"Pannervision ROCKS!"

Sports Illustrated 6/2008:

"The drive from Boucher's home to Anchorage's Mulcahy Stadium is 10 minutes, spitting distance by Alaskan standards. The facility is home to two ABL teams, the Bucs and the Glacier Pilots, and has become familiar to millions of Outsiders thanks to a surreal YouTube clip. Through May 31, footage of a Cessna Skywagon crashing behind Mulcahy's leftfield fence in mid-inning of an '03 ABL game had been viewed 2,402,436 times. (Although the plane flipped as it skidded, none of its four passengers were killed, and two escaped unscathed.)"

The Goldpanners’ organization leads the baseball world in a number of categories on the field, but their successes off the field are just as impressive. The stability of the Goldpanners' 50 year old board of directors is unparalleled in the baseball world.   However, on a lighter note, there is the Goldpanners' long time committment to broadcast technology.   Ever since the first televised Goldpanners game in the early 1960s, there have been many victories in this field of promotion... most recently, in the birth of "PannerVision".

In 2000, the club began audio broadcasting games on the Internet, allowing fans around the world could witness the excitement with the best seats available. The next year, video was added to the broadcast, and then the Goldpanners became the all-time first sports team to stream an entire season (home AND away) over the Internet. Major League baseball followed suit two season after the start of the Panner operation. Taking the broadcast on the road to Wichita, Kansas in 2002 for the NBC World Series, the live online show -- dubbed “PannerVision” -- displayed to fans around the world the unique thrill of watching a team halfway around the world go from first pitch of the season to dogpile upon winning the national championship.

Over the years, there have been many brilliant moments for PannerVision. The many game highlights include the Panners’ defeat of the eventual national champion Chinese-Taipei Olympic team in 2003, and also what has been dubbed “The Game” -- played on July 23rd in Fairbanks -- a game against the Kenai Oilers in which Derek Bruce went 6-for-7 at the plate, and Jeff Culpepper went an astounding 7-for-7! In addition to the game activity, there have been many other key moments, such as when MLB Hall of Famers Gaylord Perry, Ferguson Jenkins, and Bobby Doerr tossed ceremonial pitches during Midnight Sun Game broadcasts.

Every once in a while -- and far more often than you might expect -- something completely out of the ordinary happens which just defies belief and stimulates wonder. Though it would be obvious to suggest that the various on-field streakers deserve consideration here, there is one broadcast in particular which cemented the “anything goes” attitude of the Goldpanners stream : “The Plane Crash Game” of July 31, 2003.

During the third inning of the last game of the Alaskan portion of the 2003 season, the Goldpanners’ Culpepper was at bat against the Anchorage Bucs in Mulcahy Stadium. As Jeff was stepping to the plate, the umpire frantically called time and waved toward right field -- where to everybody's horror, a plane was rapidly descending in an apparent attempt to land in left field! The plane, a Cessna 207 Skywagon, had stalled and was coming down. As the Bucs’ left-fielder scrambled for cover, the pilot made a last-second wave of the left wing to avoid the Mulcahy light pole, and plowed into the fences just past left field. The plane flipped over and a ball of flames erupted out of one side, after which it came to rest on its belly with the engine sheared off by the fence. “It was incredibly violent,” said passenger Marc Fisher. “My ankle snapped the second we hit. My seat may have been busted. I had seat belts on, but I ended up in the luggage.” Describing the desperate minutes leading up to the crash, Fisher said “There were people everywhere. Every road was busy. It just looked like there’s no way to go, nowhere to land. It was scary, buddy. Ten seconds from landing, my brother and I both looked at each other and said, ‘We’re (screwed).” Fortunately, the pilot and three passengers all escaped more serious injuries, and no one on the group was injured.

 

Thanks to the archival work at www.PannerVision.com, the actual clip of this event is available for viewing on the Internet.
There have been millions of views of all of the PannerVision games and clip available online.