Chris Pritchett: Still hangin’ around
Last season’s C’s hitting coach, Chris Pritchett, is still in town, even though he won’t be running BP for the Vancouver Canadians this season.

Yesterday he was profiled in The Province as part of their ‘B.C. Sports Heroes: Where are they now?’ series, complete with the news that he’ll be doing the colour commentary for Rob Fai’s TEAM1040 radio calls this season.

The piece talks about how Pritchett came to Vancouver to play Triple-A ball, met his future wife (Saffron Henderson) here, and was obsessed with getting out of town for the entire time he played in the city - only to make the place home in due course.

"A friend of mine, Sarah Johns, dragged me to a game and pointed at him and said he was so sweet and smart and funny," recalls Henderson, the daughter of Chilliwack frontman Bill Henderson. "He was on the bench and he turned around right then and spat out a mouthful of a chewing tobacco and I went, ‘No, thank you.’

"He doesn’t chew any more, by the way."

Not only is it a good article, but the entire series is great stuff. Two points for The Prov. 

Too much of a good thing
Ya know, when I first started this blog, it was a pretty easy beat to report inside stuff on the Vancouver Canadians. You’d talk about a guy getting sent up one day, then maybe do a post-game report… that was pretty much it. Mainly because, off the field, nothing ever freaking happened.

Improvements to the field? Hardly. Stadium enhancements? Sure, if they can be picked up for free.

Not any more. Nowadays the good stuff is coming so thick and fast that, frankly, I struggle to keep up.

The new mascot launches soon. A new colour commentator has been signed (see above). The press is pumping out stories. The stadium has new stuff happening that even I don’t know about yet. And there’s other stuff… cool stuff… stuff that we’ve been at the team to do for YEARS, that I now here is going to happen for this season.

Can’t tell you what just yet because I’m sworn to secrecy, but let’s just say it will make the baseball experience all the more enjoyable. And it’ll make the blogging a little easier too. Stay tuned.

Andy Seymour and the C’s profiled on MiLB.com
Got a note from Ben at the MiLB Business Blog (who insists ours is the best team blog in the minors - you’re a man of fine taste, sir!) to let us know that the team had been written up on the official minor league baseball site.

There’s not much there that fans wouldn’t already know, but it’s interesting to see the new GM’s promotional style… Barnum and Bailey, eat your heart out!

The one thing that caught my eye, however, was this:

MiLB.com: What type of merchandise sells best at the team store? Are there any unique items available for purchase?

AS: Caps, caps and caps! Our caps are a hit, and this year, with
our new logo, we anticipate even better cap sale numbers. As for unique
items, we have flannel throwback jerseys from three of Vancouver’s
former professional baseball teams — very nostalgic! These teams are
the Capilanos, the Mounties and the Beavers.

I’m going to start charging a commission on great ideas that the team takes on board that started their life on this blog. Throwback jerseys, new logos, video webcasts, historic images on the stadium exterior, mascots… and two more, coming soon!