Don’t let the win-loss record fool you. The Canadians may be two games below .500 but a 14-inning 7-6 victory over the Everett Aquasox on Wednesday moved them into a tie for the divisional lead of the Northwest League. The C’s and Aquasox are locked in, each with nine wins and 11 losses.
Â鶹´«Ă˝Ół»hosts Everett again Thursday at 7:05 p.m., and the rivals will play the third of their three-game series on Friday at Nat Bailey Stadium. First pitch is at 1:05 p.m.
If you don’t already have a ticket for today’s game or tomorrow's nooner, good luck scoring one. The home-stand sold out last week, and Friday’s mid-day crowd marks the 14th sell-out of the 2014 season. The club anticipates tickets for the remaining eight games will also sell out.
The three-time Northwest League champions have continued to set attendance records since the 2010 season.
Vancouver’s Blue Jays
Toronto’s single-A affiliate wants to bring the Blue Jays to B.C. Place.
They’re not the Â鶹´«Ă˝Ół»Blue Jays, but the country’s only Major League Baseball club sells itself as Canada’s team and the number of fans in this city speaks to the Jays’ popularity. As it did last year for a Toronto road series, Seattle’s Safeco Field swelled this week with Jays’ fans who crossed the border from B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and even as far away as Manitoba.
The Canadians president Andy Dunn let slip recently that the Blue Jays are closer than ever to playing in Vancouver. But, as always with the cavernous stadium, B.C. Place presents a specific problem for baseball: the enormous video screen hanging at its centre.
“Baseball would be perfect if it were not for that one feature,” said C’s general manger J.C. Fraser. “It’s great for soccer, great for football, but not great for baseball.”
In 2011 Jays president Paul Beeston said the team aspired to play exhibition games in Montreal and Vancouver. In March this year half that aspiration was realized when Toronto played two pre-season games against the New York Mets at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium, the first time the venue had seen professional baseball since the Expos were shipped out a decade earlier.
Now, Fraser said, the club is more motivated than ever to visit Vancouver.
“They’re interested, we’re interested. We have to see what’s feasible and do some tests to see what’s possible and what’s not.”
By “tests,” Fraser means taking batting practice at B.C. Place. “The only way to do it is to have players in there, hitting balls.”
