Sports Journal 4-20-14

[I’m taking another week off from RPG’s, though there will be more coming.  Tomorrow’s post will be about a sport that I never thought I’d be covering.  After that, I’m reviewing Community Season 5 for the rest of the week.]

Hockey:

NBC scheduled three playoff games over the weekend which I caught.  The Saturday afternoon one between the Blues and the Blackhawks was particularly good.  The Blues got a literal last-second goal to end the first period and a goal with six seconds left in regulation to tie it, winning in OT 4-3.  If you put it to me, I’ll admit that this game was probably better than any given baseball game that day. 

That said, I’ve only been watching Saturday afternoon baseball for like over 20 years.  Props to NBC for making the most of a non-golf tournament weekend where the network competition had vacated the field.  Some temporarily scheduled hockey is no substitute though.  Meanwhile, I don’t know about your Fox affiliate, but mine shows crappy movies in these situations.  Really crappy.  I don’t think I’ve ever watched a weekend afternoon movie on their station.  They’re fairly recent movies (within 10 years) that have stars in them you know, but movies that you’d never pay full ride to see in a theater, if you’ve even heard of them.  Then they showed King of Queens (no complaint there) and some informercials.  You can’t tell me, baseball was getting worse ratings than this crap (and please don’t tell me if it was).

As long as hockey is the topic, I’d like to praise the NHL for moment.  They’ve made some rules changes that have really helped the game.  First, no substitutions on Icing calls.  I know that seems minor, but it is a God-send to the viewers.  Teams used to Ice the puck all the time to change lines, and it just killed the rhythm of the game.  Next, moving the Blue lines back helped the offense and offside calls.  Going to the 4 on 4 OT and Shoot-out were also great ideas.  Anything to avoid a tie.  I also appreciate the lack of constant commercial interruption, unlike other sports (ahem NASCAR).

I’d like to offer a few suggestions though.  Work on those camera angles.  Vary them up a little.  It’ll make the rink advertising on the other side more valuable.  A single, panning camera sort of works for basketball because it’s a much small playing surface.  With hockey, you’re missing too much.  I swear that most of the games I’ve watched have gone into Overtime.  If that’s representative, it defeats the purpose of calling it Overtime.  How about going 4 on 4 if it’s ever tied in the Third Period?  Finally, and this should be obvious, no more labor problems.  You NHL guys are lucky that people love hockey so much, because you really should be out of business.

Fighting:

I’ll probably keep watching the occasional fight, but I’m not commenting on them anymore, unless I get a decent show.  I watched Fox’s UFC Saturday night fight.  (Yeah, they can put this on, but not baseball).  I saw my first women’s bout.  Bottom line, it just doesn’t appeal to me.  Admittedly, a couple of the women do, but that doesn’t mean I want to see them hitting each other.  This wasn’t worse fight I’ve seen, and it was a bit different than a men’s match, but not to my preference.  I don’t know who the target audience is for women’s fighting.  I don’t think it appeals to most men.  Women, who are fight fans, want to watch the guys too. 

The main bout started off excellently.  You didn’t just hear how hard these guys were hitting each other, you felt it.  Seconds after they mentioned the favorite in the fight had never been pinned, he was pinned.  Unfortunately, the challenger clearly won the first three rounds of the five round match, and the two combatants essentially stopped fighting to win.  The loser was too winded after the first round to attack (he was literally looking up at the clock waiting for the fight to end), and the winner just played it safe.  I’m deliberately not using the names of the fighters in a show of deliberate disrespect, the same they showed to the audience.  Neither of them had ever fought for a full five rounds, and that was obvious.   

Speaking of deliberate disrespect, I also watched a boxing match between Bernard Hopkins and some Asian-looking fellow named Shumenov, from a country whose flag I couldn’t identify (the broadcast was in Spanish).  Hopkins was clearly taking the bout very seriously as he came out wearing a little green alien mask.  He also stuck his tongue out during the match, wound up his fist like Popeye once, and generally taunted his way through the fight.  The other guy shouted out every time he threw a punch.  Seems like a bit of a tell there.  And they went at it like that for 12 rounds.  The judges’ decision. . . AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!  (Deep breath.)  AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!  I’ve just wasted my night watching another boxing match without a decisive win!  Hopkins really shouldn’t have been acting like an ass.  He only won on a split decision.

Baseball:

It was a little sparse this weekend.  I wasn’t getting good reception to listen to the Rangers games.  I did hear the Chihuahuas get creamed Sunday afternoon, 11-4.  The highlight of the game was veteran outfielder, Jeff Francoeur, getting his first pitching experience.  He pitched a 1-2-3 8^th inning, smiling the entire time.

Meanwhile, the good people of El Paso have been repeatedly assured that the stadium will be ready next week for its debut.  Tim even reported that the Chihuahua’s opponents for the home opener are excited about being there.  Work is continuing around the clock.  Speaking of which, the large clock that was on Insights children’s museum that they dynamited to put the stadium, has been re-installed on the stadium.  Isn’t that nice? 

I saw a news report where the police are concerned that they’re going to have to pull officers off their regular patrols to provide security at the stadium on game nights.  You know, booting cars at expired meters, setting up DWI checkpoints next to the stadium, handing out a bunch of traffic tickets, you know, lucrative security.  So the good union workers are getting plenty of overtime working on the stadium and so will the police, along with another tax referendum being set up to pay for more officers.

I question the parking situation downtown, now that I know more about it.  For fans, clearly the park and ride bus service from various parts of town, seems like the best deal for $3.  A parking garage or lot would be the next best, but it doesn’t look like there’s much in the area.  I also suspect those are mostly reserved, and not for regular fans.  The last resort would be the 1800 newly installed parking meters.  They say you’ll get 4 hours for $10, but you’ll have to parallel park in the street and trust the meter and keep an eye on the clock.

I thought local entertainment businesses downtown were supposed to benefit from the games being there though.  If you’re taking the bus or parked at a meter, you’re not sticking around downtown after the game (not that you’d want to anyway).  They should blown up a few more buildings in the area to put up some more parking garages.  Of course, if they get lousy fan support after the first week, parking won’t matter that much. 

The best baseball game I saw was the animated feature, Charlie Brown’s All-Stars.  This one was either the second or third Peanuts cartoon special, so it’s really old (though the print for the broadcast was crystal clear).  I’ve never seen it.  Given how big a fan I am, that means it’s probably been decades since it’s been broadcast. 

This was Old School Peanuts.  They were cheerfully cruel to old Charlie Brown in this.  It was also really funny, and there was a sweet ending for it.  I recognized the old comic strips they used as a basis for the story.  It was tightly focused on baseball and was stitched together well.  Definitely watch this if you get the chance.