If you haven’t heard of either of the teams in the title, you’re not from around here (Las Cruces, NM). They’re high school teams. Ron, apparently desperate to do something on the weekend, suggested going to this game this weekend. You know I love baseball, but even I wasn’t sure I wanted to see a high school game. I put off the decision for a couple of day hoping something else would come up. Nothing did. There wasn’t even anything on TV. I agreed to go.
This set up a match between the two. 
I knew that, even though she wasn’t wrestling
on the show, Quinn had some experience.
During the prefight, she also said she’d been in roller derby. For the match, Love was completely
disrespectful and didn’t even know why she was lowering herself to do
this. The early match proved Love was
much more experienced. She did make a couple
of mistakes, which Quinn capitalized on.
The plucky heroine had a chance.
However, outside the ring interference distracted Quinn until Love could
finish her with her signature move, the Botox Injection. (If you saw her, you’d understand
immediately.) Quinn was left beaten,
broken, and humiliated. Her co-hosts
gave her a standing ovation for the effort.
She did a good job and really sold it.
I was raving about all of this after Ron picked me for the
game. “It’s all fake,” he basically
said. “It’s not about the competition;
it’s about the performance.” (Like the NFL, except it’s not about the
competition or the performance; it’s about the betting, and it’s just as
fake.) You don’t go to The Nutcracker hoping the Toy Soldiers
dominate the Rat King and his minions because you bet $10,000 on them. You just appreciate the graceful
athleticism. In any case, I think this was
the first women’s match ROH has done
in a year. They’ve briefly shown some
female wrestlers, but not in new action.
They had a show last year that was a tribute to a deceased female
Japanese wrestler (and I didn’t get her name), but that was it. Going back to fighting in front of a crowd
and having the ladies go at it on a regular basis would help the appeal of the
show.
You can probably tell how much I want to talk about this
high school baseball game by now. I
should rename this post. Ron has met the
Onate coach at Aggie Baseball several times and thought he’d support him
here. We left about an hour early to get
to the other side of town. Ron had been
to the Field of Dreams football
stadium, but not the other adjacent playing fields. We pulled into the baseball complex, except
it was actually the softball complex.
Oops. We got directions from an
attendant. We drove past a couple of
soccer fields in use, drove past the football stadium because the road was
blocked for construction, drove all the way around the block, and then drove
past the softball complex, the soccer fields, and the stadium again before
finding the inlet road. This is a huge
complex altogether, by the way.
It was $5 to enter.
There was no program and no ticket.
Your hand was stamped. There were
three fields. One, which had a covered
grandstand and was facing away from the gusty wind, had a game in
progress. That wasn’t our game. The other two fields had teams warming
up. A group of parents were sitting on
collapsible chairs under the shade of the small trees outside of one of the
other fields. They were all wearing Carlsbad Cavemen t-shirts. One field had an Onate team getting ready to
play a Carlsbad team, but some of the kids were really small. We asked a fan and found out this was the JV game.
Next door was the Varsity
game. The field had two small dugouts, a
chain link fence surrounding the outfield, and a small electronic
scoreboard. There were four small sets
of bleachers surrounding the field.
Netting covered the front of the stands and the top to protect from foul
balls. NMSU’s Presley Askew Field was a palace by comparison. I thought the bathroom here was really big,
until I realized it was the men’s and women’s rooms joined together without
separate doors. Be careful.
I was wearing a turquoise-colored mask, since that’s one
of Onate’s colors. There were a half
dozen security guards around. Their only
job was seemingly to make sure everyone was wearing a mask and making their
rounds about the stands every five minutes to enforce that. It was a bit like a baseball game held in a
prison yard. All of the players were
wearing masks while playing, too.
I suppose I also have to bring up that I’m not sure if the
school is still named, “Onate.” Because
of BLM, they didn’t want the school named after the Spanish explorer who
started the colonization of New Mexico.
I don’t follow the logic there either.
(Onate, admittedly, did not have good relations with the natives.) I’d heard they were going to change it to Organ Mountains High School, after Las
Cruces’ signature natural monument. The
school is located in the foothills of the mountains. Also, the team wouldn’t have to change their
logo, which is an “O.” But then, that
name was called cultural appropriation of Mother Nature, so I don’t know where
this all stands. I’ll go with Onate for
the post until told different.
We were there right at the scheduled start time, but the
game was delayed for a half hour anyway.
The Onate Varsity team was on the other field wearing plain whites with
no numbers on them. They’d change to
gametops after. The stands were fairly
crowded. The fans seemed mostly for
Carlsbad. A couple of Mayfield High School players, baseball
and softball, done with their games, came in a sat with their family.
No point in discussing any pretty girls there. They’re all either married moms or under aged. This is a definite strike against high school
sports. There was no Anthem before the
game and only two umps on field. It was
in the 80’s for the game with no clouds.
The wind was gusting. Every time
someone moved on the infield, it kicked up a shower of dust. On the other hand, the wind did keep it from
getting hot. I reminded Ron that the
softball game we went to first was free and not facing the wind. He was aware of that.
With no program, I decided I wasn’t going to bother with
scorecards for the game. Given later
substitutions, this was a good call. I
could have gotten at least the first names of the Onate team from parents
shouting them out during the game.
Regardless, I’ll be making up some names for this report for comedy
purposes. That said, I do have immense
respect for these high school athletes.
These kids are showing, sometimes painfully, how hard this game is to
play. College and pro players only make
baseball mostly look easy because they’ve had so much practice. Watching warm-ups here, I was hearing strains
of Carmen in the background. (Bad
News Bears reference. I won’t be
explaining the rest of the references. I'd link to a video, but Youtube doesn't have it.)
