Boise Hawks 1, Spokane Indians 0

August 30, 2008

It was refreshing to drive up to Boise Memorial Stadium in Boise, Idaho and actually find some truth in advertising. "Feed the Economy!" blared the sign on the grandstand. "BUY HAWKS TICKETS NOW!" The sign also features a little kid stuffing his gob with a hot dog, and a big old arrow pointing down to the box office, just in case there was any confusion about where to buy the Hawks tickets. We were there to feed the economy, and did a darn fine job of it.

I hadn't seen the sign, so I bought my tickets in advance, on-line, using this Internet thing that I'm sure you've heard about. This seemed prudent. I didn't really want to spend an entire day driving from beautiful West Seattle to pretty-attractive-in-a-different-sort-of-way Boise only to find the game was sold out because The Chicken was there. This is fine. Throughout the Weisenheimer 2008 minor league baseball tour I've purchased all of the tickets on-line. What irked me, just the slightest bit, was that Boise didn't offer me the option to simply pick up my tickets at will-call, a fairly easy option offered by every other club on the tour. (Weisenheimer likes will call. Being a naturally forgetful sort, I'd have been somewhere around LaGrande, Oregon, and asked my sweetie, the scorer, "Hey, do you have the tickets?" There's no going back at that point.) No, Boise insisted that I print my tickets at home. OK, fine... but they STILL dinged me for the couple of bucks for a CONVENIENCE charge. Whose convenience, I ask? All was well; I printed them at home and didn't forget to bring them. But WTF?

Otherwise, our experience with the Boise Hawks was grand. Just moments after entering the ballpark we were greeted by a very enthusiastic gentleman who shook my hand, exclaimed he was president of the booster club, was glad to see me, and was really pleased that, "We clinched the pennant yesterday." It took me a few moments to figure out that he was the head of the Spokane Indians boosters, and the greeting was because I was wearing my Indians cap (purchased in the Lilac City in the dark days before Weisenheimer became a blog) and that, by happenstance, the Hawks were hosting the Spokanes on this August evening. I love the Indians when I'm there, but in baseball you root, root, root for the home team.

A few other notes about Boise Memorial Stadium:

They need cup holders. The problem of where to put your beer is compounded by the fact that, when you're blogging about the game, suddenly you also have to juggle notebook, camera, and writing implement in addition to your hot dog, peanuts, and brew.

The seats are uncomfortable, especially for one of such girth as Weisenheimer who has been on a 10-hour drive earlier in the day.

There were a couple of Butt-Heads sitting behind us, but no Beavises. Huh-huh. Huh.

Humphrey the Hawk is a pretty good mascot, and he patted my sweetie, the scorer, on the head, which was a first she didn't seem to appreciate all that much. The skunk from "Stinker's," which is, apparently, a gas/convenience store in the Boise area and a sponsor of the night's game, was also in attendance.

The game
Weisenheimer has seen, estimating conservatively, 1,000 baseball games in his lifetime. (They pile up when you're covering the games or living at the park when bleacher seats are $1.50.) In that time, the only no-hitter I've seen happened in a seven-inning A-ball game in Everett sometime in the late 80s. I saw Nolan Ryan throw a one-hitter against the Mariners in June of '89, but this wasn't a suspenseful one-hitter: Harold Reynolds led off the bottom of the first with a single, stole second, went to third on an error, and scored on a sacrifice fly by number-three hitter Greg "Pee Wee" Briley (which ought to be a sure sign that the M's of that year were just as pathetic as the current version that used to bat Jose Vidro cleanup.) That was that, as Ryan fanned 11.

On this night in Boise the Spokane nine didn't manage a hit until there were two out in the seventh, when ninth-place-hitting left fielder Edward Martinez dunked a single to left against Bubba O'Donnell. Curiously, O'Donnell was the second pitcher for the Hawks, starter Jeff Beliveau going 4 1/3, fanning eight, walking three, and allowing no hits before calling it a night. The single by Martinez was the only safety for Spokane, possibly feeling the after-effects of their pennant-clinching effort and celebration of the previous evening, and starting the "scrubs," if such a distinction is necessary in short-season A-ball.

