Thursday, October 26, 2017

Sports Journal October 12-14, 2017

10-12-17
I finally found that slip of paper with last week’s TV schedule that I’d lost.  I knew I’d find it eventually when I no longer needed it.  It was in my baseball season preview magazine that was sitting on a shelf.  No wonder I couldn’t find it.

I basically missed the Nationals and Cubs game at work.  I was busy, but had the game on TV.  On the one hand, at over four and a half hours, it was on long enough for me to watch some of it.  On the other, what I saw consisted of a relief pitcher diddling on the mound and the batter fouling off his eventual pitch.  I’d leave and come back five minutes later, and the same at bat would still be going on.

That said, it was a great game.  First, the TBS cameramen kept finding honeys in the crowd to zoom in on.  Well, at least that filled the dead time between pitches.  More seriously, just check out the line score.  Second inning-Nats up 4-1.  Fifth Cubs up 7-4.  Sixth 8-6 Cubs.  Seventh 9-7 Cubs.  Eighth 9-8 Cubs and that was the final score.  Max Scherzer even came in as a reliever for the Nationals, though he ended up being the hard luck losing pitcher.  Speaking of hard luck, the Nationals, in spite of their wealth the talent over the years, are still looking for their first playoff series win.  They’re rapidly taking the Cubs’ place as baseball’s lovable losers.  What’s their curse about?  Leaving Montreal?             

10-13-17
Game 1 of the ALCS between the Astros and Yankees.  Here’s a couple of baseball’s great, young charismatic teams meeting in the playoffs.  This should be a great series.  Pity it’s on FS1 where no one will see it.  The crowd at the stadium may be larger than the TV viewing audience.  Oh crap!  Joe Buck is doing the call with John Smoltz.  Now we’re going to get treated to some borderline retarded game calling.  (“No, JDH417 tell us how you really feel and without the PC filter.”)  Now I have no enthusiasm for this.  It’s “Mute Button Baseball” for the best of seven.     

What’s that from the audience?  Yes, actually I could do better job myself.  I could NOT do as good a job as my local guys calling baseball games, Adam Young or Tim Hagerty, but the Fox Clown Posse, sure.  Oh, and that was cute.  Fox used the new batter’s eye at Minute Maid insert an ad logo on screen, while simultaneously having problems getting back to the actual game on time from overly long commercial breaks.  TBS isn’t any better either.  Yesterday, Ron Darling was insisting that Bryce Harper had to hit a home run with his team down a run in the ninth.  There are other options there, Ron, where Bryce could help team in that situation.  Swinging for the fences and striking out wasn’t one of them.     
   
The only inning I really got to sit down and see was luckily the most pivotal one.  In the fourth, Jose Altuve got an infield hit, stole a base, and got knocked in with a hit.  Another run scored by moving that runner over with a productive out, and then driving him in with a single.  The Astros had a two-run lead thanks to fundamental baseball. 

Altuve made a rare error next inning which led to having two on.  Aaron Judge singled up the middle to nearly drive in a run, but George Springer got the ball, came up firing, and got Greg Bird at the plate.  Then there was the annoying challenge, like Joe Girardi will ever leave a close call unchallenged again.  I left the room rather than deal with Joe Buck and John Smoltz dissecting the various angles for the next 10 minutes.  He was out.  Bird would actually get that run back in the ninth on a home run, but 2-1 Astros was the final.  Dallas Keuchel went seven scoreless innings.  Jose Altuve went 3 for 4 like a champ.  
    
10-14-17
It was a great day for Aggie Athletics.  I saw the volleyball team win.  They announced that the soccer team had won during the match.  Later in the afternoon, I listened over the radio to the football team win over Georgia Southern 35-27.  While I did hear the whole game, I didn’t take any notes.  (I’m going nuts enough taking notes at sporting events.  Let me just sit back and enjoy something.)  Suffice it to say, in the fourth quarter, they came back, took the lead, used up most of the clock adding to that lead, and the defense held.  It was a great win.

Coming back from the volleyball game and a late lunch, I picked up the Astros/Yankees game in the seventh, tied 1-1.  Justin Verlander was still pitching for the Astros.  He ended up going the distance for nine innings and 13 strikeouts.  Aroldis Chapman came in for the Yankees for the ninth.  Jose Altuve managed a single off him.  Carlos Correa came up next and doubled into the right field gap.  The throw went into the second, but Altuve never stopped running from first and was waved in by the third base coach.  Didi Gregorious made a great turn and throw to the plate from second, but catcher Gary Sanchez dropped the ball.  Altuve slid past him and slapped the plate.  The Astros won 2-1, going up 2-0 in the ALCS.

The Yankees fans who were calling for Joe Girardi’s head in the last series, now want Sanchez’s.  This is why being a Yankees fan must suck.  Even winning isn’t good enough.  The team has to win perfectly, without any setbacks.  Every season has to result in a championship.  Every playoff series has to be a sweep.  Each game in every series has to be a 9-0, errorless effort.  Fire the fans next time.  Sanchez gave an apology and explanation through a translator afterward.  He’s not an American?  He’s named “Gary.”  How can this be?  This is making my head hurt.  Stupid Yankees.  Meanwhile, the Dodgers beat the Cubs, 4-2, in the NLCS.

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