NOTES FROM THE NAT: Vancouver Canadians news

The official release of the announcement for the coming season’s new Canadians broadcaster/media liaison has been posted on the C’s website.

Vancouver, BC - In further preparation for the June 19th season opener, the Vancouver Canadians baseball club have added sports anchor, Rob Fai to their roster as Team Broadcaster and Media Relations Manager.

According to owner Jake Kerr, Fai’s passion for baseball and sports broadcasting coupled with his relationships in the Vancouver media market were strengths that catapulted his resume to the top of the pile of qualified candidates.

"We had applicants from across the country with many of the right credentials," Kerr says. "Rob stood clearly above the rest as someone who could hit the ground running and help our organization deliver on its promise to deliver the best summer family entertainment value in Vancouver."

Fai’s new job, which begins May 14th will include broadcasting a total of 26 games throughout the baseball season on TEAM 1040, as well as media and community outreach, game day media relations and media training support for the baseball team.

A former member of the National Baseball Program, Fai began his sports broadcasting career in 1997 with Shaw TV and worked in radio in Vancouver and Powell River before being hired at News 1130. Rob is also a Broadcast Arts Instructor at the Columbia Academy in Vancouver.

Let it be known again, I have no beef with this decision at all. Fai knows the job of radio, he’s spent time at the C’s a few years back, he’s a professional, well-liked, and good luck to him on his appointment.

I will reiterate, however, I think it’s an error to have one person do what, in reality, should be two dedicated full time jobs. I’ve watched good people at the Canadians press office over the last few seasons put a ridiculous amount of time into just the Media Liaison side of things and struggle to get the job done to the level of quality they aspire to, and to lump broadcasting duties into that role as well is something that, to me, will make it far harder to achieve the team’s goals.

That said, Jeremy pointed out to me that it’s interesting that the press release talks of Fai broadcasting the Team 1040 radio games, but nothing of webcasts… is the C’s broadcast booth going dark on non-radio days? Could Matt Baker still be in the running for some broadcast time?

So many questions, so little time. Maybe one of the C’s honchos can drop us a note to let us know what’s happening.

ADDENDUM: Though I know Rob’s a solid pro, I’ve done a little additional Googling on ‘the new guy’ and found plenty that supports the notion that the C’s have upgraded in the broadcast booth this season. Fai has done play-by-play for the C’s before, so it’s not new ground for him, and as this story describes, it wasn’t too long ago he was in the running for the Toronto Blue Jays broadcasting gig.

I’ve encountered him upstairs in the booth a few times and he knows his ball. Not only did he play the game to a decent level, but apparently he also named his first born after Nolan Ryan. That’s what you call a baseball guy, right there.

We can just thank the lord that his favorite player wasn’t Coco Crisp…

I’m heard on CJSF 90.1FM every Sunday from 11am-1pm, as many of you already know.

But tonight I’ll be interviewed on CKNW 980AM’s Nightline BC program to talk about the 2010 Olympics and the likely post-games benefits that they’ll bring the city, in line with my role as contributor to vancouver2010insider.ca

I’ll try to drop in a ref to the C’s somewhere along the line, but no promises. 

Those who don’t want the games to come to Vancouver may be best served to not listen, because having been through one Olympics in Sydney in 2000, you won’t find a bigger supporter of the event than me.

Best. Time. Ever. 

You can listen online by clicking here and going to the ‘listen to CKNW’ link. 

UPDATE: The interview has come and gone - I’d like to think I sounded like I knew what I was talking about, but you guys can be the judge of that.

I’ve put up an MP3 of the show on the blog for your listening pleasure, and if you have something to add about the upcoming Vancouver Olympics, please feel free to head to the Vancouver2010Insider.ca site and have your say.

…Unless you’re one of those scuzzy Anti-Poverty Commission folks who like to throw bottles of pee and turn over newspaper boxes.

Let me start this post off by saying I don’t wanna be the guy who pisses off the new owners and gets booted from the press box and sits in the cheap seats throwing stones the whole season, claiming "it ain’t like it used to be"…

In fact, I’m kinda glad ‘it ain’t like it used to be’ in many respects, but there’s a balance that must be achieved when a new broom comes into an old establishment, and I like to think I’m impartial enough to be able to make the call when that line has been crossed without everyone getting hysterical about it and donning ‘us’ and ‘them’ jerseys.

