Memorial Day-Vacation Sports Journal 2014 Part 4

Sunday Continued

Off-Road Truck Race

Strangely, there was still racing to be watched, namely a CORR night race.  Why was this scheduled opposite the Indy 500?  I can’t even imagine the thinking or lack thereof.  Good for me though. 

Race one featured a massive crash and flip before even the first turn.  The driver had to be helped out and taken away by ambulance.  There were plenty of other hard crashes too.  Since it was at night, there were some great shots of the glowing underside of the trucks while they were jumping.

In the second race, a truck hit a dirt mound by the side of the track, barrel-rolled across the track, and had a cabin fire.  Thankfully, it was mostly confined to the passenger side and the driver was taken out and the ambulance had to make another trip.  I don’t know if the nighttime conditions were causing more wrecks, but somebody might want to look into it.  Pretty exciting races anyway.

What may have excited most viewers more was a commercial during the broadcast for CBS Thursday Night Football.  They called it a partnership with the NFL Network.  I’d call it more of a white flag of surrender.  The NFL Network was never a good idea begin with. 

Baseball

The Texas Rangers played another matinee against the Detroit Tigers, this time with Justin Verlander on the mound.  Eric Nadel was cryptically out today for personal reasons.  As much as I love Matt Hicks (and he had some great play calls on Saturday), we all become nervous when the Voice of the Rangers is absent.  It wasn’t Verlander’s day as he gave up 9 runs by the 6^th inning before he was removed.  The final score was 12-4 Rangers.  Take your time getting back, Prince.  During the game, it was reported that Josh Beckett of the Dodgers pitched a no-hitter against the Phillies.  In spite of my current Dodger hatred, I was impressed.

Between the NASCAR pre-race and an emergency trip to Sears to help my dad buy a new microwave (trust me, I was not in a fit mood to go out in public today), I missed about half of the El Paso Chihuahua’s game, but apparently not the interesting half.  There was no score through four, but from there, the lead changed hands several times. 

The dogs came back from losing the lead to a grand slam and another time after the Rainiers batted around.  Finally in the 9^th, down a run and down to their last out, they’d drive in three runs and take the lead for good.  Final 14-12 Dogs.  I can’t help but think that the double-header yesterday somehow depleted both teams, if not in pitching, then in fatigue.

I feel bad for the Tacoma fans.  It was a four hour game in an off and on light rain.  The players were playing in the mud, which probably thrilled the grounds crew.  The PA there kept playing the Imperial March, but I couldn’t quite figure out why.  I head WGN playing it when the Yankees were in town playing the Cubs; I get that.  More important than this win, I think Tim mentioned that the Chihuahua’s hat won the minor league hat competition.  A triumph of marketing over any common sense. 

NASCAR

It’s the Coca-Cola 600, where Foxsports attempts to jam 600 commercials into a six-hour broadcast.  (I shouldn’t joke.  That’s almost happened.)  At least the broadcast started well with a display by the Marine Silent Drill Platoon, those guys who flip rifles at each other.  Very impressive. 

The end of the Indy 500 was apparently pretty exciting, which makes me feel wonderful.  American Ryan Hunter-Reay won, fine young man.  Kurt Busch arrived at Charlotte Motor Speedway via helicopter, fresh off his sixth place finish in Indy.  That’s pretty awesome for a guy who’d never raced a lap of competition in Indycar.  I’m waiting for someone to do “The Triple,” and add in Monaco.  It’ll never happen, if for no other reason than you’d need the Concord back in service and a direct flight from Monaco to Indianapolis.  Juan Pablo Montoya has driven and won in all three types of cars, though.  Just speculating.    

Kurt Busch would come up a couple hundred miles short as his engine blew about ¾ of the way through the race.  He was still pretty upbeat afterward.  Danica ran up front early, went down two laps, got dinged in a wreck, then blew up.  I know, who cares?  Junior had a cool Superman image on the hood, but problems underneath the hood took him out of the running for the win, but was still running at the end.  Jeff Gordon guts out a bad back to finish 7^th.

My favorite paint scheme was Logano’s Pennzoil car in an eye-catching green, yellow, and grey.  More than half the field was not on the lead lap by halfway.  13 cars were on the lead lap at the end.  Jimmie Johnson, class of the field from the beginning, closed it out for his first win of the year, punching his ticket to the Chase.  But the most important question is: Who was that hot Sprint Cup girl in Victory Lane?

Hello, Juliana White!

In spite of some great sports entertainment today, I still feel terribly cheated.  I wonder if I’m going to get ABC back for viewing.  The black screen wasn’t the IRL’s fault, but I can’t watch any of their races for the rest of the year, even if the station comes back.  Between not getting any sleep the night before, waking up super early, constantly doing and watching stuff, I swear that Sunday never showed up.  It was all one contiguous 48-hour Saturday.