10-19-18
Owing to just getting back to work from vacation, I wasn’t
able to really watch or listen to tonight’s NLCS game. The Brewers
beat Dodgers 7-2 in Milwaukee. Cardinal World Series hero, David Freese, drove in both Dodger
runs. The game only took three-and-half
hours. On to Game 7.
I noticed that Aggie
Soccer was playing a late game against GCU
in Phoenix. I caught the end of the
match over the Internet. The Aggies lost
1-0, which was heartbreaking, though
somewhat encouraging that they were at least competitive. Shots on goal were 9 to 8 in favor of the
Lopes, so the Aggies had their chances, but weren’t able to convert. The Lopes also had four players carded, so
they won the fights.
When they showed the highlights afterward, I saw that Ashley Martin stopped a GCU PK. Well done, Ash! There was a shot of the stands clearing
out. GCU has an actual stadium with
seats for soccer, in addition to having lights for the field. However, their attendance there was about the
same as the Aggies at home.
10-20-18
As it turned out, the NLCS Game 7 was on Mexican TV and the
radio, so I could have watched. However,
I was at a departmental “business” meeting at Top Golf. I think the boss
was trying to get in some practice before a bank-sponsored golf
tournament. It was initially mandatory,
but then changed to voluntary for me, because I’m not on salary.
Since I wasn’t able to go to see Aggie Football after seeing volleyball in morning, my
afternoon became free. It was reasonably
fun there and a nice meal. $1,200 worth
of fun and nice, I’m not so sure, at least not without a lap dance
included. (Don’t ask me where the money for
the trip came from or how this expense was going to be justified.)
I caught a little glimpse of the game at the bar. A co-worker said he’d seen a bit of last
night’s game and had been mesmerized by an attractive, well-endowed woman
behind home plate. I named her for him;
that was Front Row Amy. When I got home, I was able watch the end of
the game.
Amy was there, along with the Marlins Man. Joining them
was the guy who often sits behind home plate at White Sox games wearing the Kyle
Busch M&M’s jacket. And a Yankees fan was beside him. All we needed were those guys who dressed as
umps, the guy in the Katy Perry
shark dancer suit, the Marilyn Monroe
impersonator, and a dude on a cellphone waving to the camera to complete the
picture of famous home plate seat fans.
The game seemed almost irrelevant by comparison. The Dodgers
won 5-1 over the Brewers. All the runs came off of homers. I’m disappointed, but at least we can all see
the best World Series that money can buy between the Dodger$ and the Red $ox.
Oh, I did ask my co-worker friend for an update on the
Aggies versus Georgia Southern
football game. For the first update, the
score was 24-17 GS. Okay, that didn’t
sound too bad. The next time I asked, it
was 45-24 and there was still a quarter left.
My dad didn’t listen to the game.
The batteries on his radio died and mom won’t let him plug it in. However, the paper had the final at 48-31 Georgia Southern. Clearly, the defense is still having
problems. They’re missing a couple of
guys, who were apparently the lynchpins.
I am really heartened by the offense though. Maybe this team will have a chance next year.
10-21-18
I had some intention of watching NASCAR this morning, but the station wasn’t coming in. Not wanting to mess with the antenna for longer
than 30 seconds, I instead flipped over to the F1 race from Austin. Kimi Raikkonen made a power move at the
start of race and won for the first time in several years. Yep, same old F1. You only need to watch the start. A few hours later, I finally adjusted the
antenna and NBC came right in. They were doing the post race discussing Chase Elliot winning. That’s what I get for not putting in a little
more effort in at reception.
Over on Stadium,
they were showing Women’s College Soccer. In San Diego, the SDSU Aztecs were taking on the Air
Force Falcons. I’ve seen the
facility there on TV a couple of times.
“The Sports Deck” as it is
called is pretty nice. The Aggie girls played there to start their
season.
This season neither team is very good. Both are having trouble scoring. Air Force has a good goalie in Jennifer Hiddnick. She took all the free kicks on the Air Force
side of the field as well. Gabby English, one of my favorite
player names, was not in net for the Aztecs for unspecified reasons. They put in freshman Kate Hart today. As usual, I
focused on the tallest blonde on the field, in this case Lauren Dicus, a SDSU defender.
Air Force had a couple girls with nice hair. One was a bright natural redhead and another
had shining silver hair. I didn’t get
their names.
Though most of the action of the first half took place on
the Air Force side, I got to see plenty of Lauren in match. Her and a fellow defender passed the ball
between each other about 20 times. It
was an odd strategy since they weren’t moving the ball up the field. The Falcons have a freshman playing for them
from San Diego (whose name I also didn’t get).
