Notes From The Nat

One what turned into (at the last moment) an incredible night for baseball, 2371 Canadians fans turned up at The Nat (many of them donning mullet wigs in honour of a Canadian Cancer Society fundraiser that brought in about $500) to welcome the C’s home from a conquering tour of Yakima, eager for more of the same hot form that has seen the C’s stand at equal 1st place in the NWL West.

And for a while, that’s exactly what they got. But only for a while.

The lineups:

VANCOUVER CANADIANS:
Michael ‘Runway’ Richard DH
JD ‘Beanball’ Pruitt LF
Sean ‘Doc’ Doolittle 1B
‘Amblin’ Danny Hamblin 3B [seen left]
‘Uptown’ Corey Brown CF
‘Excellentic’ Matt Sulentic RF
Walter ‘Missing kid on Lost’ Correa SS
Julio ‘Hoop’ Rivera C
Carlos ‘Peachy’ Arrieche 2B
Jose ‘The Goose’ Guzman RHP 

SALEM-KEIZER WITCH-KINGS:
Shane ‘Crossing’ Jordan CF
Matthew ‘Syndrome’ Downs 2B
Garret ‘Shakin’ Baker LF
Mike ‘Hogwart’ Ambort C
Chad ‘250lbs in your freakin’ dreams, kid’ Rothford 1B
Sean ‘Clogs’ Van Elderen RF
Andrew ‘Mavis’ Davis 3B
‘Terrible’ Tyler LaTorre DH
Jose ‘Ballbooter’ Flores SS
Ryan Mop-Up’ McGrath RHP 

And it went a little somethin’ like this:

Late post-game report will be up around noon, along with info on the new C’s head honcho, but for now, enjoy the fact that we’ve got a second rounder headed to The Nat.

According to the San Luis Obispo Tribune:

Cal Poly standout hitter Grant Desme agreed to undisclosed contract terms with the Oakland Athletics on Friday.

Desme, the 2007 Big West Conference regular season Triple Crown winner, said he will officially sign his contract when he joins the A?s shortseason Class-A affiliate, the Vancouver Canadians.

?It?s exciting,? Desme said about agreeing to contract terms, ?but it is going to be more exciting once I know I can play. At least I?m out there being able to hand out with the team.?

Desme will join the C’s for their upcoming roadtrip against the Spokane Indians, but a broken wrist he sustained with two weeks left in the college season is still healing, so he won’t be playing a part in the on-field proceedings.

Reportedly, Desme will start as a DH when he’s fit to swing a bat, then move to the outfield over time, which means there’s going to have to be some moves in the system or we’re going to have as many outfielders as pitchers.

Those of you who are on the cutting edge of the information world will already know a lot of this, but I figured it was time to catch up on some changes in the minor league system as they pertain to ex-Vancouver players.

* Dallas Braden is in the Oakland major league squad again. He’s working out of the bullpen and gave up a couple of runs on an inning a few days ago. He’s not expected to stick unless he blows the doors off a few lineups, but a second taste of ML ball is a nice thing for the 2004 C’s screwballer.

* Kevin Melillo (2004 C’s 2B) got himself a taste of The Show - and only a taste, ending up with the Moonlight Graham line of no at-bats, one walk.

* Landon Powell, who was co-catcher with Kurt Suzuki for the C’s in 2004, is shifting up to AAA - and in fact hit a home run on debut. This has led to much talk that Mike Piazza’s recent shift to Sacramento to get his arm ready for full-time catching duty again, may mean the Hall-of-Famer-to-be is being shopped around as trade bait.

* Meanwhile, Suzuki himself is having a great time in the bigs, hitting his second home run a few days ago in what looks to be an increasing workload. Jason Kendall will need to get his act together or Suzuki is going to take his gig - and who would have predicted in 2004 that we’d be saying that today?

* Mad Mike Mitchell (2005 C’s reliever) is back from injury and is rehabbing in Arizona. Before he went down with a should problem, he was looking likely to debut in the majors. And since everyone who started the year in AAA (and many in AA) have done so in the meantime, chances are that talk would have been correct. Once his arm is back, he’ll likely head back to AA with a view to getting back to AAA quickly.

