Last year, the Glib Globe and Mail ran a piece about watching a ballgame at Nat Bailey Stadium that indicated that you’d have to be fairly nuts to enjoy yourself there, though it’s nice to know some do. Reaction to the piece in the Canadians community ranged between begrudging acceptance and full-on annoyance, and with the limited amount of coverage the C’s get in the press, such negative press can really hurt.

Though you may never have heard of The Tyee, even if you’re a Vancouverite, if you’re (like me) a little sick of both daily newspapers in this town being owned by the same (large multinational) company, the Tyee may just be the refreshing change you’ve been waiting for.

It’s an online media outlet - no trees killed to keep it going - and it’s not only a great read, but it had this to say about our beloved Nat Bailey Stadium recently, as part of a front page ‘best books to give this Christmas‘ series:

Best book to give with tickets to The Nat: Baseball Love By George Bowering (Talonbooks, 2006)
Bowering grew up in baseball, in Oliver. It’s always been part of his life, and our life, in British Columbia. Sure, it’s their game, too, in the States, somewhere south of here. Bowering shows how much it’s also our game, with a poet’s eye for detail. Brilliant Alberta writer Robert Kroetsch said this about it: "Baseball Love is so good there is no memoir in the league that can go up against it." Buy 10 tickets to see the Vancouver Canadians at the suitably retrograde Nat Bailey Stadium and you’ll get another five tickets to give away as you choose. Let’s do the math: you keep the 10 tickets (cheap at $60), and the book and five bonus tickets cost you $19.95. At Christmas, to survive, you’ve got to play the angles.

Good advice - although the ‘15 tickets for the price of ten‘ deal ended on December 15. But if you’re in the market for some late Christmas presents for a baseball-loving Vancouverite, you can still get your hands on a book of ten now for just $60, which will save you shopping for up to ten relatives this year.

As for the book - it’s on order. I’ll let you know whether it’s worth your twenty bucks, but if you like supporting local businesses, the publisher of this tome, TalonBooks, is about as local as they come, being as they’re based only a handful of blocks away from The Nat itself.