But the new Vancouver Canadians, in my opinion, made two rookie errors this past weekend, and I’m going to weigh in on what they were, and how they’re wrong.

First, the less controversial but totally avoidable error. Matt Baker, the C’s multi-season webcaster, had applied to get the gig full-time this season once his old position was posted as a vacancy. Of course, there were new duties attached to the job that made him somewhat less of a certainty than you’d hope, but he put in his application and hoped that, even if he couldn’t get the gig, that there might be a spot somewhere for him to continue polishing his game-calling skills.

Alas, he didn’t get the gig. No biggie, the C’s tapped News1130’s Rob Fai for the role, and you can’t argue that a polished pro like Fai isn’t a good choice, even if sentimentality would lean Baker’s way.

So what’s the error? That Matt had to read about it in the Vancouver Sun.

No call, no email, no hand on the shoulder and box of tissues dropped in front of him. No "this is the hardest decision we’ve had to make." Nothing.

Frankly, a kid that worked for two seasons for free, and paid his own way in several roadtrips, rather than let the C’s webcast go dark, deserves better than that - especially if the C’s are going to present themselves as a now-professional corporate outfit that does things the right way.

But hey, growing pains, right? We’re bound to expect a couple of snafus when so much is going on, and even Matt would admit he was a long way from a sure thing… but man, it had to gut him to read that column.

Sadly, those fans of the old Baker/McGowan play-by-play combo will want to sit down and brace themselves, because the worst is yet to come - the other half of the best webcasting duo in baseball has also bit the dust.

Rob McGowan has been let go by the C’s, and for something that McGowan himself admits was "all my own stupid fault".

Here’s what happened, in Rob’s own unedited words:

Picture if you will the happiest time of year for hawkers, bar Opening Day, the call from new management that they will meet all of us in advance of the hiring fair, to assess who will be invited back. We met Nancy the new director of concessions at the park. In the office, she went over the parameters of what the team wants to do this year - hot roasted peanuts, sausage grill off Third base, sole beer provider - and we are all excited. [She kept apologizing for all these changes; we were like "I'm sorry - where's the negative?"] So she offers us a tour of the renovations. As she was showing us the beer room, I noticed, among the construction debris and stuff stacked up, a few boxes of old cards. I thought they were going to the garbage, so I grabbed a pack for posterity.
 
Next day I get a call saying I’m not invited back, and it’s due to the cards.

I tried pleading my case, and got a promise of review. But, in the end, the hard line had to be taken regardless of circumstance, justification or longevity. I tried every ounce of apologia I could, and even sounded like the 16 year-old who doesn’t want the girl to break up with him. No dice; even if the cards were garbage, that was not my assumption to make. Had I asked, I would have been told they weren’t, and nothing would have happened; but because I proceeded to act cavalier during what was essentially a job interview with new management, there could be no good excuse for what I did.
 
So I am done for the year. It’s not fun having to eat that much crow and face the shame of having "thief" attached to what was my good name at The Nat. But it’s my own fault. I can reapply next year, but that will still be subject; I have to accept that; being bitter gets old quick, and who can I blame beyond myself?

Okay, commentary time: What Rob did was dumb. Sure, I probably would have thought about doing the same thing - when you find a stack of stuff amid construction debris, the obvious conclusion is that it’s going to be tossed. We’ve all worked at places where you come in one day and something has been thrown away, and you say "but I would have taken that home if I knew it was going to be thrown out! You guys are nuts!"

So Rob made a dumb call, and he was booted as a result.

But here’s the thing - for a $10 box of cards, the C’s just disposed of a guy who brings in THOUSANDS of dollars every year in beer sales, and THOUSANDS more dollars in ticket sales.

I’ve taken people to C’s games and watched them yawn through ten innings of shut-out ball, but stand and cheer Rob as he embarasses a non-tipper, or a Yankees fan, or a Tri-City Dust Devils fan (okay, one of those things don’t exist, but still…). I’ve watched hundreds of people sing along to the butthead song with him. And I’ve watched him spend half the year with an unruly mop of circa-1972 Elvis hair, just so he could raise a boatload of cash during the annual Hawker Haircut charity event.