In short, it was close. The Martinez single was the only hit Spokane was to record, and Weisenheimer and his sweetie, the scorer, have still never seen a no-hitter togehter. (We must note at this juncture that, according to the league officials in the ballpark on this day, Spokane got two hits, Martinez being inexplicably given a single on a routine grounder that was muffed by Boise third sacker David Macias in the second inning. The scorer, who clearly has some work to do if s/he hopes to advance to AA, also blew a call in the sixth, giving Boise's Sean Hoolebeke a single on a play that clearly was deserving of an error.) By the time of the one real hit Boise had the game well in hand, having put a singleton up on the board in the second, when Hoorelbeke led off with a walk, advanced to third on a one-out single by Dwayne Kemp, and scored on catcher Pat Mahoney's grounder to first. Boise got nine hits, including two each by Macias and Hoorelbeke.

Spokane starter Martin Perez pitched admirably, though he never retired the Hawks in order. Perez worked seven innings and scattered nine hits, walking just one while fanning seven. The Indians stranded 10 runners, no mean feat when you get just one hit. They did work six walks, had a couple of guys hit by pitches, and Boise made one error. But they didn't get a guy to third until the ninth, when shortstop Edward Koncel walked with one out, took second on a wild pitch and third on a grounder to first. But he died there when third sacker Jacob Kaase grounded to second.

Box score

Vancouver Canadians 4, Boise Hawks 3

August 17, 2008

Nat Bailey Stadium in Vancouver, B.C., has, according to the Website of the Vancouver Canadians baseball team, often been described as "the prettiest little ballpark in North America." That's a fairly substantial claim, one that can't be proven or dis-proven during Weisenheimer's 2008 tour of Northwest ballparks. We do, however, have to give "The Nat" the nod among the yards we've visited this summer. We've been to parks in urban and suburban settings, but Nat Bailey Stadium sits right on the edge of a true gem, south Vancouver's Queen Elizabeth Park.

Fact is, Weisenheimer and his sweetie, the official scorer of the Weisenheimer Northwest Ballpark Tour 2008 (we should have thought of having T-shirts made up, but this whole tour thing came about on something of a whim) first discovered the stadium after having brunch at Seasons Restaurant in the park, and followed the sounds of stadium PA announcements to the yard below. It was a pied piper sort of thing. Then, as this weekend, it was blistering hot in Vancouver, though our visit (lo those many years ago) was in May, the heat was unseasonable, and we got sunburned to beat all hell. This time we were ready, as heat was in the forecast. They announced a game-time temp of 32, but it felt more like 90 to me. We ducked into seats in the shade even before the game began.

The Nat, to Weisenheimer's memory (admittedly feeble) has been gussied up a bit since our last visit, when it looked more as depicted at Ballpark Digest. We especially like the art that's on the outside walls of the stadium, including a depiction of the Seattle Rainiers (at right). There's another painting of Honus Wagner; we'll have to do the research some other day to see if Honus actually played in Vancouver. Certainly not at the Nat, which was built in 1951.

Vancouver, in days of yore, played in the Pacific Coast League. The AAA club left after the 1999 season, to become the Sacramento Rivercats, but in 2000 the Southern Oregon Timberjacks moved north to Vancouver to become the Canadians and join the short-season A-ball Northwest League. The Nat has a seating capacity of 6,500, and we expect it would be deemed "too small" to host AAA baseball today. We note that Sacramento leads the PCL in attendance at more than 9,500 per game. If Vancouver sold out at 6,500 per game it would rank in the middle of the pack. As an A-ball club, they're drawing an average of 3,474.

