Thursday, July 8, 2021

Midsummer Sports Report 2021 Part 2


Part 1

6-12-21  

Saturday night and there’s a race on.  Unfortunately, it’s not NASCAR.  They’ve been on the back of a milk carton for the last couple of months on FOX.  This was the debut of the SRX Racing series on CBS.  It’s sort of like the old IROC series, where a bunch of past champions from various series raced against each other in identical cars.  This series is planning on running on short tracks for the next six weeks. 

 

There was a full house for the inaugural race featuring champs such as Helio Castroneves, Tony Stewart, Tony Kanaan, and Bill ElliotGreg Biffle and Marco Andretti were there, along with some other drivers I didn’t know or remember when I started writing this.  If these guys were giving autographs, I can easily see a bunch of people showing up for the race. 

 

The broadcast crew seemed to mostly be ESPN’s old crew.  (CBS is rumored to be going after NASCAR coverage at some point.)  Alan Bestwick called the race.  He looked damn happy to be back in front of a microphone.  Lindsey Czarniak, looking very hot, was the host.  The pit reporters were familiar (and I’ve forgotten who they were, wait, Brad Daughtery was one).  Danica Patrick was the effusive color commentator.  We were all asking the same question: Why wasn’t she racing?

 

Admittedly, I don’t have much to say about the race.  I was flipping back-and-forth with FOX’s MLB game, and I was listening to the Chihuahuas on the radio.  There was an interesting play at the plate during that game.  The throw bounced in the dirt and hit the umpire on the nose.  He had to get treated and have the blood cleaned up before the game could continue. 

 

Back at the race, Danica told a story about having to race at the Eldora dirt track, which is coming up on the schedule.  She felt she had to do it because her boss, Tony Stewart, owns the track and invited her.  She didn’t want to since she’d never been on dirt before.  She admitted that she didn’t practice beforehand just to have an excuse for doing badly, which was what happened.

 

The winner of the race was the local ringer.  They’d left a spot in the grid just for a local.  He got out of his car afterward and fell on his rear.  The guy said he was okay with looking like a dummy if he could promote the track.  I’d have to think this would be a great career accomplishment for him given the field.  I’ll keep tuning in when I can for this series.   

  

6-15-21

I’ve been under limited Internet access at work this work.  It’s really sucked.  I could still listen to Chihuahuas games.  I found Tim’s commentary a bit more compelling than the game.  He mentioned a score from Las Vegas from the previous night.  They scored 11 runs in one inning . . . and still lost the game 21-16 to Reno.  And here I thought that Chihuahuas loss on the fifth was terrible to sit through.  It could have been worse.

 

The OKC Dodgers won tonight’s game, but the pups at least split with the series with them.  Tim noted a Dodgers reliever was playing catch with some kids above the bullpen.  That’s sweet.  Their starter breezed through one inning in four pitches.  Tim was aghast.  He didn’t even have time to finish his commentary on MLB’s new rule against pitchers using foreign substances.  We go straight back to the future as the “spitball” (or “spider-tack” ball) is once again illegal.  Tim said it had been up to opposing managers to police this, but no one wanted their own pitchers busted for calling it out. 

 

Meanwhile on TV, the Giants were playing the D-Backs.  I’d caught the first inning when Arizona went out to a 4-run lead.  I’d had to skip out at that point to work, but left the game on and kept checking in.  The lead increased to 7-0, before the Giants started making a comeback. 



It was 8-5 when I wandered in in the bottom of the eighth and stopped to watch.  The Giants were up with two outs and the bases loaded.  Mike Yastrzemski battled at the plate until he got a down and in pitch right in his left-handed sweet spot.  The ball started hooking.  I immediately began to move down an imaginary first base line trying to wave it fair with my arms flailing.  It just cleared the pole and splashed into the drink of McCovey Cove.  Yaz was amazingly composed and barely cracked a smile as he crossed home plate.  The Giants won 9-8.   

 

6-18-21

After a two week road trip, the Chihuahuas returned home.  The crowd there sounded big and enthusiastic over the radio.  Unfortunately, they lost a lead late to Sugar Land and lost the game.  Tim was amazed by one play in the game that he’d never seen before.  There was a dropped third strike on a Skeeters batter.  He thought it was a ball and stood there.  The El Paso catcher was injured on the play.  The pitcher actually got the ball and tagged the batter for the out.

 

The parent club, the Padres, came home after losing three in a row to the Rockies.  (The Rockies?)  There were two free games today online which I watched (Cubs/Mets and Tigers/Angels), but I kept an eye on the Padres’ game with the Reds tonight.  They took a two-run lead into the ninth.  The Reds came back with four runs.  I turned on Statcast for the bottom just after Eric Hosmer hit a two-run homer to tie it and kept watching as Victor Caratini hit another two-run homer to win it.  The sweet part is that their stadium was finally at full capacity tonight.  The highlights looked like a World Series game with the fans going crazy.

 

6-19-21

Finally.  The Chihuahuas beat the Sugar Land Skeeters.  They it well, too, 15-2.  They’re now 1-7 against them.  A co-worker and her dad went to the game.  I’m sure she brought them the good luck they needed.  She’d been thrilled seeing a grand slam home run during the game.

 

6-20-21

I thought the highlight of tonight’s game between the Chihuahuas and the Skeeters was going to be Tim Hagerty’s in-booth guest.  For Father’s Day, Tim had brought on his little son.  It’s been so long, I’d forgotten that he usually brought on a kid guest for Sunday home games.  This lead to this exchange.  Tim: “You’re four years old.”  “I’m five.”  “You’re five?  When did that happen?”

 

As it turned out, a full inning of Sonny/Daddy time was not the most noteworthy event of the game.  The Skeeters started off the game scoring four runs before their first out.  This included two home runs.  Coincidentally, there was a ferocious gusting wind kicking up ahead of a . . . weather occurrence that resulted in no rain.  (We’ve been a little dry out here in the Southwest this year.)  It seemed like it was going to be one of those games where the pitchers run and hide.

 

I’ll cut more-or-less to the chase.  Sugar Land was up at one point 10-4.  In the bottom of the sixth, with the crowd all into it, the Chihuahuas closed it to one run, 13-12.  Unfortunately in the seventh, El Paso went through two pitchers as the Skeeters scored three more runs.  Position player, Matt Batten, came in to pitch.  A groan went through the crowd, including myself. 

 

Tim had to explain.  The Padres parent club had just called up a called up a couple of pitchers.  They’d sent a couple down, but they weren’t in town yet.  El Paso was out of available pitchers.  Batten has had quite a bit of experience pitching, unfortunately.  He induced a double play on an eephus pitch to end the inning and got a roar out of the crowd.  Events did not go well for his next two innings though.  The final was 24-15.  Yeah, forget all about yesterday’s blow out win. 

 

This was the most runs given up, the highest total score, and longest 9-inning game for the Chihuahuas ever (four+ hours).  I never got a final count on the number of home runs for the game.  (I think it was 11.)  It was after 10:15pm and Tim mentioned that there were kids out running the bases, as per the usual Sunday promotion.  

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