Top 10 memories of the Vancouver Canadians in 2016
SINGLE-A CLUB: Canadians’ play-by-play man picks his 10 favourite moments of the 2016 campaign
This week marks the final home stand of the Vancouver Canadians’ season. We opted to have Rob Fai, the C’s longtime play-by-play man, give us his Top 10 memories of the 2016 campaign with the Toronto Blue Jays’ short-season single-A affiliate. 1 Few things stop me mid-broadcast and have me asking the operator back at Mission Control (a.k.a. TSN studios) to add commercials so that I can regain my composure. On Aug. 17, the Canadians held their first Childhood Cancer Awareness Night, which featured a young boy by the name of Connor who would run the bases while both the Spokane Indians and Canadians would line the first and third basepaths respectively to give him high fives along the way. The soldout crowd cheered as loud as I have ever heard at Nat Bailey Stadium as he rounded the bases. And, having two kids not much older than Connor, I was mesmerized by this young man’s strength as the stadium stopped cold to give him a moment he wouldn’t soon forget. The rest of us on hand won’t forget it, either.
2 There has always been something special about Canada Day at the Nat, as fans deck themselves out in red and white and sing our anthem a little louder. From a baseball perspective, watching our only Canadian-born player — Mattingly Romanin, of Burlington, Ont. — hit a grand slam
to help the C’s toward a 7-0 victory was pretty meaningful. It was also fun to see the video played on the Sportsnet broadcast the next day as those back east caught wind of the special moment.
3 The 2016 season has had a number of bright moments and a few dull ones, considering the Canadians have had one of their tougher seasons in the standings in recent years. Catcher Josh Reavis was carrying the burden of having gone more than a calendar month without a base hit, having started the season 0-for-15. That streak ended on a sweltering afternoon in Boise, with a Reavis single back up the middle. To see the smile on his face at first base almost made you feel like the baseball gods had finally started paying attention to this team.
4 Several years ago, Canadians president Andy Dunn debuted a mid-game, sushi-inspired mascot race that had a piece of California roll, a piece of kappa maki and a glob of wasabi gently trot around the infield with a pre-determined outcome that was fun for the kids but a little eye-rolling for those beyond Barney and Friends. However, 2016 brought the race to another level, with four sushi mascots told they were permitted to race for real. The result? Photo finishes and blowouts with sushi scattered across the infield that have fans in stitches almost every night. Well played Sadaharu Soy. Well played.
5 For a guy that has been as good as right-hander Jackson McClelland this season, I feel fine admitting that one of my most memorable moments came in a game down in Hillsboro, Ore., when McClelland allowed a walk-off home run on one pitch. The game was tied 5-5 heading to the home half of the ninth and I was already looking at who we had coming up to bat in the top of the 10th. I just assumed McClelland was going to slam the door on the Hops. McClelland comes in, drops to a knee to share a few seconds with the man upstairs, turns around and then gets his first offering rocked over the left-field fence by Jason Morozowski. Game over. Closer is a thankless job sometimes.
6 Before the season started, former Canadians manager John Schneider told me, “you will love Justin Maese.” The old skipper was right. Maese was fantastic in his short time in Vancouver. He had mound presence and a wicked handful of pitches that could all be thrown for strikes at anytime. He was both humble and intense, and he was the first pitcher I have seen with the Canadians since Marcus Stroman in 2012 that made me automatically think, “That’s a majorleaguer.”
7 D.J. McKnight has been the forgotten soldier in the outfield despite leading Vancouver in triples (four) going into Sunday action. Two of those three-baggers came in the same game on July 16. And, with those two triples already in his pocket that night in the eighth inning, McKnight roped a ball into the left field corner and was off to the races. McKnight took the turn at second hard, but Vancouver manager John Tamargo Jr. had both of his hands up to stop him there. I wish McKnight had tested the waters, because no player has ever hit three triples in one Northwest League game, but maybe that’s just me being greedy.
8 Being back on television was one of my most enjoyable moments of 2016 just because I remember the days when the boys at Shaw TV would bring us into the homes of many who couldn’t make it out to the game. The games looked amazing in HD. Credit to names like Jim Reis, Jim Thomson and David McCall for bringing our ballpark back to life on the airwaves this past season. Kudos, too, to Chris Pritchett and Lowell Ullrich for their great colour commentating.
9 Getting the chance to interview former Toronto Blue Jays is a guilty pleasure of mine, and one former great that I had never been able to catch up to was pitcher Dave Stieb. This season, as part of the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame/ Blakes Superstar Series, I finally got my moment with Stieb and was enamoured with his openness to talk about his efforts on the mound and relationships with a number of players and coaches I admired as a child.
10 This was the first season since my inaugural year that I didn’t travel with the Canadians on all road trips. I have to admit, I very much like travelling with the boys, but my responsibilities to my family and myself had me lucky enough to see a young, new broadcaster in C.J. Pentland take on 22 of our 76 games this season. Most know that I don’t like sharing this responsibility, but I was proud to see the development of C.J. this summer. I thought with each game he got better and began to appreciate the craft of being a professional baseball broadcaster. And with every game that he honed his skills, I reintroduced myself to my family and rediscovered what a summer looked like as a father and husband.