40 Seasons of Canadians Baseball

We are 40 days away from the start of the 2017 season and this year marks the 40th anniversary of Canadians Baseball! Broadcaster Rob Fai updates this page daily with a look back at great stories and everything that makes us "Canadian".

(Scotiabank Field at Nat Bailey Stadium - Vancouver, B.C.) - When professional baseball left Vancouver at the end of the 1969 summer, fans clamored for something, anything that would bring them back to the ballpark. Almost a decade later and penny-pinching businessman Harry Ornest finally answered the calls with a team ready for play in the Pacific Coast League known as the Canadians.
 
Memory #7 of 40:
Imagine being a baseball executive and going in front of those around you at the boardroom table and saying that you're going to draft a pitcher with one hand. In today's society, that wouldn't raise an eyebrow -- but back in 1985 when the Toronto Blue Jays selected pitcher Jim Abbott in the 36th round, a few baseball purists must have thought the proverbial 'Gods must be crazy'.
Fast forward three years and now imagine a baseball executive suggesting that they draft that same player - in the 1st Round! That's what the California Angels did when with the 8th overall pick they selected University of Michigan standout Jim Abbott, the pitcher who had but one functioning arm.
Memory #6 of 40:
The story of Grant Desme will forever be etched in the minds of those who followed his brief yet poignant career within the Oakland Athletics organization. A member of the 2007 Vancouver, Desme missed the first 60 games of the season after being drafted in the 2nd round of the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft by the A's. His hair, his demeanour and his soft-spoken approach all screamed "California" as the outfielder from San Luis Obispo, CA was projected to become the Athletics "next big thing."
In his 12 games with the Canadians, Desme hit a respectable .261-1-6 after spending a majority of the season rehabilitating a broken wrist that he suffered just weeks before the Amateur Draft.
He was polished and had a politeness that doesn't usually come with a 21-year old who has the world resting at his feet.
Desme would get stung by the injury bug yet again in 2008 playing in just two games down in Arizona as Oakland must have been wondering if its high-round draft pick was ever going to come around and be healthy enough to stay on the field. But, like a loyal St. Bernard, they did as the investment financially in Desme was significant as was his upside.
His breakout season came in 2009 when he hit .304-20-51 with Stockton of the California League and .274-11-38 at Double-A Midland. He had power, defense and was suddenly a blue-chip prospect once again within the A's system.
Now, for those within a "system" who are now considered a high-end prospect, the invite to the Arizona Fall League can await. Here the best of the best within baseball's second tier all get together for about a month to get a few more games in and also showcase their skills with many a General Manager in the stands or keeping tabs.
Desme played in 27 games with the Phoenix Desert Dogs who featured Stephen Strausburg, Drew Storen, Adam Loewen and former Vancouver Canadians standout Corey Brown. Of all those marquee names-of-the-future, it was Desme who shone brighter than anyone as he hit .315-11-27 with all of North America taking notice as the scraggily-haired kid from California hit ten home runs in 10 games raising the eyebrows of countless baseball executives who once again tipped their caps to Oakland General Manager Billy Beane for locking Desme down.
So.
With the Athletics shifting things around for the imminent arrival of Desme, who could have imagined what would come out of left-field next.
Coming off of a ground-breaking season, just three years removed from playing outfield for the Vancouver Canadians, Desme quit. His commitment to the Lord was too powerful for him to turn his back on any longer and he left the game right at his own personal apex and committed to St. Michael's Abbey in Orange County, CA.
The news of his altered course ripped across the globe as one of baseball's future stars had simply put his glove down and traded it in for the robes of the monastery.
At first it seemed surreal, but in retrospect and with a different set of lenses put firmly into one's frames -- perhaps it was easier to see that Desme's soft-spoken nature and passion for God was glaringly apparent. Here in Vancouver Desme would tutor young children and was a leader within the weekly Baseball Chapel that brings minister's from across North America into local baseball stadiums to spread the word and provide a forum for those who wish to share their love for God and christianity.
But to have appreciated it, you would have had to look beyond the numbers, the re-hab stints and the charming looks to see where his head truly lay at night.
The A's were obviously shocked as was the rest of the baseball world but the decision was made, and everyone simply had to move forward. It would be years before Desme would emerge from the St. Michael's Abbey to speak of his conversion to religion and away from the diamond.

Desme would tell a local reporter in one of his rare interviews that "I don't have it all figured out. I mean, it's a daily struggle and I'm not perfect. Just because someone enters a monastery or enters a marriage doesn't mean that it's done. In a lot of ways, this is just the beginning."
