You know, this long baseball season is a grind on bloggers
too. I am worn out with this. I wasn’t even going to write anything this
week, but darned if a few interesting things didn’t happen while I was
watching. I’m not sure how much of the
playoffs I’ll be watching. My usual
World Series vacation has been preempted this year, so I’ll have to catches
glimpses of it at work. In other words,
my sports blogging is probably winding down for the year. (You don’t want me doing football
coverage. Really you don’t.)
Saturday started with the at least novel matchup of the
Yankees and Giants. The game had some
slim playoff interest for the Yankees, who won it 6-0. The Giants, well, they were in
attendance. The crowd was fairly
listless, along with the broadcast coverage from Matt Vasgersian and Tim
McCarver. I’m really hoping Tim takes
Joe Buck into baseball coverage retirement with him. During the coverage, this was the first time
I’ve heard the Giant’s terrible season blamed on the World Baseball Classic,
which many of their players participated in.
I don’t know enough to comment.
I’m just completely shell-shocked at this point by their performance.
The Cubs 3-1 win over the Braves was a nice close game, but
the coverage actually made it a good watch.
Len and JD had a couple of good guests and kept things moving well, even
if there wasn’t a lot of action on the field.
Actor, David Cross, performed a Hall of Shame caliber rendition of Take
Me Out to the Ballgame, actually apologizing to the crowd afterward. The crowd did get to sing the victory song
after the game. My favorite moment was a
singing Cubs fan holding his hand over the mouth of a dejected Braves fan.
In the Sunday rubber game rematch, the Braves would win
5-2. During the game, the Marlins beat
the Nationals, thereby clinching the division for the Braves. The many Braves fans in attendance started
doing a low-key Tomahawk chop, while the team had a round of congratulations in
the dugout. After winning, they spilled
out on the field in a more exuberant celebration.
The highlight of the game for me was a rules question
involving interference during a steal attempt.
Len and the ump had it right, but JD went to the rulebook anyway to look
it up. After about five minutes, they
found it and read it. I was terribly
grateful that I wouldn’t have to look it up myself first thing when I got
home. (Yes, I really do think about
those things.) Anthem singer, Wayne
Messmer, performed the 7th inning stretch. Of course, he belted it out. I think this scheduling was making up for
Saturday’s performance (which they re-showed).
Late in this game was also the first appearance this season of Loud
Drunken Heckler Next to a Field Mic. I
wonder where he’s been all year?
In other baseball news, dad told me that the new El Paso
Triple A stadium was going another $10 million over budget. I think I remember them announcing that they
were $10 million over in the first week of construction. This is an additional $10 million. This is going to turn out well. I can feel it.
Ogando and Shields went seven scoreless innings in the
Ranger-Royal game today. The scoreless
tie was broken in the 10th by the Royals with grand slam home
run. I’d feel better about this if I
really thought the Royals were going to get into the playoffs. There was a delay for a bee swarm in Anaheim . This was followed by a plague of locusts, a
rain of frogs, and the smiting of the Angel players’ firstborn.
Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte made their final Yankee
Stadium appearances in a 2-1 loss to the Giants, who couldn’t even lose
correctly this year and give these guys a pleasant sendoff. (Yes, I’m discounting the possibility of the
Yankees going to the post-season. They
couldn’t even sweep the Giants.) I’m not
getting into the “Should Pettitte make it into the Hall of Fame” debate. All I’ll say is, if there’s a question about
somebody getting in, that’s your answer.
Rivera is a great pitcher and a great guy, and thank God this
season-long tribute is going to finally coming to an end.
I had my first experience with the Global Rallycross series
on Sunday afternoon, during and after the Cubs game (yes, I saw the Cowboys
win, yea team). I’d never heard of this
series before. Essentially it was World
Rally type cars running a race like an off-road truck series. Races were run in a series of short
heats. I like this format in that it
keeps commercial breaks confined to times when they weren’t actually
racing. I kind of wish NASCAR would try
this format in Nationwide and Cup, like they did at the truck race in
Eldora.
I recognized several drivers, including the winner Scott
Speed, Travis Pastrana, and Brian Deegan (from the off-road truck series). They didn’t seem to cover the cars well, but
I saw a Fiesta, a Subaru, a Dart, an Escort (maybe, it was definitely a Ford),
and even a Mini (an extended model).
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