Memorial Day Weekend Sports Journal Part 3

Sunday, 5-26-2013 Continued

“In my Indiana home,” Jim Nabors is on hand belting out the tradition. Even ESPN, who is to sports what a tapeworm is to digestion, can’t spoil the moment. It’s bigger than they are. I missed the entire pre-race as the F1 race ran a half-hour long, and then I went out and got lunch to take over to my parents’ place. No loss there, though Lindsay Czarniak is an infinite upgrade over Brent Musburger. Another hometown hero, Ed Carpenter, sits on pole and leads the first lap. There was more passing on that first lap than the entire Monaco race.

The current Indy car is the open-wheel equivalent of the Grand Am Daytona Prototype. That is to say, the ugliest in class. That said, the spec car at least produces close, competitive racing. There were a record number of leaders and lead changes, which made for an interesting race.

The thing is, as you get to know the drivers, you can’t help but get involved in their stories during the race and become disappointed as the inevitable attrition occurs. JR Hildebrand, hard luck loser from two years ago, crashing in the opening laps. Takuma Sato, leading the series in points going into the race, spinning out. AJ Allmendinger leading in his first Indycar race, cutting a tire. Ed Carpenter, the only owner/driver in the field, falling back after being on pole. Still, AJ and Ed did get in the top. Not bad.

The hard tension of the waning laps, waiting to see which storyline is going to get the happy ending. Like in Highlander, “There can only be one.” The crowd, already standing near the end, roars for the Indy denied Tony Kanaan, perhaps also cheering all the drivers for a great race as well. Lauren Bohlander (now Kanaan, former IRL web show hostess) appears on wife cam, an upgrade in every way over Ashley Judd. (Thank you, Dario, for divorcing her and getting her out of our lives too.) Zanardi is there. They tell his story of him rubbing his gold medals over Tony’s car. Even the weather held off to watch, as the sun finally broke through the overcast. A late caution cut short the drama, but allowed a deserving TK a couple of extra parade laps to receive the adulation of the crowd.

It was probably for the best that the race ended under caution. The potential tension and inevitable heartbreak would have been unbearable. The moment in Victory Lane, the kisses, the wreath, the milk, would have happened regardless of the winner, but who didn’t get choked up as Tony pulled out the good luck charm from his pocket and held it up the camera. He’d given it to little girl facing dangerous surgery nine years ago. She’d sent it back to him this year, hoping it’d bring him luck too.

Okay, immediately after that, we join the White Sox-Marlins game in progress. 30 teams in the league, and I get to see the two worst (Marlins and Astros) this weekend. And it’s not like the White Sox and Cubs are that great either.

Several runs have already been scored early. Sanabia is on the mound for the Marlins. It was unfortunate that he found out that the spitball is illegal, since he clearly needed it today. He’s also apparently pretty scrappy. A few years ago during a bench clearing brawl, Sanabia jumped on Adam Dunn’s back. Dunn stood up and said, “Somebody get this guy off me before I kill him.” Sanabia’s own teammates obliged and saved him.

Almost dropped off in the 6th inning. It didn’t help that all the scoring stopped when I started watching. I couldn’t keep my eyes open. My head tipped back and I got off half of a snore, before suddenly coming back awake. Things aren’t looking good for being attentive during the Coca-Cola 600.

Good to see Juan Pierre out there with the Marlins. He’s apparently committed to playing, “As long as somebody wants me.” Juan’s a gamer. I remember seeing him back when he was with the Rockies.

One time in the 9th inning of a close game, the Rockies catcher was injured on a play at the plate. He was the backup, as the starting catcher had been pinch hit for. The emergency catcher had also been used earlier. Manager Don Baylor went out on the field and asked for a volunteer. Juan said he’d played catcher in Little League, and so he put on the “tools of ignorance” and went behind the plate. I’d like to say this story had a positive ending, but the closer on the mound specialized in throwing the splitter. You can guess what happened. The first 90+ mph pitch in the dirt went right to the backstop. The runner on Third scored and won the game. Gotta appreciate the effort though.

Another time, he made an error late that extended the game. He stood out there, clearly moping. The next inning, he ended up scoring the winning run. He ran past home plate and slammed his helmet down in anger, right before his teammates mobbed him.

You can tell I was watching a great game by the way I’m telling stories about other games. Addison Reed, who’s a pretty good closer from what I’ve seen, locked down a 5-3 White Sox win. OMG! The game took two and half hours! Did they forget to play a couple of innings?

Continued.