The Dubious Monk

Yesterday I went to a Vancouver Canadians game, because I like baseball and their season is almost over (although they did clinch their playoff berth last night, so I might have a few more chances). I’m trying to do things to feel like I live here, not just go to school here. I don’t have the excuse of Vancouver being too small for cool stuff, like I did in fakeLondon. So baseball.

It was very reminiscent of a Goldeyes game in that it’s in a little ballpark and the game had more errors than you’d really like to see. I sprung for a good seat so I had a season-ticket holder next to me to ask all my questions of. She was in her fifties, I’d say, and good at modifying my expectations and just chatting baseball with. Not super hardcore, but she was keeping score, and knew who had a decent OBP even if it wasn’t shown on the scoreboard.

One of the cool things is that the Canadians are the Single A affiliate of the Oakland Athletics, so on the scoreboard their draft position is noted. A bunch of the team had been drafted this year in like the 6th-10th rounds. The idea that it’s possible we might see someone from this team in The Show does add a bit of something, even if it lacks the pure heart of Northern League ballplayers who will never get anywhere and just playing for the love of the game. The opponents in this game were the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes, who are apparently San Francisco Giants affiliates because their batting helmets had the orange and black Giants’ logo on them. Even though their colours were red and black. The Canadians had the green and yellow patches from the A’s on their red & white jerseys, and a couple of guys on the bench were wearing Athletics warmup jackets. The colour clashes are the price you pay for being on the path to the bigs I guess.

The ballpark itself is actually old, and the concessions weren’t as varied as you get in Winnipeg. And the shop was sold out of fitted caps sized smaller than gargantuan. But it was baseball! And after a rough top of the first for the Canadians’ pitcher it turned into a good game. There were homers and hard-hit balls and pickoff plays that worked, one base-stealer getting gunned down going for second, errors and a closer doing his job really well. A good night at the ballpark.