Despite issues with transportation issues in the crown jewel city of British Columbia, the Boise Hawks were able to meet the Vancouver Canadians in Game 1 of the five-game series at Nat Bailey Stadium (pictured left).  The day did not start well for the Hawks, as the bus got lost on the way to the gym for the team’s workout at a downtown gym (I am usually the navigator, but I was out for my own run, looking for a Subway – which was two miles from the hotel).  The team was also supposed to head for the park at 3 p.m., but traffic woes for our driver (after taking the training staff to the park earlier), or maybe getting lost, forced us to take one bus at 3:45 p.m. – getting to the yard close to 4:20 p.m.

Once there, the Hawks got another quality start by Jeff Antigua in Vancouver (downtown pictured to the right in the distance), retiring 15 of the 16 batters that he faced – striking out a season high six batters.  However, the bullpen’s evil head showed up, as the C’s strung together six hits against Joe Simokaitis and Danny Keefe, scoring five runs in a 5-4 victory tonight.

The high point of the night was a tie between the RBI triple from speedster Jose Valdez in the third inning, and the Great Sushi Race in the fifth – Vancouver’s take on the Sausage Race in Milwaukee, which is right there with our Great Potato Race at Memorial Stadium – you make the call on which is better.

THE BACON: Brett Jackson went 0-for-3 in the loss, ending his hit streak at five games…newcomer Runey Davis went 0-for-2 with two walks and two stolen bases in his Hawks debut…the loss was the first by the Hawks in a one-run game that wasn’t a walk-off loss.

ISSUES: Yellowjackets in the press box were bad…one off my cheek hurt, but 13 were killed during the game…Rob Fai, the Voice of the C’s, said a fumagator was going to rectify the situation tomorrow.