Monday, October 23, 2017

Sports Journal October 6-11, 2017

10-6-17
I got back from Aggie soccer in time to miss most of a Patriot League women’s volleyball match on Stadium.  Somebody was already winning 2-0.  I missed the rest of it, making a couple of phone calls.  Right after that, the SDSU Aztecs were playing the SJSU Spartans in women’s soccer.  Again, I missed most of it, though when the announcer says, “This is one of the most exciting nil-nil matches you’ll ever see,” I didn’t feel too bad about it.  There was even a missed penalty kick for both teams.  After two overtimes, double zeroes was the final score.  At least the tie game I went to had some scoring.  Once again, I do like the guy doing the game call.  They didn’t really show the crowd there in San Diego, except for the lower stands and some people milling around the sidelines.  In the background, there were some fire trucks and ambulances with their lights going and firemen were walking around.  It seemed like that was the real story, but it was unexplained.  Cool player name of the night: Aztec goalie Gaby English.

In baseball, which I only got a recap of (thank you Stadium, otherwise I wouldn’t have gotten anything), the Astros whipped the Red Sox again, the Cubs beat the Nationals, and the Dodgers beat the D-Backs.  The most amazing result was the Indians over the Yankees.  The Yanks had a five-run lead in the sixth and coughed it all up to lose in extras.  One of the hosts wanted Joe Girardi fired for not challenging a close HBP call, that lead to a grand slam homer later.  

10-7-17
Double defeat for the Aggies today as the football team and the volleyball team both lost.  The football team was up late in the fourth quarter and the volleyball team was up 2-1, but neither could finish out.  I was listening to the football, and they gave updates on the volleyball.  Appalachian State was clearly reading something off of Tyler Rogers and was picking him off at will (6 times).  Depressing.  A Juarez station was also broadcasting the Dodgers and the D-Backs tonight.  I didn’t know about it and missed basically all of it.  Dodgers won their game, and the Nationals beat the Cubs.

10-9-17
I got a bonus day of vacation today.  Thank you, Columbus!  KROD was nice enough to carry the Red Sox and Astros Game 4 in the late morning/afternoon.  I came in late, not realizing it was on.  Given the steady rain in Boston for the whole game, everyone was lucky it finished.  Chris Berman and Rick Sutcliffe did a crappy job on the game call, but the game was so good, it completely overshadowed them.  Hand it to the Red Sox faithful, who endured the elements and cheered like crazy for the whole game.   

It was 2-1 Astros when I joined in the second.  The Astros left the bases loaded.  The Red Sox also left the bases loaded in their half.  Dustin Pedoria nearly tossed arguing balls and strikes.  Manager John Farrell got booted instead.  It took nearly an hour and a half for two innings.  Pace of play in the league would be great, if you threw out all the games involving the Yankees and Red Sox. 

In the third, Red Sox Mitch Moreland was thrown out at home.  Chris Sale came in for the fourth for the Sox.  Justin Verlander came in in the sixth for his in first ever relief outing.  Verlander gave up a two-run homer to Andrew Benintendi to give the Sox a 3-2 lead.  Alex Bregman tied it on a homer in the eighth.  There was ballgirl interference on an Evan Gattis hit.  Josh Reddick drove in the go-ahead run and Carlos Beltran added an insurance run.  It wasn’t over.  The bottom of ninth started with a Red Sox inside-the-park home run.  (I never caught the player’s name.  I hadn’t heard it before.)  But the Astros took the game, 5-4 and the series to advance.

Admittedly, I haven’t really been following the baseball playoffs.  I’m not a huge fan of any of the teams left.  The Dodgers finished off the D-backs to move on.  The Yankees and the Nationals won to continue their series.

10-11-17
Yesterday’s Cubs/Nationals game was canceled because of rain.  KROD decided to pick up their game this afternoon.  (ESPN Radio’s alternate programming is so bad, Steve Kaplowitz was complaining about it.)  Unfortunately, family events caused me to miss it.  Nothing like sitting in a waiting room for two hours.  The Nationals won to force a Game 5 on Thursday. 

Before the game, ESPN Radio’s hottest topic of discussion was the US Men’s Soccer team getting eliminated from the World Cup.  The hosts were of two minds in that one, it was soccer and it didn’t matter, but two, it was hugely important to the network, which would be broadcasting the now meaningless Cup games in America, not to mention, promoting soccer is an important Agenda item for the media.  In any case, they were pissing all over themselves in general soccer ignorance, while trying to sound knowledgeable.  Between this and listening to hosts literally screaming about Trump, it’s unintentional comedy at its finest.            

I caught the end of the Indians/Yankees game on TV.  Again unfortunately, the closers were in for both teams and the game dragged out to a hellish degree.  Pace of non-play was atrocious.  The Yankees won in a tight affair.  I really thought this game being in Cleveland would help put the Indians over the top, even after losing two games to force this fifth game.  The Yankee fans and various hosts wanting Joe Girardi’s head for Game 2 were forced to swallow a victory instead.  That doesn’t sound that bad.  The players apparently rallied to save Joe.

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