Finish Friends First Game – Thoroughly Entertained

Having a connection to the Vancouver Canadians and covering going back well over twenty plus years it’s great to have a solid working relationship with the organization with special thanks to Mark Steffens for the photo’s.

Of course our dealings are mainly with the media relations/play by play person who is Tyler Zickle is in his fifth season with the C’s and eighth within the Toronto Blue Jays organization in addition to his 11th in Minor League Baseball.

Prior to joining the C’s he was the Director of Promotions & Entertainment and Radio Broadcaster for the Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats. 

Having spent three seasons in Manchester, he was instrumental for the entire in-game presentation and promotions departments while traveling throughout the Eastern League in addition to calling ‘Cats games. 

In 2018 he worked alongside current Jays skipper John Schneider having the luxury to spend time with pro players like Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, Cavan Biggio and Jordan Romano.

It all started in 2014 as a communications intern for the Advanced-A Lake Elsinore Storm in the California League. He made his professional baseball radio debut with the Storm in 2015 and went behind the mic in the middle innings of road games.

Over his time in Vancouver he has been a welcome addition to the team but prior to Tyler we have the privilege to work with good friend Rob Fai who is now the Director of Sales and Marketing.

As with all organizations any media request must go through the media department and we are fortunate to have a strong working relationship with the C’s.

This past weekend I had friends in from Finland as their son attends and plays with the Delta Hockey Academy and since the team had a day off I asked Tyler if he could arrange a pair of passes for the game.

DID NOT KNOW!!!!

I for one clearly DID NOT KNOW and as I like to mention it to you and listed under “WHO KNEW”??? 

Pesäpallo (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈpesæˌpɑlːo]; lit. ’nest ball’; Swedish: Boboll colloquially known in Finnish as pesis and also referred to as Finnish baseball) is a fast-moving bat-and-ball sport that is often referred to as the national sport of Finland.

The basic idea of pesäpallo is similar to that of baseball: the offense tries to score by hitting the ball successfully and running through the bases, while the defense tries to put the batter and runners out. 

One of the most important differences between pesäpallo and baseball is that the ball is pitched vertically, which makes hitting the ball, as well as controlling the power and direction of the hit, much easier.

They had never seen let alone been to a ball game and for them this was something new and  exciting which they enjoyed from the drive in to going through the gates.

You couldn’t have picked a better day for a game on a hot, muggy 31 degree day with a sell-out crowd on hand.

Thanks to Tyler for the press release but most of all “thanks’ for the passes.

The C’s managed to get another strong start with a pair of home runs along with a strong start from MLB #6 Blue Jays prospect Gage Stanifer who carried the C’s to a 4-3 win over the Tri-City Dust Devils – farm team for the LA.

The first home run was in the bottom of the fourth with a man on and no outs that saw Carter Cunningham hammer his 14^th of the season making it 2-0 for the C’s.

Tri-City tied it with a two-out homer in the top of the fifth that saw  the C’s take the lead in the bottom of the sixth. 

Edward Duran led off with a go-ahead solo which was his first as a Canadian followed when Jay Harry doubled that set up a single from Matt Scannell singled  making it 4-2.

Stanifer’s (21 year-old) went six innings for his third straight start allowing two hits – a single and a homer in the fifth – while issuing one walk and striking out eight.

Nate LaRue and Julio Ortiz each worked a scoreless inning of relief before Aaron Munson (S, 3) found himself in some hot water in the ninth. 

He struck out the first man he faced but hit the next batter before giving up consecutive singles that scored a run. 

The righty induced a pop up in the next at-bat then threw a wild pitch that allowed the tying and go-ahead runs to advance into scoring position. 

Munson would escape the jam thanks to a ground ball that kicked off his cleat and redirected to shortstop Arjun Nimmala, who gloved it quickly and fired to first to end the game with the C’s on top 4-3.

Seven of nine starters reached base and six had a hit. Cunningham, Duran and Harry each finished with two knocks apiece. 

With the win, the C’s take five of six from the Dust Devils to close out their season series with the Angels affiliate and are 10-2 in their last 12 games. 

Thanks to a loss by first place Eugene today, the Canadians are now in second place and seven games back of the top spot with 12 games remaining.

Vancouver will enjoy an off day and start their final road series of the season Tuesday (August 26th) in Hillsboro at 6:35 p.m.