Continued from Saturday.
90% chance of rain in Indianapolis today. That had been the forecast all week and even
when I tuned in to the coverage for the prerace Sunday morning. The sky was indeed overcast over IMS.
By the time the race was over, nary a drop had fallen and there were
blue skies overhead. This years’ race
was NBC’s first crack at the Indy 500, since acquiring the rights
from ABC/ESPN. In spite of my general hatred for ESPN, I had
to admit that they did really good job on their last race (5-27-18). It actually kills me to admit to that, so you
know I mean it.
NBC had a lot to live up to given their competitor’s
history. You could best sum up their
attempt with one word: cringy. Here’s a
few more: smiley, happy, no depth, embarrassing. Here’s the biggest race of the year and the
prerace is like an hour of the Today Show. I guess you’re trying to appeal to the
normies, but they don’t watch the race.
The fans do. When I tuned into qualifying
last week, they did a great job of setting the storylines for the day. If it hadn’t been rained out, I would have
watched. So, they could have done a better
job of setting the stage for the race, but instead did a segment on milking
cows for the Victory Lane milk.
Our expert commentary for the prerace was provided by Danica Patrick. Once again, it was the Danica Show. I should have known better than to think that
we were rid of her. Like much of the
prerace, what was frustrating was that she was insightful during the race, once
she stopped talking about herself, which took a while. Also present was a damn-glad-to-be-there, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Who is this guy? Was he ever this happy racing? He also drove the pace car, still smiling,
and was surprisingly cogent talking about the race. Also present was my favorite pit reporter, adorable
Kelli Stavast. The dulcet British tones of Leigh Diffey provided the
play-by-play. It was odd hearing him
doing an American open wheel race, instead of F1, but I got used to it.
But, the important thing here is lunch. McAlisters
was featuring a new sandwich on their website, which I scouted before I decided
to go there for lunch, the Chicken
Avocado BLT. It was a good-sized
meal and very tasty. It did fall apart a
bit as I was eating it. The Avocado
didn’t quite hold it all together. It
was served on two oversized slices of white bread. The bacon was good. I was worried the chicken might be poor, but
it was fine. I’m trepidatious about any
fast food chicken except for Chik-fil-a,
Raising Canes, and What-a-burger (their Honey Barbeque Chicken Strip Sandwich
exclusively). Every place else and every
other chicken item is on probation with me, because they’re not only not as
good, they’re usually just bad.
Of course I had the M-F’ing tea. (That meme is probably dead by now.) I was offered a cookie or a brownie, which I
wish I’d gone ahead and bought, but I didn’t know what the price was. Instead, I went back out about an hour later
to Orange Leaf for froyo. I got cookie dough with peanut butter cups added
in. I also tossed on some Twix, but those don’t work with ice
cream, because the caramel goes hard instantly in the cold. That pretty girl was back working there. I’ve seen her several times. I don’t know what to say to her to chat, even
when we’re there alone.
Back to the race, pit lane mishaps were the story. Colton
Herta had electrical issues, I think, and came to a halt on pit lane. Helio Castroneves
had contact on pit lane with another car.
Last years’ winner, Will Power,
missed his spot in the pit box. Another
driver hit one of his pit crew. Kyle Kaiser, the last driver to make
the field who bumped Fernando Alonso,
lost his car coming out of pit lane.
Alexander
Rossi, who won in 2016, had a fueling problem on one of his
pit stops. He was completely infuriated,
banging on his steering wheel, while the crew worked on it. I’m told he’s never normally that angry. Well, Rossi went on a rampage trying to get
his lost positions back. He nearly ran
over a lap-down Oriol Servia, who
was holding him up. They exchanged hand
signs at over 200mph as they passed one another. Rossi, passing like a madman, made it back up
front.
The Big One happened on Lap 178. There had only been three retirements
beforehand. There were five more with
this wreck. Graham Rahal chewed out Sebastien
Bourdais on track while Bourdais was still sitting in his wrecked car. (How humiliating for a four-time Champ Car champion.) Rossi had just passed polesitter and Indy GP winner Simon Pagenaud for the lead as the race was red flagged.
The race was restarted with 13 laps left. Pagenaud immediately passed for lead, but
Rossi was back in the lead by the next lap.
They would end up trading positions five times before the end. Takuma
Sato, the 2017 Indy winner, came back from a lap down to third place with
10 to go and pressed the both of them.
