Baseball
Chicken Draw’s Crowd
The C’s hit the diamond with rare 7 innings double-header back to back games against the Eugene Emeralds who currently sit second in the West division of the Northwest League.
Fans play a huge role in any market and to date Eugene has rolled the turnstiles with 57,001 and the C’s sit at 72,608 on the year.
Tonight’s double-header has 4,041 fans plus one Chicken on hand to watch the C’s and the Chicken.
In addition to the Chicken; the C’s still have the manually operated scoreboard that has been in operation since 1951, even prior to the Chicken’s arrival.
This double-header sees the Chicken make his arrival and over the years he has become a fan favourite to the throngs that come to be entertained each appearance.
His character originated in San Diego as a part for an animated TV commercial for Radio KGB-FM. While working on an Odyssey Productions, they were offered a zany acrobatic chicken as part of a commercial contract bid, which was a huge success.
While attending (as a student) San Diego State he was hired to wear the first costume for a promotion to distribute Easter eggs to Children at the San Diego Zoo. A outfit which was re-formatted followed, which is very close to the one today.
The part was played by then student Ted Giannoulas who was born in London Ontario in 1954 and stands 5’3”.
He has entertained fans from various areas of the globe and for a small guy, he loves his job.
It should be noted that when the game finished, he sat in the lobby and signed each and every autograph that was requested. I know as Markus was the last one in the line, but he (the Chicken) took the time to sign both the photo and the ball that was given to him from the Canadian’s media relations department, which are pure class.
The C’s took to the diamond for game one of a double header in hopes of pulling off a win for the many fans that showed up to support the C’s and see the Chicken perform.
The first game was a see-saw battle that saw the lead change hands four times the Emeralds managed to pull off a win over the C’s I extra innings in game one of the double header.
Vancouver opened the scoring in the bottom of the 1st seeing Baligod hit his 7th double of this short summer season of ball, scoring Flores who managed to get hit off a pitch in the bottom of the 1st.
The Emeralds managed a trio of runs in the top of the 3rd that sent a double and scored Baltz and Roof giving the Emeralds a 3-1 lead.
The C’s took the first lead of the game after scoring a pair of runs in the bottom of the 5th when Matt Newman nailed a two run triple sending Parmley and Baligod across the plate for a 4-3 lead.
Both Kadish of the Canadian’s and Madrid failed to get save opportunities sending the game to extra innings finally ending in the 9th which saw Eugene take game one 6-5.
Oh yea – the Chicken is off to Nashville next followed by a stint to the east coast.
In addition to the “Chicken” the start of the second game saw the Canadians pay recognition to BC Challenger Baseball.
It is a great cause and something everyone should have a look at.
The web site is http://www.bcchallengerbaseball.com/index.html