ray Pecor, kept on denying it would happen - and now it has: The last Canadian Triple-A team, and one of only two remaining Canadian minor league teams, the Ottawa Lynx, has been sold to American businessmen who will move it to Pennsylvania.

The Lynx have been hurting in recent years - attendance was falling, and the local city officials have been selling off their parking spots for years, and with Minor League officials approving a move (in theory) to Allentown, Pennsylvania last year, there was little doubt that the future of the team in Canada would be short.

Today, that future ended, leaving the Vancouver Canadians as Canada’s last minor league ballteam - one of only two Canadian teams still affiliated with the MLB.

It’s a sad day, but only one of many of the last few years, as the Canadian federal and provincial governments have sat back and watched valuable parts of the northern sporting fabric be ripped asunder, with nary an effort to stop the rot.

Let’s take Vancouver as an example.

When the Triple-A team asked city officials for help in making Nat Bailey Stadium a true AAA standard facility, they were told no, with a handful of local residents bitching that they didn’t like the traffic that better facilities would bring.

So we lost the team, and went from baseball one level below the major leagues to baseball one level above college ball.

Edmonton lost their team, the Trappers, when former Houston Astro Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan bought the club and moved it south, a shift that was based on the belief that having more minor league teams located around the Astros would only increase the major league team’s fan base.

Sadly, the Toronto Blue Jays don’t seem to share the same belief system, as they have done nothing to save Canadian minor league ball, instead fielding minor league teams in Syracuse New York, New Hampshire, Dunedin Florida, Lansing Michigan, Auburn, New York, and Pulaski, Virginia.

Of course, the death of the Montreal Expos hasn’t helped - the Trappers were an Expos affiliate until the big club shifted to Washington DC - and the ridiculously incompetent Canadian Baseball League managed to make baseball a laughing stock in the great white north, when it imploded after half a season.

So where does that leave the Canadians? Doing just fine, if you take the word of potential new owner, Jake Kerr, who popped into the press box a few weeks back and said. "We’re in good shape. We get 3,500 people to come out on a chilly night with next to no promotion at all, little help from the local media, and low-A level ball. We’re going to put a load of money into upgrading Nat Bailey Stadium if we can come to an agreement on a long term lease with the Parks Board - we want 25 years, they’re offering 20, so you’d have to think that’ll happen soon - and with that will come proper marketing budgets, and we’re certain that’ll give us crowds we can be proud of."

So goodbye Lynx. So long Edmonton Trappers. Syonara Calgary Cannons and Winnpeg Whips, and Montreal Expos and Medicine Hat Blue Jays. We’ll keep the porch light on here in Vancouver, waiting for the day when Canadian government officials learn that minor league baseball is a GOOD thing.

Note: Hat tip to the UBC Baseball Fanpage for the scoop.