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.
No comments:
Post a Comment