She got the biggest cheer of the match when she came in. (AF actually had some vocal fans there
too.)
By the time the Falcons got their first shot on goal 26’ in,
the Aztecs already had 7. Jennifer had
been getting a workout. Still, nobody
scored until the 41’ (see, I’m using proper soccer timing), when Cloe Frisch made a great pass in front of the net to Darcy Weiser, who finally put it
in. 1-0 Aztecs.
What did I say about soccer being “sports ASMR?” After a mostly lopsided, but nearly
non-scoring, first half, I started nodding off in the second. I was awakened in the 61’ as Phoebe Leitch chipped in a shot over
Jennifer to make it 2-0 Aztecs. That was
her third goal of the season, which made her the highest scoring player on the
field for either team. (And I thought
the Aggies were having scoring issues.)
From here, it started raining goals. 67’ Laura
Fuentes scored, which made this the Aztecs’ highest scoring game of the
season at 3-0. Lauren, tired of passing
the ball back-and-forth, took the ball up field on a rush and found Dorothy on
a pass (she’d had plenty of practice passing).
74’ Dorothy got her second goal to make it 4-0.
75’ Air Force had their best chance to score on a turnover
near the SDSU box. Kate was in a
one-on-one, but managed to deflect the shot wide. 80’ Air Force put in a new goalie, Danielle Katz. As often happens, she was tested
immediately. There was a sniper shot by Malia Kaleiohi outside the box. Danielle
made a flying dive at it, but it went just out-of-reach for a 5-0 Aztec lead and the win. Okay, not the greatest game to watch. I feel like I should have been rooting on a
lower score, so that I could have fallen completely asleep.
10-23-18
I basically missed Game 1 of the World Series between the Red
Sox and Dodgers. This is what happens when I don’t really care
about the outcome. The Red Sox won 8-4.
I did see the pivotal play of the game as Eduardo Nunez hit a pinch hit three-run homer in the seventh to ice
the game. The pitch wasn’t even a strike.
10-24-18
I missed most of this game too. The Red
Sox beat the Dodgers 4-2 to go
up 2-0 in the World Series. David
Price actually did well again pitching.
Seems like he may have overcome a mental barrier in pitching in the
playoffs.
The main noteworthy action that I saw was in fifth. The Sox loaded bases with two outs. A run was walked in and then JD Martinez singled to bring in two
more. Not bad for a guy with a twisted
ankle. This team’s ability to score with
two outs this postseason has been prodigious.
The Boston crowd broke out a “Beat LA” chant. The radio broadcast mentioned the origin of
the phrase. It was from an NBA game, but not between the Celtics and the Lakers. The Celtics were
about to lose to the 76’ers and they
would go on to face the Lakers in the finals.
The Boston fans were encouraging the 76’ers to beat LA. I also heard a completely out-of-place “Yankees Suck” chant. That’s okay.
They always suck. Also noted and
annoying were the micro commercials inserted into every pause in the action,
especially in the later innings. In
spite of the extended commercial breaks, the game finished in a reasonable
three-and-a-half hours.
10-26-18
In the first inning, the Red Sox faced Walker Buehler
on the mound for the Dodgers. The first three Red Sox batters worked a lot
of pitches, but went down for a 1-2-3 inning. “That’s a win for the Red Sox,” proclaimed the
announcers, twice even, saying that they’d gotten his pitch count up. Buehler only went seven scoreless innings
tonight, but it was a “win.”
Once again I was at work and wasn’t able to watch much of
the Game 3. I little realized at the
time that this would become an all-time classic World Series game . . . that few other people probably saw
either. Essentially, the game was tied
at 1 after nine innings. The game might
have been four hours old by that point.
The Red Sox finally scored a run in the thirteenth, but the
Dodgers did the same in the bottom. Both
runs scored thanks to an error and Eduardo
Nunez of the Sox figured into both scores.
On into the night we went. Most
of what I got of the game was over the radio.
Play-by-play man, Dan Shulman,
actually starting getting horse.
By the time I’d finished work, I watched the game on TV a
bit, but finally decided I was going to have to go home. Once there, I scanned around until I found a
static-y radio broadcast. I could have
turned on my TV, but I didn’t think it would go that long. Maybe less than a half-hour later in the
eighteenth inning, Max Muncy homered
to mercifully end it 3-2 Dodgers. He’d almost done it a couple of innings
before on a massive foul ball. It was
about 1:30am MST.
At seven hours 20 minutes, the game became the
second longest MLB game ever by time.
All sorts of records were brought up during the game. Curiously, the previous World Series record
for innings was held by three games at 14 innings, including a game from the
1916 matchup between these two franchises.
That game went a gaudy two-and-a-half hours.
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