El Paso Chihuahuas vs San Diego Padres 3-26-18

Ah, it’s good to be back to pro baseball.  This exhibition spring training game was probably the signature event on the Chihuahuas’ schedule this year.  The Padres must really like El Paso and Southwest University Park to keep coming back.  This is a really great way to help the franchise and encourage the fans. 

That said, Steve Kaplowitz interviewed someone from ownership before the game and brought up the possibility that the Padres would take their Triple-A team to San Antonio.  He said the nice things about their relationship to their parent club, but positively stated that they still have most of a 30-year lease on the stadium in force.  It’s a showplace, and if the Padres leave, somebody else will want to move in.  Whether that’s another Triple-A team or something lower remains to be seen. 

Is this the first crack in the foundation or merely pointless speculation?  The Mountain Star Sports Group (I think I’m getting that name right) is now working on getting a new stadium for the minor league soccer team franchise they just bought.  This team will be playing at the Chihuahuas’ park for a couple of years, which will likely degrade their pristine field.  Will setting up this new team also split their focus and degrade the Chihuahuas’ experience for their fans?  Is Mountain Star up to the task and truly committed to bringing great sports franchises to the region or are they opportunists, who will build all this up to sell it off to lesser custodians for a big profit at the communities’ expense?  The manner in which this stadium was built has always left me with the feeling that this arrangement is going to end badly.  I hope I’m wrong. 

For now, it’s all good.  I was particularly heartened to hear that the Padres brought Joe Galindo here with the team.  He’s an El Pasoan, played for Montwood High School, and did a great job for New Mexico State’s baseball team.  The Montwood team canceled practice to go to the game.  I expect some Aggies were there too.  A couple of people from work went. 

The warm, friendly tones of Tim Hagerty greeted the fans on the radio to start the game.  The last time I’d heard him calling a game was unexpectedly at the Aggie/Lobo basketball game in Las Cruces (11-17-17).  He was filling in for Jack Nixon, who was out-of-town to do Aggie Football.  It must have been thrilling for Tim to suddenly be doing a full house rivalry game, like hitting an announcing jackpot.  This game was on TV on the CW’s channel, which the cable at work no longer picks up.  Couple of hundred stations on Comcast digital cable, but not the local CW.  Yeah.  If I were home, I could have actually watched the game over-the-air. 

There was a pre-game show with Kappy and his Sportstalk show, but I’m still wishing Tim was able to spend a couple of minutes to set up the upcoming game.  Sometimes there’s a pre-game during the season, but sometimes, like today, the coverage starts with the Anthem.  It’s an awkward way to start. There was a title sponsor for this game, which proved to be a mouthful for Tim every time he had to say it.

The game rosters could partly be described as the new Chihuahuas versus the old Chihuahuas.  There were a lot of very familiar names on the Padres, such as Travis Jankowski, Hunter Renfroe, and Austin Hedges.  Honestly, it was a bit hard to figure out over the radio which team was which.  The Padres did bring and play some of their new big league acquisitions, such as Freddy Galvis (formerly of the Phillies), Allen Craig (from the Cardinals), and, my man-crush, Eric Hosmer (from the Royals).  Oh, the mischief I would commit if I could be him for a day.  Unfortunately, their farm system’s top prospects, Fernando Tatis Jr. and MacKenzie Gore, were not present.  (See, I’m using my new baseball preview magazine.)

During the game, Tim mentioned that when the Padres starters came out of the game, they would be mingling on the concourse with the fans.  A lady co-worker that’s a big Padres fan was glowing after getting to meet and get autographs from several players.  There were tables set up with the players seated behind them.  Austin Hedges charmed the heck out of her, and she’s a Chase Headley fan, who she also met.  She’s been to games in San Diego and not seen anything like this, so she’s a bigger fan than ever.  This game and player meeting were an awesome promotion for both teams.

This was good, action-filled game, which I found very hard to track without some sort of statcast.  Like I said, it was hard to tell one team from the other at times.  Also, being at work, I was busy with work and missed stuff, which was why I needed statcast.  This isn’t going to be the greatest game recap. 

New Chihuahuas player, Rudi Giron (if I’m even getting close to spelling that right), made a good impression on the fans, as he started off the scoring with a two-run home run.  2-0 Chihuahuas.  In the third, Wil Meyers drove in Austin Hedges for the Padres to make it 2-1.  During Eric Hosmer’s at bat in the inning, he fouled on to the roof.  The ball rolled off into the crowd below.  A big cheer went up as a fan caught it. 

In the fourth, the Padres took the lead, 3-2.  Freddy Galvis hit a solo home run in the inning.  Christian Villanueva had a tough game.  The previous inning, he was hit in the chest by a grounder and had the wind knocked out of him.  This inning, he got hit by a pitch.  Tim was also having some trouble calling hits near the foul line.  With Padres’ TV taking over the pressbox, he was sitting in the auxiliary box and was out-of-position to make close calls. 

Hunter Renfroe pinch hit in the fifth and made it count with a two-run homer.  5-2 Padres.  The Chihuahuas scored in the bottom to make it 5-3.  There was a delay to start the sixth as seven new Padre players came on to the field.  While this should have been a National League game, there was a DH.  Tim was scratching his head trying to figure out who that player was going to be.  I lost track of the game for awhile.  In the seventh, the Chihuahuas tied the game at 7 with a runner scoring on a play at the plate. 

Meanwhile, Tim had thrown up his hands.  Players were reentering the game and batting out-of-turn.  While enjoying the game, this lack of accounting was offending Tim’s scorekeeping sensibilities.  With the score tied, I’m surprised he didn’t go into the new minor league extra innings rule, where a runner is put on second to start the inning. 

In the eighth, I finally went to the Padres’ website to see if I could find a statcast, as I hadn’t found one on the Chihuahuas’.  I never found one, but did finally figure out that MLB TV was broadcasting the game.  Well, shoot.  I could have been watching.  What a great crowd was there!  Attendance was announced at over 9,700.  Though the radio and TV were badly out of sync, I kept the radio play-by-play going.  The Padres scored in the top to make it 7-6.  Phil Maton pitched the bottom and hit two and walked one, but didn’t allow any runs.

In the ninth, Boykin, I didn’t catch his first name, homered for the Padres.  Tim had a delay in identifying him, as Boykin had reentered the game from earlier.  In the bottom, the Padres had an assistant coach playing second.  (That’s what I heard.)  Tim was hoping at Joe Galindo might be brought in, but in a tight game, the coach might have thought that might potentially be bad for him.  The final score was 8-6 Padres.  It was a good, fun game.  The crowd was loudly rooting on the Chihuahuas, and I’m sure they’re looking forward to the upcoming season.