Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Sports Journal October 31, 2017

10-31-17
I need to revisit Aggie football on Saturday (10-28-17).  My co-worker, Mike, was there and brought back a story.  His girlfriend’s son had expressed some interest in going earlier in the week, but hadn’t said anything by Saturday.  As Laiza had just put a batch of brownies in the oven and they were about to settle in to watch the World Series, the boy came in and said him and his friends wanted to go to the football game.  Unpleasantness ensued, but off to the game they went.

Once there, they found out that the flyers being distributed around town were not free tickets, but rather coupons for $10 tickets.  After some more chaos because a couple of the kids lost theirs, it was $50 for them to all get in.  Not a bad price for five people, but not free.  Our place of business had offered free tickets to a couple of games earlier in the season.  I mentioned on Friday to Mike that the final home game was going to have $5 tickets, so I can understand the irritation over having to pay.  They did not see any farm animals or displays from the AG day event at the stadium.  They might have gotten there just before the game started. 

The game went well enough at first with the Aggies keeping it close or being ahead.  However as the game went on, the temperature began dropping and the wind picked up.  Having been there myself, it does get colder there than the temperature reading would indicate.  They were freezing.  Meanwhile, the boys had wandered off.  After searching around the stadium, Laiza and Mike found them behind the eastside club section, sliding down the hill there.  Mike thought that looked like fun and was about to join them, but Laiza started yelling at them to stop and to go back to their seats.  Like real Aggies fans, they left as soon as the team went down by a couple of scores late and returned home to watch the end of the baseball game. 

I was surprised that Laiza wanted to see the World Series, since she’s a boxing fan, not a baseball fan. She’s rooting on the Dodgers.  Perhaps that July Fourth trip to see the fireworks there made her a big fan.  Mike was worried about watching tonight’s game with her, since it was a possible closeout game for the Astros.  He didn’t want to bear the brunt of her wrathful disappointment. 

Yesterday morning, some ESPN Radio jerkoffs were mocking the notion that baseball is back as a popular sport.  Take a knee, guys.  (On the other hand, that was Joe Buck saying, “Baseball is back.”  Not exactly a worthwhile source.)  One of the hosts was talking about falling asleep during the game.  They spent much of their time defending Clayton Kershaw, who before the game, the sports media had been claiming was “the greatest pitcher ever.”  Now they’re calling him a playoff choker, again. 

The TV view at Dodger Stadium was not promising for Game 6 between the Dodgers and Astros, with Astros one win away from the championship.  Anywhere else, it looked like a sure rain storm was coming.  In southern California though, it only resulted in a light misting halfway through the game.  There was reportedly a section full of Astro fans there.  The announcers speculated that Dodger fans had sold their tickets.  Several celebrities and former Dodger greats were shown in the crowd.  Kate Upton was in a box.  She was there to cheer on tonight’s Astros’ starter, Justin Verlander.  Whew, boy.  Yikes.  Justin, however this series turns out, you are the winner.

While I’d be very busy with month end stuff later, early in the evening I had time to watch without much distraction.  Of course I was out of the room when George Springer got the scoring started in the third with a solo home run, 1-0 Astros.  A sponsor was giving $20K for hurricane relief for every home run.  I don’t think they knew what they were signing up for.  Verlander was looking good.  By the fourth, he had gotten his seventh strikeout. 

In the fifth, the Astros loaded the bases with two outs.  Dave Roberts took out Dodger starter, Rich Hill.  The crowd groaned in disapproval, but the Astros didn’t score.  In the sixth, the Astros got two on, but still didn’t get anyone across.  The Dodgers were now on their third pitcher.  In the bottom, Chris Taylor doubled in a run with two on, and a Corey Seager sacrifice gave the Dodgers a 2-1 lead.

For the seventh, Verlander was lifted for a pinch hitter, while the Dodgers went to their fourth pitcher.  The Astros left two on again, but it was Joc Pederson who added to the Dodger lead in the inning with a home run, 3-1 Dodgers.  At this point, I got busy with work and actually lost track of what inning was being played.  Kenley Jansen came in as the Dodgers’ fifth and final pitcher.  He closed out the game and got the save.  3-1 Dodgers final.  The bad news for me was that the Astros lost.  The good news was that my co-worker wasn’t killed in a domestic disturbance had they won.  Anyone with a prediction for Game 7 clearly hasn’t been watching this series.  There’s no telling what’s going to happen.

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