40 — Sunday, September 12, 1999 — North Shore News iS( Jonathan Mackin Contributing Writer MUCH like Christmas, the Molson Indy Vancouver comes but once a year. Unlike Christmas, it’s a three-day affair. From Friday morning’s first green flag to the final double checkered flags on Sunday afternoon, the streets of Concord Pacific Place hummed with activity as the Champienship Auto Racing Teams’ tour made its 10th appearance ia cur beautiful city. Qualifving began with sunny veather and an all-out dash for pole position with Dario Franchitti and Paul Tracy taking the first row, followed by — Roberto Moreno and local favourite Greg Moore in the second row. Tracy had to try again Saturday after disqualiftca- tion for his car being too low to the ground. Friday’s — Toyota/Kool Adantic qualifying saw West Vancouver’s David Rutledge in llth position, on the inside of row six. By Saturday the clouds rolled in. The first qualifying session, normally for the slower cars, was action- packed as Tracy redeemed himself with a time fast enough for the provisional ole. He was later displaced y Juan Montoya and P.J. Jones. Moore’s time wasn’t strong enough to stay up front, so he qualified in the ninth position en the inside of row five. . Rutledge ended qualify- ing for his race in the ninth starting position. Clouds opened up on race pineh hitter joes Vancouver deserve its own By Jay Berman Contributing Writer THE fate of the ’ Montreal! Expos has been poxdered on the federal, provincial and municipal levels, as well as in the board offices of the National League, for years. Will the Expos stay in Montreal? Will they go to Charlotte, N.C.? To north- ern Virginia? Even, some- how, to Portland, Ore.? It’s a topic people throughout baseball seem to care about. A continent away, in Canada’s third-largest city, the local baseball team will slip into history, and it would appear nearly nobody . cares. Vancouver acquired a franchise in the Pacific Coast League, one of baseball’s top-rated (officially known as Triple-A) minor leagues, in 1956. It has had a PCL team for 33 of the past 44 seasons and since 1978 without interruption. The two-time champion north shore news @ SPORTS n indy Vancouver was wet and wi NEWS photo Paul McGrath WEST Vancouver Formula Atlantic racer David Rutledge’s car is towed from a practice session. He finished 21st in Sunday's race at the Moisen Indy Vancouver. IndyCar great Mario Andretti (top right} came to watch son Michael against Greg Mcore (centre right) and Paul Tracy (bottom right) in the main event. day Sunday and the track was wet. Early in Rutledge’s race, he hit the wall but re-entered the race and ended up 21st. The rain was coming down like mad as CART rac- ers screamed out of the pits for the parade lap. I took my Position atop a large con- struction brick at the apex of turn one, From this vantage point I viewed part of the front Vancouver Canadians are in the playofts and will play their final home game as soon as tomorrow or as fate as Sept. 18 and emerge next season in Sacramento, Calif. The team’s new owner is building a 10,000-seat ball- park. How did a city that first had a professional baseball team in 1905 wind up on the verge of losing profes- sional baseball? Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson played for Vancouver on his way to the major Icagues. Sammy Sosa played here. So did future ig-league stars Garret Anderson, Damion Easley, Jim Edmonds, Lance Johnson, Jack McDowell, J.T. Snow and B.J. Surhoff, A simplified answer to that question is that former NHL and NBA executive Art Savage bought the Canadians from Japan Sports Systems for $8.5 mil- lion US in a transacrion announced last summer but not completed until April 1. Before Savage, before Sacramento, Vancouver stretch, and the entrance of turn two while surrounded by the smells of new carbon fibre brakes, smoking tires and racing fucl. There may not be a better spot. The race began under a yellow flay, and continued for several laps as safety crews tried to clear the track of standing water. The green fag was waved and drivers jockeyed for position in an exciting JAY Berman laments the Vancouver Canadians’ move. probably began to lose the Canadians early in the 1990s when JSS acquired them, apparently strictly as an investment. The company, based in Japan and with a low profile in Canada, dis- played little interest in improving or maintaining Nat Bailey Stadium, the home of the Canadians, or in the kinds of promotional tie-ins that have become Necessary to maintain inter- est in minor-league baseball. ballet of 900-horsepower, open-wheeled, road-cating machines. Many drivers hit barriers as result of the wet