Baseball Journal: Bananas

 

6-3-26

LA Angel Jo Adell, who robbed three home runs in April, had a ball deflect off this head for a home run last night.    This game has a way of humbling you.

At the Chihuahuas game against the Space Cowboys, Cavan Biggio flied out to Will Wagner.    That’s Craig Biggio’s kid flying out to Billy Wagner’s kid.    While those two were teammates in Houston, Cavan is on the Cowboys, the Astros’ affiliate, while Will is on the Chihuahuas, though he was on Cowboys in a previous season.    While it was raining cats and dogs here in Las Cruces, apparently it wasn’t raining in El Paso.    Apart from some wind gusting in, there was no rain for the entire game.    Maybe that was too bad for the Chihuahuas as they lost, 15-8.

6-7-26

The big news this weekend (for me, at least) was the MLB debut of former Aggie, Sammy Natera, with the Angels.    I’d heard him pitch well for Salt Lake City against the Chihuahuas, so this was not unexpected.    From what I saw, his line was 2 innings, no runs, no hits, 1 walk, and 3 strikeouts.    He’s looking good and Aggie Baseball will need to add another plaque to their batting cage.

I tuned into the Angels versus Dodgers game on Sunday afternoon on a Mexican station.    Natera did not pitch, but it was still interesting.    The Angels had a 6-1 lead in the fifth.    The Dodgers came with 4 runs in the sixth, but the Halos came up with 6 runs in the seventh.    The stat line right afterward was amazing.    The bottom half of their order went 11 for 11 at that point in the game.    Angels win 13-5, as Dodger management vowed to purchase every good free agent at the trade deadline.

Before this game, I went for lunch with dad and his neighbor to Roni’s for their great mac and cheese.    The three best words in the English language are not, “I love you,” it’s “Chicken Bacon Ranch.”    It was great, but it was over $45 with me paying for just myself and dad.    No wonder the place was empty.   

We came back and watched some Banana Ball.    It was a first with the Party Animals headlining a game in an MLB stadium, not the famous Savannah Bananas.    The two games in Milwaukee still sold out.    The fans there were tremendous.    They even caught 4 foul balls for outs.    (It’s so entertaining, I can almost see this rule being implemented in Major League Baseball, but how do you score that?    FF10?)

Elsewhere, the Rangers lost 6-0 on Saturday to the INDIANS!    However, the Rangers came back Sunday with a 10-0 win.    In Triple-A, the Chihuahuas finally broke a 6-game home losing streak on Saturday.    I think they hit a low-point on Friday night with the bases loaded and no outs in the eighth, but the Space Cowboys’ reliever struck out the side.

6-11-26

It was a two-and-a-half hour rain delay with no rain.  So much for listening to the Rangers and the Royals’ baseball game this afternoon before work.  Never trust a Kansas City weather forecaster.  Rain Delay Theater was somewhat more relaxing than what I would have been listening to, I guess.

Meanwhile, the A’s were playing for a week in their future home city of Las Vegas at their Triple-A ballpark.    Early in the week, the A’s and the Brewers stunned the baseball world with a combined 11-home run barrage.    I don’t think Las Vegas Ballpark is known for being that hitter-friendly.    Maybe the wind was blowing out?   

In the evening, the Chihuahuas were playing Round Rock.   Early in the game, Nick Prado, who had changed dugouts after a trade during the series, hit a Chihuahua home run into the corner.    Broadcaster Tim Hagerty couldn’t see it, because the press box only had an occluded view to that corner.  

The pups got an amazing tenth inning win.    Up a run, the Express had the tying and winning runs on at the corners with one out.  The runner at first attempted to steal second.    The pitcher had already disengaged twice, but still threw to first and picked off the runner.    The runner at third tried to score and was thrown out at the plate to end the game, 7-6.    If the pick off hadn’t worked that would have balked in the tying run.   