Rossi had the lead with three to go.
Pagenaud passed on the outside with one lap left. There was lots of swerving on that last lap,
but Pagenaud held it and won.
Pagenaud gave Penske
another trophy and got to keep his seat.
Simon stopped in front of the grandstand to salute the fans and he also
thanked them again after splashing himself with milk in Victory Lane. (I hate the milk drinking bit here, because I
love milk and these guys nearly always waste it.) What a month at Indy for Simon: GP win, pole,
led the most laps, and won the big race.
Regardless of the prerace, as long as you’re showing the race, you
really can’t screw up the coverage. It
will make its own drama, regardless of attempts to enhance it. The story is always the same: triumph for one
driver, tragedy for 32.
Two other events started before Indy finished. On a Mexican station, the Dodgers and Pirates were on. During yesterday’s
MLB game, they’d promoted that they
were going to be broadcasting another game today. I’d checked back repeatedly at the advertised
time, but it wasn’t on that I could see.
I joined the game in the fifth with the Dodgers up 4-2. The Pirates were in their horrible 70’s
throwbacks. I like several teams’ retro
uniforms, but this one is way too gaudy.
Wow, I wish I hadn’t scrambled my notes together from
four different events. Let me untangle
this. I saw Joc Pederson homer to make it 5-3.
By the time I’d tuned back, it was 9-3 in the sixth, but the Pirates did
make a comeback to make it 10-6. The
Dodgers scored again in the seventh on a missed catch. This broadcast was the Dodgers’ video
feed. They showed fans already leaving
over the Roberto Clemento Bridge. The Bucs scored in the ninth, but lost 11-7.
I’m sorry there was so much going on.
This would have been an entertaining game to have watched instead of just
peeking in on.
Meanwhile, the F1
Monaco race had started on ABC. This was on delay, but “Thank you,” NBC for
not spoiling the race during your Indy broadcast. Last year, ABC had shown the F1 race right
after Indy without any prerace. There
was one this time and they announced that there was a 90% chance of rain there
in Monte Carlo. For an F1 race,
impending rain is good news, since that often makes the race more
interesting. I had to miss the most of
the prerace to see the end of Indy, but I did make sure to watch the start of
the race and the hard right-hander into Sainte
Devote. Having seen this race
before, I know that that first corner is functionally the whole race.
No rain fell in the principality either today during the
race. Here in the Las Cruces, there was
a 5% chance of rain today. Suddenly, I’m
hearing thunder. The wind had kicked up
hard outside and it was overcast. It
would eventually start raining a bit for a short while. This is the way I would have wanted it, rain
here instead of at Indianapolis. It
would have been ironic though if the lightning had gotten bad enough that I’d had
to turn off the TV before Indy finished.
I flipped between the F1 race and the ballgame. The coverage featured some hysterical Sky Sports announcers. Not hysterically funny, just hysterical like
a panicked woman. I’m missing the BBC guys. ABC also inserted random commercials into the
race, since the original broadcast didn’t have any breaks. There was a woman with ESPN, who came on and
assured viewers that they wouldn’t miss any of the race. Well, that’s nice at least.
So, Lewis
Hamilton started on pole, led coming out of the first turn, and won the
race. How does Monaco keep delivering
these surprises? Actually, Lewis and Max Verstappen did touch in the closing
laps, but didn’t crash and maintained their positions. I wish they’d use karts for this race instead
of F1 cars. The drivers might go for it,
if it didn’t affect the points standings.
It would be like the most glamorous Mario
Kart race ever.
Sure, let’s check out what’s on the radio too,
specifically the Rangers and Angels and the Chihuahuas were scheduled to play.
The pups were not on, which was okay, because I was getting twitchy
enough just changing TV stations. I
found out later that they’d been rained out in Fresno. In LA, it was actually raining lightly there. Ranger announcer, Eric Nadel, couldn’t remember ever seeing rain at a game there. The field in Anaheim wasn’t built with good
drainage, so a hard shower might end the game.
His partner, Matt Hicks, was
worried about the open-air pressbox and all of their electronics.
The rain continued into the eighth, but never affected
play. It didn’t hurt Mike Trout as he homered in the first
to make it 1-0 Angels. The fans were
unaffected too. Matt called a fan in a
suite with a mitt making a great catch on a foul. Shin-Soo
Choo homered in the fourth to tie it.
