Sports Journal October 25-26, 2017

10-25-17

“It’s In-N-Out Burger versus What-a-burger,” said Sal Montes on KROD’s Sports Talk.  It’s the World Series between the LA Dodgers and the Houston Astros.  I’m only a day late in covering this.  Dodgers won Game 1, 3-1, behind Clayton Kershaw in a two and half-hour game.  Yeah, never mind that.  Today’s game was THE Game.

Heck, let’s just pick it up where it got interesting.  It was the top of the ninth with Dodgers up 3-2.  Kenley Jansen was starting his second inning of work.  Marwin Gonzalez greeted him with a tying home run.  So much for the automatic save machine.  In the tenth, Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa started the inning with back-to-back home runs.  Alright!  Ooops, not so fast.  In the bottom, Yasiel Puig homered and Kike Hernandez singled in Logan Forsythe to tie it again.  Justin Verlander came out of the training room to yell at the team in the dugout to tell them that it wasn’t over.  George Springer heard him and put the Astros up with a two-run homer in the eleventh.  In the bottom, Charlie Culberson hit a solo home run to give Puig a chance to come up tie it again.  Finally though, the baseball gods were satisfied with contest (and wanted to get to bed).  Puig struck out to end it. 

7-6 Astros win, but I’d like to think everyone watching was a winner, even at over four hours.  Lucky for Dave Roberts this didn’t go 12.  The Dodger manager was out of pitchers and bench players.  The eight home runs in the game were impressive (especially in a “pitcher’s park” in LA), but five of them occurred in extra innings.  That last bit had never happened before in baseball game.  Holy crap!          

10-26-17

I got to watch the Aggie Volleyball team play the UMKC Roo’s on the road tonight thanks to WAC Digital Network.  I finally got it to work for me.  We’ll start with a quick game recap.  The Aggies took the match 3-0.  They won 25-17 in Set 1.  It was close about halfway through before the Aggies pulled away.  The Aggies went up by 8 early in Set 2, but the Roos came back something fierce.  The Aggies pulled it out 25-20, pretty much riding on their early lead.  The Aggies weren’t seriously challenged in Set 3 and won 25-17.  Kiley Tonge made, I think, her debut in a game and served for match point.

KC Tohm led the way with 14 kills.  Megan Hart had 6 kills and 6 blocks.  Let’s hear it for Canada!  (They’re both from Canada.)  Kaylee Neal and Ari Sierra divided up most of the kills.  Bridgette Lowe also played quite a bit.  I didn’t see the injured players on the trip, which is likely a practical decision.  Coach Jordan said the team was “Doing it with smoke and mirrors.”  He’s not giving himself enough credit for his recruiting and practice regimen.  He’s had some good players sitting on the bench.  Injuries have forced the coach to use some these girls, maybe before or more than he wanted.  They’ve had growing pains, but their inherent talent and lots of training has eventually come through.  

The Roos’ announcer, pleasant fellow, thought highly of the Aggies, though aware of their poor record in five-set matches.  He was in awe of a couple of kills by KC and Megan and a dig by Ari.  “Are we giving away free clothes today?  Where’s mine?”  A live mic left unattended was picking up a girl staff member during halftime to my amusement.  They held a Halloween costume contest during that time.

The Roos play in a gym, like probably nearly every other college volleyball team.  It looked like they were playing in a walk-in closet compared to the Pan-Am Center.  It has to be quite a disconnect between playing at home and on the road for the Aggies.  I suspect visiting opponents must love playing in an arena (with a bit of trepidation).  The camera view didn’t give any sense of the size of the crowd for UMKC.  The break music was depressingly the same as here in Las Cruces.  After the match, the Roos left the court for the locker rooms immediately, which surprised me.  The Aggies always hang around the court and meet with various fans, boosters, kids, and family members after a match.  Even here, they met out on court for a team meeting after playing.      

The blonde on the right in the black jacket is Hannah Combs.  This picture was taken right after the match where she got hurt.  I can’t believe she could work up a smile after that fall and scream.  These girls are tough.

Meanwhile, it was a bloody day for coaches in the MLB.  Joe Girardi was canned by the Yankees for not making a replay challenge three weeks ago and for only winning one championship during his tenure.  The Yankees have high standards (and want to get somebody cheaper, since they’ve got enough great players to where they don’t think they need good managing).  In Chicago, the Cubs let go off all of their coaches, except for Joe Maddon.  Firing those coaches isn’t going to make your starting pitchers any younger.