I started off with a splash at noon watching Women’s Diving. This is because I have fetish issues. One quick cure for that was the looks of the
competitors. There was only one
attractive diver out of 12 and no underwater cam, so I lost interest pretty
quickly.
Did you know there was a National Lacrosse League? I
found this for reals while flipping stations.
Instead of playing on a field, they were playing in converted hockey
arena. This was a championship
game. The game was sponsored by a beer
company and there were a bunch of people there.
They were even running special lacrosse commercials. Living in the Southwest, I’m not familiar
with how big the sport is in the Northeast.
Unlike the field sport, the goalies are decked out like hockey goalies
with massive pads, and there’s a shot clock.
I don’t know how anyone scores. I
missed the end of the game, so I don’t have a final outcome.
Now this was really unexpected from just scanning the
channels: Women’s College Softball
from Mexico. It was Chihuahua versus Tamaulipas. Unlike Mexican
League Baseball, there wasn’t any advertising all over their uniforms. The field they were playing on wasn’t that
great. It seemed like a converted Little
League field. The field had the
dimensions of one. The mound was
flattened and the circle was put out in front of it.
What was the same were the girls and the fans. They were loud and into it. I saw one thing I’ve never seen. A pitcher hit a batter on the head with a
pitch. The batter took first, and the
pitcher went over to check on her and bumped fists with her. Not to say the game wasn’t unapologetically rough
too. On a play at the plate, the catcher
and runner were both flattened and trainers had to come out for them. Later, another girl may have gotten hit in
the face by a foul liner while she was a runner at third. She had to come out of the game. The Chihuahua team made a comeback in the
seventh, but lost 7-4. A guy ran out waving a big team flag. The girls lined up and shook hands, just like
here.
Meanwhile, I finally found an MLB game on Mexican TV. I’d
started watching games on a Mexican network on Saturdays last year, but I
couldn’t find the games this year, except totally randomly. I found the Reds and Cubs playing on
a different Mexican station than last year.
I’m not sure when these games are on, because I can’t find a schedule
for this station. Though I’d been
scanning around this afternoon, I didn’t happen on the game until it was in the
third inning, Cincinnati up 2-1.
The wind must have been flying out of Wrigley, because homers were
rampant. Yasiel Puig hit one out on to Waveland Avenue behind the stadium,
which was filled with fans. Yu Darvish pitched into the eighth for
the Cubs, but came out with the score tied at six after giving up another home
run. The Cubs won 8-6, though they worked into trouble in the ninth before
closing it out.
I’d noticed on the TV schedule earlier in the week that
the WNBA season opener was on
Saturday between the Seattle Storm
and the Phoenix Mercury. I’d marked it to watch, because I was hoping
to see Brooke Salas on the
Storm. Researching their roster later, I
found out that she didn’t make the team.
They had an article about it.
They were basically full at the guard position already. Watching a little of the game, I have to
admit that all of the players looked significantly bigger and taller than
Brooke.
I did have Aggie Baseball at in the WAC Tournament
playing on the radio later in the afternoon.
However, I was watching more MLB
on FOX in the evening. The Red
Sox and the Astros were playing
. . . for the second week in a row. (The
Red Sox will be on for a third time next week.)
George Springer had just gone
out with hamstring injury for the Astros before this game. However, Red Sox starter, David Price, left the game in the first
with flu-like symptoms. Back in the day,
that meant he was hung over.
I missed him leaving the game. I wasn’t paying close attention. I also missed the first scoring in the game
in the bottom of the sixth by the Astros.
I missed the Red Sox scoring in the seventh, but I did see the Astros
score in the bottom. I actually thought
the biggest story of the game to that point was Josh Reddick’s new shave and a haircut. He was almost unrecognizable. At some point, I did actually really watch
the game and take note of the score.
Roberto
Osuna blew his first save with the Astros since being
acquired last year in the ninth. Wasn’t
this the guy that people were #metoo protesting? Funny how winning fixes that. He loaded the bases and allowed two runs to
score, which tied the score at 3. He
then reloaded the bases, but got out of it.