Hunter Pence also homered to
give the Rangers a 2-1 lead. (I was on
the phone and missed it.) It was Hunter
again in the sixth driving in a run with Logan
Forsythe then driving him in. The Rangers
built up a 5-1 lead.
In the bottom of the sixth, a double play ended the
inning, but the Rangers stayed on field, apparently they’d all forgot the number
of outs. I kind of wish I was watching
this game. Ranger starter, Ariel Jurado, came out in the seventh and
the Angels tee’d off on the Rangers’ relievers.
Trout doubled in a run. Shohei Ohtani tied the score on a
sacrifice. Two wild pitches brought in
two runs and gave the Angels a 7-5 lead.
After that catastrophe, the Rangers made a comeback in the ninth. Choo doubled in Ronald Guzman, but was left stranded at third. 7-6
Angels was your disappointing final.
Before getting into the afternoon NASCAR race, I have to mention a movie. Flipping around, I ran into a 50’s gem on Comet, The Beast of Hollow Mountain.
I was confused when I saw it because it looked like a Western. It was.
The caption summed it up succulently: A Tyrannosaurs Rex terrorizes a
Mexican village. It’s like the Magnificent Seven, but with a
dinosaur. (Not really.) It was an exciting seamless blend of stop-motion
puppetry and practical effects (namely shots of a guy wearing big T-Rex feet or
giant claws fumbling at the actors).
This concept seemed familiar somehow.
It was. Last year on Comet, I’d
seen a 2015 film called Cowboys vs
Dinosaurs. Not quite the same
premise, but close enough.
The Coca-Cola 600
prerace had my full attention. I was
riveted watching Shannon Spake stuffed
into a hot, off-the-shoulder dress. This
was my favorite part of the coverage.
Shannon did spoil the end of the Monaco race, which had quite yet
finished on the other network. I’ll
forgive her (mostly because the outcome wasn’t in much doubt).
There was no rain in Charlotte, but it was very
hot. The drivers were concerned. Another hot Charlotte, WWE wrestler Charlotte Flair,
joined Michael Waltrip on the grid
walk. The drivers they met seemed genuinely
awestruck by the overwhelming blonde. I
think they were WWE fans. Charlotte
would drive the pace car.
A Marine general gave the command. He brought his own hype-man, a master sergeant,
to introduce him and he did so with a flourish. The cars went into a three-wide formation on
the pace lap. I was listening to the
baseball at the time, so I’m not sure why they did that. It was good practice for later in the race.
I really meant to sit and watch the race, but the Braves and the Cardinals came on ESPN Radio
after the Rangers’ game was over. I’m
not sure what inning the game was in, but I heard Harrison Bader drive in the first run and be driven in to make it
2-0. The story of the game though was a guy
holding a baby, reaching over the rail for a foul ball. The announcers wet themselves. Mom immediately came over and took the child
away and they all left shortly thereafter.
We’ll skip to the ninth with the Cardinals up 3-0. The Braves came up with a run and got two on
with nobody out. Another hit made it 3-2. Andrew
Miller came in. He gave up the tying
hit. I wanted to start watching NASCAR, but
these guys were not cooperating. In the tenth,
the Braves’ go-ahead run was walked in.
They won 4-3, as KROD went on autopilot and I missed all
of the bottom of the tenth except for the final out.
Back at the race, there were 10 cautions through the
first two stages. It seemed like a bunch
of blown tires, maybe due to the heat. Before
the race, my dad had pointed out a picture of Jimmie Johnson’s paint scheme in the newspaper. It looked good there and on track with the
desert camo. If only they still sold
little affordable diecasts.
I was watching Stage 4, as two large wrecks messed up
the field. On the final restart with six
to go, I finally turned up the sound as the baseball game was in
commercial. The cars were going
four-wide and banging off each other in the final laps. Martin
Truex fended off Joey Logano for
the win. And I got to see a little more
Shannon Spake. Yay. I feel like I cheated myself not watching
more of the race.
My last viewing of the day was a Comic-Con documentary on TBD. That was pretty interesting. A guy proposed to his girlfriend at a Kevin Smith panel, which was sweet. Funny how the comics are almost the least of
it there now. With that, we pack it in
until tomorrow.
On to Monday.
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