NOTES FROM THE NAT: Vancouver Canadians news

After walking through the doors of Nat Bailey for the first time in over 7 months Friday, and buying the new and very stylish black Canadians hat, I watched the UBC Thunderbirds take on NAIA powerhouse Lewis-Clark State.  Was it Northwest League baseball? No.  But it was certainly worth the 5 dollar admission.  DH/P Scott Webster led the way on the mound early, and ended up going 6.1 innings, giving up half-a-dozen hits, five runs (two earned), a walk and he managed to strike out five Warriors.  He got the loss but, man he threw well.  

Relievers Kurt Schumacher, Ashton Florko (a former Warrior) and Geoff Burke all pitched in relief, and in their 2.2 combined innings of work, gave up just five hits, one run and a lone walk to the visitors.  UBC lost 6-3, but despite the injuries of many players (which I’ll get to in a second), they came up strong.  Matt Chester was 3-5 with two runs scored and a double, and DH Ryan Pilgrim had two hits, a walk (HBP), and an RBI.  

Compare this to the four players on the Warriors who each had multi-hit games (including one pinch-hitter who ended up going 2-2 with two runs), and it doesn’t look too great on the Thunderbirds, but they still held their ground, only loosing control of the game in the 7th when Lewis-Clark State broke out of a 2-2 tie with three runs. 

LC State’s starting pitcher Matt Fitts improved to 9-0 on the season with his 7 innings of four-hit baseball, where he struck out eight batters.  Man, 9 wins in a season that’s not over yet, amazing.  Then again, Lewis-Clark is 44-4 on the season.  They still have many more games to go before it’s all over as well.

The game was great.  The crowd, was pretty good for a Thunderbird Friday afternoon game, and despite the fact UBC lost it was well worth the trek.  One weird note however, DH Ikaika Lester wears a softball helmet.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that, and I’m guessing he’s gotten nailed in the face with a ball if he now has a cage, but it’s never something I’ve ever seen at a college or pro ballgame.

Lewis-Clark won the other three non-conference games this weekend, sweeping UBC 4-0.  The Thunderbirds failed to beat them all season. 

UBC played the University of Washington yesterday, and lost 14-4.  And UW is a Division 1 team, UBC’s only Division I opponent of the season. 

The ‘Birds now head to Caldwell, Idaho, where they must win one of three Conference games from the College of Idaho Coyotes (formerly Albertson), in order to host the Region I Tournament next week.  It would feature LC-State, College of Idaho, UBC and Concordia-Portland (these teams are already confirmed).  If College of Idaho sweeps UBC, the ‘Birds will head back on the 12-hour bus ride to Caldwell, and play there again for the second series in as many days.  It wouldn’t be fun is my point.

Unfortunately, UBC has fallen victim to the very dangerous injury bug.

Outfielder Matt Chester was injured Saturday after blowing his MCL/ACL and is out for the season, his Senior one.  He has played his final game as a Thunderbird.  Senior Mike Styrna and Mike Elias are both doubtful for the weekend, they’re both outfielders as well.  Last year’s star Nic Lendvoy is out for the season, as are SP Taylor King and RP Jordan Anderson.  Man, that must be hard with four outfielders, the #2 starter and a great reliever all out of the lineup. 

They’re one win away from hosting Region I, and it would be a shame to come this close, and not host.

After the 2007 visit of the Famous Chicken to Nat Bailey Stadium was dubbed ‘his final’, the Chicken will cluck once more, heading to Nat Bailey on July 23rd, when the Canadians play against the Yakima Bears.  Maybe this will be his actual ‘farewell tour’, but for the sake of Canadians fans, let’s hope not.  The Nat Bailey stop is one of 28 on Ted Giannoulas’ June-July-August tour, which includes stops such as the Triple-A All-Star game, and San Diego, where he’ll perform at a Padres game.

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C’s finally name hitting coach:

It’s been something Canadians fans have been waiting for since the rest of the coaching staff was announced in November, but a Hitting Coach has been confirmed for the 2008 season (well, actually it’s rumours from around town, but I’ll assume they’re correct).  Meet Ed Campaniello, former property of the Cincinnati Reds, and ex-Italian Baseball League MVP. 

After playing 9 seasons of pro baseball, Campaniello enters his 1st season as a coach, aftering helping out at American Baseball Camps over the last few years.  The graduate of California Lutheran University is 33 years old, and has a bio as follows (from The Baseball Cube).

