MLB
Unfortunately, this social justice suspension nonsense hit
home with me as various baseball teams also decided not to play. Friday night, the Astros and A’s declined
to play, thus cheating me of my MLB.TV
free game. (By Sunday, they were
sidelined for a positive cold test.
Serves them right.) Since it was Jackie Robinson Day for baseball, it would have been disrespectful for the teams to
just not show up, so they all came out in their #42 uniforms before walking
away. Chock stunts like this up to things
that you can only get away with when there are no fans in the stands.
These “impromptu” (staged) protests have morphed Jackie
Robinson Day (since was rescheduled from its April date) into Jack Robinson Weekend
because of all of the cancellations. Maybe
they’ll just all wear #42 jerseys for the rest of the season. MLB let me break down the effect of your
outreach to “urban youth” with this yearly memorial. Inner city black kids still don’t watch or
play your sport. Thanks to Jackie
Robinson Day however, instead of thinking baseball is boring, they now think
its racist. Nice job.
8-25-20
But before this all happened, I was reminded of why I love
this game (even if I hate the players, the teams, the league, and especially
their media partners). This day I got to
see my second live no-hitter on MLB.TV’s free game. I saw Phil
Humber’s perfect game a few years ago.
I was listening when Yu Darvish
took a perfect game into the ninth and lost out on it. (He’s been pitching well this season since he
grew an afro.) This was first time I got
to see one from the beginning. The
others were joined in progress.
Today, it was Lucas
Giolito for the White Sox
no-hitting the Pirates. I was watching the Pirates’ TV coverage
because early on a power surge took out the White Sox’s broadcast. That was too bad. The current White Sox’s broadcast team is
really good. I do like the Pirates’ guys
too. They were constantly mentioning the
no-hitter, perhaps to jinx it. I don’t
know if the home town guys were mentioning it also to try and build up the
hype.
Giolito got his no-hitter in 101 pitches with 13
strikeouts and one walk. By the last two
innings, he was getting a bit wild, but still baffling Pirate hitters. The hardest hit ball of the night off him was
on his last pitch. It was a hard dying
line drive caught on the run. Thank
goodness for Sabrmetric fielder positioning.
Catcher James McCann pointed
to the ump afterward, likely to thank him.
The ump was calling low strikes, which helped out Giolito, but he was
calling it for both teams consistently.
As if that wasn’t enough, on FS1 I caught the end of the Giants
versus the Dodgers. Giant Brandon
Belt managed to homer to the deepest part of Oracle Park to tie the score in the ninth. It was Dodger closer, Kenley Jansen’s first blown save this season. Both teams scored in the tenth and took the
tie into the eleventh. The Dodgers
scored one in the top of the frame. The
Giants scored one to tie, and then Donavan
Solano, who’s been a revelation this season and was hitting over .400, hit
a two-run homer to win it. He’d been 0
for 5 up to that point.
Meanwhile on Fox
Sports AZ, the Rockies and D-Backs were in the bottom of the
ninth. There were two outs with the
bases loaded and the Rox up by one. D-Back
Nick Ahmed struck out to end the
game. I only mention this because the
next night, the same thing happened. It
was even worse then, because the Rockies went through three relievers in the
inning, who gave up four runs, to get the Diamondbacks to within a run. Poor Nick.
8-29-20
Today, FOX
broadcast the Cardinals and Indians in an early game. The pregame was a social justice cluster
foxtrot. The early game coverage was
likewise, as a couple of black players were mic’d up during the game to comment
on events. They’ve done this during the All-Star Game, but this is frankly a
bad idea during a game that counts.
They’ve got to at least use some smaller, completely wireless equipment
on the players. They also talked to the
managers, but I didn’t listen to any of the comments.
I did hear one of the announcers get one of the new rules
wrong. This is the third time this
season I’ve heard a baseball announcer do this.
I knew the new rules for automatic runners and the three-batter rule for
relievers off the top of my head. How do
these professional broadcasters not know them?
On the other side of the booth, AJ
Pierzynski was on his way to being the best color commentator in
baseball. He’d obviously been studying
the batters and pitchers like he was still in the lineup.
A Mexican station was showing the Mets and Yankees playing
at the same time. I was flipping back
and forth. The Yankees won their game on
a wild pitch scoring a runner from third.
It was a good preview for the Cardinals and Indians’ conclusion. After a 1-1 tie, they went to extra innings. In the eleventh, the Indians managed to take a
one-run lead. The Cardinals only managed
to commit a pair of baserunning blunders that cost them the game. The last one was future Hall of Famer Yadier Molina letting himself get
caught in a rundown as part of a game-ending double play.
My dad likes the Cardinals, and I’d told him ahead of time
about the game. I was kind of glad he
didn’t watch it. I can only hope Aunt
Judy, a die-hard Cardinals fan, missed this one too.
