The Vancouver Canadians are turning back the clock to 1996.
The club will wear their Throwback Thursday jerseys for the first time when they take to the field against the Eugene Emeralds at Nat Bailey Stadium tonight. UPDATE – this game has been postponed. It will be made up as a doubleheader when the Emeralds are back in Vancouver June 14-19.
The Molson Canadian-themed jerseys and caps will be worn during each Thursday home game throughout the 2022 season. The home white jersey has Canadians in upper-case letters scripted across the chest with alternating letters in blue and red. Blue piping surrounds both sides of the jersey buttons down the middle and red piping is on the sleeves with the Canadians current primary or shield logo located on the left sleeve. The jersey numbers are on the front and back in red with the front jersey number just below the Canadians script on the right.
The caps had a red panel in the back and a white panel in the front with the same script as the jersey arcing above a small red maple leaf in the middle. The brim of the cap and the button on top are blue. The players will also wear a red belt.
It was 22 years ago when the club was a Triple-A affiliate of the California Angels of the Pacific Coast League. Some of the notable players on the roster who played in the majors included Darrin Erstad, Jim Abbott, Jason Dickson, Vince Coleman, Todd Greene and current UBC Thunderbirds manager Chris Pritchett.
Southpaw Naswell Paulino is set to throw the first pitch in the retro uniform at 7:05 p.m. is expected to pitch Friday instead.
C-Notes
The Canadians had announced their starting rotation for the remaining four games of the series prior to Wednesday’s rain out. Chad Dallas, Adam Kloffenstein, Abdiel Mendoza and Trent Palmer were the slated starters. It would appear Dallas and Kloffenstein would start in Friday’s doubleheader with Mendoza and Palmer going this weekend. Paulino and Dallas will get the starts for Friday’s doubleheader at 1:05 p.m. No word yet on who will get the weekend starts out of the trio of Kloffenstein, Mendoza and Palmer but whoever does not start will likely follow one of the other two on the mound. Both weekend games are also at 1:05 p.m.
Should Mendoza start, it would be his first start of the season after pitching five shutout innings over two appearances. He picked up a win last Friday in Tri-City. All games can be heard on CanadiansBaseball.com. It is hoped that home games at The Nat will be broadcast by MiLB.TV during the next homestead when the Everett AquaSox jump into town for a six-game series beginning May 3.
According to the latest press notes from Canadians broadcaster Tyler Zickel, Infielder Addison Barger has a hit in all nine games this season, leading the Northwest League in hits (15), RBI (11), triples (2), extra-base hits (6) and total bases (25) heading into action Wednesday.
Also of note, Vancouver’s batters lead the NWL with a .239 team batting average and are also tops in total bases (125), doubles (21), RBI (40), OBP (.332), SLG (.415) and OPS (.747). The downside is they have struck out a league-leading 113 times.
The team’s offence has struggled against lefthanded pitchers in the early going, hitting just .143 (5-for-35) in the early going. That could be a problem as the Emeralds have three lefties starting in this series. Meanwhile, the C’s are hitting .252 against righties.
The C’s pitching staff ranks third in the league with 109 strikeouts and have the best K/BB ratio of 3.4:1.
Vancouver holds a one-game lead atop the Northwest League standings at 6-3, one game ahead of Eugene and Tri-City.
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