NOTES FROM THE NAT: Vancouver Canadians news

When scanning a roster of the Vancouver Canadians, one name sticks out.  Barfield, Jeremy.  Look at the stats, and they’re very respectable numbers beside his name, but if you watch him bat, or play in the field, he’s playing much better than the stats say.

Take last Thursday afternoon for example.  He hit a foul ball out of Nat Bailey Stadium, but it was about 15 feet foul.  Jeremy hit his first home-run in Tri-Cities, and is now a threat with the bat, and in the field for the Canadians.  I chatted with the slugger during his off-day.

JK: Congrats on your home-run the other day, does it feel good to have the first one out of the way?

JB: Thanks. Yeah it feels great to get the first one out of the way. Hopefully it is the first of many.

JK: Have the first 42 games of your first professional year gone the way you had hoped/planned?

JB: Yeah
I expected to be challenged and to have a great time and it helped that
I was warned how hard it is to hit at Nat Bailey Stadium. It’s been
great so far.

JK: Is there any current or former major league player that you model your game after?

JB: Ken
Griffey Jr. is a given for me. He’s just that good. Also lately I’ve
been watching Pat Burrell, Ryan Ludwick and especially Alex Rios as of
late. They are impact corner outfielders in their respective leagues
and hopefully I project out to their stature someday.

JK: What’s the craziest/funniest thing you’ve seen a fan do this season home or away, to get a player’s autograph?

JB: I had a guy give me an Ichiro rookie card for one of my broken bats on a road trip. Of course I made the deal, it’s Ichiro!

JK: You
couldn’t stop laughing when the San Diego Chicken was in town and he
kicked you off as being first base coach. Was it your first time seeing
him perform, and more importantly did you enjoy watching him?

JB: Yeah
he called me Marco (Luis) so I couldn’t stop laughing at that. It was
also hilarious to me that the Chicken is just some tiny old man with
glasses, yet he’s made so much money over the years.

JK: Getting to
know a new team, where you know nobody as of Opening Day can be tough,
but has the transition been good from a tight-knit JC team to a
short-season minor league club been pretty good?

JB: Yeah it’s been
great. I actually met David Thomas at a Braves workout in early June
and then we met again at a Reds workout at Great American Ballpark a
week later so I already talked to him before we signed and everything.
That was pretty cool and showed me how small this pro baseball circle
really is.

JK: Finally, will you know you’ve made it big in professional baseball when you can play as yourself in a baseball video game?

JB: That
will be the day. Somebody said this to my brother though and it made
sense.."You know you’ve made it when they make life size cardboard
cutouts & bobbleheads of you. You’ve made it." Hopefully I get a
Fathead vinyl poster someday. That would be awesome.

Thanks a lot to Jeremy for taking time out of his schedule to talk to me, and good luck to him and the C’s as Mike Hart takes the mound tomorrow night against first-place Salem-Keizer.
 

Despite a pitching performance that limited the Tri-City Dust Devils to just 3 hits over nine innings, the Vancouver Canadians saw a potential victory thrown away Tuesday, behind untimely walks, errors and wild pitches.

While Vancouver’s hitters were far from all-conquering, the 1B/DH combo of Dusty Napoleon and Mike Lissman combined to give the C’s every chance of a win. Napoleon went 2-3 with a pair of doubles, a walk and a run scored, while Lissman drove in a pair of runs, scored one himself, and hit a two-run home to left in the 9th inning to cap off a 2-4 day.

With the ball, Pedro Figueroa was a human highlight reel for the C’s, tossing five innings of two-hit, seven-strikeout ball, but third baseman Francisco Tirado booted a ball in the first inning that saw two runs score, and Ben Hornbeck’s shaky outing in relief (2IP, 2ER) gave the Dust Devils the breathing room they needed to claim victory.

Lissman’s home run shot was his fifth of the season, which is all the more impressive considering he has only played 21 games for the team. Lissman hit two dingers in 54 games with Low-A Kane County prior to his arrival in Vancouver.

The C’s next play at Nat Bailey Stadium Thursday against the division-leading Salem Keizer Volcanoes.

Apparently Julio Rivera’s sunglasses - the ones I criticized him for wearing while pitching a few weeks back - are prescription, and without them he can’t see on the field.

So yeah. I’ll just shut up now and go sit in the corner.

Go C’s. 

With all the traveling I’ve been doing lately, I’ve been slack on checking my emails, but this one I found today from Rob McGowan is one that really caught my attention.

 The Cougars recently held a ‘Pillow Fight Night’ and now hold the unofficial Guinness World Record for largest pillow fight. 

Kane County Cougars fans have unofficially broken the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest pillow fight, eclipsing the previous Guinness record of 3,648 people. Following this evening’s game, 3,872 fans descended upon the Elfstrom Stadium outfield grass and took part in a memorable 90-second pillow fight. The historic try, sponsored by Back to Bed included both young and old fans, families with children and groups of teenagers. Many anxious Cougars faithful arrived to the ballpark with pillows brought from home, some containing pillowcases that were homemade creations featuring the Cougars’ logo and team colors. With the help of Back to Bed, fans were also provided regulation pillows that were used during the attempt.