* Anthony Recker starred in the High-A California League all-star game in what would be his last performance at Stockton’s Banner Island Park before being shifted up to AA to fill the Landon Powell void. Recker has more homeruns than any other player in the Oakland minor league system right now, and if he can get his defense in order, he could give the A’s a personnel problem behind the plate - as in, a ‘too many stars’ problem. On the other hand, if his defense continues to lag, there’s talk of him switching to 1st base over time. Hey, he’s got the build for it.

* From soon-to-be-cut to potential major leaguer in no time flat! Nick Blasi (2004 C’s OF), whose career had all but stumbled in 2005/6 as he failed to get out of Kane County while all around him flew up the system, is suddenly the hot outfielder in AAA ball. Blasi only went up to AAA from High-A Stockton because of the injury onslaught on the Oakland majors roster, having only hit .239 in the California League, but the kid from Wichita lit things up on debut and hasn’t looked back, cranking out a .324 average in AAA ball. While his recent Stockton power surge hasn’t translated to the larger ballparks of the PCL, Scout.com was recently told he won’t be headed down to AA (let alone High-A) ball any time soon, as long as he keeps it up.

* Ramiro Mendez was the first promotion from the C’s this season, but hasn’t been carrying his early Vancouver form into the Cougars dressing room. He’s hitting .174 at the moment, which is a bit lower than the .600 batting average he was sporting in Van City, but it’s still small sample size time for him so he’s likely to step up soon.

* Also in Kane County, Oakland 14th round draftee Matt Smith, a catcher out of Texas Tech, has shown up ready to play in the higher level of ball than he was expected to start in. His surprise start in full-season ball was due to the shifting of catchers throughout the system, but also due to the logjam the C’s have behind the plate currently.

* Mike Madsen wasn’t just pitching well in AA ball, he was pitching well enough that he was one of the eight players from the Midland Rockhounds in the Texas League All-Star Game. Richie Robnett, who must be getting sick of playing AA ball about now, hit a homerun in the game, while Madsen was soon packing his bags for AAA Sacramento afterwards.

* Justin Sellers hit a homerun recently for Stockton. That, in itself, should be news. But what’s really surprising is it was his second dinger in High-A ball. Did The Sandman bulk up?

Michael Richard has been playing of late. And stealing of late. In fact, he’s been playing and stealing a lot of late, so tonight he was given the lead-off role for the Vancouver Canadians against NWL East rivals, the Yakima Bears.

And, interestingly, he made great use of that chance to lead, by basically taking the game out of Yakima’s hands before an out was even registered.

The lineup for Vancouver:
Michael ‘Runway’ Richard DH
JD ‘Beanball’ Pruitt LF
Sean ‘Doc’ Doolittle 1B
Amblin’ Danny Hamblin 3B
Matt ‘Authentic’ Sulentic RF
Shane ‘3-0′ Keough CF
Dante ‘Brother’ Love C
Carlos ‘Peachy’ Arrieche 2B
Matt ‘Manta’ Ray SS
Joe ‘Mighty’ Quine P

Let’s talk you through the details on the flip side.

Short game report tonight, and it happened to be one in which the excitement peaked early, with 12 runs scroing in the opening two innings.

In the 1st, after Sulentic, Doolittle and Hamblin loaded the bases with a fielder’s choice, a walk and a single, Corey Brown [seen left] strode to the batter’s box and put a charge on a shot to left field that opened his pro home run-hitting career with a grand slam.

Singles, doubles, errors and walks kept things close for Yakima in the bottom of the frame, as they traded blows with the C’s to trail 4-3 going into the 2nd, but once again it was the C’s that made the early running, with a bases-loaded walk to Matt Sulentic and a Danny Hamblin sac fly bringing two more runs in for the good guys; 6-3 to the Canadians.

