NOTES FROM THE NAT: Vancouver Canadians news

When he played in Vancouver in 2004, I had a lot of time for Tommy Everidge. 

T-Mobile took a little time to warm up to the presence of a tape recorder under his nose, but once Benny Winslow started dishing the inside scoop on nicknames (Super Mario!), the big first baseman from Santa Rosa started talking freely - and funnily.

And what’s more, when the ‘04 Canadians got smoked in the NWL playoffs, he took it harder than most.

Dude wanted it bad. And that earns respect in Van City.

But it hasn’t been all rose petals and palm fronds for Everidge as he works his way towards the bigs. First there was Don Sutton III, who had been drafted right out of high school, and for several years was considered ‘a better prospect’ at first base, despite his injuries and penchant for taking failure badly.

Sutton never caught on, but even though Everidge climbed levels of minor league ball as expected, he was being surrounded by other first basemen. Haas ‘The Burning Map’ Pratt, Steve ‘Squeaky’ Kleen, Prowling Greg Dowling, Amblin’ Danny Hamblin, Sean ‘Doc’ Doolittle…

The A’s suggested Everidge should try his hand in the outfield, where he might have more options going forward - then pretty quickly shifted him back to where he’s comfortable when it became clear that Super Mario may be able to jump on mushrooms and bounce off platforms, but catching long outfield flies is a whole other video game.

Meanwhile, the competitors kept coming: Chris ‘The Truth is Out There’ Carter was recently added to the list, and Frank Thomas, Daric Barton and Mike Sweeney form a 1B traffic jam at the Major League level that may take years to clear.

So what’s a guy to do when all around him folks are looking to end his minor league career so they can prolong their own?

This. 

Midland top 4th:

• Tommy Everidge homers (10) on a fly ball to center field. Joe Gaetti scores. Jon Zeringue scores

Midland top 5th:

• Tommy Everidge singles on a line drive to center fielder Dexter Fowler. Joe Gaetti to 3rd. Jon Zeringue to 2nd.

Midland top 6th:

• Tommy Everidge hits a grand slam (11) to left center field. Jesus Guzman scores. Joe Gaetti scores. Jon Zeringue scores.

Midland top 7th:

• Tommy Everidge homers (12) on a fly ball to center field. Jesus Guzman scores. Joe Gaetti scores.

If you’re counting at home, that’s 10 RBIs! His three dingers bring him to 12 on the season thus far, which leads the team.

The Rockhounds rode Everidge’s form to a 17-6 victory that puts them at around .500 on the season to date, but the big question for ‘04 C’s fans is, will Two Ton Tommy get a shot at moving up the system to Triple-A ball?

It’s possible. Probable? I dunno. Everlast is 25 years old now, and that’s about the age you really want to be knocking on the door of the 40-man roster, but there’s just very little space for another first baseman in Oakland’s thinking.

Ten ribbys, though… that’ll open some eyes at other organizations.

Either way, guys like Everidge and Blazing Nick Blasi (who is also stuck in Double-A ball despite last season’s MVP turn in Triple-A Sacramento) and Danny ‘The Grape’ Putnam (who held things down in the majors for Oakland while half the team was injured, only to find himself back in the bus leagues weeks later) are worth watching out for.

When guys like those actually make it to the big time, it’s not because they were born to do it. It’s because they never gave up, caught lightning in a bottle a few times, and made it happen.

Vancouver’s proud, Tommy. Keep cranking.

The Vancouver Canadians haven’t got a long and glorious past when it comes to marketing.

Sure, they tried for many years to break through the Vancouver sporting press embargo on anything not rhyming with ‘eye sockey’, but they did it with baby-steps and mis-steps more often than not, and a distinct lack of vision; at least until recently.

Here’s a few examples of what I’m talking about:

Blah marketing: Paying ten grand for the exclusive Vancouver appearance of Dora The Explorer. Then forgetting to advertise she’s coming.
Great marketing: Bringing out the San Diego Chicken and promoting the living crap out of him. 

