Thursday, May 30, 2019

Memorial Day Weekend Monday, 5-27-19


Continued from Sunday.

I skipped trying to watch the French Open to have lunch with my parents.  That was probably more unpleasant than listening to players grunting.  Maybe.  At least I got fed.  I may give tennis another shot next weekend.  I used to be a big tennis fan, but things change.  I had other plans for the afternoon.  After 22 films (?), I finally saw a Marvel film in a theater, Avengers: Endgame.  Thankfully, I’d mostly seen enough of the other films on TV and video to not be lost. 

There’s no point in reviewing a film that I think everyone else has seen.  I’ll just forward on that it was a magnificent achievement and fun to watch.  It had tremendous action, a great sense of humor (Thor stole the show), and I got genuinely choked up during Thor’s talk with his mom and during Stark’s goodbye speech.  For over three hours I was entranced to the point that I didn’t need to go to the bathroom over that time.  Also, I’d declined to purchase a $4 small soda and $3.75 small popcorn.  I felt a bit bad that I’d gotten in free with a pass, but not that bad.  Not to mention, I’d worked up a sweat walking over to the mall in the heat and wind.  I may have actually been dehydrated. 

I do understand why some reviewers have said that they loved it, but that they’re done with the series.  This is going to be very hard to top and given what Marvel seems to have queued up, it might not be to my taste.  Introducing time travel may also be problematic in the future stories.  Whatever comes, we will always have this moment.  (Until George Lucas changes it.  Oh wait, that’s Star Wars.  If only those Disney dummies knew how to make a great film like the Marvel team.  Hopefully, Disney doesn’t take over Marvel and ruin their films.)  [Yes, I’m making a joke.]

I can’t say the same for the trailers before the film.  I felt my IQ dropping seeing glimpses of these movies where things and stuff explode while big stars do cool things around the explosions and stuff.  Awesome.  The Fatzilla movie (him and Thor should maybe mix in a salad) looked cool when it showed the giant monsters.  It looked really dumb whenever the humans on screen.  They said and did nothing but dumb things.  I may be seeing this in the near future anyway.  I am a bit worried, but I still have movie passes, so at least I won’t pay for the potential mistake.
       
After the movie, I’d noticed the stiff wind had picked up and I wasn’t wearing a jacket.  I dallied in the mall.  B&N did not have the Time cover with Alex Morgan on it.  (I hope there’s no fat chicks in bikinis inside like her SI magazine this month.)  I was tempted to get dinner from Auntie Anne’s, but they didn’t have any pepperoni pretzels ready to go.  I blew home and was amazingly just in time to watch The Rally on Stadium.  I don’t usually watch their evening sports night preview show, but I did want to see cutie Kristen Balboni.  I did enjoy watching the baseball highlights, especially Kevin Kiermaier’s catch off the wall.  I did not enjoy the peanut butter and jelly sandwich on stale bread I was eating while watching, but not every meal can be gourmet.

The Chihuahuas’ game started early this evening as it was going to be a double header with yesterday’s rainout.  They were in Fresno playing the Grizzlies in a pair of seven-inning games.  As the crowd slowly built up over the course of the game, they didn’t miss much.  Both teams weren’t swinging it well as pitching dominated.  Tim Hagerty, on the radio call, was talking about the Padres early in Game 1.  The parent club was playing in Yankee Stadium, the last team finally visit the new park.  Reliever Phil Maton, in the last series against the Blue Jays, became the first NL pitcher to get his first hit in an AL park.  (They’d lost their DH in the game and had to bat him.)

In the first, an obvious Griz foul ball was called a home run.  The umps gathered and immediately corrected the call.  The batter was rounding the bases smiling, knowing it wasn’t going to stand anyway.  In the fifth, pups catcher, Francisco Mejia, tried to walk off field after the second out and got jazzed by the fans there.  In the sixth (remember this was scheduled for seven innings), the Chihuahuas got their first hit.  Tim had been worried they were about the Chihuahuas getting no-hit for the first time.  They did have two base runners on early via errors. 

The park was also taking donations for opposing player walkup songs.  Somebody had Old Town Road, which I’m assuming the player or wife paid for.  Others were not so fortunate with It’s a Barbie World and Baby Shark.  Jacob Scavuzzo came up to bat in the seventh with Toto’s Africa playing with two on.  He got a hit to drive in the first run of the game.  1-0 Chihuahuas.  The Grizzlies’ starter came out at the same time as the pups’ starter, Dillon Overton, was pinch hit for. 