Look, if you find a concession worker has been short-changing people, sure, cut ‘em. If you find a souvenir stand worker isn’t turning up for work on time, by all means, show them the door. If one of the greens crew is growing a crop of hydroponic marijuana in the umpire’s dressing room, bid them adieu.

But Rob McGowan IS the Vancouver Canadians. He’s been a fixture at the ballpark since before the two-storey fence was built. He’s been wearing that "I hate the" Mariners helmet since the days when Julio Franco was saying "Gee Mr DiMaggio, you sure made my first day in the big leagues a happy one!"

He was here when the Angels parked their Triple-A players in this town. He has stories that entertain entire sections, he emails the families of players to let them know how their kids are doing, and even when his body started packing it in and he was unable to carry the tray last year, he STILL came to the ballpark and did color commentary on the webcast every day.

He’s been to every NWL ballpark, both as a professional, and as a fan. He’s put his marriage through torrid times as he created new excuses to get out to The Nat when, really, he should have been at home explaining plot points of The Gilmore Girls to his missus. He’s driven the oldest Vancouver Canadians fan, 99-year-old Bernie, to and from the park for entire seasons, just so the old bugger could come and fall asleep during the 7th inning.

Rob McFuckingGowan is the heart and soul of the Vancouver Canadians and, mistake or not, error of judgement or not, stupid bastard or not, he deserves at least as much consideration as the team can muster in finding a way to keep him around.

Demotion from head-beerhawker? Fine. Suspension for a month of the season? He’d wear it in a heartbeat. You wanna double-check his cash float every night or make him wear a webcam on his cap so he can be watched like a hawk? Go ahead.

But holy crap, for a pack of baseball cards you’re going to let one of the major attractions of a day at Nat Bailey Stadium disappear into the sunset? Come on, Aileen (I’ve been dying to use that one, Dexy’s Midnight Runners fans), cut the guy a break.

And hey, Rob isn’t asking me to write this, just so people know. If anything, he’d prefer not to raise a fuss, because it’s kind of embarassing, but at the same time, the guy has hundreds of friends at the ballpark, and this blog is the best way of letting them know that, no, his kidney has not packed it in. He just isn’t there anymore.

I don’t want to be the guy who, as Will Ferrell put it, hangs out in
the school parking lot for three years after grad. I’ll reapply next
year, and if the team will have me, I’d love to come back. But I have to
accept that I wouldn’t be in this position if I’d used my fucking head
in the first place.

I feel worse about screwing over Delany and Lori. They were working hard on the haircut promo, but now they have no hawker to shear. I may have sentenced Lori to a year as Sinead O’Connor. Like she’ll forgive me after I turn her profile into that of a Ban roll-on.

I’m going to try and arrange something between the VSB and the Cancer Society. Like a good friend told me, nothing is stopping me from trying it on my own, even though I so wanted it to be at the Nat. At least something good can come from this.
 
I’m sure I’ll get to a couple of games this year. My birthday falls during July; the remaining old school hawkers have promised to teach the new ones a special song to sing in my honour. That will be especially bittersweet, as, while I didn’t invent the song, I’m known for performing it with gusto. And I’ll try to make it for August 3, because that’s Bernie’s (Isman) 100th birthday. He missed last season with a sore hip, but with a healthier arm than Mark Prior, he should be able to come out at least once.
 
Always remember that the beer hawkers love the blog, because it lets the parents of the players know who were are, and gives them someone to look for beyond their own kid when they come to the stadium. I’m sure the new guys and the old guys will get along famously. Hopefully, I’ll get to feel it once again next year.

See this guy to the left? That’s Bill The Beerman, a Seattle sports legend who was responsible not just for helping people enjoy their day at the stadium, but was also a large part of why people came back. He was so valuable to Seattle sporting franchises, in fact, that he was regularly paid to show up at everything from college football to minor league hockey, just because the owners of those teams knew he would increase the gate.

Rob McGowan is our Bill The Beerman, and has been for decades, and if that’s not worth being able to see past a silly mistake, then I’m a dutchman.

Please understand that I’m not demanding - I’m asking: isn’t there a point where we can go beyond the automatic trigger reaction? I know the corporate playbook says a person in a situation like this must go, but can’t we show ourselves to be more than just a ‘company’, and prove to the fans (of which Rob has, frankly, as many as the team) that the new owners, as professional and corporate and clean cut as they are, are not without heart?

