Canadians Bullpen Travels In Style

(Scotiabank Field at Nat Bailey Stadium - Vancouver, B.C.) - If you've been to a Vancouver Canadians game this summer, you've undoubtedly seen it. When manager John Schneider summons to his bullpen, the gates from beyond the C's bullpen down the left-field line will swing open, and the Vancouver Canadians Bullpen Cart powered by Abbie's Sports Shop will emerge.

Its four wheels propel a modified golf cart with a large red C's cap on top, held in the air by parts of a baseball shell and two light brown baseball bats up front. Those two bats are perched upon two baseball gloves that each house a headlight inside their pocket. Under the lid of the cap there's a white-cushioned bench long enough for two people to sit comfortably, and that same bench is mirrored so that two more can sit on the back. Come the next homestand, the cart will also be stocked with food and drinks in case the pitchers need some extra fuel before they take the mound.

The idea for such a bullpen cart came back when Canadians President Andy Dunn visited the Winter Meetings in Florida, and at the Trade Show there he ran into the people from SportsKartz, a company that makes bullpen carts. SportsKartz had brought along a cart they had recently made for the Rochester Red Wings - AAA affiliate of the Minnesota Twins - and Dunn loved the idea of getting one for the C's. All they needed was a sponsor - and that's where Abbie's Sports Shop came in.

"We brought out Abbie's Sports Shop, and they were so excited about it when they heard about it - they wanted to be involved with it from the start," said Jeff Holloway, the Canadians Director of Community Relations.

"We brought them on as a sponsor, and then we got around to ordering the cart and getting ready."

After being manufactured in Florida and shipped up to Vancouver, the cart made its debut on June 30, and ever since then has been heading out to the edge of the infield dirt whenever a C's pitching change is made. It's not mandatory for pitchers to ride in the cart - they can still opt to run to the mound with the cart following behind them - but so far a few players have taken it, and loved the free trip to the mound.  Yeyfry Del Rosario and Joe Lovecchio. It is important to note the stats of those two after riding in the cart: a combined eight innings pitched, zero runs, four hits, two walks and nine strikeouts. Not too shabby.

The Canadians and Rochester Red Wings are the only two affiliated baseball teams to currently use a bullpen cart - some Japanese teams and the Sugarland Skeeters of the Independent Atlantic League still use one as well - but the idea has been around for decades. The details on when they were introduced are a bit hazy, but it is believed that the Cleveland Indians introduced a car in 1950 to shuttle pitchers to the mound. Come 1965, most teams were using golf carts to bring pitchers to the mound, and in the 70s the fad hit its stride - mostly due to the size of the new baseball diamonds.

The use of the cart slowly died out in the 1980s, with the last bullpen vehicle in the MLB - a Harley-Davidson with a sidecar where the pitcher sat - used in 1995 by the Milwaukee Brewers. While most carts featured a simple design similar to the one that the Canadians use now, other teams featured more unique models, including the Brewers' motorcycle, the New York Yankees' pinstriped Datsun, and the Seattle Mariners' Tugboat introduced in 1982 - although that lasted about a week before it was given up.

Yet the C's won't just use the cart for bullpen trips. The vehicle will also be seen around the city, with appearances at events such as the upcoming Santa Claus Parade and Little League opening days.

"We're going to get a trailer for it, and it's going to be this thing that we now show up with as we do with any event," said Holloway. "[C's mascot] Bob Brown Bear now comes with a trailer for the bullpen cart."

While many bullpen carts these days sit in storage units and musuems, the Vancouver Canadians are doing their best to revive a unique tradition in their own way. With every appearance of the Bullpen Cart powered by Abbie's Sports Shop, the history of the cart is continued, whether it's shuttling a player closer to the mound or driving around Bob Brown Bear at a Little Mountain Little League baseball game. And with the way that C's pitchers have been throwing after taking the short ride in the cart, it might not be long before more relievers decide to take the trip.