That lead was short lived, however, as errors and pitching problems gave the Bears an in they should never have been granted. A Matt Ray fielding error and a balk from Pedro Figueroa pushed the first run in for Yakima, with a passed ball and a Justin Frash fielding error bringing in 3 more before all was said and done, tying the scores at 6 a piece.

Brent Lysander took over from Figueroa in the 3rd, and he sat them in order, although he had to pick off the leadoff hitter after walking him to open the frame in order to do that.

A Doolittle double and a Danny Hamblin sac fly brought in Matt Ray in the 4th to give the C’s a fleeting lead, and with the bases once again juiced in the 5th, Hamblin had the chance to exend his team’s lead… sadly, he struck out instead.

That wasn’t a rarity for the C’s, unfortunately, as they again left the bases loaded in the 6th when William Spottiswood struck out The Manta Ray looking.

Dan Brent Lysander was clinical in his three innings of work, and to his credit, Nick Walters wasn’t far off when he took over in the 6th. Yes, the Bears scored a run off his pitching, and yes, he opened his night conceding a double to ‘The Rock’, Joe Ayers, but if not for a Walt Correa error that sent the lead runner to 3rd, he likely would have got through the inning unscathed. Alas, 7-7.

The scores stayed glued until the top of the 8th, when a Corey Brown lead-off double set the table, and a Correa bunt and Spottiswood throwing error saw him cruise home, and another error in the field cost Yakima big when, with two outs and WAAALT! on 3rd base, Bears 2nd baseman Miguel Rodriguez booted a grounder, and Correa scored; Vancouver 9-7, and that’s how it ended with Leo Espinal nailing the door shut in the 9th (despite ANOTHER error from Correa).

June 27, 2007
	Final    1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9      R   H   E   Vancouver   4   2   0   1   0   0   0   2   0      9   8   5   Yakima   3   3   0   0   0   1   0   0   0      7    9   2  wrap | box | log W: N. Walters (1-0, 0.00); L: W. Spottiswood (0-1, 2.16); SV: L. Espinal (4) HR: VAN: C. Brown (1).

GAME NOTES:

* Matt Ray hasn’t been beating hell out of the ball so far in the NWL season, but tonight he was given a little extra responsibility as regular lead-off guy JD Pruitt was rested, and The Manta delivered, with a 1-4 night, with 2 walks and 2 runs scored. His average sits at .118 - and that’s an improvement on yesterday.

* Some will call Matt Sulentic’s night a failure, but only because he has traditionally had the bar set so high for him by those impatient for him to start in the Majors. With 1-4 and two walks, a double and a run scored, his is a line most hitters wouldn’t complain about.

* A 4-RBI night for Uptown Corey Brown is just the start of his big game - think 3-4 with 2 runs, one double, 4 RBIs and two walks - that’s nothing to sneeze at.

* Three throwing errors for Walter Correa points to a problem in his game that needs to be addressed if he’ll ever expect to be ready for the Majors… or even High-A ball.

* Shane Keough had a 205 night with a run scored, to bring his average up almost to the Mendoza Line. We’re still dealing in small sample sizes, but it’s nice to see his BA moving in the right direction.

* Figueroa got beaten up on the mound today, even so far as giving up two balks, but the performances of bullpen staff such as Dan Brent Lysander (three innings clean), Nick Walters (3 IP, no earned runs), and Leonardo Espinal (1 inning, 1K) kept the C’s in the game when the pressure was on.  

And JD Pruitt didn’t get hit by a pitch today. Unless somone nailed him with a softball in the parking lot.

Remember how yesterday I told you there was weirdness afoot at the Canadians front office?

Well, here’s what I was talking about:

CANADIANS MAKEPAIR OF FRONT OFFICE MOVES

JakeKerr, Managing Partner of the Vancouver Canadians, announced today, that AileenMcmanamon and Bill Posthumus would be leaving the club.

"Aileenhas been a great help as we got ready for the best opening in the team’shistory.  However, we have both agreed that the job of chief operatingofficer is much more about baseball operations than it is about marketing,where Aileen’s experience has been.  We greatly appreciate all she hasdone and have accepted her resignation."

