4-28-18
While waiting to go to Aggie Softball I tuned into the Cubs
versus the Brewers on FOX. No, wait.
I’m sorry. It was on a Mexican
station. Fox was showing a NASCAR Xfinity race that was called by
a bunch of Cup drivers. Well, it’s a
step up from NFL Draft crap and German league soccer. It was a cold, windy day in Chicago, but
under a bright, sunny sky. These
conditions made for an adventurous afternoon in terms of fly balls. While I was watching, I saw a fly ball drop
in between three Brewer fielders, once in the outfield and once in the
infield.
Lorenzo Cain is definitely not a bad fielder; it
was just very trying conditions out there.
He made a great basket catch later.
Ryan Braun at first also made
an overhand catch on a foul. Wow, Kyle Schwarber looked nearly
unrecognizably thinner when he came up to bat.
I think he’s playing better. I
didn’t see the end of the game, but the Cubs
won 3-0.
After I got back home after the
softball, I caught up with the Chihuahuas
playing the Bees. As if I didn’t feel bad enough about missing
last night’s game, I found out that it had been a home run fest for both
teams. This game was a lot tighter. It was 1-0 pups in the sixth. The Bees tied it in the top. The Chihuahuas scored one in the bottom, but
the bees matched it in the seventh.
Finally in the eighth, Diego
Goris put the pups up for good with a three-run homer. The final was 7-2 Chihuahuas with a light rain falling. There was a huge crowd there for fireworks,
which went off without any trouble.
I watched the local TV sports
news hoping to see something about the softball game. (That didn’t happen until Sunday night.) I found out I missed a great boxing match broadcast nationally from
El Paso. Local fighter, Abie Han was in an undercard fight. His sister Jennifer Han, also a boxer, was there. Boy, she’s good-looking, especially for
someone who gets hit in the face for a living.
Abie was overmatched, but really gave it everything. At one point, both boxers were on the canvas
MMA wrestling. He apologized after the
match for losing. The sportscaster came
on and said, “There was no need to apologize, Abie. That was one of the best fights I’ve ever
seen.” Surprisingly, my boxing expert
friend at work (well, actually the expert is his girlfriend) was watching, but
didn’t know about this match, so it might not have been shown since it was an
undercard.
4-29-18
I spent most of Sunday trying
to stay awake. Even last night after
Aggie Softball, I was a bit knocked out.
I listened to four games over the radio, but really wasn’t entirely into
any of them. The most interesting event
I saw on TV was a polo match. If I’d gotten the station number right and
tuned in at the beginning, I’d probably have written a separate piece about
it. What I saw was of it was still quite
a spectacle. It was fast and
dangerous. (One of the riders got
bloodied taking a mallet to the head.)
The crowd was glamorous like a Kentucky
Derby, even more upscale. Even the
commercials were impressive.
The Rangers played the Blue
Jays in the morning. It was over
pretty quick (for an American League game) with a 7-2 Jays win. It didn’t seem
like the Rangers’ day, so I switched over to another game before the end. I tuned back and heard the broadcasters’
roundtable. The highlight clip was Matt Hicks saying, “I noticed an extra
police presence in the Rangers’ dugout looking for that stolen out.” The other guys groaned. Matt apologized. Eric
Nadel said that was the worst game clip ever.
The Aggies and Chihuahuas
started their games at the same time in the afternoon. I decided to go with the Aggies mostly. They were in Phoenix playing Grand Canyon University. The Lopes got two runs in the first. Mason
Fishback hit a homer in the second.
A huge cheer went up from the crowd.
Adam Young, broadcasting,
thought that the crowd was about 50/50 for each team. I think I could hear Marcus Still’s dad cheering.
Adam sounded pretty upbeat
during the game. Maybe it was the
pleasant weather there. In the bottom of
the second, a batter’s interference call was part of an inning-ending double
play. Even hearing it explained twice, I
still didn’t entirely get what happened.
I liked some of the Lopes’ walk up music. One of them used Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.
