Baseball Journal 5-6-13

It was a momentous weekend in sports. The gay NBA player, Jason Collins, won the MVP award and the league renamed itself the GayBA in his honor. LeBron James was inconsolable. It was almost like he’d won the award, but not unanimously and ESPN spent the day complaining about it. (The way the sports media covers MVP awards, you’d they came with a sash and a crown, as the recipient walks down a runway, waving and crying.)

In NASCAR, fans in the stands at Tallagdega, braved heavy rains and hail during a three and half hour delay to watch 50 laps of single file racing. Home viewers had it no better, as they were forced to endure three commercial breaks inside of 15 minutes when racing resumed. There was a high-degree of tension about the weather and on-coming darkness. The drivers had to turn on their headlights. (Ahem.) However, there was a second “Big One,” that wrecked a good deal of the field and David Ragan, against all odds (you were better off betting the longshot at the Kentucky Derby, where there was also lots of rain), won the race to stick it to all the dominating big teams. So, everyone went home happy.

In much less important sporting news, Fox has cancelled next week’s Saturday baseball game to instead broadcast European soccer. Here’s where I wish that I was just making a sarcastic joke. [Explicative Fox Sports!] Will I watch? Perhaps there’s something about this sport, where half the matches end in ties (many times, nil-nil), that I’ve been blind to. Perhaps I could watch and be inspired to write an amusing piece of satire about it. Perhaps I’ll wait to turn on the TV until the NASCAR Darlington race comes on later in the evening, and then write an amusing piece satire about that. Who cares?

Oh wait, I should mention some baseball, since that’s what it says in the heading. This weekend, Fox Sports treated us in the West region to our third Angel game of this young season. (And there’ll be another one after the soccer break.) I used to think their regional coverage was bad when they just rotated between four different western teams. Now it’s down to one! (Still better than their coverage strategy a couple of years ago where they showed the Yankees vs. the Red Sox every other week.) So, another game at the Big A-Hole to see Albert Pus-Hole and Angels lose (as Josh Hamilton continues to suck). Maybe I shouldn’t complain.

Yes, the Rangers also swept out the Red Sox. That was nice. The Dodgers are swept out by the Giants, twice by walk-off home runs. (Heh, heh, heh.) I only got to hear bits and pieces of any these games on the radio.

There was a decidedly Mexican flavor at Wrigley Field in Chicago for the ballgame on Cinco de Mayo Sunday. The Windy City became . . . well, still windy, but for this day we attribute it to flatulence from refried beans. Outside the ballpark, a Mariachi band played for the crowd. (The usual Dixieland jazz band was also there.) “La Bomba” was played during the Fan Cam segment. Out in the bleachers were several people were dressed in sombreros, big fake, mustaches, and colorful panchos. (DHS later picked up these people for sneaking into the game illegally.)

Okay! Time out! J, I know you’re upset about baseball being replaced by soccer this weekend, but stop taking it out on everybody!

It was a good-looking, happy crowd and bleachers were full, and by and large deserted by the 7th inning as the Cubs were clearly going down to defeat, 7-4 to Reds in the end. There were some highlights. Gary Sinise leading the crowd in a spirited rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” Shin Soo Choo taking a deflected flyball off his face and then having the trainer basically tell him to “walk it off.” And then Len Kasper mentioning Dave Stewart’s pitching stats and then casually dropping in how great he was with the Eurythmics. A couple of minutes later, the studio guys then played a snippet of “Sweet Dreams.” It was that kind of game. If you’re a Cubs fan, I’d get used to it for this season.