Weekday afternoon baseball games are among the great guilty pleasures in all of sports and 1,745 people ducked out of work or away from chores yesterday to partake in one at Royal Athletic Park.

The Chico Outlaws defeated the Victoria Seals 8-5 in the Golden Baseball League contest but it hardly seemed to matter on a sun-drenched afternoon. Hey, it sure beats work.

The players were the ones in their places of work and Mark Samuelson of Chico was at his office — first base at Athletic Park — that he has come to know well. He cranked out four hits, including two doubles, and scored two runs on the afternoon for the Outlaws and his presence again underlined that the best stories in pro sports don’t come anywhere near to matching the sheer quirkiness of those in the minors.

Samuelson was on first at Athletic Park for the Yuma Scorpions last week in a set that ended Sunday. Traded to Chico after the game, he bade farewell to his former Scorpions teammates and simply stayed in Victoria and waited for the Outlaws to come to town for a three-game set that began Monday.

“It’s definitely been an experience,” said the strapping six-foot-four, 230-pounder from Lake Forest, Calif., and out of NCAA

UC-Riverside.

“After being informed I was traded to Chico, I asked where are they playing and where do I meet them? They told me to sit tight in my hotel room because they were coming here next. But I can’t complain about back-to-back sets in Victoria because it’s a great town with great fans and they provide a terrific atmosphere at this park.”

This is actually Samuelson’s third series in Victoria this season after being with the Tijuana Cimarrones before being traded to Yuma and meeting up with the Scorpions in Alberta for a swing through Calgary and Edmonton.

“I’ve been in Canada for one month straight, since June 28, on one suitcase,” he said.

Welcome to the pros.

Tim Rodriguez, a teammate with Samuelson earlier this season on Yuma before being traded to Victoria, had two hits for the Seals yesterday. He has become a fan favourite for his amazing flips as he takes to centre-field to start the games. He managed 16 in a row before a wowed capacity crowd of nearly 5,000 Tuesday night at Athletic Park but even that was well off his record 47 he managed one night when taking to the field in Single-A with the Spokane Indians.

Needless to say, he was a gymnast until age 13 before choosing baseball as his career sporting path.

“There was no doubt in my mind I was going to represent the United States in the Summer Olympics in gymnastics,” he said.

That didn’t happen, but pro baseball did as Rodriguez was selected by the Texas Rangers in the 2005 draft and was in the Rangers system up to last year. Independent pro ball took him to the Scorpions to start this season but he’s happy to be in Victoria.

“I love it. It’s not [40-plus C] degrees here and it’s nice to play in front of fans finally [Yuma draws poorly],” said Rodriguez, a native of Portland.

“And I love the laid-back approach to life here. I have yet to meet an uptight Canadian.”

Josh Arhart led Victoria with two hits, including a homer, two runs and an RBI. Brian Rios also homered for Victoria.

The Outlaws, first-half Northern Division champions, moved to 39-18 overall and 6-6 in the second half.

The Seals, 29-29 and 7-6, hit the road for a total of six games in St. George, Utah,

(a scheduling change from Tijuana) and then Orange County, returning home Aug. 5 to begin a four-game stand against the Tucson Toros.