Tuesday, November 8, 2022

MLB Postseason Report and Other Sports


Okay, let’s get real.  I haven’t been covering baseball this year and I barely watched the postseason.  Baseball is still my favorite sport.  I really enjoyed the El Paso Chihuahuas run to PCL Championship.  That took up a lot of my attention during the season.  The MLB team I was rooting for, the Padres, got shot in the foot twice by Fernando Tatis Jr.  They still made it to the NLCS by beating the Dodgers.  That was kind of awesome, but they never seemed like World Series winners.

 

On the other hand, who had the Philadelphia Phillies as the National League champs at any point of this season?  They fired their manager early on, lost Bryce Harper for significant time, and he couldn’t play the field when he returned.  Still, they caught fire when they made it into the postseason.  I was rooting for them.  I wanted Harper to have some redemption after he’d joined the team as a free agent, only to watch his previous team, the Washington Nationals, immediately win the World Series without him. 

 

The Astros were a good pick.  They had the best record in the American League and seemed to have the Yankees’ number all season.  However, they’d left a bad taste in people’s mouths after their 2017 World Series win when their sign-stealing scheme was exposed.  I was actually ambivalent.  Since then, the team has lost their GM, their manager, and two great players all from that winning team.  And they haven’t missed a beat. 

 

I wasn’t for the Astros, but I was okay with them winning.  This was another redemption arc of sorts.  If they’re still cheating, they’re doing a heck of a job of hiding it.  I’ll take it at face value that they’re just a really good baseball organization.  I appreciate that the Astros aren’t just trying to buy their championships.  (Ahem.  Dodgers and Yankees.  Okay, that’s not fair.  They’re smart organizations, too.) 

 

I felt good for Dusty Baker, the Astros’ manager.  Granted, he was something of a diversity-hire that was meant to deflect any criticism from him replacing AJ Hinch.  Yeah, Dusty had plenty of successful managerial experience, but he hadn’t won it all and seemed to be basically put out to pasture, as his age worked against him getting hired elsewhere.  Dusty didn’t cry upon winning, instead he was happy as a kid on Christmas.  That was good to see.

 

Okay, let’s get to the report card.  As usual, my pre-season report was a litany of prognostication failure.  I had some happy miscalculations.  The Orioles resurgence and run at the postseason, I think delighted everyone.  Keep an eye them next year.  Cleveland also surprised everyone, but screw them and their crappy new name.  The Mets and Braves did fight it out all season long for the NL East.  I got that right, but having the Blue Jays winning it all was just dumb.  I can’t wait to look like a fool next year.  In the meantime, I’ll probably do a Hot Stove recap at some point this winter.

 

NASCAR Championship

The day after the baseball season ended, NASCAR’s did as well.  I hate the Chase format.  It’s contrived and somewhat fixed, as drivers not in the championship are almost obliged to pull over for those who are.  Its set up to produce a dramatic end and then pretty much fails to do so.  It does make it easier on the broadcasters, who really only have to call four drivers’ activities on track.

 

Even if the format was good, the chosen venue for the event at Phoenix can only produce a boring race.  Homestead-Miami used to be in that spot before the Chase to basically coronate a champion, not to have an exciting race.  Phoenix seemed to be chosen because of climate.  It’s track unlikely to be rained or snowed out in November.  If you have to do this Chase thing, fine, run it at a road course or a Daytona for some real drama.  Imagine all four Chasers taken out in one wreck.  Oh, that’d be awesome and would finally end the format.

 

So, it was a lousy race, though the contenders were intriguing.  You had Chase Elliot, past champion and had won the most races this season.  There was Ross Chastain, who’d nipped out Denny Hamlin with a move that will live forever in NASCAR.  He’d also had a surprisingly great, if not very interesting, season.  Christopher Bell, who still looks 17, had won twice in the Chase in “walk-off” fashion to advance to this final round.  Clutch.  However, the day belonged to Joey Logano.  Him and his crew were perfect in the race, as he started on pole and led most of it.  After winning, Joey seemed lightyears ahead in maturity in his postrace interview compared to previous years.  I felt okay with him winning.  Given the format and the venue, he’d played it all correct.       

  

There were two major bummers right at the beginning.  Before the ceremonies, it was announced that Coy Gibbs had died.  He was Joe Gibbs’ son and Ty Gibbs’ father.  Ty had just won the Xfinity Championship the previous day.  (Ty is also the biggest villain in NASCAR.  I don’t know if winning changed that opinion.)  Coy was 50-ish and suddenly died in his sleep for no given reason.  That seems to be going around a lot. 

 

The other problem was that right before the race started, there was a commercial condemning anti-Semitism.  What’s wrong with that?  Ask Kayne West, Kyrie Irving, and Elon Musk and get back to me.  I was with my dad and friend Ron watching the race.  I bit my tongue, not wanting to go into some sort of tirade.  Granted, that would have been more interesting than race. 

 

College Football

After watching Tennessee beat Alabama in an epic game a couple of weeks ago, everyone was looking forward to the Volunteers playing Georgia.  Inexplicably, though both teams were undefeated, Georgia had been dropped from #1 to #3, with Tennessee taking over the top spot.  With the Bulldogs playing at home and coming off of being insulted by the press, it wasn’t even close as Georgia easily covered.  This is why college football can be hard to watch at times.  There can be upsets, but usually its blowouts.    

   

Aggie Volleyball

Oh, boy.  They lost on Thursday to Utah Valley.  Unlike their loss to SFA last week, the Aggies did play hard, but were overwhelmed.  Molly Johnson had a career game with 18 kills.  This loss had put them ninth in conference and out of the tournament.  Luckily, they were playing Seattle U next, who were winless in conference. 

 

Five sets later, the Aggies squeaked out a 15-13 win in the final set.  Oh, my God.  They’re worse than I thought.  Katie Birtcil seems to be hurt or every team has her well game-planned.  Once again, Molly stepped up with an awesome 37 kills in the match.  The Aggies’ last two matches for the regular season are at home and I’m set to see them.  They’re back in the tournament with the win and their next two opponents are beneath them in the standings.     



Meanwhile, I’d gotten this in the mail last week.  It’s pretty cool.  At least it allows me to remember better times for the Volleyball team.



A great iconic image of Johnny McCants.





Here’s a sweet pic of Cat Kelly.  

 


Aggie Soccer

Finally, I have some news I’m enthusiastic about.  Aggie Soccer won the WAC Championship on Sunday!  Ron and I were following along with the team’s Twitter feed during the race.  Check out this tournament stat line: the Aggies scored 3 goals in 3 games and gave up 0.  With three shutouts, goalie Makenna Gottschalk was the tournament MVP. 

 

Four other Aggies made the first team, including Tati Jerman.  Tati picked a great time to get her first two goals of the season, both obviously game-winners.  One was on a penalty kick.  Sofia Beerworth won the first tournament game with a goal in double overtime.  (The two OT’s were required by the tournament rules and there were no “golden goals” awarded, so all 20 minutes were played out.)  On to the NCAA tournament ladies!  Melika at work had talked to them last year (when she was on the Softball team) and they'd told her, this would be their year.      

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