Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week all culminate to a ‘three-day Christmas’ in my books, as they mark the annual MLB First-Year Player Draft.  This 50-round draft will bring in most of the 2009 Vancouver Canadians, and each year Nat Notes has brought you up-to-the minute Draft Blogging.  

This year will be much of the same, and you can head to our Twitter page (which is 100% new), where we’ll post Draft updates, and links to draft articles and interviews.  If you can’t click the link, our page is NatNotes09.  Please follow us!!  Over the season we’ll have lineups, roster moves, score updates and much more for C’s fans who are stuck at work, or families of players who want up-to-the minute info if they can’t hear or see the game.

Oakland holds the 13th pick in this year’s draft, one behind Kansas City, and a pick ahead of rival Texas.  Their next selection will not be until the 3rd round, for signing Orlando Cabrera, so they’ll come in at pick 92.

They’ll have the 12th pick in each round after the first three, so they have 46 rounds with the 12th pick.

The draft gets underway at 3pm Pacific time, Tuesday.

Girls of Summer:

A new initiative by the Vancouver Canadians called ‘Girls of Summer’ (the original Girls of Summer are pictured below from the 1940’s I believe) is a club formed to encourage female fans to cheer on the Vancouver Canadians.  There will be a ‘Girls of Summer’ web forum, where you can talk to other women about baseball, and sports in general.

Click here, to get more info. 

To piggy-back on this topic, there is the 2nd annual Vancouver Canadians Ladies Day on the Diamond, this July 25th, at The Nat.  It’ll be a ‘Baseball 101′ with female fans, who will be helped out by players, coaches and staff of the C’s.

They’ll learn how to score a baseball game, how to prepare for a baseball game, and what baseball players really do off-the-field.

Rob Fai did a write-up on the C’s site. 

C’s Broadcast Hall of Fame:

Mark August 15th on your calendar, and no it’s not because it’s a Fireworks night against Tri-City, but because Rob Barnet and the late-Keith Matthews will be inducted into the Canadians Broadcast & Journalism Hall of Fame.

They will be the 10th and 11th members, respectively, to join the elite-club.

Matthews was a C’s reporter in the 40’s and 50’s, covering the club including their first couple of seasons at the ‘new’ Nat Bailey Stadium.

Matthews returned to the C’s in the later part of that decade, and opened up the door for baseball in this city to be written upon.

His co-inductee is Ron Barnet who was the C’s broadcaster 20-some-odd years ago.  He is famous for his CKNW post-game shows (BC Lions) and the play-by-play for the Canadians, as well as other sports assignments.  He was in Lethbridge, Regina and then CKNW, before a year stint in Calgary.  

Congratulations to both members.

Hey now, you’re an All-Star:

The annual Minor League Baseball all-star teams are in the process of being named, and a few ex-Canadians are in the mix, for their respective all-star games.

Middle Infielders Dusty Coleman and Jason Christian are both headed to the Midwest All-Star game, representing the West team.  The pair play for Kane County, after spending last season in Vancouver.  Coleman has 8 dingers so far for the Cougars, while Christian has improved dramatically fielding-wise, or so I’ve heard.

2008 Outfielder Jeremy Barfield, who had 3-homers in one game earlier this year, as well as ‘08 teammates Shawn Haviland and Kenny Smalley are both representing the Cougars.

2005 1B Steve Kleen is also headed to the star-studded-game, after missing last season with an undisclosed injury.

Congratulations to all the boys who made it.

Speaking of the All-Star games, you can head here to vote for the AAA all-stars, including ex-Canadians Jeff Baisley, Anthony Recker and Brad Kilby to name a few. 

Until tomorrow, head to Twitter!