In the bottom, the Red Sox’s closer, Matt Barnes, loaded the bases with nobody out. Carlos
Correa singled to win the game, 4-3
Astros. The Red Sox are not missing Craig Kimbrel at all. (In fairness, they might not have brought him
in with the score tied in the ninth.)
Late in the MLB game, almost unbelievably, college
baseball came on the Stadium Network
as scheduled. I’ve had my issues with
the network not showing scheduled college baseball games. This was the Mountain West championship game between UNLV and Fresno St. Their tournament is like the WAC tournament being double elimination. However, the Mountain West only invites four
teams, not six. One other difference
between the tournaments, the Mountain West does have the run rule in tournament
games. I seem to remember, the WAC
doesn’t.
I guess I should have been rooting for UNLV to win,
since that would have forced a Sunday game, which was also scheduled. UNLV had just beaten Nevada on a walkoff
homer into the wind to advance right before this game. There wasn’t a much of a crowd for the
game. That’s another thing, Nevada was
hosting the tournament. I’m thinking
that means they don’t have a central tournament site like the WAC. However, it’s a very nice facility. Maybe this is their central site. In any case, the home crowd just left with
their team’s defeat. It was also cold
and windy. There was snow on the
mountains in the distance. Not
surprisingly, the field features a turf mound and field.
The two team’s announcers traded off doing the game
call, which was nice for a championship game.
The Fresno St starting pitcher had big hair. Between his pitching motion and the stiff
wind, he kept losing his hat. Finally,
the pitcher and two infielders did a three-way hat swap to find one that would
fit him more securely. Only in baseball,
folks. The Bulldogs built up a four run
lead early, but UNLV tied it later on a blown double play that scored two.
Fresno bounced back in the fifth and scored a run to take
out the UNLV starter, 5-4. Later in the
game, Fresno brought in a 6’9” 220 lbs reliever, or a center off their
basketball team by mistake. The guy was
seriously huge. Fresno scored again in
sixth to make it 6-4. In the seventh,
Fresno got a leadoff triple that was cashed in with a ground rule double. The Bulldogs scored 6 in the inning to make
it 12-4, close to a run rule. The game
did go all nine and Fresno St won 12-6,
for their first conference championship.
My favorite comment by the announcers was a hirsute Fresno player being
said to have an “All-Conference mustache.”
The MLB.TV
free game today was unexpectedly a late game between the Rangers and Angels. I was planning on trying to listen to that on
the radio anyway, so I watched instead.
Or tried to. What happened was I
had to manually reload the page about 50 times as the MLB connection kept
dropping. Their website is not that
great without a real steady connection.
I wouldn’t have been trying so hard to watch, except it
was the Rangers and it was a really close game.
Ranger starter, Mike Minor,
gave up a solo home run to Kole Calhoun
in the third. That was all of the
scoring until the ninth. In the fifth, the
Angels did load the bases with two outs.
Mike Trout popped up to end
it. Angels starter, Tyler Skaggs, was chased in the sixth after hitting Joey Gallo in back and leaving two on. The reliever walked the next batter to load
the bases with two outs, but a popup ended that inning as well. I did learn that Shohei Ohtani uses Game of
Thrones walkup music.
In
the ninth, Ronald Guzman doubled in
a run to tie it for the Rangers. Hansel Robles blew his first save of
year for the Angels. (It was a bad day
for closers.) A sub .200 hitting Roughned Odor singled the Condor in for
a 2-1 lead. There was a popup on the
infield earlier that the fielder dropped to in order to throw out the lead
runner. Apparently, I still don’t
understand the infield fly rule. The
Rangers brought in Shawn Kelley in
to close. With a runner on, Calhoun
doubled in a run, as Luis Rengifo ran through a stop sign
to score easily. (It was a really bad
day for closers.) Elvis Andrus then dropped a popup behind third, which allowed
Calhoun to score the winning run, 3-2
Angels. How disappointing.
I actually missed a game today. The Chihuahuas
were playing Fresno late. I was saturated with content at the
time. I tuned in for the end of the game,
but the stream cut off before the last out.
The pups lost 5-2. Did any of my teams win today? Ouch!
On to Sunday.
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