Baseball:
I hate to start this by backtracking to last week. During the Chihuahua’s game last Sunday, Tim
mentioned that the Isotopes were having an interesting game in Salt Lake City
Bees. Specifically, they scored 11 runs
in the first inning. Listening to
updates, I felt compelled to get the final score. Albuquerque
ended up winning by two runs, 13 to 11.
Feel bad for anybody who left early.
I was able to listen to some of the day game on
Tuesday. The dogs were in Las Vegas playing the
51’s. They’re named after Area 51. Their mascot is an alien named Cosmo. Talk about giving “Chihuahuas ” a run for their money in dumb
naming. It was windy there that day,
mostly from the swinging bats of the players, to the tune of 21 to 9, 51’s
winning. I let my dad know about the day
game, and he was able to listen to whole thing.
He liked Tim Hagerty’s call a lot.
I suspect Tim has won over a lot of listeners. Dad also told me that he kept listening to
game just to see how many runs were going to get scored. I’m chalking up these blowouts to the
extended road trip. At least Jeff Francoeur
got the opportunity to keep his 0.00 ERA going and added a strikeout.
During the week, some guy named Al hit his 500th
home run. I remember him. I thought this guy retired? He seemed to disappear off the face of the
earth a couple of years ago for some reason.
Yankees pitcher Michael Pineda finally got a few days off, though it
took him a second attempt to finally get caught for pinetar usage. It was only slightly less blatant than Bond’s
steroid usage. I got to listen to
several great, close Ranger games this week.
I’ve been enjoying radio coverage a lot this year, because whenever I
watch baseball on TV all they talk about is THE SHIFT, THE SHIFT, and THE
SHIFT. Let me tell you, I’m sick of this
shift! Okay, they’re shifting. I get it.
We all get it. Move on. Shift topics.
That Phil Humber. The last I saw him, he was with the Astros. I’ve taken some potshots at Humber (in some other posts), but the guy did pitch a perfect game. Unlike every other perfect game, I got to see this one happen live. (Almost got to hear another on the radio with Yu Darvish.) I’ve never been more nervous in my life watching a baseball game. Every pitch was life or death/End of the World stuff. That was really a thrill. The box score was actually clipped from the newspaper the next day and is in a shoe box in my apartment.
I’m sure Tim talked about Humber
(and it’s pronounced “Umber,” by the way), but I didn’t hear it. Unfortunately, in what will be an ongoing
scheduling issue on Sundays, the NMSU Aggie baseball team and the Rangers were
also playing. I started flipping back
and forth and basically couldn’t follow any of the action. When will I learn? The Aggies lost badly again. The Rangers had the lead late, but lost. The dogs had the lead late, nearly lost it,
but managed to hold on 6-5.
Okay, here we go for Monday and the big debut. Tim was asking about the weather and which
way the wind will be blowing at the new stadium. He said that many of the dogs had never been
to El Paso ,
so this will be a homecoming and an introduction. Some fans wanted to know when the team would
be arriving so they could greet them.
For the Sun Bowl, both teams usually get a Mariachi band and Folklorico dancers,
but it’s going to probably going to be a little too late for that to happen
here. It’ll happen during the day’s
events. KROD will be during their local
sports talk from the stadium. At least
one TV station will be doing their newscasts from there. I fully intend on listening. Everyone was in high spirits for this
adventure. (Cue ominous music.)
NASCAR:
I don’t really get those Sprint “Framily” commercials. They’re weird. I don’t understand them. However, that Jeff Gordon with the gerbil commercial
was hysterical. Jeff has perhaps done
enough media that he can now “act.” If
that’s the case, I demand to see him in more clever commercials like this.
Oh, the race itself? Pshaw! Don’t be an old fuddy-duddy NASCAR fan,
demanding to see a “race.” The enjoyment
of the broadcast is in the “experience.”
It’s not just cars driving fast and turning left. In fact, it’s not even totally essential to
the broadcast. The sponsorship is just
as entertaining as any “race.” So, I’ll just
be commentating on the commercials from on now on.
Okay, in spite of
being assured in the pre-race that tires would not be an issue here, tires were
the issue at Richmond . Tires blew and caught on fire. The closing laps were exciting as multiple
drivers battled hard. Joey Logano would
win his second race of the year. Tempers
flared on track. There would be on track,
post-race retaliation and a fight in the pits.
Seems like we’ve checked all the boxes on great NASCAR race,
except for a large multi-car wreck, which we’ll be doing next week at
Talledega. You’ll get to see it on
replay, after the commercial break is over.
NASCAR has finally found a way to keep races interesting and
unpredictable, exploding Goodyears. The best
races so far this season have mostly involved “Darlington-esqe” tire issues
adding drama to every lap. You have to
admit, it’s an equalizer.
Hockey:
I’ve been enjoying the Saturday afternoon hockey, though
when baseball was on the radio on Sunday, I had trouble paying attention to the
two hockey games that were on. So,
hockey hasn’t replaced baseball with me.
One thing that did fatigue my viewing this weekend was that all three
games were exactly the same match ups as last weekend. If any of these series had ended during the
week, I wonder if they would have shown a different series or nothing at
all? I wonder if it would have
completely depended upon who else was playing?
Random Notes:
There were two NFL draft shows on two different networks on
Saturday (that I know of). During the
NASCAR pre-race, they had the drivers promoting the NFL. RG III was there on a pitbox during the
race. Is there really enough significant
betting action on the draft to merit this kind of attention? I can’t believe anybody would really care
about this unless they had money riding on it.
There was a motocross race on Sunday that was held in the
NFL stadium in New Jersey
(nobody pays me to mention the stadium sponsor). I didn’t watch it (which was likely yet
another poor viewing choice on my part), but it looked like a full house. Other races I’ve seen were similarly
packed. Just an observation.
Oh, and I’ve figured out this Donald Sterling thing in the
NBA. Let’s see, this guy has been well known
for his “colorful” opinions on people for quite a long time. His soon to be estranged girlfriend was
recording their conversation where she was goading him into clearly stating his
opinions. This was after she seen
hanging out with Magic Johnson, who is part of owner of the Dodgers. I’ll let you connect the dots, but don’t be
surprised if we all see Magic being announced as the next owner of the Clippers
in the near future. His arm will be in a
sling at the time from an injury sustained from patting himself on the back too
hard.
Oh, lookee here! Just
to confirm my theory.
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