Officially, the Chihuahuas
played the Reno Aces once today, except
they also played out the end of a suspended game from 4-15-19. The Chihuahuas manager met with broadcaster, Tim Hagerty, to compare scorecards
before the game. Both team managers and
the umpire also had a lengthy meeting to go over the rosters. There’d been a large number of personnel
changes since April. Tim talked about
how the rules handle this situation yesterday and during today’s pregame. Annoyingly, both times, I was interrupted
while listening, so I still don’t know how exactly it works. Tim did say that there’s never been a
suspended MLB game where a player
has been on both teams because of a trade, but it has happened in the
minors.
In any case, the eleventh inning of the April game started
about an hour and a half before the scheduled game. There was a small crowd there for it. The Aces’ catcher actually turned around and waved
to crowd before the game. The pups did
win it 6-5, thanks to a timely hit
by Jose Pirela, and a great catch in
the bottom of the inning by Boog Powell. Tim was pleased that the broadcast only took
about a half hour total, but was apologetic that the station had had to cut
short airing a town hall with the El
Paso Locomotive soccer team. I
admit, the forum was actually kind of interesting. It wasn’t like the suspended game resumption
was a surprise. I’d think they could
have juggled things around a little to get the whole discussion in.
About an hour later, the scheduled game came on. The Chihuahuas lost 5-3, but that wasn’t the story.
Tim’s usual eating schedule had been disrupted by the suspended
game. Late in this game, he got
hungry. However, he came on the air out
of commercial break complaining that he couldn’t buy M&M’s at the concessions.
They had a bunch of bags there, but wouldn’t sell them. Tim only had 90 seconds during the break, so
he didn’t argue. He went back on the
next break. They still wouldn’t sell
them to him, something about “taking inventory.” “It’s a big crowd here tonight. I don’t understand why the concessions aren’t
selling to people with cash in hand,” said a bewildered and just barely able to
contain his anger, Tim Hagerty. If
you’re doing something to make a very congenial broadcaster unhappy, you’re not
running your ballpark well, Reno.
7-17-19
After the All-Star Break, the Chihuahuas have been stumbling.
They’ve lost 5 of 7 (including the suspended game above), and tonight
they down 7-2 to the Aces with 1 out
in the ninth. What happened next defied
belief as the pups scored 7 and shocked the Aces and the Reno crowd. Unfortunately I wasn’t keeping notes, but
suffice it to say that the Chihuahuas scored in just about every way possible,
including a two-run error. They won 9-7.
With their division lead dwindling over this slump, broadcaster Tim Hagerty conjectured that the team
may look back on this game as a turning point in the season.
7-20-19
The Rangers, in
the midst of an eight-game losing streak and playing themselves out the
postseason, were losing badly in Houston to the Astros again this weekend.
What was notable about this game though was Eric Nadel’s rather giddy attitude.
Him and Matt Hicks were
really loose and having fun with the radio broadcast. Here’s where I really regret not taking notes
during a game, so I could relate their entirely off-topic conversations. In any case, listening to this game may have
been the Ranger highlight of the season for me for pure entertainment value not
involving actual play.
7-23-19
I’d seen Youtube
and the MLB advertising their
upcoming joint broadcasts, but had forgotten about them. I’d missed their first game last week, but
caught their second streaming broadcast today.
The MLB has tried streaming over other Internet sources than their MLB.TV.
I’d watched games on Yahoo a
couple of years ago. Facebook and Twitter have shown games since.
I’m guessing none of these venues caught on. They haven’t tried Twitch yet to my knowledge, though I have watched live sports on
that site (some NM State Aggie
games).
While those other streams were just showing team
broadcasts, in this case, Youtube was actually producing it. They had their own announcers and cameras
there covering the game. This was a
legit national broadcast like ESPN
or Fox. I really enjoyed the commentating crew with Scott Braun, Cliff Floyd, and “The Mayor” Sean
Casey. They were very loose and
having fun with it. My favorite story was
Casey talking about telling his first base coach that he was going to try and
steal a base during a game. The coach said
he’d tackle him, “If you try it, I’ll get fired. Stay put!”
They also mentioned Floyd’s excellent physique and bet him that he could
still play. “Tell that to my knees,” he
replied.
Even more intriguing, there were no commercial breaks
during the game. For the between innings
breaks and pitching changes, they got reports from their lovely field reporter
(I missed her name, sorry), ran some fun prerecorded segments with players (Eric Byrnes, who hosted those, what the
hell are you doing with your hair?), and ran some interesting documentary
material. They also talked to both
coaches in the dugouts and a player. Talking
with Terry Francona, they wished him
luck at the end of the interview. “Yeah,
good luck to you guys too with Casey up there,” mic drop, walk away. I have to say, this all made the game way more
entertaining. Has it been the commercials
all along that made baseball seem “boring?”
The highest viewership I saw was 170k, which seems pretty
good for an Indians . . . err . . .
First Peoples/Blue Jays game. The stream finished with 12k likes to 1k
dislikes, so I think I’m not the only person who enjoyed it. The chatroom was populated by an official MLB
commenter, official team commentators, and some Youtube content creator
baseball fans. I would have liked to
have tossed in a few comments, but it was invitation only. That might not have been a bad idea given
what I usually see in the comments of livestreams, but I’m sure regular fans
would have liked a way to express themselves during the game. A local Toronto Youtuber, who was a Jays fan
and has a big channel, actually came on the air with the broadcasters for an
inning.
As for the game, it was a tight affair. Aaron
Sanchez and Trevor Bauer started
and pitched very well, but didn’t figure into the decision. The Indians took a 1-0 lead into the
ninth. Justin Smoak homered to center to tie it. Smoak then singled in the winning run in the
tenth to win it for the Blue Jays, 2-1.
I kept having to stop the stream to do work (since I was at work). There was a half hour long postgame
scheduled, but most of it was cut off by the time I got around to watching
it. Maybe next time, though most of the
rest of Youtube’s scheduled games seem to be day games. I wish I still had a home connection, since
I’ll bet Youtube’s steam would have worked better than the MLB.TV stream did
for me. (It kept dropping off.) Overall, I was really impressed. I hope this association continues.
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