My family was recently invited to my friend Pat Kelly’s 40th birthday party at the ballpark. We’re talking Vancouver’s legendary, opened-in-1951, lovingly restored Nat Bailey Stadium in Queen Elizabeth Park. It was a glorious Saturday night, the first weekend of the summer of 2016, and the first weekend home game for the Vancouver Canadians this season. There was a palpable excitement in the air, and I’m not even a baseball fan.
When we arrived, the parking lot was already full, but the attendant kindly let us pull in anyway to unload our kids. This type of very friendly service was on display throughout the ballpark. Even the happy janitor insisted on high-fiving my son.
The 40th birthday party was over the far left field wall, an area known as the “Hey Y’all Zone” (named after some new alcoholic summer beverage) that came complete with Old South rocking chairs and a spectacular, reverse-view of the entire ballpark and Coast Mountains beyond. We were sharing the area with another group: “Welcome American Consulate and Pat Kelly’s 40th birthday!”
The only curveball was that, upon arrival into the exclusive Hey Y’all zone, no booze was actually allowed to be consumed in the Hey Y’all zone. This was due to a SNAFU with the liquor board (the stadium is working on it). Luckily, the birthday party (for Pat Kelly, who is now 40) was saved thanks to an adjacent standing-room-only outdoor private bar where we could get our boozy fix with two drink tickets and a buffet dinner, all for the 40th birthday group deal price of $45 each.
We had a toddler in tow, so while I navigated the packed concourse on our way to the bouncy castle, I heard someone bellow, “HEY DAD! Yeah you, DAD GUY, get over here.” A huge man attempting to buy three beers (the limit is two beer per person) suddenly thrust a frothing lager into my hand. “Wow, thanks, man,” I exclaimed. I was just about to take a refreshing sip when the bartender turned to her next customer and the giant reached over and snatched the beer right out of my hand, disappearing into the crowd with his contraband triple-header.
Disgusted at being a pawn in his scam, I was just about to write off the entire crowd as another bunch of drunken sports assholes, when another stranger approached. He insisted that my son must have his own Vancouver Canadians cap. Without hesitation, he slapped a brand new hat on my son’s head, then disappeared into the crowd. The kind gesture instantly nullified the big guy’s beer heist.
While the birthday party for my 40-year-old friend Pat Kelly raged on in the final rays of the spectacular setting sun, it became apparent that the actual baseball game was secondary to the merriment on the sidelines throughout the park.
The Vancouver Canadians were apparently playing a team called the “Hillsboro Hops”. No one I asked knew or cared where Hillsboro was (I Googled: Hillsboro is a small city/suburb west of Portland, Oregon). Few I asked knew what the score was (I Googled: the Canadians won 3-2) but none of that seemed to matter. It’s all about the atmosphere. And the giant hotdogs. And the dancing groundskeepers. And the extended fireworks display.
Oh, and just in case you had any lingering questions about customer service at Nat Bailey? Due to the booze SNAFU in the Hey Y’all zone, Pat Kelly gets to celebrate his birthday (his 40th birthday) all over again: the stadium gave him and his wife Lizzy 50 free tickets as an apology! See you at the AquaSox game, eh?