Ed Campaniello has had a well traveled 9 year professional baseball career both here and abroad. Most notably with the Cincinnati Reds organization, his career highlights include two championship rings, a minor league batting title in his rookie year and a career high .343 avg in ‘98. In ‘99, being of Italian descent, he was asked to play for the Rimini Pirates of the Italian Major League (Seattle Mariners) and brought home the A/1 series MVP and Championship. "Semi Retired" as of 2004 finished with a career average of .304 Having played every defensive position over his 9 year pro career he brings a vast knowledge of the defensive side of the game. Ed has worked with little league to top college prospects over the years in Southern California. Ed now works as a professional hitting instructor and is a National Director for Americas Baseball Camps. He now resides in Anthem AZ and will be launching his own website Campybaseball.com

He played for Trois-Rivieres of the defunct Canadian Baseball League, where he batted .207 in 27 games. 

Sounds like he has quite the baseball background, and he should have a great season with Rick Magnante, Craig Lefferts and Travis Tims.  Welcome aboard, Mr. Campaniello.

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Greatest Canadian player happens to be Canadian-born:

When GM Andrew Seymour was hired back in January, fans were immediately excited about his wacky promotions, but no one thought they’d come as soon as they did.  No, the promotion schedule isn’t out yet (though, he says it’ll be out by next week), I’m talking about the Greatest Canadian Contest, posted on the Canadians website.

In a march-madness style tournament, the greatest Canadian hitter (Javier ‘Juiced’ Herrera) and greatest Canadian pitcher (Rich ‘Under the Knife’ Harden) were announced, after a few rounds of fan voting, but the real winner overall hadn’t been announced until in this month’s edition of Between the Lines.

The Canadian-born Harden picked up the award, and to seal the deal, Rob Fai created Herrera on MLB 06 the Show, and put Harden on the hill to face the 2004 NWL MVP.  Herrera couldn’t handle Harden through 5 at-bats, and therefore Harden took the award. 

Well, if a video game says so, it must be true. ;)  Good job to Rich, who is undoubtedly the most experienced, and most successful ex-Canadian.  The only problem is he needs to learn how to control his arm.  DL = bad Rich!

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"The Matrix" heads to the booth:

Check out Between the Lines to get hints towards who will be Rob Fai’s side-kick/colour guy on the Team 1040 broadcasts this season, and here’s my hint to finding out who it is.  Check out BTL.  It should be a great season listening to Fai and his colour guy in the booth.  Team 1040 will broadcast 15 games, all of which on the weekend. 

For the last few days, Vancouver Canucks hockey fans have been falling over themselves wondering what the new GM, Mike Gillis, is going to point to as his executive philosophy going forward. 

Will he be an attack-oriented GM? Will he be a grit-meister? Will he look for the team to play a speed game? Will he be looking to spend a fortune on stars?

Well I have the scoop.

Actually, The Vancouver Sun does, and they’ll be printing it in tomorrow’s edition.

Keyword: ‘Moneypuck’.

Yes, Billy Beane fans, you’ve got a new disciple. The Vancouver Canucks will be looking to market inefficiencies, outside the box thinking, and deals that would make the A’s proud, in their bid to push for a Stanley Cup.

The full story will be breaking on the Sun website at midnight, with an audio interview to boot, and personally, it’s got me very interested in the Canucks for the first time since I landed in this city.

UPDATE: The interview has hit the Sun website. Enjoy. 

Ever play Zero Wing? Perhaps the world’s most famous piece of Japanglish came from that crappy old Sega Mega Drive game. "All your base are belong to us" eventually became an internet phenomenon.

Anyways, I was bored today, and whenever that happens and Photoshop is within reach… well…

$18m for 29 home runs; that’s what it cost the Toronto Blue Jays to rent Frank Thomas for one season.

Thomas, the shoe-in Hall-of-Fame slugger who talked his way out of Chicago before coming to Oakland for pennies on the dollar, helped propel the Athletics to an unlikely appearance in the 2006 ALCS. He subsequently parlayed that season into a free agent contract for what could only be called ‘crazy money’ from the Toronto Blue Jays, much to the chagrin of the A’s fans who had grown to love how he looked in white cleats.

Few Oakland fans begrudged him his chance to get paid. They missed his presence in the lineup, but they all, to a man, would have done the same thing. Take the money and run, Hurt.