Blah marketing: Putting a large fake glove on the outfield fence with a plan to give away $100k if anyone hits it, only to abandon the plan when it becomes clear you can’t afford the prize.
Great marketing: "Hit bull win steak. Hit grass win salad."

Blah marketing: Having two kids build a giant polystyrene sandwich.
Great marketing: Letting every kid run the bases after the game.

Blah marketing: Having a random executive from Granville Island Brewery throw out the first pitch.
Great marketing: Having Sam Sullivan’s Transformer-style wheelchair-catapult throw out the first pitch. 

Blah marketing: Having Jose Lima sing the national anthem.
Great marketing: Putting his wife out there next to him. (Mother of God!)

Blah marketing: Putting two fans in sumo suits and having them wrestle on the third base line.
Great marketing: Putting a beer hawker in one sumo suit, having
him play a WWE-style arch-villain, and offering fans a prize if they
can be the one to beat him in best of three falls.

Blah marketing: "And you’ve won two cans of Campbell’s Chunky Chili!"
Great marketing: Mini-donuts.

Blah marketing: Sending out a press release to announce you have a new logo.
Great marketing: Inviting the press to come see your new uniforms, alongside representatives from every pro team this city has had since the 40’s, in the jerseys of their time. 

That last one happened just a few days ago, and not only did every freaking media outlet show up, but they covered the hell out of the affair.

The Vancouver Sun (full disclosure: they pay my wages these days) wrote the story up not once, but twice on the day, then again a day later, and had a photo gallery online, and gave the whole package several days of prominence on the front of their website.

And today, four days later - they’re still talking about it.

From today’s Dr. Sport column by Greg Douglas:

HERE ‘N’ THERE: The Louisville Slugger baseball bat Arnie Hallgren brought along as a prop for the Canadians unveiling of their new uniforms at Nat Bailey Stadium this week had a special significance. Hallgren was a 75-year-old little boy again as he posed wearing his 1954 Vancouver Capilanos jersey. The cherished bat had been given to him by the old Milwaukee Braves 55 years ago when they made Hallgren the first-ever player from B.C. to crack a major league roster. "Until today," an emotional Hallgren said, "the bat had never been out of its original plastic packaging."

When the story is still going several days after the event, you haven’t just had a successful photo op, you’ve successfully changed the sporting news landscape.

The C’s wanted to embrace baseball history in this city, and while they’ve done that pretty darn well behind the scenes, the bigger job is to rebrand yourself so the public acknowledges it as well. 

Mission accomplished, C’s. 

As we mentioned a few posts back, the Calgary Vipers have left the Northern League and joined the Golden Baseball League. 

Now, I’m not going to say they’re a rinky-dink organization, but…

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — During three years in the low minors, John Odom never really made a name for himself. That sure changed this week — he’s the guy who was traded for a bunch of bats.

"I don’t really care," he said Friday. "It’ll make a better story if I make it to the big leagues."

For now, Odom is headed to the Laredo Broncos of the United League. They got him Tuesday from the Calgary Vipers of the Golden Baseball League for a most unlikely price: 10 Prairie Sticks Maple Bats, double-dipped black, 34-inch, C243 style.

"They just wanted some bats, good bats — maple bats," Broncos general manager Jose Melendez said.

You may recall John Odom from a few seasons spent with the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes, where he sucked in 2004 (2-4, 5.01) and didn’t suck so much in 2006 (6-3, 3.18). 

You might also remember that the Witch Kings that season were a giant pack of douchebags all year long, Odom included. Who seriously puts ‘Greatest Team Ever’ on their championship ring? In love with yourselves much?

So anyway, the Vipes acquired Odom about a month ago after the SF Giants cut him from their Single-A squad, but a criminal record problem had kept the kid from being able to join his Alberta teammates.

That’s when Laredo stepped in with an offer for their best hitter in return for Odom’s contract.

