Memorial Day Weekend Sports Journal Part 4

Sunday, 5-26-2013 Continued

I discovered last week that 1380 KHEY, another El Paso sports radio station, was carrying Rangers games. I usually have trouble getting that station, so I’d never noticed. Apparently they are more committed to broadcasting their team than KROD is to the Dodgers. So, here I am listening to the Rangers play the Mariners before the NASCAR race. Profar has hit a home run in the 1st. So far, he’s done well since the team brought him up. I just wish that it hadn’t taken Ian Kinsler getting injured for that to happen. I’d rather they were both playing. On the other side, Iwakuma pitched a fairly impressive game at eight innings and two runs, but no decision.

Unfortunately, I’ve missed the pre-race at Charlotte. I say “unfortunately,” because I was looking forward to Michael Waltrip’s grid walk. No, really. It’s so hilariously awkward, it’s like performance art. It’s almost avant garde. You have to enjoy these precious few moments of entertainment in between constant commercial interruptions.

Back at the ballpark the game has gone into extra innings (which is why I missed the pre-race). In the 11th, AJ Pierzynski drove in Elvis Andrus to take the lead. In the bottom, Joe Nathan’s first pitch to Raul Ibanez goes straight over the fence to re-tie it. Remember what I was saying about KHEY’s commitment to the Rangers? Forget that. They just suddenly switched over to the Fox Sportstalk feed, without finishing the game!

I switch over to KROD and am truly surprised that ESPN’s Sunday Night baseball is on, instead of the NBA playoffs. Even I wouldn’t have scheduled that. The Braves and the Mets are playing, but I’m admittedly listening more for an update of the Rangers game. The Mets score one run in the 4th. That’s all the scoring I hear during the game. The signal cuts out a couple of innings later after sundown. I never get an update.

I finally have the race on and am watching (though the sound is off, so I can listen to the ballgame). We’re 100 laps in with about 15 or so cars a lap or more down. There was an extended red flag for a broken cable from one of Fox’s overhead cameras. I’m sure this has gone over well with NASCAR, Kyle Busch and Marcos Ambrose, who’s cars were damaged, and the injured fans. So Fox Sports NASCAR coverage isn’t just directly boring with all their commercials, they’re potentially deadly to spectators, who aren’t even watching TV.

Okay, I was watching Stargate SG-1 for two hours. Did I miss anything? OMG! The race is still going on and it’s not even close to over. Wait, am I getting some criticism here? In my defense, I saw two really good episodes of SG-1. What did I really miss in the race anyway? A bunch of commercials? A bunch of cautions? A lengthy red flag stop? The slow and steady attrition of the field?

Can you blame me for being a little apathetic at this point? Survivor NASCAR. The Endless Race. The Race That Would Not End. Is anybody still on the lead lap? The Ranger game cut off. The Braves-Mets game cut off. My sentences being cut off. All my plans in ruins. My weekend unraveled. My vain, foolish blogging my undoing.

Five and half hours later, Kevin Harvick brings it home, or should I say, survives best. Somebody had to win. 5-Hour Energy drink is shows up as a sponsor at the end. How appropriate. NASCAR should really consider changing the Memorial Day race to something like Martinsville, something a lot shorter with more action. Having the longest, and often most boring, race on the schedule following the glamour of Monaco and drama of Indy, just isn’t working.

I missed the Victory Lane celebration. There was a Mexican soccer league championship on another station. It’s raining and they’re doing penalty kicks. Actually it’s pretty dramatic. A goalie actually stops one of the kicks. On another, the player slipped as he was kicking. America’ wins it. Half the crowd goes crazy. The team is out on the field celebrating. The coach is ruining his suit in the rain, but doesn’t care. The engraver is out on the field, in the rain, putting Americas’ name on the trophy. It’s all ended in tears for Cruz Azul, literally. (I’m not going soft on soccer. It still sucks.)

Mets, 4-2 over the Braves. Mariners over the Rangers 4-3 (damn it). Thank you local news sports ticker. (And Whitney Burbank, just for being inspirationally beautiful, as my motivation has hit low ebb.)

Well, it’s been a long day. Time to . . . Hey, is that Buckaroo Banzai coming on? It won’t end until 1:00 am. Sigh. Let me get comfortable.

Continued.