BillPosthumus was responsible for stadium operations and held various roles withprior teams at Nat Bailey.

"Asthe  Canadians move forward with new approaches on a variety of fronts, itwas time for new management in the stadium operations area.  We thank Billfor his help in the transition", said Kerr.

Wow. One week into her first season as C’s boss, and with a blazing trail of success behind her and a seemingly bright future in front, Aileen McManamon steps aside? It just doesn’t compute.

Now, I’ve heard a range of opinions/theories/conspiracy talk from various parties about why this took place, but since I try not to deal in anything I can’t confirm as fact, the news above will have to suffice for now.

UPDATE: Well, I’m getting dribbles of confirmable information now, and here’s what I’ve pieced together. Seems the reasoning mentioned in the press release for McManamon’s parting of ways isn’t far off - the lineups and general chaos of opening day went down pretty hard among ownership, and they took the view that, though McManamon was getting the marketing right, if you don’t know how to keep the hot dogs moving when the fans are lured in, it’s all for nothing.

Bill Posthumus falls to the same set of elevated expectations, as he was aware early on that he was expected to step up to a higher standard in order to keep his job, and since there was now a shakeup taking place, the C’s decided to finally let the axe, that they’ve been holding over his head for months, fall.

The natives are restless - lot of employees and front office people wondering if they’re next, and wondering who the new guy is going to be.

Well here’s a clue as to one of them: his last name is Dunn. And his first name is not Delany.

UPDATE II: Word on the street from a few different people connected to the team says that it was actually the Veeck consulting group that insisted a large change to the baseball operations side of the team was necessary. I’m not going to state that as fact without a little more corroboration, but that’s what I’m being told, and it seems to gel with some other things I’m hearing. I’ll have more details on the new boss, and whether he’s interim or permanent, tomorrow.

Remember how, last year, the NWL East was so cod-ordinary that all it took for an eastern team to make the NWL Championship series was being 5 games under .500?

Everything old is new again, as the C’s tonight dropped their first game since opening day to go to a 6-2 record, which is fantastic… except that, in the NWL West, EVERYONE is 6-2.

On the other side of the Green River, the gourmet loving town of Yakima moved into 2nd spot (with a 3-5 record), while Boise is yet to win a single game from their first 8 played.

Maybe it’s time to move the team to Kamloops. Anyhow, there was a game tonight.

With Michael Richard, Julio Rivera and Angel Sierra inserted into the lineup, the continuing search for a stable 7-9 rolled on, but in the top of the 3rd it was the everydayers who served up a healthy serving of "how you like me now?", starting with Beanball Pruitt, who drew a 1-out walk, followed by a Walt Correa single, and a Doolittle HBP (if not for the presence of Pruitt in the lineup, we’d possibly be discussing how often Doc is getting nailed instead).

With bases loaded, up to the plate came Matt Sulentic, he who has had to take a minor league demotion on the chin and work his way back into blue chip form with the rooks. And it looks like the Oakland farm bosses know what they’re doing, because with Sulentic driving a shot into deep left field, Pruitt and Correa made it home in short order. 2-0 Vancouver.

A 2-run Mark Hallberg homer off the pitching of Fabio Fabian Gomez brought the Bears back into the equation at 2-2, but the C’s were brutalizing Yakima pitcher Omar Arif (I loved his work in Lawrence of Arabia) by the time the 4th inning came around, and the game looked to be going the way their last six had.

It all opened with a leadoff double to Julio "Old Man" Rivera (he just keeps rolling along) [seen right], bringing up Michael "Runway" Richard.

The 9th round draftee dropped a nice bunt which should have been a sac, but for the wayward arm of Yakima 3rd baseman Hatin’ Clayton Conner, which allowed Rivera to score by sending a baseball where the first baseman weren’t.

That led the Bears to pull Mike "Mini" Mee out of the game, to be replaced by ‘Razor’ Ramon Ramirez at 1st, who apparently has a better range when receiving Conner’s dogcrap throws. Still, he’s not much in holding runners, however, as Mike Richard took off for 2nd base and stole it comfortably.  

