Vancouver Canadians Home Opener

We had a great time last night even though our team lost 10-4. The Canadians organization went all out to make this event a big splash and I believe they were successful.

To start, the national anthem was sung by none other than Mark Donnelly – he’s who John and I call “Opera Man” and usually sings the anthem for Canucks games. He was also accompanied by 5 of his 7 children in a beautiful version of O Canada despite the crackling microphones and sound system.

The opening pitch was a pretty big deal as well as the announcer proclaimed that it was the first time in professional baseball that it has been thrown by a quadriplegic. The man in question was Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan who was able to crank the ball back in some sort of super bionic contraption, wind up and let it sail over home plate.

The game was underway and was pretty close until the 6th inning when the Tri-City Dust Devils went up by 4 runs, and we just never recovered. All the inter-inning hoopla was alive and well this season again including the tricycle races, the giant sandwich making, and goofy dancing with Mr. Peanut (with “It’s Peanut Butter Jelly time” blasting on over the PA).

Down in the concourse the food line ups were pretty atrocious but there is more selection than previous years. Hot dogs, hamburgers, pretzels, popcorn, and even a sushi stand AND you have about 10 flat panel HD TVs mounted on the walls showing major league games.

As today’s game was the first of many “Fireworks Nights”, once things wrapped up a couple firefighters headed to the midfield with an ATV pulling a little trailer. We all sort of scoffed, certain it would be an unimpressive spectacle. Little did we know the amount of explosive that can indeed be towed behind a four-wheel. The show lasted about 20 minutes and sent all varieties of fireworks soaring into the air, into the parking lot, over the stadium walls and let off bangs and booms that could have been heard for miles.

The Canadians play the Dust Devils for their first nooner again today, so hopefully they can bounce back from that first loss. At one point an announcement was made that if you trade in your ticket stub they will give you free tickets to an upcoming game of your choice. So it looks like we’ll be back August 4th… for Mexico night.

We have a forthcoming podcast of the audio from the entire evening ans my camera phone pics are all up on Flickr – in the Canadians Baseball Set.