Canadians, and Volcanoes

Here at the cat house we try to celebrate Birthday's, Father's Day, and Mother's Day as a weekend event. That meaning we don't make Sunday the one day we celebrate these. For Mother's Day we spent the weekend over at the coast with the wife lounging, and me doing the antique store circuit.

With possible rain in the forecast for today we did the Father's Day event on Saturday. Our tradition has been to go to a game for one of the lower level teams in the area. This isn't a set in stone tradition, but something we do around 90% of the time.

This years game we, or should I say me. I say me because as we were heading towards Keizer I informed the wife the Corvallis Knights were home, and doing after game fireworks. Not wanting to deal with the whole fireworks concept as those game are usually the craziest to get tickets for. Especially at the spur of the moment like we were doing Saturday. I proceeded to keep the plan of heading north.

Arriving within ten minutes of gate opening which is how I like to arrive. The hard part is we live over half an hour away so nailing that arrive time can be a challenge. We walked up, and got tickets for the outfield general admission. These are the seats we prefer as you can bring a camp chair, and set up. I always tell people these are the most comfortable seats we sit at in any stadium. Preparing to watch the Canadians, and their new logo in action.

After visiting the teams website I learned this new secondary logo is a tribute to past teams in Vancouver. The logo was predominately displayed on the left side of the teams uniforms. I should have gotten a picture, but never got close enough to any of the players to take a good one. What I can say is from what I could see they are really good looking uniforms.

There were a few surprises at the game we got to experience. The first was while entering the stadium we were handed a magnet schedule.

One of my biggest complaints about the Volcanoes has always been their lack of promotional giveaways. I've always felt the ownership uses the team as a money grab, not caring about the fans. Unless you are a season ticket holder. Then they will give you a baseball, pin, or some other trinket on a rare occasion. Us fans who only get to a few games each season mean nothing. This is why I haven't gone to a Volcanoes game in two years. What drove me crazy is they only gave out one schedule per family. I asked for another, and got denied as my wife was given one. This is the same magnet schedule they will start selling in the team store for fifty cents any day now. You would think they could have given one per person atleast. Every team I've ever heard of gives them out to all fans, not just one per family. Guess if they would have done that it would have been a lost money grab opportunity.

I could go off all day about the Volcanoes so I'd better stop myself now. The biggest surprise of the night was how good of a game it ended up being. After the Canadians giving Salem-Keizer an 11-2 beatdown on opening night, I wasn't expecting much of an exciting game. Add into the mix that before the game I went online to check out both teams rosters. The Volcanoes roster seems pretty lackluster, and short on talent currently. Who knows maybe there will be a future gem in the bunch, but I don't see it.

With little happening until Vancouver added two in the third inning to go up 2-0. There wasn't any other scoring until the Volcanoes closed the gap in the seventh by scoring one run to go down 2-1. The two out rally started with runners on first, and second. A solid hit to left field followed scoring the one run, and in my opinion should have scored two. The second runner was far enough down the line as the cutoff got the ball that both the wife, and I felt he could have scored. In the end he was left stranded at second as a missed opportunity. In the eighth inning Vancouver added the final run of the game for a 3-1 victory. 

Something we never do is leave games early. I have stuck around for games that looked hopeless, only to see a ninth inning rally for the home team victory. Saturday we left in the bottom of the eighth as the wife's neck was hurting. This allowed us to do what has become another tradition. Only this tradition has started to become something we do after all minor league games. A trip to Dairy Queen for either an ice cream, or a blizzard.

The best thing about this whole game is the fact that baseball is now back, and in full swing. Due to where we live which is close to halfway between Salem, and Eugene. Throw in Corvallis being closer then those two teams. We pretty much have the chance to catch a game every day of the summer if we wanted. How many games we do catch is always the mystery.