9-15-16
Somehow, I survived none of my favorite teams playing today. The MLB.tv free game was the White Sox vs the Indians. Once again, they blacked out the video, but I was really enjoying the White Sox radio guys. I didn’t get their names, but they were bickering and sniping at each other the whole time. It was hysterical. Unfortunately, I missed the walkoff ending, 2-1 White Sox. I got a little chuckle later out of Yankees losing to the Red Sox on a blown save. If only they had more depth in the bullpen. Heh, heh.
9-16-16
The Chihuahuas face the Oklahoma City Dodgers on the road tonight, trying to clinch the championship. PCL officials are there with the banner for this possibility. I’m able to hear about the first hour of the game over the Internet before KROD cuts over to high school football coverage. Patrick Kivlehan was the standout, making a great defensive play in the 1st and hitting a solo home run in the 2nd. The rest of the game I have to follow on Gameday. The dogs score one in the 7th, but the Dodgers score three in the bottom of the inning. 4-2 Dodgers is the final. We’ll play again tomorrow then.
Cole Hamels didn’t have a good start tonight against the A’s, giving up six runs. I’m watching Gameday again for the 9th as the Rangers are down a run. Beltre and Beltran both get on. Rougie strikes out, but Lucroy drives the guys in. Yes, it’s another one run win. (I forgot to write down the score.)
9-17-16
I get woken up by the phone at 11:30 Saturday morning. This late awakening is because of (in order) late night pizza, a stack of comic books purchased at the Hastings’ going out of business sale, and an after midnight showing of The Terror of Mecha-Godzilla on Comet TV. This is only relevant because Fox started their MLB coverage at 10:30.
As I turn on the TV, they’re just finishing the bottom of the 1st, with the score 0-0 between the Yankees and Red Sox. Holy crap, they’ve been playing for a half-hour and only completed one scoreless inning. This is beyond parody, beyond commentary. I don’t know if I can hang all this on the slow-workings of Red Sox pitcher David Price. It was a good game, 6-5 Red Sox, not that I care enough about either team to recap it. The Sox came from behind to win it, and this probably knocks the Yankees out of playoff contention. Oh, if only the Yankees had acquired some relief pitching at the trade deadline. Heh, heh.
Forget the little warm-up act, the night belongs to the PCL Championship series between the El Paso Chihuahuas and the Oklahoma City Dodgers. Proceedings do not begin on a good note for me, as there’s a 40-minute rain cleanup delay in OKC. This means I miss about an hour’s worth of clear reception of the game over the radio. I end up losing it in the 2nd inning. The signal never goes out, but I’m straining to hear it for the rest of the game.
The Chihuahuas’ pitcher, Seth Simmons, was making his first start for the team. He gets into trouble over his first three innings, giving up a run. In the 2nd, there is a moment of levity as he walks the opposing pitcher, Alfredo Figaro, who tosses his bat and helmet as he goes down to first. Both teams and the pitcher himself get a good laugh out of this, as he has to retrieve his helmet. I wondered if he’d ever worked a walk before in professional baseball.
El Paso’s scoring gets started in the 4th as Patrick Kivlehan doubled in Austin Hedges to tie the score at one. In the 6th, Hunter Renfroe singled in Carlos Asuaje and Hedges, ousting the Dodgers’ starting pitcher. 3-1 Chihuahuas. While Simmons had let on runners, his counterpart was giving up hard hits, and it was just a matter of time before those started landing on the ground. In the bottom of the frame, Will Venable homers to make the score 3-2.
In the 7th, the Dodgers tie off of a runner on third, brought in by a grounder. 3-3 all. In the 8th, Venable gets on and is moved over, but a steady parade of relief pitchers and pinch hitters leave him there and the score remains knotted. In the 9th, both the Chihuahuas and the Dodgers get two on, but with two outs, neither scoring. On to extras.
10th inning, there’s two on and one out for the Dodgers. The winning run gets stranded at third. In the 11th, Kivlehan reaches and moves to 3rd on an error. Jose Rondon hits a pop up on a bunt attempt. The Dodger pitcher dives for it. From the description of the play, he perhaps tried to catch it and flip to the catcher to end the inning, but did neither. The ball instead pops out of his mitt without catching it and goes to the backstop, and Kivlehan scores. There’s no error on the play, but it’s now 4-3 Chihuahuas. The Dodgers get a double with one out in the bottom of the 11th, and he’s moved to 3rd by another out. The final play is a grounder to Nick Noonan at third, who throws to Patrick Kivlehan at first. The Chihuahuas win and take the series 3-1. The El Paso Chihuahuas are the Pacific Coast League champions!
Here after the final game, announcer, Tim Hagerty, finally mentions the Triple-A championship game. Apparently this game is considered more of an exhibition, while the PCL and IL series are the real championships, I guess. I almost think there was in a bit of denial about the end of the season. Tim will be in Memphis calling part of the game on Tuesday versus the Yankees’ affiliate, but this was the final Chihuahuas’ broadcast of the season. Tim thanked everyone, especially the fans. And then it was over. You know, even after winning a championship, the last game is still a little melancholy for everybody. Thankfully, there’s still over a month of baseball left in the year (and the new season of DC heroes on the CW coming up).
