Quinn ‘haunted’ by TV image of Royals’ Yost
SCENE & HEARD: There’s been a Vancouver baseball connection during the American League Championship Series that has gone unmentioned. Ned Yost, manager of the Kansas City Royals, was the Canadians’ starting catcher in 1980 when the C’s were a Triple A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers.
Unfortunately, the memory Yost carries with him from his stop on Canada’s West Coast is not pleasant. It was in early August when the reigning Playboy Playmate of the Year — Vancouver-born Dorothy Stratten — was invited to throw the ceremonial first pitch for a game at Nat Bailey Stadium. “She was living in Los Angeles and was coming home for a weekend visit,” recalls then-C’s general manager Jack Quinn. “We’d sent her a jersey and cap a few weeks earlier and ran her photo on the cover of our program.”
Yost caught Stratten’s pitch and had her sign the ball. A week later, the 20-year-old model who was born in a Salvation Army hospital in Vancouver was shot to death in her L.A. apartment by estranged husband and manager Paul Snider, who committed suicide on the same day: Aug. 14, 1980.
“Every time the television cameras zoom in on Yost in the Kansas City dugout during the Toronto series that haunting memory exists,” Quinn said from his home in Arizona. “I can recall how devastated Ned was when he heard the news, just having met the young lady.”
HERE ‘N’ THERE: NBA legend Charles Barkley will no doubt be given a warmer reception as headline speaker at this year’s JCC Sports Dinner than he ever extended to local media in the early days of the Vancouver Grizzlies. A member of the Phoenix Suns at the time, he wasn’t thrilled about the NBA’s decision to expand into Canada with franchises in Vancouver and Toronto for the 1995-96 season. Barkley has since become an outspoken NBA television analyst. The 23rd annual JCC Dinner is set for Feb. 16 at the Hyatt Regency. SHORT HOPS: Vancouver’s late boxing icon George Angelomatis introduced the combination of a sportsman’s dinner with live amateur bouts 32 years ago. The tradition continues Nov. 12 at the Italian Cultural Centre when Confratellanza Italo-Canadese and the North Burnaby Boxing Club stage Night of Fights 2015. The feature will be a five-round B.C. cruiserweight title match with defending champ Ken ( Heavy Hands) Huber from Kamloops going up against Vancouver’s Samuel Moses. Tickets for the annually sold-out event are available through John Teti ( 604- 657- 4111) or Pat Holmes (604-230-5630). It was an overwhelming and humbling moment to learn earlier this week that organizers have named Dr. Sport their 2015 recipient of the Angelo Branco Sportsman’s Trophy.
END ZONE: This is a first: Canadians president Andy Dunn talking baseball on a hockey pre-game radio broadcast. It happens Sunday afternoon before the Giants-Prince George WHL game at the Pacific Coliseum with a timely Vancouver guest appearance by Toronto Blue Jays legend Joe Carter. TSN Radio hosts Barry Macdonald and Matt Sekeres anchor the hot stove session beginning at 12:30 p.m.
Greg Douglas’ Dr. Sport column runs every second Saturday in The Vancouver Sun. drsport@telus.net