It was Chihuahuas
Day at Presley Askew Stadium today, if you couldn’t tell from the
picture. Yes, I finally met the man . .
. err . . . dog himself, Chico. Hey, when they say it’s Chihuahuas Day at the
stadium and you’re the only one there in a Chihuahuas shirt and hat, you get
posted on the team Instagram. When I told
one of my co-workers, he looked up the picture, liked it, and forwarded it to
his girlfriend. I got my 15 seconds of
Internet fame.
I was taking this Thursday and Friday off from work for
the final Aggie Baseball home series
of the year. Ron wasn’t able to really
get time off from his job, but was still going to be going with me. For this evening game, we had an early dinner
beforehand at Sonic. It’s not my usual choice, because I’m not a
fan of eating in cars. However, they
were recommended to me and that commercial for the Kings Hawaiian Bun Burger
looked good. In reality, it was awkward
to eat in Ron’s car, the burger looked nothing like its pictures, but boy, was
it good. Thumbs up!
Ron did wear his new Chihuahuas camo floppy hat to the
game. I asked why he didn’t his division
winner shirt that he got a couple of years ago.
He sheepishly admitted that he couldn’t fit into it anymore. I feel like I’ve been a bad influence wanting
to go out to fast food places before and after games. I’ve had some trouble getting into my own
pants lately. The evening was warm and
sunny with a pleasant breeze blowing.
There were two news vehicles in the parking lot. This was a battle to win first place, or a
share thereof, in conference. The Aggies
just needed to win one of these three final games to clinch the #1 seed in the
tournament, since Cal Baptist University
isn’t eligible for it.
But never mind all that, I had another celebrity
encounter before the game. Coach Brian Green waved at me from the
dugout while I was waiting outside the bathroom for Ron. What a friendly guy. Unfortunately for him, he’s had to go back to
rolling around on that scooter for his bad foot. Coach needs to take it easy for a while in
the offseason to let that heal. Also saw
Nick Gonzales in the dugout. I should have shouted to him that I voted for
him 25 times on the Golden Spikes Award
website, as directed by the team Twitter account. It doesn’t make any sense to me why they let
you vote 25 times a day, but okay.
Meanwhile on field, Chico was working it. He chatted with the guys in the dugout. He practiced his first pitch. I think he actually wanted to play catch with
Brock Whittlesey, who was warming up
in the outfield. Chico waved to the
stands and was joined by the “Chicas,”
the Chihuahuas’ cheerleaders. They
handed out posters to some kids. Chico
went over to the opposing dugout and turned around and waved his tail at
them. He made a snow angel on
field. He came into the stands and I got
my picture taken with him. Finally,
Chico threw out the first pitch with two camera crews filming him.
After all that, Chico kicked back in a seat in the
grandstand afterward and interacted with some kids. A good crowd showed up for the game. CBU brought quite a few vocal fans. Some of the Softball team came in for the
game. There were two groups of players,
but they weren’t sitting together, though they did wave to each other.
On field, Whitt, starting for the Aggies, ran into
trouble right off the bat in the first.
The first five batters reached and three runs scored. 3-0 CBU.
Our first indicator of what would be an ongoing storyline for the game
happened on Billy Rockefeller’s at
bat. With a full count and a close
pitch, he ran to first. A second later,
the ump called him out for a looking strikeout.
In the bottom, Logan Rinehart,
the CBU pitcher, had a warmup pitch deflect off the catcher and hit the
ump. I don’t think that improved the ump’s
disposition. Rinehart walked two
batters, but got two strikeouts and the Aggies didn’t score.
To start the second, Chico and the Chicas threw some
Chihuahuas’ stuff into the stands. With that,
they left for the night. They did a
great job. Whitt came back with a 1-2-3
inning in the second. With two out in
the bottom, Eric Mingus was hit by a
pitch. Braden Williams walked next to advance him, and Logan Bottrell singled Mingus in to
make it 3-1.
CBU was for some reason allowed to set up their radar
gun on the main walkway. This caused
issues during the whole series and was a general annoyance. An older attendant for the stadium handed a
foul ball to a kid sitting in front of us.
To this point, I’d seen him get a Chihuahuas’ poster and towel and a
pair of Aggie sunglasses. He was making
out like a bandit.
The ump’s strikezone was getting inconsistent to the
point that fans were complaining. This
started in earnest on the first batter of the third getting struckout and the
CBU fans yelling. Aggie fans would get their
opportunities too. The wind picked up
and started blowing hard out. This
caused an adventure on a foul ball caught by Mingus in the third. Neither team scored in the inning. Rinehart did get a rare 1 unassisted out in
the bottom.