8/30/20
As much crap as I’ve given Philly fans over the years, I
have to give credit where credit is due.
Listening to the ESPN Radio game on Sunday night, the announcers commented
that Citizens Bank Park in
Philadelphia probably had the most fan cutouts in the stands. Along with that, there were hardcore fans
standing outside the stadium at the gates cheering and blowing horns. Philly fans will go to any lengths to boo
their team. (If I ever start a Youtube
channel, I’ll do my crowd-pleasing Philly fan impersonation. I’ve gotten some laughs from it.)
I don’t’ think every stadium is allowing the cutouts. I haven’t seen any in Yankee Stadium surprisingly.
They’ve got a tarp over the home plate seats. I was watching the Rays playing the Marlins
earlier in the day. Unsurprisingly, the
Marlins don’t have any cutouts eithers.
Having watched them play, I wonder if they have any fans. They committed three errors and gave up 12
runs. The Marlins did come back late to
make a game of it in a 12-7 loss. I
noticed that they also got rid of that weird statue in the outfield and
replaced it with a new club area. I
think they moved the thing outside. God
knows how they did it. It was huge.
Meanwhile later in Philadelphia, there was this exchange from
the announcers. “Hey, the Philly Phanatic is here.” “You know, Statcast had the Philly Phanatic rated
second in fan interaction in the league last year.” “Did they adjust the analytics for the
ballpark? Because, he should be number
one.” Now, this is real information (and
comedy). As for the game, the Braves went up 10-0 in the second. The final score was 12-10 Braves. The Phillies certainly made a game of it and
you have to appreciate the effort.
“Boooo! You guys suck! You
miserable losers! Booo!” Okay, maybe the Philly fans standing around
the gate didn’t appreciate it. The big baseball
news of the night was a flurry of moves made by the Padres. We’ll see what happens.
NASCAR
I have no social justice news for the Saturday Chase field-setting race at Daytona. Gasp! I didn’t see all of the prerace, but it seems
like the broadcast played it all pretty straight. They didn’t even mention the cold much. On Friday night, I was literally checking the
NASCAR website to see if the event was going to be canceled for virtue signaling
reasons. The crucial difference with the
MLB and NBA was that there was going to be a bunch of fans there for the
race. I doubt they would have been
understanding if the drivers had come out and said they weren’t going to race
and then called all the fans a bunch of racists. Having fans who all have a shotgun rack in
their pickups has a way keeping you honest.
Ron joined me and dad for the race to watch on dad’s new
TV. I missed the prerace getting dinner
with Ron. We went to Sonic, which I totally blame on their
constant Toasted Smore Shake commercials
during the last NASCAR race. The meal
was overpriced and very average. The
small drinks were watered down and more like kid’s sized cups. That said, the shake was awesome. No regrets.
Well, I do sort of regret not taking notes for the
race. I didn’t think I’d be writing
about it. There was a lot of
fuel-mileage jockeying for the first half of the race. The TV coverage focused on the “bubble
battle” between the four drivers trying to get the last two spots in the
Chase. There was only one caution for
damage until late in the race and that only involved one car hitting the wall.
Then there were two Big Ones, both of which red flagged
the field. Jimmie Johnson, who had raced hard for one of those final Chase
spots, got caught up in one of them and will not be in contention for an eighth
championship in his final full-time season.
Joey Logano, who’d won both
Stage 1 and Stage 2, was also taken out.
Ryan Newman, who’d had a
horrific crash at the Daytona 500 to
start the season, had a somewhat subdued return to the track this time. He was taken out in a wreck, but okay
afterwards. While other drivers were
being diplomatic about the incident, Ryan, eschewing a mask for the interview,
entertainingly went off on Tyler Reddick
for causing it and some other drivers.
It would be William
Byron getting his maiden win and getting into the Chase in a
Green/White/Checkers victory. He was an
absolute picture of youthful exuberance when interviewed on track after the
win. It was hard not to feel good for
him. Byron had come to NASCAR partly
through a successful career in iRacing. He’d done well earlier this year when the
drivers were doing the virtual racing.
Speaking of Chases, Chase Elliot
came in second and pushed Byron to the victory.
Both cars had given up track position up front late to take on fresh
tires. That turned out to be the winning
move.
The race was pretty efficient, as it came in at just a bit
over three hours. Ron, who has a pretty
humdrum life lately doing caretaking, had a great time watching. I felt pretty exhilarated from seeing a good
race and just enjoying a sporting event, instead of cringing through it. See, I’m saying something positive about
sports.
That’s it for now, unless I’m watching the Kentucky Derby next weekend and the
horses all decide to sit it out in protest.
(There won’t be any fans there.
It could happen.) I’m also pretty
sure I’m not going to be doing a Labor Day post. The only event I’d want to cover would be NASCAR’s Southern 500, but it’s on
cable, which I don’t have.
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