6-14-26

This Sunday there was an unexpected ABC broadcast of the Cubs versus Giants.  I thought they’d abandoned MLB TV broadcasts.  It was a beautiful day in San Francisco and a full house.    Giants’ pitcher Logan Webb was pitching very well during the game.    In the eighth, a Cubs’ run came in via an error with two outs.  The manager went out to get Webb.    After a 5-second conversation, Webb stayed in.   The next pitch was a blast out to right field, a sure double.    Jun-hoo Lee ran it down, reached out and caught it, and ran right into the foul pole.    He held on.    Webb waited for him by the dugout to thank him, as the crowd chanted, “Jun-hoo!”    Giants win, 5-1.

I’d watched the game over at dad’s apartment.    I’d called him earlier about getting a pizza.    While I was out paying for the pizza, he called and asked about going out for a pizza with his neighbor, who had just invited him.    I told him to go ahead go, but dad chose me and told me bring the pizza I’d bought.    “She probably just wanted somebody to pay for the meal anyway,” he said.    I sure wasn’t going to pay for two pizzas.

   

A storm went through while I tried to listen to the Chihuahuas at Round Rock.  It was probably a good thing the pups were on the road.    The storm moved steadily from here to El Paso.    I think it was a good game.    I couldn’t hardly tell, because weather alerts were going off constantly on the radio.    In the eighth, the Chihuahuas took the lead on a bases loaded walk.    In the ninth, the pups blew the save and then lost it on a bases loaded walk to rehabbing Ranger, Josh Smith, who successfully challenged the final pitch, 5-4 Round Rock.

NBC was showing the Rangers at the Red Sox, but the story was the crowd.    A large contingent of Scotsmen were there for the World Cup.    They were celebrating Scotland winning their soccer match.    Some were in kilts.    Many were wearing a Scotish dark blue Red Sox shirt.    They’d had a parade before the game complete with bagpipes.    The Scots were standing, chanting, and singing for the whole game.    They sang all of Sweet Caroline, even when the PA stopped playing it.    They got louder as the game went on.   

However, Rangers would win it 6-4.    The Red Sox did make a pretty good comeback in the game to make it interesting.    Ranger Wyatt Langford hit a first pitch homer into the Green Monster Seats where it was retrieved by a group of Ranger fans.    Ranger Kyle Higashioka later hit a 3-run homer into the Monster seats that was retrieved by a happy kid in a Scotland jersey.

The Stanley Cup playoffs Game Six was on as well at the same time.    Congrats to the Carolina Hurricanes for their victory over the Vegas Golden Knights.    I only watched the third period with everything else on.    I was just never able to get into hockey this season.

6-18-26

You know your team is swooning when the regular announcers don’t even show up for the game.    The Rangers got swept by the Twins.    Today’s outcome was 9-3.    Eric Nadel, who isn’t doing home games, and Matt Hicks weren’t available for the broadcast.    At least it wasn’t totally unfamiliar with Jared Sandler there.    He was working with another guy I hadn’t heard before, whose name I didn’t get as usual.    He had a good voice and did a good job on a lousy game.                

6-19-25

I was home on a Friday night for the Juneteenth holiday.    Dad thankfully reminded me that the Rockies were playing on TV.    They were playing the Pirates and I found myself kind of rooting for both teams.    Aggie star, Nick Gonzales, was hitting second in the lineup for the Bucs.    He’s batting .293 and is now playing third, which I never saw him do at NMSU.    The Rockies announcers did give a shoutout to New Mexico State.

The Chihuahuas and the Rangers were playing on the radio at the same time.    I had to pick one and the Chihuahuas had better reception.    (Actually, it was okay reception versus no reception.)    I did get an update on the Ranger game anyway.    Broadcaster Tim Hagerty reported the Padres’ Ty France had hit a grand slam off Jacob deGrom and hit another homer in his next at bat.    The Rangers still won, 9-7.    I missed a good game there.

Back in Denver, Rockies pitcher, Kyle Freeland, got his 1,000 career strikeout in the seventh.    Some of the crowd were aware of it before the announcement and were cheering him on.   Freeland waved at the crowd and struckout the next batter to end the inning.    He put down 15 down in a row with 8 strikeouts.    Unfortunately in the eighth, he gave up a run and was taken out.    Pirate Bryan Reynolds, a late scratch in the lineup, came in to pinch hit, and on the first pitch, drove in the tying run to make it, 2-2.    Nick then tripled in the go-ahead run.