He has learned Latin, Greek and French languages since joining St. Michael's and now that he has completed his first chapter within the monastery he can help in the community on a number of fronts. What was his first community involvement? Assistant baseball coach to a youth baseball team called the "Arc Angels."
Desme wore #25 for the Vancouver Canadians and remains one of the team's most intriguing storylines.
-30-
Memory #5 of 40:
For many Vancouver Canadians fans, memories of the players and in some cases the coaching staff are what initiate conversation among friends as the name noterioty is like throwing a dry long onto a well lit fire.
What makes the Canadians truly 'our' team are those behind the scenes like the late "Torchy" Pechet who for nearly 20 years graced the ballpark as the team's merchandise manager or "souvenir guy" located between gates C and D.
Named after a famed overseas cyclist, Kenneth "Torchy" Pechet was the man who had the smiling eyes as he sold a wide collection of baseball hats, jackets and sports memoriabilia inside the stadium, making it easy for fans to grab some gear and spark up one of those conversations with the long-time entrepreneur.
His hair silver, his smile infectious, Torchy was as much a fixture as any player and coach -- and was always partial to the games younger fans as he often took a dollar or two off of an item to ensure the child could still go and grab a scoop of ice cream.
Torchy's appeal came in the fact that he was a fan of the game as well and was always looking to add ballcaps not just of the Canadians but of the other teams in the Pacific Coast League and beyond. He was also partial to giving away prizes as at the end of each year you could have your ticket drawn to win an official Vancouver Canadians jacket -- a beautiful dark blue with alternating red and white letters and a fabric that was smoother than your mother's leg on her first date with your dad.
If you really got Torchy going, he would talk at length about his days on the ice playing hockey on the Junior Circuit even getting a tryout with the legendary Chicago Blackhawks. One shake of his big ol' hands and you knew he had a background in a sport of some sort. Fun fact: Torchy even played a lone game with the Winnepeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League.
He worked with all the giants of the ballpark with names like Gary Arthur, Stu Kehoe and Brent Imlach giving him the tools needed to become a destination within the ballpark. Sure there were hats and countless Canadians pieces of memorabilia, but it all worked because of Torchy's passion and love of the game and our fans. He was one of the good guys and continues to be missed.
Torchy passed away peacefully shortly after the 2010 season, and a few years removed from his final days selling his wares. His family still resides throughout the Lower Mainland and enjoys the game from a distance. We hope that they take solace in knowing that his legacy here at Scotiabank Field at Nat Bailey Stadium lives on and will live on well beyond today because it's more than just players and coaches that make up the "Canadians."
-30-
Memory #4 of 40:
With the Vancouver Canadians already sold to a group south of the border several months earlier, fans locally knew that the 1999 season marked the end of more than two decades of baseball in the Pacific Coast League.
A stadium that according to PCL Commissioner Branch Rickey was 'unfit' to house one of his franchises, a city that had grown weary of the back-and-forth ownership changes and a struggling Canadian dollar, it was clear that the end had been coming for one of our country's final professional baseball affiliates.
Baseball has a beautifully bitter way of thanking those who stand loyal through the winds of change as the 1999 Vancouver Canadians ended up being the perfect collection of future stars and veterans with 'pop' that gave us one final summer to remember.
Led by Frank Menechino, slick fielding Ramon Ortiz and big Roberto Vaz, the Canadians had enough pop in the line-up to support a pretty commendable pitching staff that included Mark Mulder, Anthony Chavez and Tim Hudson.
Manager Mike Quade's Canadians jumped out of the gates in the PCL's North Division with Scott Spieizo hitting a gaudy .390 (41-for-105) in his 28 games with Vancouver while Menechino hit .309 (155-for-501) along with a team-leading 15 home runs and 88 RBI. Vancouver hit .282 as a team to finish 13 1/2 games clear of second place Tacoma (69-70) in the four-team division. Of note, Edmonton (65-74) and Calgary (57-82) finished third and fourth respectively. Note: The Trappers (Edmonton) left the City of Champions in 2004 while the Cannons left town in 2002.
Vancouver's impending departure was a not-so-subtle undertone to the season as it had been made public that they were en route to Sacramento for the 2000 season and shiny new Raley Field. This was a tough pill for longtime fans in Vancouver to swallow as they knew that if they could find a ballpark to play in that met the expectations of the Pacific Coast League along with a committed ownership group life in the PCL may have continued.