Our one quibble with the Nat -- no roster lists were available. They had a program, and a scorecard, and while the program had opening day rosters for Vancouver, there were no current rosters, and nothing for the visiting Boise Hawks. WTF? OK, a second quibble. The speed pitch displayed MPH. We're in Canada. Shouldn't it be KPH? As you can see, not a lot to gripe about at Nat Bailey Stadium. There's construction of some sort of Olympics venue going on next door. We're hoping they don't mess with this gem of a baseball park.

The game
One thing we learned at this contest, as we learned back on Aug. 1 in Portland and on Aug. 2 in Eugene: stick with the starters. Boise Hawks starter Aaron Shafer worked five innings, gave up one hit, issued no walks, fanned six, threw 57 pitches, faced the minimum of 15 hitters -- and that was his day's work! What, he couldn't have gone two more? Throw 70 pitches? Vancouver starter Trey Barham also strung up goose-eggs. Barham went six innings, gave up five hits (including a couple of the infield variety and one dunker), no runs, no walks, five Ks, threw 81 pitches, and that was his day. The hardest hit shot against him was an out: a liner that would have decapitated him had he not gotten the glove up in time.

As if to prove our point about starters, four of the five relief pitchers who worked in this game walked the first batters they faced, and this on a day in which the home plate umpire seemed to have announced, "It's hot out, boys, so you'd better be swinging." Neither starter walked anyone.

Once the starting pitchers were out of the way Vancouver broke through for two runs in the bottom of the sixth off Marcus Hatley to go up 2-0. Hatley walked Dusty Coleman to start the frame, Coleman scored on a two-out double by David Thomas, who came in on a triple by Marcos Luis. That three-bagger would have been an inside-the-park homer for most players, but Luis defies the typical image of the speedy secondbaseman. In fact, Luis was picked off third for the third out of the inning, perhaps still exhausted by the dash from home to third.

The Canadians tacked on another in the seventh to make it 3-0, and it seemed a nice, tidy affair was in the offing and that the home crowd would go home happy. But Boise plated a pair in the eighth off Edgar Tajeda, who walked a guy and was not helped by an error by third sacker Francisco Tirado, who also has a rusty gate swing and may not have a lengthy pro career. Sean Hoorelbeke, Boise's DH, doubled to plate the pair and chase Tajeda in favor of Ken Smalley, a hefty lad who seems to serve as Vancouver's closer. Smalley fanned Kyler Burke to end the inning and preserve the Canadians' 3-2 lead.

Smalley's inability to field cost him the coveted "save" in the ninth. Boise catcher Carlos Perez led off the final frame with a ground single to left. Shortstop Marwin Gonzalez laid down a bunt to the right of the mound; Smalley muffed it and everyone was safe. Shortstop Ryan Flaherty bunted, too, and this time Smalley made the play, a 1-4 putout, but the runners advanced to second and third.

This led to an interesting play. With the Vancouver infield playing in to try to cut down the tying run at the plate, Gonzalez, the go-ahead run, got a huge lead off second, almost halfway to third. So when left fielder David Macias lined one to short left field, Perez scored easily, Gonzalez was waved home, just eight or ten feet behind him, but was nailed at the plate on a nice throw from Thomas. With a normal lead, Gonzalez is probably held at third. Instead he was the second out, and Andrew Rundle fanned to end the inning.

At this point, the Weisenheimers were a bit concerned. We had a train to catch back to the States, boarding at 5-ish, but the game was tied 3-3 and pushing four o'clock. We could afford an extra inning or two, but no more.

Vancouver came through for us. Jeremy Barfield, son of former Toronto great Jesse who had whiffed three times (but apparently won the previous game with a grand slam in the ninth) was hit by a pitch leading off. Dusty Napoleon bunted him to second. Boise walked Jason Christian, who had doubled to drive in a run in the second, intentionally. But Coleman hit a gapper for a double that scored Barfield to win it for the Canadians.

It was a delightful game, we caught a cab, and made it to the train station in plenty of time.

Go visit the Nat!

Box score