Notes From The Nat

EverythingI have come to know as true must now be questioned, for I have been tothe new Nat Bailey Stadium, and my world has duly been rocked.

TheNat Bailey Stadium I remember was nothing like The Nat of today. Theold Nat was vanilla. It was crusty stucco and blue-painted wood. It wascorners cut, maintenance-free, and rinky dink. It was friendly, happy,homely and weak. It was a shell of something great, trying desperatelyto fight off irrelevance in a changing professional sporting world.

Okay, let’s not mince words here - the place was basically crap.

Sure,I went to bat for the old girl when the wrecking ball loomed, but ifI’m honest, she was the equivalent of the crazy old aunt you have thatyou love dearly, but really don’t want to see any more than once a yearbecause she smells funny. 

The new Nat Bailey Stadiumis the opposite of that, but not in the ways that you might expect -there are no shiny steel surfaces or yuppy-luring neon, and there’s anabsolute absence of that very Canuck sporting experience, the "$9beer". It’s not corporate. It’s not imposing. It’s not boldlyengineered and outlandishly designed. It’s professional. It’s clean.

What it is, quite frankly, is awesome.

Aswe’d reported some weeks ago on Notes From The Nat, the new owners ofthe Vancouver Canadians have decided to invest their money on upgradesthat don’t ‘bring the C’s into the new century’. Rather, the place isnow positively dripping in the past, from the first moment you driveinto the parking lot, to the first steps into the concourse, all theway to your seat.

Let’s talk you through it.

(more…)

I posted a few days ago that I hoped the old Nat Bailey scoreboard would be restored and maintained in the new outfield wall as stadium upgrades take place… Alas, that ain’t to be.

Today, Bob Mackin of the Vancouver free daily rag, 24 Hours, found a gap in their usual wall-to-wall Nicole Ritchie coverage to announce the end of an era:

The most famous "face" in Vancouver baseball is retiring.

Nat Bailey Stadium’s hand-operated scoreboard will be gonebefore Vancouver Canadians’ June 19 season opener. A new ground level,hand-operated unit is being embedded in the fence as part ofstadium-wide renovations.

The 12-foot by 45-foot scoreboard was born in Sick’s SeattleStadium. It was used during Seattle Pilots’ only American League seasonin 1969. It moved to Nat Bailey in 1978.

Canadians’ vice-president Delany Dunn hopes to sell it as a charity fundraiser.

"It’s going to benefit Little League to some degree and we’re going to honour the heritage of that scoreboard," Dunn said.

Society of American Baseball Research member Dave Eskenazi ofSeattle said the ideal home would be Safeco Field’s new museum. ALowe’s home improvement store is on the site of Sick’s Seattle Stadium,which opened in 1938 but was demolished in 1979.

I know that, pragmatically, it makes perfect sense to lose the old scoreboard because it’s old and rickety and less than functional, but emotionally… this sucks.

I watched a game from the old scoreboard in 2004, as Tomo and Tomo Jr ran back and forth dropping numbers in the windows, and it’s an experience that I wish every fan had been able to share at least once. It was the best seat in the house.

Granted, in order to get up there, you had to climb a shaky ladder stretched out to its maximum length and tilted at a near-horizontal 25-degree angle, since the ground under the scoreboard was too muddy to provide safe footing.

And the warning sign (seen left), hanging on the last of four rusted screws, that told you that the scoreboard may well kill you… that was a nice bit of rustic heritage that I’m sure dissuaded many a passer-by from attempting the climb.

And yeah, the ground was littered with the corpses of old numbers past, as well as the occasional broken bottle and weeds aplenty. 

And once up there, it was all nails and wood and rusty pig-iron and sharp corners and coathangers unfurled and turned into number-holders… But I’ll tell you, it was also baseball paradise. 

First, because it’s the best view in Vancouver - soaring panoramicmountain views, a red-soaked sunset, and a ball game happening right infront of you? You can’t beat that.

And it didn’t hurt any to be able to see, up-close, the look on Javier Herrera’s face as he tracked down a deep fly or three, either. In fact, whenever he did so, he and the Tomo’s would share loud exclamations in Spanish, as Herrera had taught them earlier in the season how to cheer him on in his native language.

Alas, the old dear is a goner. Another slice of our past makes way for a very much needed future.

Thanks for the memories, old girl.

Thanks to an interested reader who would like to remain unnamed (let’s call him Sammy Hagar), we have finally got a series of good pictures of the long-awaited outfield wall redevelopment happening at Nat Bailey Stadium in preparation for the 2007 NWL season.

The first change that you might note when passing by Ontario and 32nd is the outside of the stadium proper: gone is the baby blue, and in its place is a monochrome grey color scheme that looks like it’s right out of a 1950’s photo postcard.

