Vancouver Canadians 2019 Schedule

The Vancouver Canadians will begin 2019 with a ‘Nooner at the Nat’ versus Spokane June 14.

C's RecapThe Vancouver Canadians will be seeing a lot more of the Everett AquaSox and their other North Division rivals in 2019. Next year’s schedule shows the C’s playing the Frogs a total of 18 times, an increase of six games from last year. Monty’s Mounties will also see more of the Spokane Indians and the Tri-City Dust Devils as they will square off with their divisional counterparts 15 times apiece instead of 12.

On the flip side, the C’s will see a bit less of their South Division foes. They will take on the Boise Hawks, Eugene Emeralds, Hillsboro Hops and Salem-Keizer Volcanoes just seven times apiece. As a result, the Canadians will be playing 48 games of their 76-game schedule inside their division.

The 2019 season begins June 14 as the C’s will take last year’s Northwest League finalist Spokane in a 1:05 pm start at Nat Bailey Stadium as the first of a three-game set. The 2018 NWL champion Eugene Emeralds will round out the first homestand of the season with a four-game series starting June 17.

Hillsboro will be the opponent on Canada Day to kick off July. Should the C’s find themselves in the race for the North Division first-half pennant, nine of their last 15 games will be at the friendly confines of the Nat.

The second-half of the year begins July 23 at home against Everett for another three-game showdown before the C’s embark on a 10-game road trip that will go through Spokane, Boise and Tri-City July 24-August 4. That road trip will be a bit longer for a select few of the C’s as the 2019 Northwest League/Pioneer League All-Star festivities will be held at Boise Memorial Stadium August 5-7.

Vancouver will be back home for three more games against the AquaSox beginning August 8 before hitting the road again for a six-game voyage through Eugene and Spokane August 11-16. Just like the first half, the end of the second half will feature the Canadians being home for nine of their final 15 games. The home finale is set for Friday, August 30 against Tri-City at 1:05 pm before the C’s conclude the regular season with a three-game visit to Everett August 31 to September 2.

The Northwest League best-of-three divisional finals are set for September 4-6 and the championship final is scheduled for September 7-11. Should the C’s make it to the final dance, they would host the final three games of the best-of-five final as it is the North Division’s turn to have home field advantage.

Scheduling Shift

“This seems to be the scheduling equivalent of playing the shift,” says Canadians broadcaster Rob Fai.

“I think the Northwest League sees that fans and organizations would much prefer to see divisional rivals battling for a pennant rather than have it the way it’s been for years. We would technically play more games (40) against the South Division than the North (36) which to many of us defeated the purpose of creating a division with tension and rivalry.

This helps. For those of us who like visiting some of the cities that we enjoy for a shorter period of time is tough, but the pros in my opinion will definitely outweigh the cons. if we’re going to win or lose against a North Division foe, I want to at least see that settled on the diamond and not on the out of town scoreboard.”

This should be a huge benefit to the three Oregon teams (Eugene, Salem and Hillsboro) as their travel gets even more reduced which, over our intense schedule, becomes a very noticeable advantage.

Look at the past winners over the last five years, and in four of those an Oregon team has won. They should win every year with that much of a geographical advantage. That said, we have an advantage as well with our ballpark, its fans and the environmental that opposing teams walk into.”

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C’s play-by-play announcer Rob Fai—interviewing Toronto Blue Jays catching coordinator Ken Huckaby—will take his talents down the AM dial to Sportsnet 650 in 2019.

C’s New Radio & TV Home

The C’s also announced this week that they have signed a new broadcasting deal with Sportsnet 650 in Vancouver. That ends a longtime partnership with TSN 1040/1410 that began in 2004. In addition to all home games and some of the road games being on amplitude modulation radio with Rob Fai behind the mic, six games will be televised on Sportsnet Pacific. The C’s will enjoy TV coverage again for the first time since 2016 when Shaw TV televised Saturday home games.

Rob Fai then spoke with Mira Laurence and Aynsley Scott for Sportsnet Tonight to discuss all things Vancouver Canadians.

State Of The Nat

C’s president Andy Dunn joined Sportsnet 650’s Andrew Walker and Scott Walker on The Program to talk about the new partnership. He also spoke about how special it is to attend a game at Nat Bailey Stadium.

“I can walk around downtown and no one ever stops me and yells at me because we didn’t bunt yesterday in the seventh. They stop and want to tell me a story of they took their grandson or their grandfather, took them to the ballpark way back in the day…Nat Bailey Stadium is to Vancouver what Wrigley Field is to Chicago and what Fenway Park is to Boston. There’s that much affinity locally for this ballpark.”

Dunn also hinted there could be some changes at the stadium in the near future.

“We’re actually going through the process right now with our ‘Friends of the Park’ board and things like that. I think if we do anything, we’ll have an announcement a little bit later. We’re still working on some timing and some mechanisms but we’re working on some things right now that I think could be a tremendous addition to the ballpark. We need more seats but I never want to add too many seats. The fact that we lose the intimacy and really, what the whole feel is here at Nat Bailey Stadium.”

“When we did the left field (seat addition) a couple of years ago and we wrapped around the Hey Y’all porch. For me, when I first got here, I thought the ballpark looked incomplete, I thought it looked unfinished. Adding that I thought really gave us a finished look but I think with the next program we’re looking at, it would actually give us a look that’s a little bigger than the level we are.”

C-Tweets

cs-tweetIt’s been awhile since the last round of C-Tweets but a lot has happened over the past month including the MLB debuts of former C’s Jon Berti (2011) and Jonathan Davis (2014). There are plenty of observations about former C’s pitchers Nate Pearson (2017) and Jackson McClelland (2015-2016) and second baseman Cavan Biggio (2016) who are playing in the Arizona Fall League.

 

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Published by Niall O'Donohoe

My name is Niall O’Donohoe and I am an avid follower of baseball. My blog beginnings began in 2007 with Batter’s Box under the alias #2JBrumfield. The blog formerly known as Niall On Baseball, C’s Plus Baseball strives to deliver plus coverage of the C’s through photos, observations and interviews of the players striving to make it to the major leagues. If you like what you see here, please spread the word about CsPlusBaseball.ca through your favourite social media platform. This blog began just before the C's championship season in 2017 and the goal is to deliver awesome content about Canada’s only affiliated professional minor league baseball club. Thanks a million for being here!

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