Meeting
NFL Player JJ Birden
I was really dreading our quarterly meeting at work. I was absolutely kicking myself that I didn’t
take the night off to see Aggie Softball
playing the Lobos tonight. (Our girls won both games of the double
header. Yay!) One, the meeting was offsite at the Convention Center. Thankfully, it’s reasonably close to
work. Two, and much worse, the last time
we were there, the food was terrible.
Those weren’t small chickens; those were pigeons! Three, from a personal standpoint, there are
some people at work that I just don’t want to be anywhere around. The best I could say about the last meeting
is that I liked the guest speaker.
This time, the meal was great. The Convention Center staff really improved
here. The speaker was also good, JJ Birden. He had a compelling story for a professional
athlete. I’m not even sure there are too
many NFL punters who are just 5’10” and 150 lbs. JJ was a wide receiver. He was a long jump track athlete that had to
talk his way on to the Oregon
football team. He managed to get
drafted. The end of his NFL dream was a
series of releases from four teams in a period of five days.
Except he didn’t wake up and kept on dreaming. JJ made it back on to the Chiefs’ practice squad. He worked hard enough that he got into the
final game of the season. JJ had eight
catches and two touchdowns. From there,
he had a seven-year career in pro football.
JJ has a great claim to fame in that he played with Joe Montana. I’m sure he’s
somewhat gotten over having to ask his audience if they know who that is and
having the half them not have a clue. (I
felt like such a Boomer.) Even more impressive,
after his playing days and having three kids, him and his wife took in five
more children from a relative.
I went up and met him after the meeting with some other
co-workers and got a picture. I had a
couple of questions about Joe Montana. However, since there were more people behind
me (all women, some rather attractive, it was a good thing his wife was with
him), I limited myself to a short comment.
They said he was going to be talking to some Aggie athletes the next day.
On the off chance Brooke Salas
was there, I asked him to say something encouraging to her before going to her WNBA tryout.
Even better than the dinner and the entertaining
speaker, we all got a takeaway. A couple
of days later, everyone got a signed copy of his motivational book, courtesy of
our business. I’ve skimmed it. (Look, a week later, I still haven’t even
been able to read by MLB season preview
magazine yet.) The book is inspirational
with an interesting life story. There
are practical tips for success that he’s learned over the course his football
career that could help anyone. And
you’ve got some interesting football anecdotes, which should please fans of the
sport. (If we’d been sitting around chatting
for a while, I might have broached my trepidations about the
league.)
Okay, a bit of a different sports blog story for me, but
I thought it was interesting enough to write about. This was cool, though I’m probably going to
be dreading the next quarterly meeting anyway.
4-4-19
Chihuahuas Opening Day! I’d seen the stadium in its soccer
configuration on Sunday
(3-30-19). During the match
they said that the grounds crew would start tearing down the soccer field right
after. I imagine that’s quite a
task. I’d watched a video during the
week showing off some improvements at the stadium. There’s a new party deck on top of Big Dog House, though I swear it had
chairs facing away from the field.
There’s another new party area, maybe the former patio along the first
base line. There’s a couple of miniature
golf holes and a ping pong table installed there? El
Paso Locomotive signage is now all over the stadium along with a dedicated
team shop for them.
And my enjoyment of this game got off to a bad
start. I’d tested out KROD’s Internet stream yesterday. “We’re sorry.
We’re experiencing technical difficulties. We’ll be right back shortly,” said a pleasant
female voice. Contrary to her
assurances, the stream was not up today either.
I started jumping through hoops and eventually found an alternate stream
on Tunein.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t get this site at my other
workstation, so I missed the first hour of the game. I was gritting my teeth the whole time. I was not shutout though. It was time for Richmond Flying Squirrels Baseball!
Err . . . briefly. I was able to
catch the ninth. They had a huge crowd
for their Opening Day, who were
staying late to watch the fireworks afterward.
They got a pretty dramatic 1-0 win over the Hartford Yard Goats. For some
reason, both teams were going to take on Latino identities for their next
game. If you think “Flying Squirrels”
and “Yard Goats” are dumb names, the Spanish equivalent isn’t any better and
was clearly causing the announcer some consternation in pronunciation.
Finally, I was able to sit down and listen to the
Chihuahuas over my dinner. There were
the friendly pleasant tones of our old friend Tim Haggerty doing the call.