By the fourth, it was 3-1 GCU. Tristen Carranza got into an argument
with the ump over balls and strikes.
Adam had a disagreement with the official scorer over not giving Nick Gonzales an error on a play.
I definitely figured out it
wasn’t the Aggies’ day in the fifth, when Alex
Pinedo threw the first pitch of an intentional walk to the backstop,
allowing a runner at third to score. Joey Ortiz at short did make a great
play behind the mound lying on his stomach to get the final out of the inning,
but it was 5-1 GCU at that point. Brock Whittlesey came in for the sixth
with two on, but gave up a double to make it 7-1. Caleb
Henderson got a two-run homer in the ninth, but it was an 8-4 loss to GCU.
It wasn’t the Chihuahuas’ day
either. Allen Craig was back in the lineup and hit a homer, but the Bees
got up a good lead during the game. In
the ninth, the pups made a comeback, but the bases were left loaded with the
final out. 6-4 Bees was the final.
The ESPN Radio Sunday night game was the Yankees versus the Angels. I don’t like either team, but listened
anyway. They interviewed Albert Pujols during the pregame. Well, I admit, he said all the right things
when asked about hitting, and Mike Trout,
and Shohei Ohtani, and I think he
meant them. Hmm, still haven’t changed
my mind about him yet. The Yankees won 2-1 off a two-run homer by Gary Sanchez. It was also a series sweep for the
pinstripes.
4-30-18
Strangely,
for what is usually my busiest night (month end), I was able to listen to a
couple of games, albeit in an unsatisfying fashion. I joined the Chihuahuas and Aces in
progress with the Aces up 4-0. This is Cody Decker’s current team, so Tim Hagerty chatted about him a
bit. By the third, it was 6-0 after a
home run by Anthony Recker, who I
remember watching playing for the Cubs.
At
this point, I switched over to the MLB.TV
free game between the Giants and the
Padres. Once again, the video was blacked out. We do not get Padres’ games here locally. I don’t understand this. As much as I would actually like to subscribe
to the website, if my circumstances were a bit different, how can I, if they’re
blocking video of at least five different teams. Two of those teams are my favorites and
neither are broadcast on local television.
And I don’t think they stream the playoffs either.
However,
in this case, I was okay with losing the TV, since they put up the Giants’
radio call with the “butterscotch” tones of Jon Miller doing the play-by-play.
It’s like having your favorite grandpa telling you about the game. He even makes the sponsorship spots sound
poetic. The game was almost irrelevant,
since I’d be willing to listen to Miller tell me about player contract
negotiations in excruciating detail and probably enjoy it, but the game started
off well for the Giants. Andrew McCuthen tripled in a run in the
first with Buster Posey bringing him
in with a double. It was 3-0 Giants
after one.
I
glanced back at the Chihuahuas score and, of course, they’d scored 6 runs in
the fifth to tie it. I paused the Giants
and put the pups back on. I was just in
time to hear the Aces retake the lead 7-6, but they left the bases loaded with
Recker up next. By the eighth, it was
8-6 Aces. The Chihuahuas had their chances in that inning with two on. In the ninth, they’d loaded the bases via
three walks with two out. The Reno coach
went out and made a mound visit. The
team was apparently low on pitchers for this series and had to extend everyone. It was a good talk. The pitcher struck out the final El Paso
batter for an 8-6 Aces’ win.
I went
back to the Giants game and un-paused it.
Surprisingly, it picked up where I left off. I think I’m used to Twitch pausing, where it
resumes with the live feed.
Unfortunately, when I went to pause the stream again later, I saw the
score and thought the game was over with a Padres’ win and started watching
something else that was live (namely DizzyKitten on Twitch doing ASMR). The game was not actually over. That wasn’t the final score. When I went back to it, I saw that the Giants had scored three in the ninth
off Brad Hand to win it 6-5. It was about time for me to leave work, so I
skipped ahead to listen to the winning run being scored. So, tonight was kind of a mixed bag of
listening.
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