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August 30th-September 2nd, 2002
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The Guns ended their existance in Calgary by playing their provincial rivals from Edmonton.
After September 2nd:
That pretty much says it I guess. The Calgary Cannons are now part of the long history of the Pacific Coast League.
I didn't got to as many games as I would have liked to this year, but my work with the Stampede kept me very busy throughout the year. However, I did get to probably eight games, which, based on the crowds that were there almost every game I went to, is eight more than most Calgarians got to.
I did enjoy going to the games though, although the weather wasn't the best for several of them. It's the same old story I guess, and one of the main reasons that the team moved. This year's team wasn't too inspiring, not bad, but never really in the playoff picture. Not enough to get the often bandwagon jumping sports fans of Calgary excited about the team, the way they did in the late summer and early fall of 1998.
Labour Day 2002 was a fairly bittersweet day. I came up early, before the gates opened, walking through the parking lot of McMahon Stadium with the crowd from the football game still hanging out, many doing the last 'double header' in Cannons history. The lineups at the gate were pretty spectacular, and I went up and down the line a few times, just saying hi to people I knew.
Once the gates opened the people poured in, and for one last time I was thankful that I wasn't on the other side of the counter, as the lineups at the concessions quickly went up to epic proportions. I got my beer and dugout dog and found my seats.
I brought some stuff with me, in the perhaps silly hope that I'd be able to hawk the last game in Cannons history. There had been a few no shows at the previous Cannons game I had attended, and I threw my hat into the ring. However, it was a pretty faint hope.
It was nice to be in a full ballpark. Most of the days I was at Burns in 2002 it wasn't even close to being a full place. I did want to grab a bunch of the people there (including the guy handing out a petition to keep baseball in Calgary...dude, there will be baseball next year, and where the heck were you in May?) and ask them how often they had been to games.
The game itself? A pretty good one on a nice night. A typical PCL defensive struggle. Both starters gave up 9 runs in 5 innings, fifteen doubles total in the game, even for the PCL it was a bit wild.
During the game I watched the vendors working hard. A very busy game for them, and there was more then a bit of nostalga in watching them.
About the bottom of the 6th, Darcy Fairbourne, one of the best hawkers it's ever been my pleasure to work with, came up the stairs by me with two trays of beer. He didn't seem his usual boisterous self, and I had to mention it. Beening a hawker, I had to mention it at the top of my lungs. He responded by asking if I could do any better, and of course I responded! In a flash I had grabbed one of the trays, and was selling my butt off. Of course, it wasn't too hard to sell given that it was a sellout crowd on a hot night, but I was hawking.
And as I gave my empty tray back to Darcy he informed me that he had taken out the last two trays of beer in the park, so, just as I had been the first person to hawk been at Burns way back in 1991, so I was the last, 11 years later. And I made $8 in tips! Darcy, I'll never forget you giving me the opportunity to do that.
The game ended in a perfect way for such a wild game, with a dropped third strike, a throwing error on the resulting throw to first, and a run from thrid on the error to score the winning run...all with two out in the bottom of the ninth.
Post game was a little different from past years. There was no goodbye for the season from the Cannons ownership, and there wasn't the cavalcade of prizes there was in past years. Things felt a bit...unfinished for me as the Cannon fired for the very last time. As I was about the leave the park I went down to the tent to say goodbye to a few people, and, to my great suprise, was invited in for a beer. It was a wonderful gathering of people from the Cannons past and present, including people such as my old boss Pat Fehr, former Calgary Sun Cannons beat reporter Tom Brennan, way too many wonderful ticketholders to mention, and the folks I got to work with for years, both in the concessions and in the front office. We had a few beers, spilt a few tear talking about what was when and what is now, and truely waved the team, and Triple A ball in Calgary goodbye as I left darkened Burns Stadium.
That's all the Cannons news for ever. If you have any comments, please mail me at hawker@canada.com.