In the bottom of the eighth with two outs, Rockies pinch hitter, Broxton Fulford, doubled in two runs to give the Rox back the lead, 4-3.    In the top of the ninth, the Pirates loaded the bases with no outs.    Reliever Antonio Senzatela got a strikeout and a double play to end the game, 4-3 Rockies.    What a game!    Let’s hear it for the day off.

It was also a sub two-and-a-half hour game.    I turned the Chihuahuas’ game back on. When the sun went down, the reception had gotten too bad to listen to.  I’d thought it was a close game when I left.    Imagine my shock that it was 14-1 pups over the Aces after a 7-run eighth.   The Aces even sent in a position player to pitch for part of that eighth inning.  The Chihuahuas have strangely been playing better since the Padres called up several of their best players.

Oddly I was getting better reception out of Albuquerque for an Isotopes’ game that was still going on late.    They had a 9-3 win over Sugar Land.    They’re going to finish the first half over .500, which is an accomplishment for them.

6-20-26

The next night, nearly the same situation.    Paul Skenes started for the Pirates against the Rockies.   I didn’t get to hear that part of the game.    I couldn’t get KOA until the sun went down.    I missed the Rockies’ Jake McCarthy hitting a lead off inside-the-park home run in the first.    It was an epic 13-second dash around the basepads.

When I was listening, it was the ninth with the Rockies up, 2-1.    However, the Pirates had the bases loaded and two outs.    On a slow roller to third, the fielder had no play on it, but he waved that he was interfered with by the runner coming from second.  I hear alternating accounts that the runner had brushed the fielder or the ball.    The umps conferenced and agreed that interference had happened and that was the end of the game.    Rockies win, 2-1.    Lucky wins still count.    Did I hear the postgame correctly? This was the first time since last year that the Rockies had won two in a row?    Also, they had 40k fans there.    They’re over a million in attendance already this year?    For this team?

NASCAR was racing in San Diego at the naval base there.    There were issues on the temporary street course. The Truck Series only had 4 undamaged vehicles by the end of the race.    The O’Reilly Series race, which I tried to watch, had an hour delay at the beginning of the race as a manhole cover came up and damaged a car.    They had to check all of the manhole covers at that point.    Then there was another hour delay with a 19-car wreck at the start of Stage 3. 

I thought the late finish would mean they’d join the following Banana Ball game in progress or not at all, but they waited two hours to start the game.    This meant that the fans were there after midnight in Nashville to watch the Party Animals versus the Texas Tailgators.    At least they got a good game. 

In the ninth, a fan might have caught a ball for the second out of the inning, but he was on the concourse where there are no cameras.    The players and fans complained.    The fan even came out on field with the ball, but it was disallowed.    After a 14-pitch battle, which included another near foul out to a fan, the batter ended up hitting a 3-run homer for the Tailgators to put them in the lead.    In the bottom, there was a near fight between the teams after a play at the plate.    The Party Animals did come back and win it in the bottom of the inning, though.

Comics Review: Captain America Epic Collection—Arena of Death

I’ve had an interesting relationship with Captain America in the comics.    I bought a commemorative magazine a few years ago that showed the Captain as something of a propaganda tool depending on who was handling him (9-17-21).  I later bought a retrospective book featuring 40’s and 60’s Captain America comics (8-29-22).  When brought into the modern era, he was a bit of a lonely, melancholic warrior, as he was a man out of his natural time.    An issue of Back Issue (1-17-25) featured a couple of articles on Captain America in the 80’s, where Steve Rogers settled down a bit into living a normal life when not in action and also researching his own past.   

Most of the trade paperback offerings at Zia Comics are modern offerings like the DC’s Absolute line, Invincible, and the Walking Dead.    I zoom in on any trades featuring classic reprints.    There were a couple of Captain America Epic Collection books that looked interesting that were from the 90’s.    I was thinking, If there’s an era where Captain America would be fun, it’d be the 90’s.    I picked one up.