This part really makes me laugh:

Throughout tonight’s pillow fight, fans were seen erupting in uncontrollable laughter as they swung their pillows. Just seconds into the fight, spectators observed a thick blanket of white feathers that were strewn across the right field grass in the designated “red zone”. Cougars staff divided the outfield grass into three “levels of aggression” – a green zone for families with small children, a yellow zone for families of teenagers, and a red zone for adults.

So if you’re really competitive, you could head over to the ‘Red Zone’ and kill everyone in sight with a pillow.  Now that would be fun.  So please Vancouver Canadians, if you have 3,873 people on the field after a game hitting each other with pillows, we’ll be world record holders, and bruised baseball fans. 

Tonight’s game was more than a baseball game for the Canadians, it was for a teammate, JD Pruitt who was beaned in the head with a ball in the 3rd inning.  Pruitt is alright, and last I heard from Rob Fai, he’s been released from hospital, but he dodged a bullet.

JD went down for minutes, apparently out cold, down on home plate.  The former NWL HBP king was hit, but wasn’t getting up.  Pruitt was taken to a local hospital, where he has since been released, reportedly.

Pruitt was 1-1 with the HBP when he went out of the game.

Tri-City managed three runs off of Shawn Haviland in the 5th, and 2 more in the 7th off of Hector Garcia.  Mike Hart came into the game with none out and the bases loaded in the 7th, but failed to give up a hit, or a run.  Vancouver fought back, scoring three runs in the 8th, but two strikeouts and a line out ended the game in the 9th.

And you know what, I can’t blame them.  When a teammate goes down, or even an opponent, early on in the game, it’s not about a baseball game.  In the back of your head, for every pitch, every swing, and every out, you are always wondering about the guy who went down.

And it’s not fun.  I’ve played when kids have broken their bones, gone out cold, and had to finish a game.  It is not fun.   And that’s little league.  These guys travel together, spend all day together, and to see a friend go down?  It’s hard enough to step back into the batters box after someone gets hit but to manage a comeback?  I know it sounds amateurish of me to say this, but they did one hell of a great job.

Jason Christian was exceptional tonight, going 2-2 with 2 walks, and a double.  He also stole a base.  Jeremy Barfield was 1-3, and Leo Gil was 1-4 with a double.

Edgar Tejeda pitched a scoreless 8th, 5-3 was the final in favour of the Dust Devils.  My thoughts are with JD tonight, hope he can recover as soon as possible.

No the title is not mis-leading.  

Pruitt was hit in the left side of the head, half-helmet, half-head,  and was knocked unconscious for several minutes at home plate.  He’s been taken to a local hospital and all anyone can do is hope the concussion was the extent of the injury.  

Thanks to Hans Havas for the heads-up.  More as it comes in.   

The Northwest League Vancouver Canadians extended their hot streak to eight wins in their last eleven games with a tight 4-3 victory over the Tri-City Dust Devils Saturday.

Despite falling behind to a ground-out RBI in the first inning after newly promoted Leonardo Gil booted the ball at third base, tight pitching from Matt Fitts kept the Dust Devils close for long enough for the Canadians’ bats to heat up.

That happened in the 4th inning when Dave Thomas singled up the middle, Dusty Napoleon sprayed a base hit to left, and Jeremy Barfield cranked a shot down the left field line that drove them both in. Leonardo Gil then atoned for his earlier error by sending Barfield home on an RBI single to right, making it 3-1 C’s.

In the 6th inning when clubhouse captain Mike Lissman added a homerun to left field, giving Vancouver a 3-run lead, but in the bottom of the frame, Tri-City’s Scott Robinson took Ben Hornbeck long to keep the Dust Devils close.

A sac fly to Tri-City designated hitter Thomas Simmons made the score 4-3 in the 8th inning, before Vancouver’s usually reliable closer, Jose ‘Goose’ Guzman, found himself in a final inning panic situation.

After giving up a lead-off double to Austin Rauch and seeing him sac-bunted to 3rd, pinch-runner Chad Lembeck broke for home on an attempted steal, only for catcher Dante Love to nail him at the plate, securing a tight and much needed victory.

Highlights for the C’s included lead-off man JD Pruitt hitting 3-5, Dusty Napoleon going 3-4 with a run scored, and Leonardo Gil going 2-3 with an RBI. Matt Fitts and Ben Hornbeck combined for 7 innings of 5-hit, 2-run ball.
 
Vancouver sits equal second in the NWL West after the win, three games behind Salem Keizer with a three game home stand against them starting July 31. 

July 26, 2008
	Final    1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9      R   H   E   Vancouver   0   0   0   3   0   1   0   0   0      4   14   1   Tri-City   1   0   0   0   0   1   0   1   0      3   7   0  Recap | Box | W: B. Hornbeck (1-1, 5.14); L: P. Frazier (3-2, 3.38); SV: J. Guzman (9) HR: VAN: M. Lissman (4). TRI: S. Robinson (3).