A Sierra ground-out moved Richard to the hot corner, which was the end of Doctor Zhivago’s pitching performance for Yakima. He was duly replaced by Daniel Vasquez, and left the stadium early to go play some bridge. 

And that’s when: 

You know there’s a C’s game happening when you hear those words, don’t you? 

Unfortunately, WAAALT! Correa then hit into a fielder’s choice with saw Runway Richard thrown out at home plate, but a subsequent infield single to Doc Doolittle (that Hatin’ Clayton Conner once again couldn’t do anything with) loaded them up for  Amblin’ Danny Hamblin to tattoo a 2-run double to left field. C’s lead 5-2, and the skies are red and blue over Yakima.

Or are they?

A scoreless 4th for Fabio saw off the Bears hitters, while the top of the 5th saw Runway Richard stealing another base for the C’s, and then scooting to 3rd on a catching error by Yakima CF JoJo Batten, but the C’s couldn’t capitalize when it mattered most, with Angel Sierra striking out swinging. 

As the 5th rolled around for the Bears hitting staff, Fabian Gomez started to lose the handle, hitting the showers with 2 runs conceded on four innings of work,but with two on the bases and no outs. He was duly replaced by the 22nd round draftee out of the University ofIowa, Aaron "Junebug" Jenkins, for the first appearance of his procareer - and Jenkins did okay, getting himself out of a 1-out bases laoded jam with a pop-out and a swinging K.

For the C’s, getting on base wasn’t a problem, but scoring seemed to be getting harder and harder, with two stranded in the top of the 6th, while Jenkins got tagged by the Care Bears in the bottom of the frame - or rather, he didn’t, but his team had a case of the dropsies.

Arrieche subbed in and threw a ball away, then Richard booted one, leaving two on for Jenkins as Carlos Hernandez entered the fray.

Who is Carlos Hernandez, you say? He’s a 36th rounder from 2006, which means on the depth chart he sits somewhere in between Jeff Reboulet and Rogers Hornsby.

Which would explain the double he gave up, scoring two, the single he gave up that scored one, and the double he gave up the following inning. Scores tied at 5-5.

With the C’s unable to score Uptown Corey Brown after a lead-off triple in the 7th, and two walks suffering a similar fate in the 8th, it all came down to My Name Is Earl Oakes, who isn’t exactly nimble of foot, and was caught off guard by a lead-off bunt from Andrew Beshenich to open the bottom of the 8th for Yakville. Credit where it’s due, however, as he kept the ball in the infield for the following three outs, stranding the runner at 3rd to get out of a potential game losing jam.

So going into the 9th it was all tied up. How did the C’s respond?

Uptown Corey Brown? K.
Old Man Rivera? K.
Runway Richard? Pop-up.

The Bears, on the other hand, were being inspired by the great american war-cry of the fat: "Chalupa! Chalupa! Chalupa!"

Yes, folks, the Yakima front office had promised them free snacks if the home team scored six runs, and rather than yell, oh, something like "Ya-Ki-Ma! Ya-Ki-Ma!", they went for the processed foodstuff.

Still, it worked, with Shane ‘3rd Degree’ Byrne singling to open the frame, before a ground-out pushed him to scoring position, and an Aaron ‘Snotty’ Hanke single to left scored Byrne for the win.

Bah, freakin’ humbug.

June 26, 2007
	Final    1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9      R   H   E   Vancouver   0   0   2   3   0   0   0   0   0      5   7   2   Yakima   0   0   2   0   0   3   0   0   1      6    9   2  box | log W: C. Christianson (1-0, 2.35); L: E. Oakes (0-1, 4.91) HR: YAK: M. Hallberg (1).

When Jake Kerr and Jeff Mooney decided to plonk down serious change to buy the Vancouver Canadians, it wasn’t just a case of signing some documents and getting the keys to the front door. Truth be told, about a year before they were ever officially introduced as owners, they were essentially owners by proxy, planning the big launch and sweeping changes that they hoped would reenergize the baseball team that plays at Queen Elizabeth Park.