I described part of this book to a co-worker later.    “Captain America and Black Panther are in the Savage Land, a dinosaur-filled jungle preserve in Antarctica, fighting a giant robot.”    I also described Captain America stopping a scheme by someone working for the Red Skull by firing a bazooka at a transmitter tower and blowing it up.    The female co-worker giggled in delight.   

If that paragraph didn’t sell you on this book, I don’t know what will.    Comics in the 90’s are mostly known for big guns and small pouches.    That’s not exactly Cap’s motif, but the book still fits into the era well.    There’s plenty of action, but to my surprise, there are some well-written stories, even the ones that are kind of silly at first glance.    It made me happy that I not only got what I was looking for, but more.     

        

Scarecrow and the World Trade Center in the background

Admittedly, the volume doesn’t start off on good footing.    There’s a team-up with Ghost Rider that’s as strained a pairing as you would imagine, as they fight a Captain America villain that’s gone supernatural in abilities, the Scarecrow.    Still, one of Cap’s best abilities is being able to work with anybody in an allied cause.   

This was some sort of stand-alone special, kind of like the original Marvel graphic novels of the 80’s.    It’s an odd interlude, especially when Batman shows up at the end with his lawyers claiming copyright infringement on one of his villains.    (The Scarecrow in this even has about the same powers as the DC one.)    This story probably features the best art in the volume.    That’s not saying much.    You’re not going to be overly impressed with the art in this.    It’s functional and gets the storytelling job done, but no more.                         

The book outright trips next with an annual that ties into a company-wide storyline, Citizen Kang.    That doesn’t mean it has to be bad, but this one really is.    Captain America somehow goes backward in time and meets Gilgamesh from the Eternals.    They’re fighting the rock men from Saturn that Thor faced in his origin story (9-26-19).  That’s several deep cuts in the lore.    Nothing really happens and the story is continued in another annual, where there’s hopefully more action.

There’s also a Falcon story where he’s doing youth outreach in the ‘Hood and fighting the Taskmaster.    (Rolls eyes.)    There’s an origin story of Kang, technical details of Cap’s plane and shield, and Cap’s top 10 villains.    It’s a grab bag where you come away with nothing.

Still, from reading blurb on the back of the book, I was looking forward for things to come and was rewarded.    Cap is going out with a reformed super-villain, Diamondback, who wants to track down her former teammate, Snapdragon.    Nick Fury finds the woman for them.    She’s on AIM’s island where they’re holding a trade show for super villains.    Sounds like a peach of a vacation spot for Cap and his girlfriend.

With Falcon in tow, they’re all disguised as villains they know are currently out of action.    AIM insists on disarming all the guests when they arrive, which works out well for the group later.    Cap’s old foe, Batroc, confronts him while he’s dressed as Crossbones, who owes Batroc a bet on a fight.    Specifically, Cap has to fight five unarmed opponents in an arena filled with supervillains.    Of course, Cap takes him up on it.    He can’t blow his cover and surely this won’t be any big deal.    (Bonus points if you can name all of the villains in the picture.    I can only name a couple.)

Of course you can this coming.    Cap’s cover gets blown and he has to fight everybody!    Thank goodness, he brought backup.    Errr . . . Falcon is off fighting Shang-Chi (?), who just showed up on the island chasing his own lead.    Meanwhile, Diamondback has found Snapdragon and strangles and drowns her.     

  

Captain America is doing fine.    Don’t worry.   

Meanwhile, Batroc is sitting back watching the show with some popcorn.    Thankfully, at least Falcon and Shang-Chi come to help Cap.    The group finally reunites to get past AIM’s defenses and escape.    Whew!

Meanwhile in the Savage Land, Ka-Zar has been captured by AIM agents there and brought to face the Saur-Lords.    By coincidence, Black Panther, whom Captain America and his group were visiting, is headed there, because somebody in the Savage Land is undercutting Wakanda’s monopoly on Vibranium.    Cap does question the suppression of free trade aspect of this investigation, but goes along with the mission anyway.   