Only problem with that? Laredo’s guy had no interest in moving to Calgary.

So Laredo offered cash, but the Vipers had other ideas.

The bat trade wasn’t the first time Calgary came up with some creative dealmaking. The Vipers once tried to acquire a pitcher for 1,500 blue seats when they were renovating their stadium, Young said.

Oh lord.

So let’s have some fun with this. May I suggest to the powers that be in the C’s front office that we schedule a ‘bat day’ for the next time Vancouver plays Salem-Keizer?

We could call it the ‘John Odom Bat Day’, the team could offer bats to parents in return for having their children work the concession stands, there could be a series of between-innings auctions where the fans offer trades of things they have in their handbags/pockets in return for Salem-Keizer players (I offer 16 post-it notes and a roll of breath-mints for their catcher!).

And we could rub it in the Volcanoes’ faces - All. Freakin’. Night.

Make it so, people. 

In other GBL news, 2005 Vancouver Canadians pitcher Joe Newby tells me he’s looking to try out for one of the Canadian Golden League teams.

"Right now I’m still 4 months away from being back to full-game speed," he says.

"The velocity is coming back and I’ve been working my butt off in the gym. If I’m not 95+, I won’t even try after 18 months, but I got a really good feeling that I’m going to have that and more. Only time will tell, just wanted to let you know a former “C” might be playing in that league for at least a little bit until I can turn some heads and get into affiliated ball again."

Go, Newby, go! 

It’s been a long time coming, but the Canadians have finally revealed their new 2008 jerseys, to the public.  While I’m not as keen on the road jerseys as I am the alternate black and home white, these jerseys are still a huge step forward from the variations of team jerseys since the short-season inception back in 2000.

While wearing the white jerseys, the team will sport the popular red hat, as well as wearing white pants.  On the road, it’ll be black and grey from head to toe, with the black hats, grey uniforms and grey pants.  When the club wears the ‘Alternate’ Jersey, which is solely to be worn on Saturday nights, it’ll be the black hat and either white pants at home, and grey on the road.  

(Nat Bailey Stadium - Vancouver, B.C.) - The Vancouver Canadians Baseball Club introduced a trio of uniforms set for wear during the 2008 Northwest League season.  The uniforms were unveiled at Nat Bailey Stadium by Canadians owners Jake Kerr, Jeff Mooney and President Andy Dunn.

Minutes before the Canadians trotted out their newest look, the baseball club paid tribute to past Vancouver professional teams by inviting 1954 Vancouver Capilano’s Arnie Hallgren, 1965 Vancouver Mountie’s Ozzie Chavarria, 1997 Vancouver Canadians’ slugger Chris Pritchett, as well as Elmer Morishita representing the 1941 Vancouver Asahi Japanese professional club.  All four gentlemen wore jerseys and hats from their playing era.

The Canadians home white uniforms sport red lettering with grey outline stating the word "Canadians" across the front.  The white home jersey marks the first time the Canadians have worn all white since 1999.

The C’s stayed consistent with their road colours remaining with a grey uniform with black lettering etched in white with "Vancouver" marked across the front.  The Canadians will wear a New Era 59/50 black hat with their road grey.

Vancouver rounded out their look for the 2008 season with a black alternate jersey that the club states will only be worn for games on Saturday.  This marks the first time in the Canadians 30-year history that a Vancouver team will take to the field in a black jersey.  The Canadians primary mark will cover the left breast of the jersey and the club will alternate wearing white pants at Nat Bailey Stadium and grey away from home.

The black is pretty much last year’s home jersey, in a different colour, and with a new logo, but it looks much better than the previous years’ jersey.  The white home is reminiscent of the Spokane Indians home jersey, while the road grey is almost completely identical to the Chicago White Sox’ road uniforms. 