“Is anyone wearing Chihuahuas gear?” announced PA Alexia for the Pocket Contest. When no one got up immediately, I thought I’d
finally participate in a giveaway, but the giveaway kid got up and showed his
towel. He actually ended up giving the
bag away to another kid. Good show. The fourth inning was also scoreless. Adam
Young, on the radio call, diplomatically said the ump had an “interesting
strikezone.” Fans of both teams were
getting angrier as the game was close.
CBU slugger, Ryan
Mota, hammered a two-run homer in the fifth. The team celebrated like a bunch of softball
players, no offense to the girls. 5-1
CBU. Whitt struggled through the rest of
the inning, but ended it with a pair of strikeouts. The Aggies went down without scoring in the
bottom. Nick hit a big popup that a
troop of Little Leaguers started to run after.
The wind blew it back in for an out, and the kids returned to their
seats.
The kid down in front got another backpack in a giveaway. He handed this one off to someone else,
too. It really pays to be a kid sitting
in the front row. A couple of guys moved
in in the row below me. One of them had
a good-looking corn-in-a-cup from the concessions. Grrr . . . that just pisses me off. Why couldn’t I have gotten a good
corn-in-a-cup this season? Meanwhile,
Ron had wandered off to “chase balls.” I
think what he actually did was sneak off to watch the series finale of The Big Bang Theory. He denied it.
In the sixth, I finally gave up on my radio. The static had gotten too bad to listen
to. I thought it was because I had
another bad pair of ear pods, but I found out when I got home that I’d actually
somehow knocked it one digit off station.
Dumb. Whitt finally came out this
inning after a four-pitch leadoff walk. Wyatt Kelly finished off the
inning.
The older attendant came back to the kid and exchanged
balls with him. Did he get an
autographed ball, too? There was one
crowd giveaway he didn’t get. The fans were
already cheering even before the announcement was made just from seeing the
boxes. They all wanted one of the two Lou Henson commemorative bobbleheads up
for grabs. I was intrigued here, but
resisted. I already have the Cody Decker bobblehead. Do I really even need another
bobblehead?
In the bottom of the sixth, Logan Ehnes doubled and Tristan
Peterson walked. Kevin Jimenez worked an 0-2 count into
a walk to load the bases. Rinehart was
chased and replaced with a new pitcher. Braden Williams then singled in two
runs to make it 5-3. The best play of
the inning though was the Little Leaguers bopping to Mingus’ walkup song at the
railing like the guys in the dugout.
For the top of the seventh, Andrew Edwards came in. He
loaded the bases around a strikeout.
Pitching Coach Anthony Clagget
came out and said something “inspirational” to him. Edwards came back shooting peas and ended the
inning with a pair of strikeouts. He was
pumped coming off the mound and his girlfriend was screaming behind me. It was good to see him do well after a
questionable season of relief work.
The Aggies loaded the bases in the bottom, but weren’t
able to score. The Lancers had to bring
in another reliever to finish the inning.
Harrison Spahn made a good
play on a popup. Three players converged
on the ball, as Spahn fell backward catching it. The crowd on both sides was getting downright
surly with the ump’s strikezone. He
might need protection leaving the stadium.
I noticed the Aggie dugout had a ritual of touching the rim of the
dugout with their hats when there were 2 outs and 2 strikes in the inning. I’m doubtful it was working for much luck.
Aldo
Fernadez came in for the eighth.
I like his play-in music, Bad
Bunny’s Fuego. After a walk, he nearly walked the next
batter, who was trying to sacrifice the runner over. He got through the inning. His last looking strikeout was a beauty. In the bottom, the ump had his mask off and
gave the crowd a meaningful look after too many catcalls. That didn’t stop the hecking though. The Aggies got two on, but didn’t score again
in the bottom.
In the ninth, Nick snagged a liner and started a double
play to end the top of the inning. PA
Alexia asked the crowd to cheer to rally the team. The CBU players with the radar gun cheered
and stomped along with the crowd. Were
they being sarcastic? It didn’t matter,
the Aggies did not score and 5-3 Lancers
was the final.
Ryan
Mota
and Andrew Bash had great games for
CBU offensively. (If Andrew’s nickname
was “Crush” Bash, he’d have the best baseball name.) For the Aggies, I’ll hand it to Andrew Edwards for his inning of relief. Your stat of the game is Aggies 14 left on
base, Lancers 12 left on base. So, the
Aggies’ bats could have been better, but the score could have also been
worse. Well, Ron got his just desserts
for sneaking off to watch TV during the game.
His car got dinged by two foul balls.
I admit that if I hadn’t met Chico here, I might have regretted taking
this day off, but that made it all worth it in retrospect.
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