Multiple fight scenes later, Ka-Zar has been mind-controlled and Cap has teamed up with Ka-Zar’s saber-toothed kitty, Zabu.    Black Panther meets a native girl, who is then captured by one of the Saur-Lords.    Diamondback is having guilty flashbacks about killing Snapdragon.    Falcon is captured and seemingly mind-controlled as well, and leads the group into an ambush.    Reverse Uno!    He’s not mind-controlled and everybody’s ready for a fight.   

 

The group takes out the Saur-Lords, but then the giant robot shows up!    Pshaw.    Like this is a challenge.    Okay, it’s a challenge without Thor there with just a bunch meta-human brawlers, but don’t underestimate their resourcefulness.       

The next issue is the real challenge . . . for the readers, because it features D-Man.    Ah, this actually isn’t the cover for the issue in the trade, but it may as well be.    Not hard to figure out why this character didn’t catch on.

At least we get something better looking next, as Cap teams up with Silver Sable and her Wild Pack.    Roll Call: Battle Star! umm. . . Four other people that aren’t named in this issue as far as I could tell.    They’re after Viper, who is working for the Red Skull.   

He double crosses her because her scheme to destroy the US is too much like his scheme from back in the 80’s.    (I know this, because I had that issue, #263.)    As shown at the top, Cap ruins Viper’s plan with a bazooka.       

Here’s more Silver Sable.

It’s another annual next.    Oh, boy.    Cap meets a new Puerto Rican hero, Bantam.    He’s a boxer, whose costume has Rooster stylings and he wears boxing gloves in combat.    I’m going to subvert your expectations here.    It’s actually pretty well written.    Yes, it’s ridiculous-looking, but it sort of reminds me of something like an episode of Miami Vice, but with drugs making people super-powered, instead just high.    I thought I might groan to death when I previewed this part of the book, but I really was pleasantly surprised.   

Then I was really dreading the final four issues in the book.    Captain American isn’t even them!    It’s John Walker, who was Captain America at one point (plenty of guys on that list), and basically has his powers and a shield.    Walker would be like Rogers, if no one respected him and he was kind of a jerk.    Even without the similar costumes, you can easily tell these guys apart.    He’s not quite as bad as the Captain America from The Ultimates, at least.   

This is a good thing, actually.    It’s a different take on a patriotic superhero.    Captain America is probably the better version, but he’s also the one most likely to quit if he doesn’t like the politics involved.    Walker has his moments of self-reflection and doubt, but he doesn’t give up on the mission.   

The series is the conclusion to the Scourge storyline that worked through various Marvel titles for a few years.    Scourge was a vigilante that killed criminals.    This story played out kind of like a Reacher movie, but with superpowers.    The ending was maybe a little rushed and not quite the big-budget finale that it seemed to be leading up to, but darned if it wasn’t entertaining.    I’m not sure why it was in this book, but where else were they going to put it and it was too good to bury forever.         

Yep, this was how best to do Captain America.    I did like those Jim Steranko issues from the 60’s and it’s okay that the character has some angst about his past, but Captain America should mostly be kicking ass.    Another thing is that Cap seems to work best with a group or a partner.    His best qualities come out in comparison to others.    Who wouldn’t want Captain America leading a mission to an island full of supervillains?   

Yes, this was mostly a fun one.    I’d recommend this for a good time.

Comics Review: The Rocketeer--Thrills, Spills, and Chills

The Rocketeer is my third favorite Disney film. (Tron and Tron: Legacy are #1 and #2, respectively. No, their animated films don’t rate with me, nor their Star Wars. I do like several of their MCU films.) I am also a big fan Dave Stevens’ artwork. I got an issue of Back Issue featuring an interview (1-20-25) and I saw a documentary about him. I’ve also bought a recent Rocketeer comic (5-24-22), though the series was not done by Stevens. Shamefully, I did not own any of Stevens’ original comics. I’d never read them.