NOTE: I LOVE THIS!

If the team is going to do what has been promised, and make the long-held NFTN belief that those squares should be used to house pictures of old ballplayers a reality, then the color is perfect to give folks a real sense of retro throwback appeal. 

With the retro plans taking place on the concourse inside the stadium, we can now see where the new team owners are going with all this: it’s baseball the way your granddad used to watch it, and that’s so perfect I could wet myself. 

One caveat: From what I’ve been told, it seems the players to be put on those squares aren’t necessarily going to be all ex-Vancouver players. I’d love to see it restricted to only ex-V-Town guys who made the Majors, but if that’s not going to be the case, at least this’ll be a vast improvement over the old look.

On to the outfield wall - anyone who thought that the plans to shift the wall closer to the plate would result in a homerun avalanche, EG: Everett, Denver, or anywhere in the California League, better not hold their breath.

Rather, it looks like the wall will be shifted about 15 ft in from right-center to left-center, with no work visible on the corners (for now). If the corners DO move in later on, that would give the field a real semi-circle outfield, which would make right-center and left-center tough places to get the ball out of the park, while making the corners a bit of a homerun porch. This I would like to see.

 

One thing worth noting is that the wall has NOT been lowered. In fact, it remains at the same height, one would presume so that half the crowd doesn’t see the game for free from Little Mountain every night.

I’ve heard Jake Kerr say he plans to make part of the outfield wall see-through, so that kids could watch from the outside, but it makes sense that such a thing should be a small attraction that allows kids in the surrounding park to see an inning or two, knothole-style - not half a mountainside that allows 500 folks to avoid buying a ticket.

Here’s the back of the stadium. Note the precarious scoreboard that Tomo The Japanese Wedding Planner used to have to hang off.

I’m hoping against hope that the scoreboard, as ratty and non-technological as it is, will be salvaged and put to good use. At present it is partly obscured by the new wall, so if it will be saved, it will have to be raised or shifted entirely - no easy task. But it’s worth doing, since this is a piece of MAJOR LEAGUE history, salvaged from Sicks Stadium, the former home of the Seattle Pilots.

Yes, the stadium really does need a nice new high-tech, bells and whistles, screaming video kind of scoreboard, but it would be great if in making the ballpark functional, we don’t lose the REAL history of the place and while manufacturing fake history…

Thanks Sammy. The next beer is on me.

In olden times, I would have to poke around Nat Bailey Stadium like a prowler to get inside information on goings on. I’d have to overhear things in the stands, or buy beer for an underage intern, or install listening devices in the urinals to get any tidbit of info that wasn’t in a press release.

Last year that began to change, as various folks - players, employees, even management - opened their arms to what Notes From the Nat is all about and made us part of the family.

Now? The info comes thick and heavy, with pictures no less!

Below you’ll find the latest in a series called "Nat Bailey Stadium pushes into the 20th century", where we demonstrate how the ballpark concourse is slowly but surely turning into that of a professional sporting franchise - complete with retail outlets that don’t look like they were constructed during an episode of Canada’s Worst Handyman.

Let’s roll the digital images.

Remember this image from a few weeks back, that we struggled to even identify?

Well, here’s what it looks like now:

 

This is the new Vancouver Canadians merchandise store. Yes, that’s right, an actual store that you can walk into, rather than the series of shelves and tables and ridiculous queues that used to dot the old concourse.

This is the back of the concourse, which used to be where the souvenirs were sold, and where the information booth was:

 

And here’s the snack bar renovation (to the left), which is starting to take shape, and a little wider view of the new retail boxes:

 

Word is that the team is going for a retro ‘throwback’ look, which is absolutely the right way forward for a place like The Nat, and when combined with what they’re planning for the outside of the ballpark, it really makes you suspect that we’re going to see a lot fewer articles about how sad the ballpark is, and a lot more about how ‘awesome’ it is.

Every now and then I like to leave the confines of the press box andwander Nat Bailey Stadium in search of picture opportunities.

The trusty 4.0 megapixel Olympus, which sucks ass by the way, does thejob pretty well when the light is good (and terribly once the sun goes down), so here is mycollection of the sights and sounds of last night, with additionalpictures from my good buddy, Chris "Damon" Hall.


The rooftop view from Nat Bailey Stadium, overlooking the mountains and skyline of Vancouver.


On that rooftop, you’ll find Canadians intern Alison "Chad Boyd FanClub" Dent. Notice the suspicious markings on the side of her neck? She‘claims’ that was from a seat belt. Alternate theories range from ‘whipmark’ to ‘headlock given by member of Chad Boyd’s security team’.


Lesson #1 if you don’t want to be photographed: Don’t accessorize at the Hello Kitty store. Mmm… sparkly!