racetrack, including Moore, Michael Andretti, Al Unser Jr., Gil De Feran, Bryan Herta , Max Papis, Franchitti and team- mate Tracy. Scott Pruett found himseif spinning on his entrance to turn one only to recover and return to the In the last three years of JSS ownership, and again this year, there were no radio broadeasts of Canadians’ games. Vancouver’s parks board ‘and city council decided it would not put money into restoring the civic balipark, which was built in 1951. It could be enlarged from 6,500 seats to 10,000 with few changes. Last year, before the team’s sale, one councillor said he would “never” sup- port efforts to enlarge or rehabilitate che landmark stadium. In Winnipeg, local government has worked as a willing partner to build a $9-million riverfront base- ball stadium which was one of the sites of the recent _ XHI Pan Am Games. Another serious problem has been the virtual shun- ning of the teara by both iocal daily newspapers. In February, The Vancouver Sun suggested the team was headed to Sacramento because of what it called a national trend of apathy toward baseball. race, but nov before laying down a farge chunk of rub- ber across the track. Green flag racing saw Montoya and Tracy run away from the field. By lap 30 Tracy was attempting to \ine himself up to take the. ‘ead, which he succeeded in Joing . on lap 35. As he wenz through turn one on fap 36, Tracy came up ‘behind Moore, who spun earlier and basebal There is litle to support | that contention. The Canadians were not lost because fans didn’t show up — the C’s usually finished in the middle of the PCL in ticker sales each year for the past two decades, drawing their all-time high of | - 350,000 as recently as 1993. Both local dailies cut back on coverage of the Canadians, frequently incor- porating game news into a roundup of other sports highlights. Ir was not sur- prising to find results from a lacrosse tournament in Kamloops above a couple of paragraphs on the previous night’s baseball game. The local papers seldom ran local baseball photos, and even box scores appeared sporadically. Early last year, when the C’s were still in playoff con- ‘tention, they began a home series with a win. The fal- lowing day’s Vancouver Sun didn’t have a word on the game. When a C’s official called the paper to com- plain, a young scaff assistant In sports tald him: “Nobody _ way.” : was not in contention for a good finish, In Tracy's attempts to get around Moore, he spun in turn two losing a coupie positions and allowing, Montoya to retake the lead, with Franchitti in hot pur- suit. As the track began co dry, a few of the racers attempted to try racing slicks (treadless tires chat are faster in the dry but useless in the wet). Moore was one of the carly few who switched. But he lost traction on lap 52 and ended his race tagging the wall at the end of the isng Quebec Street back stretch. Tracy fought his way back to battle with Montoya, after teammate Franchitti made his way into a tire barrier at the start of lap 59, only to find himself making friends with a concrete barricr on his approach to the start/finish stretch on lap 59. : Patrick Carpentier and Jimmy Vasser had their chance at Montoya. The race ~ was nearing the time limit set by the CART officials, there- fore shortening the race to 74 laps.. Montoya clinched another race, followed by Carpentier and Vasser. Franchitti’s spin may have ‘lost him a podium finish, but he did end up in 10th place. Although some said the racing was poor quality and there were too many laps under the yellow flag, I would firmly disagree. Sunday exhibited passes in’ almost every part of the track and excitement that most - ‘racing fans pay to see — cars spinning. For the 10th year the Indy cars raced through the streets of Vancouver and I would have to say this year’s racing is up there with the best of them. | team? cares about baseball any-.” Vancouver television sta- tions that always report on how the Expos and Toronto .-- Blue Jays have done that day, very seldom mention: the Canadians. ; The February Vancouver Sun article suggested the city’s future in baseball might lie with the indepen- dent Western League. This is hard to believe. Stu Kehoe, former gener- al manager of both the Canadians and the Canadian. . Football League’s B.C. Lions, operated a Western © League franchise in Surrey in 1995. It lasted one sea- son, Western League teains in Walla Walla, Wash. and Mission Viejo and Ventura, California, folded atter 1998. . The single-A Northwesi:. ’ League, unlike the Western League, is affiliated with the major leagues and might provide a better chance — even a last chance — for Vancouver baseball fans. See Local page 44