I meant to write up the Canelo boxing match, which started right after the game ended, but after over 3 ½ hours of tense, low reception radio, I’m too exhausted to try and score a fight. I just watched it. Canelo mostly mauled the guy. I called a co-worker afterward, whose girlfriend is a fanatic about him. She was happy and he was even happier, because she didn’t insist on driving to Dallas this weekend to see the fight. While he was pricing out seating options earlier in the week, I pointed out that most of seats at Cowboy Stadium cost less than the parking. “You’re not helping,” he replied. He started looking up hotel rooms and pronounced all the hotels in the area booked. “Hey, how about the Gaylord Texan? I interjected, “I’ve heard that’s a nice place.” “I’ve heard of it too,” Mike replied, “It’s a luxury hotel. I think I can hear my credit card screaming. And you’re not helping.” Adding to his relief, I told him about the massive storms ranging through the area between Las Cruces and Dallas on Saturday. So, it was a good Saturday for everyone.
9-19-16
The MLB.tv free game was the Rockies vs the Cardinals. As usual, it was blacked out. Unfortunately, it was also blacked out on Yahoo, which is a pity, because I would have liked to have watched. Having been to Coors Field, I now pretty much want to see it whenever I can. I switched over to check out the Cardinals’ radio feed, since I’m already very familiar with the Rockies’ guys. I ended up leaving it there. They seemed to be covering the Rockies better than the home broadcasters, a very egalitarian point of view. As Vin Scully says, “I figure at least some of my audience is rooting for the other team.” Of course, if you’re Vin Scully, everybody is listening to you if they can.
It ends up being a 5-3 loss for the Rockies. The Cardinals announcers were surprised by the small crowd. They thought the Rockies were a fun team to watch. From the crowd mics, I almost think there were an equal number of the Cardinal fans present. It was a tough place to play for the red birds though. Their pitcher, Carlos Martinez, got gassed running the bases in the 4th and needed an extra minute warming up the next inning to catch his breath.
9-20-16
There’s only one story today: the Triple-A championship between the El Paso Chihuahuas and the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders. (Whew! What a mouthful. How many syllables is all that?) I went to work with my Chihuahuas’ hat, ready to put on as soon as the game started. My main problem during the game was the coverage, namely that of distance. The NBCSN broadcast was on in the breakroom, and the radio call was on my computer in my cubicle. I was truly torn having to choose between hearing Tim Hagerty for the last time this season and actually being able to watch the game. For the beginning of the game, I mostly watched the TV, while later, when work responsibilities beckoned, I mostly listened.
On the TV broadcast, I noticed some pronunciation trouble with Carlos Asuaje. I presume the Railriders broadcasters didn’t have any problems with Tim sharing the booth with them. Again, there was also some confusion over Walter/Walker Lockett. Even Tim got tripped up on that one. I did learn that the Triple-A championship used to a best of seven affair. The one game championship was created for TV purposes. This might be why it’s looked down upon a bit.
With the game in Memphis, it was unsurprising to see Elvis in the house behind home plate. It was a pretty good crowd, who were mostly wearing Memphis Redbird gear. In fact, in a fan interview, one guy thought the Redbirds were playing. Obviously, a devoted, but slightly confused individual. There was lots of lawn space in the stadium outfield, which kids were playing on. For the 7th inning stretch, an all sister singing group, Jackson Avenue, did a snappy version of God Bless America. Even the players on the field were tapping along with it.
Let’s just yank the band-aid off. In the 1st, Lockett started the game giving up three straight hits. Regrettably, that third hit was a three-run homer to Chris Parmalee, later named game MVP. Thereafter, Chihuahua pitching pitched a shutout. Unfortunately, the Chihuahua offense only managed one run, as Austin Hedges singled in Manuel Margot in the 6th. Our final is 3-1 Railriders, who are the Triple-A champs.
I got to listen to most of the radio post-game. It was good to hear Tim put a bow on a great season for the Chihuahuas. I was surprised to hear the Railriders’ announcer credit Nick Swisher with creating the team’s winning attitude. I didn’t know where Nick had gotten to, but he certainly did some good there. Maybe he’s manager material. At home, I caught the tail end of a local sports broadcast. They were reporting form Southwest University Park (another mouthful) on the game. The team had opened up the ballpark to fans for a viewing party for the game. Man, I would have loved to have been able to go to that. (I wonder if the concessions were open?) Flipping around the dial, there was even a sports report on the Chihuahuas on a Juarez station. Altogether, it was a great season. (Mostly because I got a Cody Decker bobblehead, but the PCL championship was nice too.) I look forward to seeing that PCL Champion banner the next time I’m at the park.
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