I actually remember the first time I saw Stevens’ artwork. I was at the comic book store in El Paso and the owner, Mickey, was doing a commissioned drawing of this picture of Betty. It was somewhat mesmerizing. Mickey was a good artist and doing a really good copy of it, as well. He might have mentioned what he was drawing, but I didn’t have any opportunity to buy the comic at the time, if he even had a copy there.

Stevens passed away in 2008, too young, at 53. The Rocketeer was almost the least of his art projects, but easily what he was best known for. (His commercial artwork was very impressive.) He only did two Rocketeer stories, which were serialized in Pacific Presents and at some other independent publishers. Stevens had plenty more ideas, but comic book work just didn’t pay as well as commercial work. Also, he didn’t work that fast, especially as a perfectionist. This panel of Butch the bulldog is famous for holding up an entire issue for weeks as he wasn’t satisfied with the dog’s paw.

Stevens’ Rocketeer has been reprinted multiple times. I could scarcely believe running into this IDW (the current Rocketeer publisher) reprinting on shelves at Barnes & Noble. Was it a mirage? I didn’t argue. I just grabbed it and ran to the register. It is in the compact format with slick pages. On some level, I sort of wished for a full-size version or even a gallery edition (like the Warlock book I bought later). About a third of this 360+ page book is Stevens’ original work and the rest features short stories by an all-star group of creators. For $14 bucks, this was an absolute steal.

The Rocketeer was a work of personal passion for Stevens. He loved Art Deco and the 30’s/40’s era. Our hero, Cliff Secord, is essentially a self-portrait. Peevy is his animator friend, Doug Wildey. Betty is 50’s pinup queen, Bettie Page. Dave’s relationship with Bettie is a whole another story. You can look that up yourself.

If you’ve watched the movie, you’ll find elements of it in the comics, but they do not correspond. Stevens, working on a serialized story, wasn’t just making it up as he went along with each chapter; he was doing it page-by-page. It’s amazing that it’s coherent at all. When Disney made the movie, the first thing the screenwriters had to do was create an actual villain and a plot.

In the first story, it’s basically Cliff finding the jetpack, being reluctant to give it up, and being chased by the jetpack’s owners. Cliff’s overriding motivation in this is being jealous about his girlfriend, Betty, who gets mixed up in the affair.

This leads into the second story, as Cliff follows Betty to New York, trying to keep her from leaving the country. Cliff’s very dark backstory from his time in the circus comes up while there. He teams up with a character reminiscent of the Shadow (or a combination some other pulp characters) and he stops a murder. Betty does return home to be with Cliff.

I’m kind of glossing over the story, and its fine, but the reason to buy this, or any other Rocketeer reprint, is for the artwork. It’s just stunning. The rest of the volume could have been crap and it would have still been worth it.

It’s not crap. It’s mostly 8-page stories by some the best comic book writers and artists in the industry. The Rocketeer and Dave Stevens had a lot of admirers. There’s a bunch of stories in here and they vary widely in styles, but still keep the setting and dynamic between Cliff and Betty.

The Mike Allred story is a direct sequel to Stevens’ work, but the stories are all episodic. Keeping with the original, there’s not a coherent timeline for Cliff’s adventures, other than WWII happens and the Rocketeer is involved. In a couple of stories, it’s established how he works for the government and he fights in both theaters of the war.

You might wish for more than the peek that these stories give you. I’m sure some of the creators would have liked to have done more. The series editing seemed to be really light in terms of the stories given who was involved in creating them. (A couple of anachronisms slipped in. Dave was a stickler for being authentic in his stories.) The new issue that I bought a couple of years ago, Rocketeer: The Great Race, would give creators more space to work.

It’s hard to pick a favorite among the short stories. There’s a few clunkers. Given the pulp nature of most of them, they’re a bit exhausting to read, so pace yourself. Certainly, Bill Sienkiewicz gets the prize for the oddest, as he illustrates a cartoon spoof of the Rocketeer. Between the stories are pinups by Stevens and others, including Alex Ross paintings.

Okay, this one is a classic. Perhaps the best compliment I can pay is that this trade leaves you wanting more. A lot more.