As the Canadians rolled on the field, so too did the moving trucks ready to take everything not nailed to the floor down to California. Vancouver would advance to the post-season, with an 84-58 record and a team ERA of 3.84 ready to take on the Salt Lake Buzz, Minor League affiliate of the Minnesota Twins, a team that in the regular season went a humble 73-68, eleven games back of Vancouver in the overall standings.
The best-of-five series went all five games but Vancouver found a way to the PCL final where they would face Oklahoma, a team that had current Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Joe Biagini's father Greg on the roster. Vancouver was locked in by this point and on September 17th, 1999 topped the Redbirds 5-3 at Nat Bailey Stadium on a warm fall afternoon to claim it's first Pacific Coast League title since 1989. It was mission accomplsihed for the fans of the Canadians who would watch the boys head off to Las Vegas for the Triple-A Championship.
With a PCL title in its pocket, the Canadians took on the Charlotte Knights in a best-of-five series that went the distance. In a see-saw battle between two very good teams, Vancouver blew the doors off of the Knights in the fifth and final game with a 16-2 victory giving the Canadians its first ever Triple-A Championship! The team had PCL titles in both 1985 and 1989, but this was the first Championship that covered all of North America.
The MVP of the series was Terrance Long and the Canadians, despite all of the external challenges had defeeated the odds and given Vancouver a title. What hurt the most? The team who had won the series in Las Vegas never came back to Vancouver for so much as a locker clear-out. It was over as fast as it had begun and for fans of baseball in Vancouver a very bitter-sweet euphoria.
-30-
Memory #3 of 40:
In the summer of 2005, Canadians manager Juan Navarette knew he had a pretty good team as the Minor league affiliate of the Oakland Athletics fought toward a division title and a second straight trip to the Northwest League Championship. In 2004, the were bounced by the Boise Hawks, and in '05 they found themselves looking squarely into the eyes of the Spokane Indians, one of the Pacific Northwest's most storied franchises.
In the best-of-five series, the first two games were pitted for Spokane's Avista Stadium while Game 3 was a certainty in Vancouver and if needed, so to were Game's 4 & 5.
Vancouver came out swingin' in Game 1 was Canadians pitcher Joe Newby went seven innings allowing just one run while Hoss Pratt smacked his first home run of the post-season to pace the C's to a commanding 7-1 victory. The Canadians up 1-game-to-none had gotten one of the two road games out of the way and were closing in on becoming the first team in franchise history to claim a NWL title.
After Spokane evened the series with a 6-1 victory, the focus shifted to Nat Bailey Stadium with the series now a best-of-three.
In Game 3, Vancouver surged for a 6-0 win behind a 3-for-3 day behind Jose Garcia, the team's affable right-fielder who at the time neverrealized this series would be his last in baseball. He would later get released by the Oakland Athletics, but not before pushed Vancouver to within a game of the Championship.
Spokane, like a stubborn-ex, wouldn't stop pestering the Canadians as they fought hard for a 2-0 victory in Game 4 as a trio of Indians pitchers combined for the shutout with Broc Coffman securing the win with 5 1/3 innings of two-hit baseball, striking out six. His efforts forced a one-game, winner take all for the NWL Championship.
In the final game, the first and only Game 5 to ever be host at Nat Bailey Stadium, (9/12), the Canadans took a 3-3 tie into the top of the 8th but watched as usually-dependable Brad Kilby got roughed up for a quartet of runs on two hits and three walks as the Indians found a four-pack of runs that took the wind out of both the Canadians and the sparse crowd (873 fans). The final, Indians 7, Vancouver 3 and the quest for a first-ever NWL title would have to wait until next season despite a 46-30 regular season record and a fantastic showing from a number of future Major Leaguers including Brad Kilby who still remembers that long afternoon in Vancouver when the boys were six outs away from a Northwest League Championship.
-30-
Memory #2 of 40:
When you think back to turnarounds over the course of a season, few can equal that of 2009 Vancouver Canadians pitcher Julio Ramos who started off with a whimper but finished with one of the best August's in franchise history.
Ramos, now 29, was one of five arms trotted out in then-Manager Rick Magnante's rotation and despite carrying one of the best ERA's on the team, just couldn't buy a win.
He would lost his first start 3-2 at Tri-City (6/23) and then his next 5-0 at home against Salem-Keizer. Ramos in that loss only gave up one run as the Volcanoes busted out for a pack of insurance runs in the 9th off of Pedro Vidal to secure the victory.