Let me put it another way - until a month ago, I was working to start a single screen cinema in Vancouver - one that would serve beer and light snacks rather than just popcorn and soda. Part of my business plan involved convincing Rob McGowan to come be a beerhawker IN THE CINEMA on the weekends. For mine, that was what would have made the difference between it just being a movie house, and it being a place where people would come, irrespective of what movie was playing, because it was a great time. In the end I never asked him to make a decision on whether or not to take part, because asking would simply have put him in a position to have to say no.

I wasn’t going to get him away from The Nat, and that’s all there was to it.

Soul matters. Personality matters. Love of the game matters. And history matters.  And Rob McGowan is all of those things within the friendly confines of Nat Bailey Stadium.

He’s not a thief. He’s not untrustworthy. He bleeds red and blue.

In fact, if the team brings Rob McGowan back in some capacity this season, I’ll pledge that Notes From The Nat will donate $200 to the Hawker Haircut charity drive.

So, Jake, what do you say? Do it for the kids.

Here’s your chance.

No editorial comment required.

As you may or may not know, when we shifted from our previous homes at Blogger.com, we had a lot of our archives fail to port across. Then, when we ditched our old Post-Nuke software in favor of Wordpress, we had to essentially move every post across to the new site manually. Which sucks.

Well, the good news is we’ve now restored almost all the posts from June 2006, including all 2006 draft information, while also chipping away at August 2005. That leaves the gap in our archives as being only the off-season period between September ‘05 and May ‘06, and that should be seen to in the next week or two. 

All 2006 Vancouver Canadians game reports are now restored, the majority of the uncategorized posts are now categorized and properly formatted, and we’ve increased the size of our image database to include a bunch of Flickr stock images (including the ‘Bob Brown Bear’ hairy eyeball seen above, courtesy of BaseballArt), so you won’t see the same pictures reused as often as you used to.

In a nutshell, the transition from our old Post-Nuke site to the current is nearly complete. Thanks for your patience while we handle the backroom stuff, and our apologies if the occasional archived story or comment appearing on the front page has caused people to wonder what the hell was going on ("Matt sulentic just signed his contract"? What took him so long?!).

We’re working to add the old NWL standings functionality of the previous site, as well as the live scoreboard. The former will happen soon, the latter might not happen at all. Wear it.

UPDATE: Standings sidebar is now added and functional. Hurrah!

You’ve got to hand it to Billy Beane - he has a sense of irony.

At
a time when half the Oakland roster seems to be made up of patchwork
players and AA-ball stars due to the injury avalanche that has hit the
Athletics (again), Beane has announced a trade for Chris Denorfia from
the Cincinnati Reds - who won’t play until 2008 as a result of his need
for Tommy John surgery.

Going the other way? Two players to be named later (one of which is named Marcus McBeth) and cash.

Now,
Denorfia has upside, to be sure. He was the Reds minor league player of
the year in 2005 and boasted lines of .317/.391/.526 and .349/.409/.484
over the last two years in the minors. He reportedly plays a good
corner outfield, but can play in the center outfield spot if needed
without throwing too many balls away.

So, like, he’s a good ‘un, assuming his arm stay attached after TJ surgery.

Marcus
McBeth, on the other hand, is also a good ‘un, and one that will hurt
to let go of. Drafted as a shortstop, McBeth received a new lease on
life when the A’s convinced him to give up swinging the bat and instead
throw pitches.  

According to MLB.com:

McBeth was 1-0 with five saves and a 1.80 ERA in eight games at
Triple-A Sacramento this year. In 10.0 innings, he walked three and
struck out six while allowing two home runs. The 26-year old McBeth was
originally drafted by the A’s as a shortstop in the fourth round of the
2001 draft but was converted to pitcher prior to the 2005 season. He
led the A’s farm system with 32 saves last year. 

McBeth never played for the Vancouver Canadians, so we’ll only have known him in these parts by his reputation, but that reputation was looking very promising. So long, Scottish Play. 

In unrelated news, the Vancouver Canadians have lost a valued member of staff for the coming season, by virtue of an employee shuffle. I’m going to wait for clearance to discuss the issue, as well as fuller details, but let’s just say that the stands will be considerably less entertaining this season in his absence. Here’s hoping it’s a temporary situation.

No names yet, but there’s footage of him on YouTube.

The similarity to Jason Kendall is uncanny!