Unfortunately, the Griz tied it in the bottom to send it to extras.  In the eighth, the Chihuahuas got the rule wrong on the automatic runner and lost their pitcher.  Tim caught it immediately.  Mejia sac’d in a run to make it 2-1, but a pair of Grizz sacrifices drove in another tying run in the bottom.  Scavuzzo led off the ninth with a hit to drive in the automatic runner to the make 3-2.  The Griz got two on with two out in the bottom, but the pups hung on to win it.

During Game 1 of the baseball game, the big sports event of the day started with the Blues playing the Bruins for the Stanley Cup.  I was looking forward to the game, but I ended up breaking my rule about watching hockey: if you’re going to watch hockey, you have to concentrate to get anything out of it.  But . . . those little party girls on Chic Music are sooooo cute.  So, I’m listening to baseball and flipping channels during the match.  My dad seemed interested the Blues doing well (being from Missouri) and so was I, so I have a favorite hockey team for the moment. 

The Blues got it started about halfway through the first period with a goal off the crossbar.  The teams were a bit tight to start as both actually tried passing the puck to a referee.  The Bruins got a power play late after a tripping call.  They hit the post on one shot and had a good look on another.  They got another power play right after on a hooking call.  There was a wide open net for one shot, but the player couldn’t handle the pass.  (Yeah, I’m not naming players like a bad sports report.  It’s amazing I got down any notes.)

The Blues scored early in the second period and I missed it.  The Bruins came back to make it 2-1 and then tied it.  About five minutes left in the period, there was a dogpile at the Blues’ net and two players were put in the box for fighting.  In the third, the Bruins poked one in to make it 3-2.  The game got chippie.  A Bruin player got his helmet pulled off in a virtual noogie.  He came back and made a flying check on the offending Blues player.  Sticks were breaking.  Running fist fights were going up and down the ice.  It was hockey at its finest.  The Bruins got an empty-netter with under two minutes left.  4-2 Bruins was the Game 1 final, though there was a scrum at their net at 0.00 on the clock.

I missed the Rangers playing the Mariners on the radio.  I couldn’t get it to come in during the break between the double header games.  The Rangers lost 6-2 anyway.  For Game 2 of the Chihuahuas’ double header, the Grizzlies came out wearing red pants.  I’m sure that looked great.  Matthew Batten homered in the second for the pups.  Jason Vosler also drove in a run and Boog Powell bunted in a run to make it 3-0. 

In the sixth, three Chihuahuas walked, but an infield popup ended the inning.  There were train noises going on all through the game.  In this inning, there was also what sounded like a car drag race going on outside the stadium.  The Griz got a solo homer to make it 3-1 in the bottom.  The pups added on with a sacrifice to make it 4-1 in the seventh.  There was then a near inside-the-park home run, but it was ruled a ground rule double as the ball got lodged under the outfield wall.  Vosler got a two-run homer to drive in the run anyway.  The Chihuahuas won 6-1 to sweep the DH.  Hey, somebody I was rooting for won this weekend!    

Lastly, I saw some of The Red Pill documentary by Cassie Jaye on TBD.  It was interesting, though I don’t entirely feel the need for a Men’s rights organization.  The documentary did make good points for equality on certain issues.   I doubt women want equality, because that would be a step down for their gender’s superior status in society. 

My favorite moment of this sports celebration weekend?  I’m going to have to be heretical here and say it was Avengers: Endgame.  Indy was great at the end, but Avengers actually made me tear up.  Beyond that, well crap, Aggie Baseball got eliminated from the WAC Tournament, and just about every other team I was rooting for lost.  I kind of wish I’d just focused on a few select events, instead trying to watch or listen to everything.  This is actually the first time I’ve felt like this, since I mostly enjoy the chaos.

With this, I am going on hiatus for writing sports for a bit.  I’m burned out from all the Aggie sports writing and doing other sports at the same time.  I’ve been staying late at work to write and the quality of my writing just keeps going down.  I do plan on picking it up again in the near future (perhaps sooner than I think), but I need to rethink how I do this.  I’ve got a stack of stuff to read that I haven’t touched in months.  Also, I’ve been working on an RPG project since the beginning of last year.  It’s been hard, but I’m almost done.  It’s been incredibly frustrating to be so close finishing, but only having a day or so to work on it between sports writing and then being mentally exhausted when I’ve been doing it.  I will hopefully be posting this project soon.

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