Note from Oz: The white home uniform is suh-weet. Gone is the blue that made the ‘Canadians’ easy to confuse with Americans, the ensemble totally goes with Oakland’s traditional white cleats, and you won’t be losing outfielders against the advertising signs anymore. Still not such a fan of the logo, but the uniforms get a thumbs-up from me.

Oh, and if you want to see more of the new uniforms - and those from teams past - The Sun has a gallery online. Just go to this page and click the gallery link on the right.

Petit does well at major league level:

After ex-C’s SS Gregorio Petit was called up to The Bigs over the weekend, it came with a lot of expectations.  During Spring Training, he almost made the club, and having seen him in person, he could’ve been a starter he was playing so well.  Well, after two games at 2nd base, he’s doing exceptional.  He’s batting .375, with 3 hits in 8 at-bats, with four strikeouts.  One strikeout came with a tying run on third in the 8th inning with one out (on Sunday), but he’s young, so you can’t fault him too much.  He’s just getting his feet wet.

Way to go Greg!

Pair of ex-Canadians done with pro ball:

Two 2007 RHP’s from the Canadians are done with professional baseball…for now.  RHP Bryan Collins (left) was released by Oakland, after spending the last month and a half at Papago Park, participating at Extended Spring Training.  He struggled last season in Vancouver, but he had some great stuff, and it’s too bad the system was so crowded he had to be let go before even heading up to Kane County.

The other guy who left the A’s was Lee Land, a closer who joined the C’s late in the season from the Cape Cod League.  He raised more than a few eyebrows, but suffered an arm/elbow injury with four games left in the season, and didn’t report to Phoenix until Extended Spring Training.  He retired from the organization on Sunday.  After four years of four schools, including one where he didn’t even pitch due to an injury, I’m guessing he felt it was time to hang up the cleats.

On a happier note, RHP Brent Lysander and Catcher Dusty Napoleon (thanks for the heads-up Melissa!) were sent to Kane County this morning, with Lysander set to pitch later tonight.

And, on the Canadians front, 2007 Catcher Dante Love is expected to come back to Vancouver, to platoon with Juan Nunez, a Latin catcher currently catching pitches in Stockton, due to an injury within the Ports. 

Congratulations, Gregorio Petit!

From the official release:

OAKLAND — The Oakland A’s today recalled infielder Gregorio Petit from Triple-A Sacramento and placed right-handed pitcher Santiago Casilla on the 15-day disabled list with soreness in his right elbow.

Petit was batting .304 with no home runs and 15 RBI in 37 games with Sacramento this year, all at shortstop. He was leading the River Cats in hits (45) and doubles (12) and his batting average was sixth best in the A’s farm system. The 23-year old native of Venezuela had a .448 (13 for 29) batting average with runners in scoring position and made 19 starts in the leadoff spot. Petit was signed by the A’s as a non-drafted free agent on July 17, 2001 and will be making his Major League debut.

Petit was a defensive superstar during his 2004 season in Vancouver, and though he wasn’t a bad hitter, his tendency to slug away at anything within reach wasn’t exactly what you want from a guy with a 16-year-old’s body frame.

But Petit’s defensive athleticism kept him climbing the ladder long enough for it to sink in to his head that it was okay to take a walk, or stroke a fastball into shallow right, or chip away a foul tip to avoid going down on strikes.

He’s paid attention, he’s learned, and now little Greg is a major leaguer.

Well done, sir.

And in case you’re wondering, Santiago Casilla is another former Canadian, though he was known as Jairo Garcia when he played in Van City. And his date of birth was a little more recent.
 

Vancouver Canadians roll out the new uniforms on Tuesday

The C’s have a great little media stunt lined up Tuesday, when the new team uniforms will be unleashed on the Vancouver sporting press.

But for most teams, the issue for events like these is ‘how do we get the cameras to spend more than 4 seconds filming them?’

Answer: Go retro.

I’m not going to give away the details, but suffice to say, if you know anyone who played for the Vancouver Beavers, and they’re still alive and have the old uniform, call the front office… QUICK!

