Vancouver baseball folk are a hardy band of pioneers. Back in the Triple-A days, you’d often find 1000 or so brave souls venturing into the April rain in the vein hope that a ball game might happen. Generally, if it did, it was a shortened one, but hey, beer is good, no matter what’s happening on the field (tip your hawkers, people).

Triple-A ball is long gone in V-Town now, but University of British Columbia (UBC) baseball has all but taken its place.

What’s that, you say? Not into metal bats and catchers getting automatic pinch-runners? Quit being a baby already and go to a game.

UBC ball kicked much hiney at The Nat last season, pushing the giants of Lewis-Clark State all the way to the end of the playoffs and giving those who pooh-poohed the thought of the school ever qualifying for NCAA admission plenty of reasons to think again. Thunderbirds standout and 2006 Premier’s Athletic Award winner Connor Janes was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks and had a good season in rookie ball (.375 and two home runs for Missoula) before being elevated to short season ball (.197 over 17 games), while former UBC starter Jeff Francis is doing great things in the majors after getting his start in Vancouver’s friendly confines.

But as far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t matter that the TBirds are great, or good, or even crappy (and with a freshman-heavy lineup this season, they may well be more of the latter). It’s baseball, and it’s on at Nat Bailey Stadium, and that is a good thing, no matter whether they win, lose, or get rained out.

Want more info? The RoadKill Sports Blog has a great season preview (the owner of that blog will be doing some C’s game reports for us this year, as well as some interviews for Scout.com), and TBirdBaseball.net is always a great source of game-specific info, rumors, and insider scoops. You could go to the UBC site and sign up to listen to their road games online, but just between you and I, this little black duck won’t be bothering until it’s free.