If you've enjoyed a Vancouver Canadians baseball game at Nat Bailey Stadium at any point in the last 16 years you have two men to thank today - Jake Kerr and Jeff Mooney.
Back in 2007 the future of the team was uncertain; the once-great stadium was a neglected and leaky slimehole that the City of Vancouver had seemingly forgotten about, and the two came riding in on a shiny red golf cart with a giant baseball cap on top of it, just in the nick of time.
Or, that is, they drove to Hillcrest Park in their luxury vehicles, with fortunes they had earned in the forestry and hospitality industries, and bought the team off then-owner Fred Hermann.
That initial purchase was just the beginning. They would go on to direct more cash into the stadium, the team, and the fan experience, all of which desperately needed help.
They would soon find out that money, passion, and love for the game alone couldn't rebuild a truly beloved team, so they tapped MLB executive Andy Dunn to head things up and right the ship. Dunn has been the team's CEO ever since, and his analogy for turning things around is that baseball organizations aren't speedboats but cruise ships with long, arcing turns.
Kerr and Mooney were patient and generous as the C's made that arc, never taking a dime out of the organization and continually putting everything back into it.
Today, the Vancouver Canadians are what I consider to be the best value for the ticket price in Vancouver. Sure they've won multiple championships in the Northwest League in which they play but the real wins are the ones the community as a whole continues to benefit from.
Some of those wins include a charitable foundation that helps thousands of kids play each year, multiple little league parks refurbished, and not least of all an approachable and accessible game that everyone can enjoy - not just the hardcore baseball nerds.
In this week's press conference announcing the sale of the team to a company called Diamond Baseball Holdings (DBH), Kerr and Mooney discussed the "bittersweet" moment in selling it. Kerr noted that the elder men can "read their birth certificates," that their families are not involved in the baseball business, and that they believe it's the best next step for the C's is to put it into the hands of DBH.
With high hopes for the future of the C's, we salute these two dudes who saved baseball in Vancouver, and who will continue to be involved despite no longer owning our beloved home team.
See you at The Nat!
