Monday, July 27, 2020

Summer Sports Report 2020 Part 1

I can hardly believe everything that has happened since my last report, or just don’t want to believe.  The good news is that there are sports.  The bad news is that they are all ruined.  (Well, we’ll see about hockey next week.  There’s some momentary hope.)  I’ll make some quick comments on several sports and a longer commentary on baseball in Part 2.


NASCAR
The makings of disaster were properly foreshadowed, but didn’t fully blossom until after I’d written my last report.  I’m too disgusted to go over the Bubba Wallace saga.  The only result of this sorted tale is that he’s cleverly marketed himself into fame and riches because of his race.  He was never going to get there with his driving abilities.  The whole noose hoax seemed to have been staged to distract and quiet fans who were angry about the Confederate Flag ban.  (So only bring your Swastikas to the races.)    

NBC took over the broadcasting with an Indycar/Xfinity Series double header at the road course at Indy.  I was really impressed how quickly they got ready in between the races.  So far this year, the Xfinity Series has easily produced the best races.  The Cup Series race coverage was only an excuse to remind everyone of the cold going around every five minutes (when not in commercial, of course).     


NHRA
FOX went to covering drag racing.  Just like NBC, the only purpose of the broadcast was to remind everyone of the cold as they came out of every commercial break.  I was watching the races with my dad.  He was skeptical, but I was telling him about this larger-than-life John Force guy and this really hot chick, Leah Pritchett.

Well, John Force wasn’t there.  There was no explanation during the broadcast.  From looking into it on the Internet, he may have folded his team, but I’m not really sure.  This meant Brittany Force wasn’t racing either, since she races for him.  (I knew Ashley had retired.  I found out Courtney had just retired.)  Leah is now Leah Pruett, as she has gotten divorce.  (Now I just need to get to a race to ask her out.)  She was still gorgeous in a mask, but I feel like I over-sold her looks because of it. 

The second race that was broadcast for some reason didn’t feature the Pro-Stock or Pro-Stock Motorcycle races.  There was also a rain delay right before the Funny Car and Top Fuel finals.  They ended up not running them at all.  All they needed was 8 more seconds of racing to decide everything.


NM State Aggie Sports
Nick Gonzales was drafted in the top 10 and went to the Pirates.  This was good news for him and the program as their highest ever draftee.  The bad news is that Aggie Football’s money games were canceled and the governor is threatening to end their and UNM’s seasons altogether.  Someone should have AD Moccia on suicide watch.  Volleyball and Soccer’s seasons have been pushed back a month by the WAC.


NFL
What a proud moment.  The NFL, via corporate cronies, has finally forced the Redskins to change their name to TBD.  They got rid of a logo designed by a Native American that featured the image of a Native American.  Of course the term, “Redskin,” had fallen out of usage long ago as a racial insult.  If only there had been some popular Native American rap stars using the word a hundred times in every song to have brought the word back into common usage. 

In slightly related reservation news, I read a newspaper story that the New Mexico Lieutenant Governor wants the Chief Wahoo logo taken off of a high school stadium named after him.  (The team is called the Indians.  MLB allows their names and logos to be used by high school and lower level kids teams.)  A girl at the high school has started a petition to have the Lt. Governor’s name taken off the stadium if this this happens.    


MotoGP
I’ve watched and enjoyed the motorcycle races over the last two weekends, but was doing something else and had the sound off both times, so I can’t really comment on the races.  Several times, I was the horrifying sight of a rider crashing and going into the gravel.  Each time, the safety crew would run out past the rider to go check on the bike.  The riders certainly know what the sport’s priorities are.     


NWSL (Women’s Professional Soccer/PLL (Premier Lacrosse League)
The first team sport to restart playing was Women’s Soccer a few weeks ago for a tournament.  I did tune in for their first game and their championship game.  What I was immediately greeted with both times was a bunch of white girls wearing Black Lives Matter t-shirts out warming up on the field.  Next, they brought out a live Anthem singer as both teams took a knee.  I heard one player in another game got in trouble for standing.  She couldn’t apologize fast enough after getting Twitter raped.

After watching the motorcycle race today, I left it on to watch Lacrosse.  This would be the outdoor professional lacrosse league, the PLL, not to the confused with the indoor professional lacrosse league, the NLL.  The TV coverage started by showing a bunch of white guys wearing Black Lives Matter t-shirts.  They were exactly the same as the Women’s Soccer shirts, so they must get them from the same company.  They also had BLM patches on their uniforms.  One of the teams then made a circle and took a knee like they were praying to black people.  (The other team didn’t, so the cameras just showed the praying team.)  They didn’t show the Anthem so I don’t know what the teams did there. 

I didn’t actually watch much of either sport and their games.  Apparently, they didn’t want my kind (an American) watching anyway.  The soccer was quite disappointing in that nearly all of the World Cup-winning US team didn’t appear to be playing.  I was kind of hoping to see Rose Lavelle again, maybe Christen Press.  (Alex Morgan is, I think, still on maternity leave.)  Julie Ertz and Alyssa Naeher were there playing in championship.     
 

WWE
Still the most entertaining sport so far this year.  They haven’t disappointed me a bit.  

Baseball will be covered in Part 2.

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