Tuesday
Today’s meal: A Chik-fil-a sandwich along with some Sweet
Potato tots. Pretty good. I spent a good deal of time at the mall
without buying anything other than lunch.
Kinda feels like a waste of time.
Baseball
The El Paso Chihuahuas made it back into town about two
hours before the game. Their new pitcher
and tonight’s starter, The Cuban (whose name defies simple phonetic spelling),
had come directly to El Paso from his last assignment and spent the day in an
empty clubhouse, wondering if someone had played a prank on him. The team and The Cuban probably didn’t
completely recover from the experience, as the dogs lose 8-5 to the 51’s.
That the Rangers lost 4-3 to the Twins was bad enough, but
it was the way they lost that hurt. A
blown save by Soria, an error, and some controversy turned a one run lead in
the bottom of the 9th to a loss.
Wednesday
Today’s meal: I’m pretty much out of franchise fast food
places that I can walk to, that I’d want to go to. I had a Spam sandwich and later, some
spaghetti. After spending money and
effort to go out and eat, I hate to admit that today’s meals were probably the
best of the vacation. Hey, the Spam was
fresh out of the can. In a couple of
days, I won’t be so enthusiastic about it.
Of course, my spaghetti is just awesome.
On the other hand, I haven’t been able to stop snacking all evening. Rich meals apparently fill you up better.
Baseball
It was another El Paso Chihuahuas day game with a few
busloads of kids in attendance. Every
time the dogs got something going, the kids would chime in with some chanting
and yelling. It was great. Unfortunately, they didn’t have a whole lot
to cheer about during the game. They
also mostly had to leave before the end, which had to have depressed the
players on both sides a bit. Tim
mentioned broadcasting a game such as this somewhere else where the kids were
forced out from a game where the pitcher had a no-hitter going. They didn’t take it well.
The broadcast was great and disappointing. They had some technical difficulties at the
ballpark and the radio call didn’t start until about the second inning, and it
sounded like Tim was literally phoning it in via a cellphone. Meanwhile, something was interfering with the
signal at home, so I was having to strain to listen most of the time.
At least the issues at the ballpark were ironed out, at
which point KROD’s program director Steve Kaplowitz joined the broadcast. Given his enthusiasm for baseball, I was
hoping he’d find way into a game at some point.
Kappy was clearly enjoying himself, talking baseball, and telling
stories.
Tim asked about yesterday’s sportstalk show, where Steve had
spent quite a bit of time talking about international soccer. I would have used a more accusatory tone,
along with a few thinly veiled threats in bringing up the subject. Foxsports radio was also talking about
it. Conspiracy. Look, all the hype in the world (which will
apparently occur over the next couple of months) cannot make that “sport”
interesting to actually watch. You can
build the brand, increase awareness, constantly give people the scores, tell
them that everyone else in the world is watching, and won’t make a difference,
because every other major sport available to watch in this country is more
interesting to watch.
In the 8th, with the score 13-7 51’s ahead, dogs
pitching sensation/outfielder, Jeff Francoeur, locked down a scoreless frame,
smiling and tipping his hat to the crowd.
I actually figured out what was going to happen next before it occurred. It was the moment we’d all been waiting for,
Cody Decker took the mound for the top of the 9th. He worked a scoreless 4 minute inning with
his masterful 70 mph fastball and 59 mph offspeed pitches. The inning was highlighted by the opposing relief
pitcher facing an infielder as the pitcher.
Moments like this are why I love baseball.
Taking a cue from the 51’s manager, perhaps I should go to
the media and openly criticize my co-workers.
It seemed to work for him.
Meanwhile, dad told me that Rocky Ward, 16 year manager of the NMSU
baseball team had just been dismissed.
Looking back on a few of my baseball posts talking about the team, I can
see how it happened. When they talked to
him at the end of any given game, the spark that had been there, just wasn’t
there anymore. The stadium’s about to
get an upgrade, hopefully it will help the new manager recruit.
Eric Nadel is back with the Rangers today. We all breathe a sigh of relief. All’s right with the world, except that my
reception tonight wasn’t letting me hear enough of the game to matter. I was only able to clearly hear the bottom of
the 9th. Soria came in again with
a one run lead, facing about the same part of the Twins order as last
night. This time, no drama, 1-2-3,
save. Rangers win 1-0. If that was all I was going to get to hear,
that was the part I would have wanted.
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