It was a standing-room only crowd at the ballpark of 9,600+. They were playing the new Las Vegas Aviators. Gee, I’ll miss the 51’s and their alien mascot.
(Of course, I’m kidding.) In
addition to a better name, they’ve got a brand new stadium and are now
affiliated with the A’s. The game was moving along very quickly
(though delayed for Opening Day pregame ceremonies) and was already in the
fourth. This was because the game was
scoreless.
Ty
France broke the seal with a solo home run in the bottom of
the fourth. I’d just stepped out of the
room for a minute when it happened. Ahem.
The Aviators tied it in the fifth (I had again just stepped out) and
took the lead, 3-1. Tyler Higgins replaced starter Jerry
Keel and came in with bases loaded. Skye Bolt came up for Aviators and struck
out to end the inning. Tim loves the
guy’s name. They’ll never let him get
called up. His name fits the team name
too well.
In the bottom of the fifth, Esteban Quiroz got the pups back in the lead with a three- run
homer, 4-3. (I was out of the room again.) The Aviators got a two-run homer, and then
went back-to-back with a solo shot in the sixth to retake the lead, 6-4. Of course, I was listening at that time. Tim chuckled as he miscalled them The
51’s.
Ty France did it again in the seventh, as he doubled in
two runs to tie it at 6. In the eighth, an
Aviator solo homer hits the display truck in outfield (I think), 7-6. The Chihuahuas left two on in the
bottom. Unfortunately, the Aviators
tacked on two more in the ninth to make it 9-6.
But, it wasn’t over yet and the pups wanted to give that
big crowd a show. France sac’d in a run. He came close to getting another double, but
Bolt nabbed it. With two on and two out,
Jason Vosler drove in another run with
a single. Next, an error loaded the
bases. The crowd was going wild by this
point, down by one. Alex Dickerson, who’d been out for two years with injuries, came up. He nearly got a hit, but was robbed by a sliding
catch by Bolt that ended the game. Aviators win 9-8, but it was a good
game. Ty France went 3 for 4 with 4 RBI’s in the game. He’s looking good.
Tim mentioned during the game that the newest Triple-A team is the San Antonio Missions. They kept their great Double-A name. I checked out the team and came up with this
factoid about their stadium. Check this
out.
On July 27, 1998 Wolff Stadium witnessed a
once-in-a-lifetime feat. Tyrone Horne of the Arkansas Travelers hit for the
'home run cycle.' It is believed to be the only home run cycle in the history
of professional baseball. Horne belted a two-run home run in the first inning,
clubbed a grand slam in the second inning, slugged a solo shot in the fifth,
and completed the accomplishment with a three-run homer in the sixth.
4-5-19
Friday night Aggie
Baseball. It’s the opener in an
important series versus GCU. It was a pretty decent night here, but I was
okay with just watching over the Internet.
Brock Whittlesey started a bit
rough for the Aggies. The Lopes loaded
the bases on him, but he got out of it with a couple of strikeouts. And then I had to leave to go to another
workstation and missed most of the middle of the game. This kind of stuff really kills your
recapping. Even worse, the Flying Squirrels weren’t playing when I
changed cubicles.
GCU scored three in the fifth. I came back in in the bottom, but missed Logan Ehnes’ two-run homer and Eric Mingus’ solo shot to tie it. Alex
Reyes came in for the sixth in relief and gave up a run, 4-3 GCU. In the seventh, Mingus had two errors at
third and two more runs scored, 6-3. In
the eighth, there was an error by Nick Gonzales
at second. They’re contagious. GCU scored another run on no hits, 7-3. In the bottom, Tristen Carranza brought in Nick thanks to an error. It’s an epidemic, or they’re all playing
tight.
7-4
GCU
was the final. The Aggies had four hits
and there were seven combined errors in the game. Ron, who was there, was disgusted. Aggie Softball
did beat Utah Valley 1-0 next door at the Softball
Complex. (I can’t stand the miserable
scheduling this season.) OMG! My favorite opposing player, Basia Query, hasn’t graduated and is still
playing for the Wolverines. I may be
attending the softball double header tomorrow instead of the baseball.
I thought about jumping ship to the Chihuahuas, but things were going worse with them. The Las
Vegas Aviators dropped eight on them in the third. I did join the game in the eighth when the
Aggie game ended. The Chihuahuas’ game
started an hour later than the Aggies. I
was briefly worried that the pups’ game would finish first. 12-4 Aviators
was the final.
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