Whitecaps ditch new stadium, taxpayer spends $200m to make up for the delay.

Yes, you heard right. We’re going to pay for what the ‘Caps wanted to pay for initially. Actually, it’ll be closer to $236m in the end, as I have it on good authority that the owner of the ‘Caps got a nice $36m tax credit when he bought the rights to build over the Gastown railyards, which he now won’t be doing - at least for another eight years.

As eight years is the length of time it’ll take for the Whitecaps’ new lease at BC Place to expire.

See, as we’ve discussed before (see below), the city’s USL soccer club really wanted to build a new stadium, with their own coin, on land that could be used for nothing else, that they’d already purchased.

And the city, morons that they are, spent YEARS dilly-dallying over whether or not to let him.

"Would it ruin the character of Gastown?" (what possibly could?)
"Would it be too dangerous with all those trains around?" (You mean more dangerous than having six major tourist hotels and a cruise ship terminal around them?)
"Will there be soccer hooligans?" (what year are you in, 1983?)

Ultimately, the team volunteered to move the stadium over the water, again at their own expense, but then the Ports Authority decided to hold things up and try to make $50m or so in land swaps (read: extortion) off the team.

So, with the MLS tapping their fingers on their desks waiting for Vancouver to get its act together so they could grant the team a franchise, the club owners finally just said, to hell with it, we’ll cheap out - and the taxpayer can deal with the cost.

Thus, BC Place, which had been popularly considered to be ready for demolition, will be getting a new $200m retractable roof - after the Olympics (because before would have taken forethought) - and the Whitecaps will play there for at least five years once that’s taken care of. 

Does any of that make sense to you? The more I hear of it, the more I appreciate Nat Bailey Stadium. After all, having watched what the Whitecaps have gone through, who in their right mind would EVER try to build anything in this city again?

Crackhead hotels? No problem. Heroin shooting sites? Sure. But a stadium built entirely with private money over a freaking railyard?

NEVER!

Oh, and the kicker of this brand new plan for BC Place is a $200m site for the Vancouver Art Gallery, right alongside the stadium.

You know, because when you’ve just watched the B.C. Lions put the stomp to the Edmonton Eskimos, you really want to kick back in front of an early Emily Carr.

There’s an election coming up for the city of Vancouver, and traditionally that matters to most people about as much as what’s playing on the Lifetime Channel tonight at 2am.

But if you’re a sports fan in this city, politics matter at the local level, and the fact that Nat Bailey Stadium exists, and has been radically transformed of late, is proof of that.

Long-time readers may recall several years back, during the last city elections, Notes From The Nat tried to get each of the candidates running for the Parks Board to answer questions about their view of what should happen to the (at the time) decrepit old Parks Board-controlled Nat Bailey Stadium.

Only one bothered to reply. His name was Spencer Herbert. He was a brash young dude with a bad hat and plenty of good ideas, and he told us that, yes, he foresaw a future for the stadium and would do what he could to make that future a reality, if elected.

Which he was.

Today, Spencer Herbert isn’t just on the Parks Board - he runs the show as Commissioner, and he’s doing a freaking fine job, in my opinion.

In fact, not just in my opinion… the Georgia Straight seems to think so too. 

In fact, just today in The Province there’s a story about how Herbert figured it didn’t make any sense to go turning the thousand or so trees that have to be felled in Vancouver each year into woodchips while woodworkers across the city were desperate to get their hands on the often unique varieties of wood that the city is trying to get rid of.

His solution? Sell it, at cost, to the public. If you want it, come get it. No more trees turned into chimney smoke, no more woodworkers paying through the nose for healthy trees to be cut down elsewhere and shipped to the city while unhealthy or dangerous trees are thrown into the furnace.

It ain’t rocket science, but it’s the sort of sensible solution that you don’t often see in Sam Sullivan’s government, and that’s part of the reason the Vancouver Whitecaps are having such trouble building a stadium with their own money, on land that they’ve paid for, in a part of town that desperately needs developing, while the city is considering spending $60m+ to widen a freaking footpath on the Burrard Bridge.

