One of my favourite travel traditions is taking an annual self-indulgent, solo trip to satisfy my inner baseball nerd. Over the years, that now has me sitting at visiting 16 of the 30 major league ballparks with my brain constantly working on the logistics to tick off the final 14. The pandemic years put a halt to my progress that I’m glad is changing this year as I have plans to visit Detroit and Cleveland later this summer.

Last summer, looking to scratch the itch of live baseball, I decided to take the relatively short trip to Vancouver for a few nights of minor league baseball. The Vancouver Canadians, an affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays, play out of the cozy and idyllic Nat Bailey Stadium. For the low cost of $25 you can have the best seat in the house behind home plate. A beautiful Vancouver summer evening, cold local craft beers and the crack of the bat….. couldn’t be better!

As if my first game knew I missed being in a ballpark, the Canadians and the Hillsboro Hops put on a show for me. A back and forth game had four home runs (including a grand slam for the good guys in the picture below), five lead changes, three runners gunned down at home, the tying and winning runs scored on a balk and a close play at the plate respectively, and the Canadians walking away with a 10-9 victory. It was great to be back!

I headed back to Nat Bailey the next day for an afternoon game under typical Vancouver cloudy skies. I loved the vibe of minor league baseball – the cheap tickets, the cheaper than major league prices for the beer, the cozy ballpark, and some of the interesting between innings. With a nod to one of the city’s most beloved cuisines, the Canadians have a fun sushi race every game.

And what would a minor league team be without a goofy mascot. I got to meet Bob Brown Bear – can’t resist getting my picture taken with a mascot!

By the third game I had tickets to I had fallen in love with this team and the ballpark. It is a gorgeous place to watch a game and I know in the years to come I’ll get back here again.

By great scheduling luck, I also got to attend two more sporting events in Vancouver. On a Friday night my Saskatchewan Roughriders were in town to face the BC Lions. Usually I only get to one Riders game a year down in Regina so this was a great bonus of this trip.

I lucked out with my seat mates for this game – a couple from Burnaby, who while die hard Lions fans, had family in Saskatchewan so understood the fandom associated with the Riders. It was a lot of fun to talk football over three hours with them.

A few weeks earlier my wife and I had watched the Lions decimate the Riders in Regina in a game where the Lions star quarterback left with an injury late in the game. Owing to that, the Lions and a couple of backup QBs couldn’t do much in this game against the Riders…. I got to watch my team pull out a 23-17 win.

Good things come in threes, so I also bought a ticket to a Whitecaps FC soccer match. It was a beautiful night with the roof open at BC Place. The home side got totally dominated and lost 3-0 to Nashville in a game that was even more lopsided than that scored indicated. Without a rooting interest, it was another fun night in Vancouver for me and a great way to wrap up my baseball trip for 2022.