Thursday, November 1, 2018

Sports Journal October 19-26, 2018

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 SeriesDavid 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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