But all the planning in the world can’t prepare you for the reality of life as the owner of a minor league ball team - all you can do is hit and hope; receiving praise as it’s offered to you, and being prepared to make changes when you get things wrong.

So with that in mind, and with the dust finally settling on the new era of the Kerr/Mooney ownership group, I figured it’s time to run the rule over the first week of the front office season for the New Canadians, and see what’s been great, what’s been fair, and what still needs to be done.

To paraphrase my good friend, the late great Hunter S. Thompson:

"The [baseball] business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side."

Something fairly major is afoot, friends. I won’t talk about specifics until I have the complete picture, but just know that there are rumblings going around that point to a rather shocking development at Nat Bailey Stadium that I’m still trying to wrap my head around, let alone confirm.

As soon as there’s an official statement, the full story will be here. 

Just when you thought the surprises were over…

The C’s have continued playing Intelligentball ™ tonight, following yesterday’s narrow small ball victory with more of the same in a solid pitching duel between Vancouver’s Leonardo Martinez and Yakima’s Dan Fournier.

With Vancouver’s 1 through 6 lineup slots seemingly now settled upon (that’d be Pruitt, Sulentic, Doolittle, Hamblin, Brown and Correa), they’ve been itching to get at a ballpark in which homeruns can be hit without attaching CIA drones to the ball, but sometimes you’ve got to put the big bats away and think of ways to move men around the bases one at a time.

Tonight’s game opened with a fielding error for Yakima, and though that was followed by a Sulentic single, the C’s failed to get a run on the board.

But another error, a Pruitt single, and a Sulentic sacrifice bunt brought the scoreboard operator to life in the 3rd, giving Van City a 1-0 lead though a very welcome Matt Ray run.

In the 5th inning, a procession of plays occured that I suspect will be soon known as the Vancouver Manoeuvre; it starts with this:

…And is then followed by Matt Sulentic hitting a single, and Sean Doolittle hitting the left center field wall to double home Pruitt. Vancouver leads 2-0.

On the other side, nothing much to talk about other than strikeouts at the hands of C’s starter Leonardo Martinez. Yakima catcher Konrad "I know nothink!" Schmidt did homer in the 6th - a solo shot over the left field wall - and Bears pitcher Scott Maine struck out the side in the top of the 8th, which was well done, but the C’s pitching staff was just sick all night and never gave the Teddys a look-in.

Bryan Collins threw two scoreless innings in relief for Vancouver after Martinez took a shower having collected a line of 6 innings pitched, 4 hits, 1 earned run, and 6 K’s without conceding a walk, and as the game rolled to its fitting finale, the C’s took one more chance to plunge the knife a little deeper into the Care-Bears.

A towering pop fly to Danny Hamblin ended up coming down in line with a light standard to lead off the inning, causing Yakima pitcher Scott ‘No Pain, No’ Maine to drop the ball just inside the foul line, and because The Ambler knows how to run out a pop fly, he ended up standing on 2nd base as the Bears hung their heads in shame.

A wild pitch saw Hamblin motor to 3rd, and a hard-to-catch liner from WAAALT! Correa ricocheted off the 3rd baseman’s glove to see men standing on the corners with only one out.

Another wild pitch, another run scored, and the C’s took a 3-1 lead into the 9th, where Leonardo Espinal notched his third save of the season with his traditional cultural display that is known in academic circles as the ‘perfect inning’.

Home runs? Not many, but you’ve got to love a team that can make the most of a scrappy affair and turn lemons into a big fat jug of icy cold lemonade.

June 25, 2007
	Final    1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9      R   H   E   Vancouver   0   0   1   0   1   0   0   0   1      3   5   0   Yakima   0   0   0   0   0   1   0   0   0      1    6   3  box | log W: L. Martinez (2-0, 1.50); L: D. Fournier (1-1, 2.08); SV: L. Espinal (3) HR: YAK: K. Schmidt (1).