After a 3rd straight loss, this time against Spokane, Ramos looked to avoid a four consecutive loss as he faced Boise at historic Scotiabank Field. The result, a 6-3 loss in a game where he actually only gave up one earned run as he watched his defense kick the ball around chasing him in the 5th inning.
Snakebitten, disenchanted and perhaps wondering if he would ever see a bent number in the win column, Ramos once again took to the mound, this time in front of a handful of fans in Yakima. With no pressure, no crowd and nothing to lose, Ramos went five innings allowing just three hits and a pair of runs, neither of which were earned as the defense struggled again. He would leave with the Canadians scoring just the one run and after a barrage of runs filled the bottom of the 8th inning off of hotheaded pitcher Hector Garcia, the Canadians would fall 9-2. Ramos would go to 0-5 with a Northwest League LEADING 2.57 earned run average.
In his five losses, the Canadians had accounted for nine (9) runs offensively.
The Canadians would have an off-day on July 28th as the team boarded a bus headed toward Boise, Idaho, a drive that takes about 12 hours to complete. Some off-day eh?
Half way between Vancouver and Boise, with the team resting in the wee hours of the morning, the bus would suddenly pull up limp, a broken axel caused the Canadians to disembark from the bus and wait, six hours for a replacement to be sent from Vancouver. Once repacked and on the way, the C's bus was so late for that night's game that instead of going directly to the hotel, they would go straight to the park and gear up for the game against a very reputable Hawks team.
24 hours either on a bus or on the side of the road, and take one guess as to who was starting on the mound for the Vancouver Canadians -- 0-5 Julio Ramos.
Baseball has a funny way of balancing out itself over the course of a season, and in a game that the Canadians could have easily called in sick, they instead rolled.
After giving up a run in the bottom of the 1st and again in the bottom of the 2nd innings, Vancouver's offense would finally give Julio some support. In the top of the 3rd inning, a pair of runs and then in the top of the 4th inning with the game tied at 2-2. Vancouver exploded for eight, count 'em, eight runs and blew the doors off of the Hawks with a 15-5 final. The winning pitcher? Julio Ramos.
He had received more offensive support in two innings that he had garnered in the previous five games!
After the game he was asked how much that meant to finally get himself a win. His response was beautifully elequent;
"In each of my starts I tried my best to keep us in the game. Today I was just tired and really needed these guys to help me out and that was everything. Today, they raised me up and I thank them and thank God."
In Ramos' next five starts? All wins.
(8/3) vs. Yakima 5-1; (8/8) at Salem-Keizer 3-2; (8/13) at Eugene 5-2; (8/18) vs. Tri-City 2-1 and (8/24) at Salem-Keizer 6-0.
Ramos was named the Canadians pitcher of the year after finishing his season 6-5 with a 2.38 ERA. It was in the eyes of many, the greatest single season turnaround in franchise history -- and yet he never changed a thing.
-30-
Memory #1 of 40:
It was spring of 1978 and the Oakland Athletics were deciding who would travel north with them from Arizona up to the Bay Area and who would REALLY travel North to Vancouver's newly-anointed Nat Bailey Stadium.
Names like Rick Lysander, Craig Mitchell and Craig Minetto took to the mound while Dwayne Murphy, Wayne Gross and Jerry Tabb swung for the fences with Tabb hitting a team-leading 18 home runs in the Canadians maiden voyage throughout the Pacific Coast League.
Just over 123,000 fans watched as manager Jim Marshall sent his charges out onto the field at Nat Bailey Stadium. The Canadians would finish a respectable 74-65 (.532) which was good enough for third in the West Division, seven games back of Division winning Tacoma who had Yankees up-and-comer and future Toronto Blue Jays infielder Damaso Garcia patrolling old Cheney Stadium.
The Canadians would win its first ever game over the Hawaii Islanders 3-0 on the road and also grab a victory in the first-ever PCL game hosted at Nat Bailey getting by the San Jose Missions (Seattle).
Notes: Rick Lysander pitched in the Major Leagues for four seasons with the Athletics (1980) and the Minnesota Twins (1983-85) before finishing his career in Vancouver. Fast forward 29 years and his son Brent would suit up for the Canadians (2007) going 2-1 with a 3.35 ERA… Dwayne Murphy would get called up at the midway point of the 1978 season from Vancouver to Oakland and never come back as the outfielder would play the next twelve (12) seasons at the Major League level with the Athletics (10 years), Detroit (one year) and Philadelphia (one season). He would retire and later become a coach with the Diamondbacks (2001) where he helped them to the World Series before joining the Toronto Blue Jays organization in a number of different capacities including first base coach.
-30-