But The Big Hurt is a smart guy, and if there’s one thing he knew about his move north, it was that he had the Blue Jays by the onions.

Thomas was aces last year, hitting 26 dingers and going for a reasonable .277 average, but after getting benched following a slow start this season, Thomas activated his mouth and the Jays found themselves in checkmate.

"Play me," said Thomas.
"No," said Jays manager, John Gibbons.
"They better play me or I’m going to get pissy," said Thomas, to the press.
"You’re fired," said Jays GM, JP Ricciardi, before the ghastly realization that firing Thomas would cost his team $8m and leave him using Rod Barajas as DH set in.

Exit Thomas. Enter Oakland.

The A’s today announced they had come to terms with the free agent slugger, for next to no money, and a guarantee of an everyday spot in the lineup (which, considering Jack Cust’s current form, comes pretty cheap).

Exactly how little will the A’s have to pay Thomas this season? League minimum. 

In fact, less than league minimum, since they get to pro-rate his salary to make up for the games he spent in Toronto. It’ll cost the A’s $337k to have a Hall of Famer in their lineup all year.

That’s Moneyball in action, in case you weren’t aware.

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I once read somewhere that poodles require you to teach them a trick four times, on average, before they’ll remember the instruction. A pug, being less smart by a solid margin, requires you to repeat that same lesson 96 times before they’ll learn it. A mildly intelligent human will generally need to hear a lesson twice to really lock it in there.

The sporting press? They seem to be about the level of the aforementioned poodle.

Perhaps that’s why the slowest-thinking Toronto Blue Jays beat reporters are positively agog at the remote possibility that the Jays might go after Barry Bonds to replace Frank Thomas, who just got run out of Leaf-Town on a rebar rail.

For many homer reporters, it seems, the loss of a franchise player and millions of dollars isn’t cause for investigation, recrimination, and rehabilitation of the front office - rather, it’s just an opportunity to make the same mistakes all over again. Dump one overpaid, over the hill, DH with attitude, bring aboard another - only this time with perjury, tax fraud, and drug allegations against him! Huzzah!

Was Thomas in the wrong to have yapped to the press about his boss? Sure. But is that really the problem that needed rectifying, or was Thomas yet another in a long line of Blue Jay fall guys who were cut adrift to keep an angry manager from having to change his ways?

This might be a good time to roll down a little thing I like to call the Is Your Manager An Asshole checklist.

1. Has your manager ever physically attacked a player on your team?
2. Have you had to let go of a .301-hitting player who questioned your manager’s decisions, after the manager challenged him to a fight and told him he’d never play for the team again?
3. Have you ever had to pay out, say, $8m to a Hall-Of-Famer who you chose to cut because he thought your manager was leaving him out of the side for reasons other than his performance?
4. Has your manager ever sent down a pitcher who was visibly annoyed at getting pulled early, then traded that same player, only for him to win 24 games over two seasons elsewhere?
5. Is your manager boasting a career managerial record that barely sits above .500?

If you answered yes to all these questions, then you’re a Blue Jay fan.

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It was an early-bird look at the 2008 schedule, when the Canadians released their ‘Schedule Preview’ back in October, but the real thing is out, and she’s a beauty.

Included in the 2008 schedule are seven weekday Nooners, four Sunday Nooners (including the final home game of the season) and a June 17th Opening Night, as the C’s host the Tri-City Dust Devils.  The radio schedule is every home game that falls on a weekend (this is for the Team 1040), but Rob Fai will broadcast EVERY game on the C’s website this season, in addition to a video webcast for all 38 home games.

The longest home-stand is 8 games, and falls between the 12th and 19th of August, when Boise and Salem-Keizer drop by.  A rare 6-game home series splitting games between Eugene and Everett convenes the 27th of June, finishing on the 2nd of July, which means the Canadians will be home for Canada Day once again.  

The only downside so far for me?  A scheduled 9 fireworks nights (there is no promotion schedule out yet, but Rob Fai mentioned this on C’s TV).  Nine?  Oh, come on.  I know they’re a big seller, but like someone mentioned to me, if they over-do Fireworks nights, the novelty will wear off and it won’t be a sellout every time they happen (but, then again, this season attendance should rise dramatically).  Then you add in all the angry neighbour tenants (I’m thinking those living in the area), and it might not be as picture perfect as the game itself.  Who knows though, I could be proven wrong.  Hopefully.

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