On May 28, 1962, one of the strangest interruptions of any sports event in Vancouver history occurred. A large meteor flashed across the sky above Capilano Stadium (now Nat Bailey Stadium) delaying a Vancouver Mounties game for several minutes.
Leading off the bottom of the 12th inning with the Mounties and Portland Beavers locked in a 2-2 tie, around 10:40 p.m. Mounties shortstop Jose Valdivielso was at the plate about to face the first pitch from Portland hurler Glenn McMinn. Valdivielso looked up and was startled by the sight of this large object blazing green, orange, and purple across the sky from the first base side of Capilano Stadium toward the third base side. He dropped his bat and yelled in terror as he sprinted for cover under the Portland dugout. Other players, umpires, and batboys caught sight of the meteor overhead and followed closely on his heels.
Although a direct view of the meteor for Mounties players was blocked by their dugout roof, they reacted to the chaos on the field and bolted into their dugout tunnel.
Mounties manager Jack McKeon, who later won a World Series managing the Florida Marlins in 2003, said, “I couldn’t decide which way to go because my players were going every which way around me. I was thinking of ducking under the dugout bench but thought, ‘Man, that just ain’t comforting enough.’ So I went into the tunnel to the dressing room, too.”
Broadcaster's guess: A swarm of bees?
Jim Robson was calling the play-by-play on the radio for CKWX that day up in the stadium broadcast booth. At first he wasn’t sure what was happening but continued to call the action for listeners.
“All of sudden players looked up and ran off in all directions,” Jim said in a recent phone interview. “I thought maybe a light standard was about to fall. Or maybe a swarm of bees was on the field, which had happened once in a game in the south. I was guessing at all these things on air because I had no idea.”
Ron Robinson, who worked beside Jim as the CKWX broadcast operator, ran out of the booth to find out what was happening, leaving Robson to continue broadcasting alone.
“I slid open the little window to the press box beside me to see if anyone knew anything and no one was in there!” laughed Jim. “Clancy Loranger from The Province and Jack Lee from the Vancouver Sun and everyone else ran out to the roof of the stadium. For a while I was the only guy working up in the press box!”
'It looked like it was coming right into the ballpark'
Finally, Robson spotted the meteor up in the sky.
“It came from over above Grouse Mountain and it looked like it was coming right into the ballpark.”
Ever the professional, he stayed at his radio post describing the scene over the airwaves while nearly everyone else in the stadium made a run for it.
It was lucky in a way that one of the smallest crowds of the season—just 660 spectators—had turned out for this game. Seeing the panic on the field, most of the crowd rushed for the stadium exits and only stopped when they reached the parking lot outside. Only one injury was reported: one fan suffered a sprained ankle in the confusion. If a larger crowd had been present, it’s likely many more injuries would have occurred.
Three minutes went by and when no impact was felt or heard, everyone shrugged, shook their heads, and returned to their positions to resume the game. Portland ended up winning 3-2 in the 13th inning. The Mounties, a farm team of the Minnesota Twins that season, struggled that year, finishing seventh in the eight-team Pacific Coast League with a 72-79 record. The team departed the city after the season and Vancouver was without a pro ball club for two years.
'I gotta say it was a little unusual'
But that was still to come. After this particular game, much of the post-game discussion was about the unidentified flying object overhead.
“I saw the thing before the first pitch to Valdivielso,” said Portland first baseman Tony Bartirome. “I thought to myself, ‘That’s the biggest meteorite I’ve ever seen.’”
“I watched the thing as it passed behind first base,” recalled Portland’s Rac Slider, who broke the Pacific Coast League record for fielding chances by a shortstop, handling 16 in the game. “I gotta say it was a little unusual.”
“I gotta say this,” chuckled Mounties manager McKeon. “I never knew some of my players could move so quick. I felt like a traffic cop with all the signals jammed at green.”
Given he was the first to react to the meteor, perhaps no surprise that Valdivielso had the most interesting take on it.
“I think, sure, it’s an airplane coming down,” said the Mounties’ Cuban infielder. The sight brought back memories for Valdivielso of two years earlier. Not long after Fidel Castro’s Cuban revolution, Valdivielso was playing in a winter league game back home in Havana when gunfire broke out in the stands and a plane strafed the field with tracer bullets overhead. Now you can understand why he ran for his life to the opposing team’s dugout.
Later it was learned the meteorite landed nowhere close to Capilano Stadium, instead crashing to earth near Naramata in B.C.'s Okanagan region.
New Vancouver baseball history book supports BC Sports Hall of Fame
This is just one of hundreds of fascinating and entertaining anecdotes you can find in Tom Hawthorn’s new book on the history of baseball in Vancouver, titled Play Ball! Taking into account the superb storytelling, the hundreds of historical photographs (many never before seen publicly), and the vibrant look and feel of this book, in my opinion it’s one of best ever published on a BC sports topic. It’s also a bargain at just $29.99.
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The BC Sports Hall of Fame celebrates over 150 years of sporting achievement in British Columbia, inspiring future generations through its collection of 28,000+ artifacts. With exhibits honouring legendary athletes, teams, and sports organizations, we highlight the history of sports in B.C. and the individuals who’ve shaped its rich sports culture.
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