If Spencer Herbert runs for election again this year, do yourself a favour and go vote for him. And while you’re at it, when Al DeGenova runs for Mayor, you might want to remember that he was Commissioner on the Parks Board when the move to demolish Nat Bailey Stadium was defeated. He was right there alongside the Vancouver Canadians, gunning to save the old dear.

DeGenova and Herbert - they did their part for us. Do yours for them.

Or vote for Gregor Robertson, if you’d rather see more crackhead housing. Either way.

I’ll admit that when the Golden Baseball League came to fruition, I laughed my ass off at what I was sure would follow.

‘There’s no way this thing is going to work,’ I said. After all, the single-ownership model has just never worked out well, historically.

And the embarrassingly short-lived Canadian Baseball League would be a great example of why it doesn’t; centralized ownership just can’t react to on-the-ground situations fast enough, whereas local owners can see the problems and opportunities much clearer, and react to them sooner. The last thing you want is a guy in Toronto telling a GM in Kamloops where he should be buying his hamburger buns. You don’t want a marketing guy in Ottawa telling a groundskeeper in Calgary that he doesn’t have a budget for weedkiller.

It didn’t help that they had Jose Canseco throwing pitches, and a permanent road team of Japanese players (the Samurai Bears) that lasted one season of the Motel 6 lifestyle before folding.

But the GBL, though it’s still waiting to hit profitability after four seasons and started life with all teams being owned and operated by the league itself, seems to have endured regardless.

Yes, teams have bitten the dust along the way. Yes, one of their most successful teams had to be shelved when they couldn’t get a stadium deal. Yes, there’s been far more talk about potential expansion than there has been actual expansion. And yes, their website sometimes works… and sometimes sends you to empty pages.

But the Golden Baseball League just. won’t. die.

This year they announced that the Chinese National Team will play GBL teams while in the U.S on tour. They’ve also wrapped up their Arizona Winter League which was moderately successful, and announced an expansion team in El Centro, Arizona.

And in addition to all that - two of Canada’s indie league teams, the Calgary Vipers and Edmonton Cracker Cats, have jumped ship from the established Northern League and decided to play in the GBL this season instead.

That has prompted talk of a GBL ‘northern loop’, which could include teams in Victoria, Kamloops and Saskatoon… and perhaps even Newark, N.J.

The Victoria talk, at least, is serious.

"We are investigating the market right now and have had meetings with (Langford, B.C., Mayor) Stew Young looking for a possible site of a (baseball-specific) ballpark," said Darren Parker, whose family, led by dad Russ, owned the Triple-A Calgary Cannons from 1985 to 2001. "We’re serious about it and are negotiating to purchase a club, but that’s as far as we are right now. It’s such early times, if it proves to go anywhere."

I can’t say for sure whether this will happen, or whether the Canadian teams will run screaming from the GBL after they’ve had a few series against the Chico Outlaws and Orange County Flyers, but one thing is for damn sure - the more northern teams that join the GBL, the better the game in Canada will be for it. After all, the Northern League is where High-A and AA players go for a second chance. The GBL is where former major leaguers go for a second chance.

As for why the canuck teams have shifted gears, in the end it all comes down to simple economics.

"Our travel budget is less than one-third what it was last year,” [Calgary Team President Peter] Young acknowledged. "We’ll be taking five airline trips and three buses to Edmonton. We took 11 trips last year. The scheduling was
terrible and it cost us $180,000, plus a $50,000 subsidy. We’re paying $80,000 now. It makes it easier to come up with a viable operating budget.”

Some of the less profitable teams in the Northwest League may want to take note… 

Oh, and speaking of economics, if you’re looking for baseball merchandise for as little as $2, check out the GBL’s merchandise store. T-shirts for $5 and game worn jerseys for $40, people. Stock up.