Speaking of Chad Boyd, here’s Tum-Tum, warming up for a big night atthe plate. He’s so in the zone he doesn’t even notice the droplets ofdrool falling from the rooftop around his feet.


Jimmy Shull, if he makes it to the big leagues, will arrive there with a fan club of his own - the Oakland Athletics High Socks Crew, who simply can’t get enough of the stockings.


Isaac Omura prefers the Homestar Runner ‘all white legs and feet’ look.


While C’s co-webcaster/beer hawker Rob McGowan prefers the Elvis printstyle which is totally catching on in the fashion houses of Abbotsford,Surrey and Moose Jaw.


But enough of the inside baseball talk - here’s Jeff Baisley about to explode.
Or walk, as the case may be.


Jimmy Shull checks the pits.


…While Mike Madsen (with the clipboard), Joe Piekarz (with the speedgun), and Jeff Gray (obscured) chart his pitches for the C’s coaches.Gray was apparently asleep in his chair when this photo was taken. Orhiding. Probably from Alison Dent.


I don’t know why that woman who ran on the field last night put herhead next to Anthony Recker’s butt before being chased from thestadium. I honestly have no idea.


Okay, maybe I have some idea.


Dear God! He even slides home butt-first!


You’ve just got to love Jimmy Shull’s facial expressions as he pitches.
He grits those teeth and just growls at the batter.


As the sun goes down, the Nat Bailey backdrop is something else.


Ty Bubalo throws a little dirt on his hands, gives them a clap, andreadies himself to go into battle against Boise pitching with two menon base.


A three-run home run later, Bam-Bam comes home to be greeted by the guys he scored - Jeff Baisley (#9) and Steve Kleen.


With the crowd on their feet, the run-scorers head to the dugout as Tum-Tum tags in.


Recker goes long with a double to left center. Sure, it’s fuzzy, but look at that ball streak! Nice shot, Chris Hall.


Isaac Omura envisions himself doing what Zeke Parraz is doing… swinging hard. "Be the ball, IO, be the ball!"

Another day at the ballpark, another victory for the good guys capturedon film… uh.. hard drive. Be there tonight when they do it all overagain - game starts at 7PM.

 As the C’s roll down to Tri-City for a road series that (for some reason) won’t be webcast either by the Canadians OR by Tri-City, I figured it might be worth slapping up some things to fill the void left by actual game reports.These pics were snapped yesterday at Nat Bailey Stadium, on perhaps the worst digital camera ever purchased (thanks a lot, Future Shop) but they’ll do for our purposes.

Haas Pratt: "Hey buddy, you missed a spot. I have standards, you know."

Kid! Hey kid, wake up! Foul tip coming!

Justin Sellers warms up with his version of Walk Like An Egyptian. It seems to work for him, as the high school draftee is hitting .263

Sellers examines the state of his lumber as Jeff Bieker looks on from third.

"Yes, I heard you the first time, but I don’t WANT a 50/50 ticket… I’m quite happy reading my newspaper. In the rain."

Haas Pratt and Jeff Baisley are looking for a big inning.

In most minor league ball parks, the beer hawker is a constant presence. But this is the Northwest League. In these parts, we like our orange-haired espresso hawkers!

Isaac Omura is small… and those pants aren’t helping.

But Isaac Omura can find his way to first, yo.

Bradley Davis will kill you. Seriously, he’ll lay you out, man.

And when he does, Dancing Hans will do his chicken dance up and down the stadium concourse.

Seriously, all you had to do was ride a tricycle around some traffic cones. Was that too much for your delicate constitution?

Shawn Callahan isn’t just a catcher with big time pop. He also beats the batboys if they’re too slow out of the batter’s box.

Shawn Martinez and Tommy Everidge make a guest appearance to provide between-inning entertainment for the fans!

Uh, Shawn… your diaper is slipping. 

Michael Madsen knee lift. 

Michael Madsen ex-heat. 

"Step on my foot again, Coach. Go on, step on my toe again and see where I shove Recker’s bat!"

Jeff Bieker: "Looks like rain… oh, is it my turn to bat?"

Lefty Lefferts decides it’s time to close this game out.

Tichota: "Seriously, Pipes, how did you get those biceps so big? Don’t tell me it was bench-pressing, I’ve tried bench-pressing, tell me your secret, dammit!"

Brad Kilby comes in to pitch - game over.

Tum-Tum says: This is my victory dance!

Since there’s no broadcast of the next series, I won’t be able to give you guys much more than game reports garnered from the box scores. Sorry, I love to do the big descriptive reports, but as long as Tri-City refuses to drag themselves out of the 19th century and put on a broadcast, summaries are the best I can do.

Wake up to yourselves, Tri-City! If you can’t run your ballteam like a professional entity, I’m sure the people of Bellingham will be happy to take it off you!