How I Spent My Summer Vacation July 2019 Part 5

7-10-19

Here it was.  The event of the year at Southwest University Park.  The Triple-A All-Star Game.  The staff there had been building up to this all season.  Since they’ve already hosted the Triple-A Championship game, this is likely to be their last national-level event for a while, quite a while. 

Our old friend Tim Hagerty had been giddy to call this game on the radio, since it would be for a national audience.  He was joined with an announcer from the International League (Tim was representing the Pacific Coast League), whose name I kept missing.  I’m curious how the visiting broadcaster is chosen for these games. 

The game was also broadcast on TV nationally on the MLB Network.  Admittedly, they brought kind of a “B” crew to do it.  Chico “photo-bombed” their announcers as they were on field doing their intro.  However, they did bring Quick Pitch host, Kelly Nash, to do player interviews for the game.  Ooh, she looked gooood tonight, and her voice is just sooooo silky smooth perfect to listen to.  They went to her in the dugouts pretty frequently for interviews, which I appreciated.  As much as I wanted to hear Tim, I did find myself watching as much of the game as possible.     

I hate to say it, but the usually immaculate playing field looked terrible.  The green grass was splotchy with yellow patches and heavy wear.  I’m going to suspect that a season of baseball plus soccer has finally taken a toll on the sod and there was nothing they could do about it.  It happens to the best of them.  I remember an ASG at Chase Field in Phoenix on grass that looked like it was from a public golf course.

The game started at over 100 degrees at the start of the game, and it was still 90 degrees at the end.  The out-of-town announcers were continually commenting on the heat, while still saying it was “beautiful weather.”  It’s an odd phenomenon out here that it can be both, or perhaps they were just trying to be nice.  There was a continual motion of people fanning themselves in the large crowd, so it wasn’t like the locals didn’t notice it was hot too. 

Three Chihuahuas were on the PCL roster, two were starting.  At least three players from the Yankees’ affiliate were on the other side.  A couple of Durham Bulls were there.  Tim assured listeners that Durham no longer played in the dilapidated stadium from the movie.  The pup representation paid immediate dividends in the first, as Ty France at third made a great stop on a grounder and threw out the runner with a dig by Home Run Derby champ, Yasmany Tomas.  Tim sounded so happy to be there.  He was in peak form, upbeat and very knowledgeable. 

Back to the TV coverage (I was going back-and-forth to the break room, since I was at work), the home plate shot looked like crowd was seated directly over the umpire’s shoulder.  The announcers commented on how close the fans were to the field almost everywhere in the park.  In the second, the PCL got the scoring started as David Freitas from the San Antonio Chicken Strips (I’m just kidding, they’re still the Missions) drove in Tomas with a double.  Tomas chugged it around the diamond all the way from first.  Freitas had a great game, but I think he’ll have a great MLB career more because his name rolls off the tongue so easily.  The PCL ended up scoring four in the inning.  I was very busy at work and could not keep up with the scoring.

Thankfully, I was watching in the third when France took his second at bat and crushed one clean out of the ballpark to left center.  There was no MLB level Stat-tracking at the park.  The MLB Network guys estimated it went 467’.  Tim said 477’.  It was a big blast.  The PCL put up another run in the fourth to make it 6-0.  This game was the first time I got to see the new Las Vegas Aviators’ home uniform.  It was really good-looking with the lettering and trim in orange fading to yellow, throwback Astros-ish style. 

The IL scored one in the fifth.  In the bottom, Luis Urias, the other Chihuahuas starter, hit a two-run homer into the second deck of the Santa Fe Pavilion.  (They sold the seats inside there too.  Good move.)  8-1 PCL.  The TV guys were talking about Triple-A using the MLB balls, which are more “aerodynamic.”  There was no talk about “launch angles.”  They also put up a graphic showing the locations of the PCL and the IL on a national map.  The PCL actually spreads over the country.  The IL is all northeast.  One of the announcers liked the PCL team names better.  I . . . umm . . . kind of have to agree (with reservations).    

In the sixth, there were wholesale changes on the field that had Tim hopping to keep up.  He said eight of the nine positions changed.  The IL added one run to make it 8-2.  As Tim and the IL announcer took turns calling the play-by-play, the IL guy agreed that the balls were getting blasted this year, even in the more pitcher-friendly IL parks.  Interjecting, Tim couldn’t resist bragging about catching a Tomas flyball at the Derby on Monday.   

In the seventh, Chihuahua, Austin Allen, came in and drove in a run to make it 9-2.  The IL added another run in the eighth, 9-3 PCL.  In the ninth, Jay Jackson, who’d been on with Tim and Steve Kaplowitz in calling the Home Run Derby came in to pitch.  He was relieved by Fernando Abad to empty the bullpen.  I missed him throwing a 42 mph Eephus pitch, which the radar gun registered as 142 mph.

The highlight of the ninth was, without a doubt, the appearance of an extremely attractive young woman walking down the stairs to sit in the first row.  She had long dark hair and was wearing Daisy Dukes and a tank top that she was just barely stuffed into.  Magnificent.  I could sense that the cameraman and the director were desperately restraining themselves to not zoom in for a close-up.  Credit to the announcers for continuing to only talk about the game.  (By the way, I’m not overstating this girl’s looks.  She was a show-stopper.)

In any case, Abad closed it out and the PCL won 9-3.  I think all of the players on both sides were used or very close to it.  Even with that, the game only took two hours and 59 minutes.  9,700 was the tremendous attendance.  Ty France won the PCL MVP award.  (The IL also had an MVP.)  Was Ty the right choice?  Several of the other hitters had a better game.  Ty did have a great defensive play and a tape-measure homer.  That’s good enough.  Even better, he got to talk to Kelly on field for winning the award.  Ooh.  Highlight.

This was a great event.  I’m kicking myself that I never thought to go.  It would have been a tough schedule for me though given my work hours and that I don’t live in El Paso.  I’m sure El Paso’s stadium is now the envy of all other Triple-A facilities (but probably not the ambient temperature).  An IL player interviewed during the game was impressed with the city.  The IL announcer went out of his way to compliment Tim’s game call and professionalism.  He sounded in awe of him.  Overall, I don’t know how many more accolades this Chihuahuas organization can rack up.  They’ve set the standard for Triple-A.        

For me, this maybe finally ends my summer baseball coverage.  I didn’t actually mean to do any sports coverage over the summer.  I may cover the trade deadline deals at the end of the month if something interesting happens.  However, it seems like the Dodgers/Yankees “Battle of the Pocketbooks” World Series is inevitable.