GAME NOTES:
* Matt Sulentic detractors will have to find someone else to pick on tonight, as the Authentic One racked up a 2-3 night in a game where the winners only managed five hits in total. Attaboy.

* Sean Doolittle continues to rock the party that rocks the pinata, driving in a run on a ground-out, and another on a line-drive to left-center hit so hard it could have accidentally become a homerun had the thermals been running the right way.

* 6 wins in a row, people! To be 6-1 on the season, with the lineup being in a constant state of juggledom, is impressive. to do it while the bats are a little sleepy - that’s a sign of good management, great pitching, and smart base-running. And it helps when you don’t gush errors, doesn’t it Yakima?

* The sample sizes are still ridiculously small, but you’d have to think The Frashmaker and The Manta Ray will be looking to make with the hits soon. Both players are anchored on a .077 batting average, but then, one good night for Matt Sulentic just saw him add 100 points to his BA, so it’s hardly time to panic just yet.

* I’ll make the bold prediction right now - Forget Doolittle or Uptown Corey Brown getting the next promotion to Kane County; I’m picking Leo Martinez to go to Kane County before his next start for the C’s. Book it.

* The image up top of this article, advertising a website that offers something called Yakimagrams "with Campfire Dusty", is actually pretty funny. Go ask Dusty some questions, if you have a decent net connection.

The first road trip of a team’s professional career will usually be a perilous one. You’re living out of a cheap motel, you’re playing somewhere in Yakima in front of 85 people and a dog, the weather is looking crazy, and these funky wooden bats just don’t have the PING! of the old college aluminum.How a team handles that sort of oddness will usually be a good indicator of the season to come. 

Well, if we’re to take anything away from tonight’s game between the road-tripping Vancouver Canadians and the Yakima Teddys, it’s that playing smart is more important than playing well… and these C’s know how to play smart ball. 

The lineups:

VANCOUVER CANADIANS:
JD ‘Beanball’ Pruitt LF
Matt ‘Authentic’ Sulentic RF
Sean ‘Doc’ Doolittle 1B
Amblin’ Danny Hamblin 3B
‘Uptown’ Corey Brown CF
‘WAAALT!’ Correa SS
Shane ‘3-0′ Keough DH
Dusty ‘French pastry made with crisp, flaky layers of puff pastry, layered with cr?me p?tissi?re and glazed with a fondant’ Napoleon C
Carlos ‘Peachy’ Arrieche 2B
Jose ‘Goose’ Guzman P

YAKIMA BEARS:
Mark ‘Highway’ Hallberg SS
Splattin’ Joe Batten 2B
Aaron ‘Snotty’ Hanke RF
Hatin’ Clayton Conner DH
Mike ‘Mini’ Mee 1B
‘Razor’ Ramon Ramirez 3B
Julio ‘Plegic’ Parra, C
Shane ‘Carpet’ Byrne LF
Joel ‘NORM!’ Melendez CF
Bryant ‘Tetherball’ Thompson P

See, Dusty? I said you I’d find you a new nickname that had nothing to do with that movie.

Vancouver took to the field Saturday night in an attempt to all-but sweep their first home series against Tri-City, before hitting the road Sunday morning for Yakima, where they’ll play a five game-set with the Bears.  The C’s sent new recruit Scott Hodsdon to the mound to battle Bruce Billings of the Dust Devils, but the Oakland A’s 6th rounder had a rough time in his first pro outing.

Vancouver Canadians:
LF Angel ‘Cake’ Sierra
RF Matt ‘Authentic’ Sulentic
1B Sean ‘Doc’ Doolittle
DH ‘Amblin’ Danny Hamblin (left)
CF ‘Uptown’ Corey Brown
SS Walter ‘WAAALT!’ Correa
3B Justin ‘The Frashmaker’ Frash
2B Carlos ‘Peachy’ Arrieche
C Julio ‘Wraparound’ Rivera
SP ‘Great’ Scott Hodsdon