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.