NM State Aggies vs Oklahoma Sooners 2-16-18
In quick summary, rainout.
Since I work at night, going to this afternoon game with the
Aggies against the two-time defending national champion Sooners was possible for me.
Unfortunately, we were socked in the day before with light showers. The forecast for today wasn’t good, and it
was raining when I woke up. Ron, who was
also eager to go, called and said the team Twitter feed updated that the game
time was moved back an hour. I told him
I couldn’t go with that timing and got on with my day.
Ron called back a half-hour later. The rain had stopped, so the game was back
on. I hurried to get ready and we
arrived in the Softball Complex parking lot with about ten minutes before first
pitch. The lot was full and there were
fans milling about, several of them were Oklahoma fans. The PA was playing loud, but decent music,
which made for sort of a festive atmosphere.
We could see the girls on both teams warming up on the field.
Ticket prices for the tournament were double and then some
over regular ticket prices ($12 to $5).
Since we were planning on going to at least games two games over two
days, it was going to be cheaper to get the full pass ($20). Right before I got to window, it started
raining. At that point, I knew they were
going to get rained out. It didn’t take
a meteorologist or fortune teller to make that prediction. And yet, there I was at the window. G******it!
I bought two passes.
There weren’t any programs out front, which was probably a
good thing because they would have gotten wet.
Inside, the weather hadn’t kept anyone away. It’s kind of hard to judge the size of the
house, since most of the crowd had umbrellas out, but it was a good
turnout. There were a bunch of Oklahoma
fans with the Aggie fans. I expected
this. I’d even decided against wearing
my new waterproof jacket, since it was basically Sooner red more than Aggie
crimson. Well, that was another bad
decision. In the 15 minutes we were
sitting in the stands, I got soaked to the point that I had to change socks
when I got home. Yes, I did bring an
umbrella and was sitting underneath it.
I suggested to Ron that he wear his wide-brimmed sun hat before we left
his car. While he was sitting in the
stands, he periodically leaned forward to empty the water pooling on his brim.
It seemed like a bad sign that the player introductions were
being made and none of the players or umpires were out on the field. After that, there was two song musical
interlude, during which Aggie Coach
Kathy Rodolph walked over to the visiting dugout. Then the umpires came out. They quickly inspected the dirt infield, which
was now muddy, and then joined the coaches.
Soon enough, the PA called off the game and all the rest of the today’s schedule
(four games). Tickets would honored
tomorrow, which was scant consolation.
On field, Fahren Glackin ran
out and met a Sooner player at home plate where they chatted. They must be friends or related. The other players hung around the
dugout. They’ve got to be disappointed,
especially given the crowd that showed up.
Even if they’d started the game, I couldn’t take notes with
the rain. Really, I tried. It wasn’t going to happen. Without the program, I’d have trouble doing a
scorecard anyway. This tournament was
on a pretty tight schedule with four teams playing each other over three days. I can see where they really wanted to at
least get this big game in today, but it was really questionable green-lighting
it based on the rain stopping for an hour and a half beforehand. Did anyone look at the radar? It’s right there on the Internet and doesn’t
require expert interpretation. Crap, now
I’m absolutely committed to going tomorrow and Sunday so I can attempt to get
my money’s worth. I may be watching Ball
State versus Boston U, but I’ll do it.
(And just to make matters worse, I didn't finish the basketball post I was going to do today and left my notes at home, which is why I'm posting this. So, there's going to be some chronologically out-of-order posting next week.)
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