The Onate pitcher looked tall, but we were sitting at near
ground level close to the field. For the
top of the first, he struck out the side, but also had two wild pitches, and
hit a batter. Amanda was a bit wild, but
had her curve ball working. By the
bottom of the first, I’m complaining about sand in my eyes in my notes. Good thing I wasn’t playing. Onate had a single and a walk in the
inning. A great diving play by Kelly in
the outfield ended the frame. I’d seen
him park his motorcycle outside before the game. There was a definitely leisurely pace to this
game. It felt like the first inning took
over 20 minutes.
The coach went out and talked to the pitcher, but this resulted in a stolen base and a passed ball, which also advanced the runner. There was another mound visit. Obviously, they weren’t counting visits like they do in college and the pros. I’d forgotten how much time these things took up. Ron was getting bored. A run scored on a wild pitch. There was an infield hit, but finally a flyball to left field ended the inning. 3-0 Carlsbad. In the bottom, there was an error by the third baseman that let on a runner. Benny on the mound worked around that and a wild pitch by getting two strikeouts and a popup. Coming off the field, he confronted his third baseman, “You’re killing me, Smalls.”
Dear God, we’re only starting the third inning and we’ve
been at this for an hour. I suddenly remembered
why I knew that Carlsbad’s team was called the Cavemen. They have a famous alumnus in Cody Ross. He played for the 2010 San Francisco Giants during their World Series run and did
well. There is a dropped third strike,
but the new Onate catcher does throw out the runner. There’s a walk and another wild pitch. A bad pickoff move sent the runner to third,
who came home on a wild pitch. After a
conference with the coach, an outfielder exchanges places with the
pitcher. I’m guessing the teams only
have a limited number of players. Right
after the exchange, there’s another successful squeeze play for a run. A single drives in another run. An overthrow by Lupus advances the runner to
third. The inning ends on a
caught-looking strikeout. 6-0 Carlsbad.
They should really be serving beer here. I don’t drink, but I might take one right now
along with all of the Onate parents.
There’s a senior Carlsbad couple sitting in stadium chairs that are more
like loungers. They even have canopies
over them. This is the way to view games
like this: in comfort (and taking a nap).
I’m getting a stiff back like I never get with my stadium seat when I’m
watching Aggie Softball. I have to keep getting up. We should have watched the JV game. It’s already over. The side struck out in the bottom of the
third. Not much to talk about
there. Ron pointed out that the dugout
players were the ones retrieving foul balls.
You could hear the clatter of their cleats on the pavement walking after
them.
A hit went over Tanner’s head at short to start the top of
the fourth. The runner stole second soon
after. The catcher made a good play on a
high foul popup for the first out. Right
after though, the runner took third for another stolen base. A wind-aided double drove in that run. The pitcher then made a good play on a
comebacker for the second out. Ron left
for the bathroom a while ago. He better
not be sitting at a better game right now.
There’s another hit batter. A wild pitch advances both runners on. A single drives in another run. My rear end is getting real uncomfortable
sitting here. I keep shifting around,
but can’t get comfortable. The runner at
first is picked off, but still stole second.
This is not Onate’s day. Another
hit brings in another run. We get
another new pitcher when a couple of players change positions. I wouldn’t have been able to figure this out
on a scorecard. A sacrifice brought in a
run. There’s another wild pitch
advancing the runners. A diving rolling
catch in right field mercifully ends the inning. 10-0 Carlsbad.
On to the fifth, the Onate coach warmed up the Charlie
Brown on the mound, as the catcher had made the last out and was still gearing
up. The first baseman made a good play
on a grounder down the line for the first out.
There was a strikeout and then a strikeout looking to end the
inning. Or not, the ump had the count
wrong. It’s been a long day for
everyone. A fly out ended the
inning. It was a bad sign that the
scoreboard already had a zero showing for the bottom of the fifth. I was over note taking by this point. Onate went down quietly in the frame.
Game 1 of this double header was scheduled for seven
innings, but thankfully it ended on a 10-0
run rule after the fifth for the Carlsbad
Cavemen. Their pitcher got a big
hand from the Carlsbad parents. Some of
the Onate players came out and hugged their moms. I felt like I needed a hug, too. This was two-and-a-half hours I really didn’t
want to relieve writing.
Ron was back and asked if I wanted to wait in his car
during the intermission. I agreed. We walked past Game 2 of the JV DH. They didn’t even have anyone operating the
scoreboard. That brings up
questions. As soon as we got to the
parking lot, I asked, “So, are you feeling real committed to Game 2 here?” And with that, we left. I’d wanted to go to Dairy Queen, but Ron was pretty sure they were packed. I brought up What-a-burger next, but somehow we ended up at the downtown Coas used bookstore by my request. I think I was too hungry to think
straight. Ron and I both got books. (Well, I got a comic trade paperback.)
Only because it was nearby in walking distance, we went to
Zeffriro’s for pizza. We’d had a great pizza there a couple of
years ago, but now they were under new management. The prosciutto one we’d had was no longer on
the menu, but the one we had with pepperoni, bacon, ham, and mushrooms was
really good. I just didn’t need a pizza,
since I was planning on getting one with dad on Sunday. I didn’t need to overeat on it, but I didn’t
think this pizza would survive microwaving as leftovers. I really didn’t need to spend $27 on
dinner. The friendly waiter chatted with
us about high school baseball. He did
confirm that Carlsbad fans did travel well.
He’d seen a game recently where they’d had a prospect that was about to
get signed to a big deal by a scout. I
can’t imagine the horror of having a job scouting high school baseball in
person.
What have we learned?
High school baseball is for parents and under aged hot player
girlfriends. I’m sure there are many better
high school games than the one we went to and Onate has played better, but now
I’m totally scared off. I told Ron I’d
prefer to only see a more polished product from here out. Ironically, I only went because I thought this
might make for an interesting blog post.
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