Wednesday, September 15, 2021

Labor Day Sports Report 2021 Part 4

Continued from Part 3.


 

8-12-21

This was the baseball event of the regular season: the Field of Dreams game between the White Sox and the Yankees.  They built it and people came.  Who didn’t show up was me.  I was busy with work and concerned incoming weather might turn off the electricity.  I was hustling to get done quickly.  The storm came and went without incident.  Basically, the only prolonged viewing I got to see was the top of the ninth and the postgame. 

 

I saw Liam Hendricks chatting amiably with the broadcasters before he came in for the ninth.  He was hoping they could wear the old time Sox uniforms more often.   However, Hendricks was way too jacked up when he got into the game.  The White Sox were up three runs, but Aaron Judge homered, which was followed by Giancarlo Stanton hitting a two-run homer to give the Yankees an 8-7 lead.  In the bottom, I might have walked out of the room just before Tim Anderson came to bat.  I heard the cheering of the mostly White Sox crowd down the hall.  The Yankee reliever, Zack Britton, choked too, as Anderson hit a game-winning two-run homer into the cornfield.  White Sox win 9-8.    

 

I watched the other highlights later.  There was Kevin Costner walking out of the cornstalks and leading the players on to the field.  I thought I saw a reciprocal shot at the end where the players went back into the field, but I’m not sure.  Certainly, they should have.  It’s slightly ironic that I did see the Fox Sports Field of Dreams special over the weekend.  They talked about the movie and the making the field.  I did get choked up over a couple of clips from the movie. 

 

I questioned the overuse of music samples by the PA during the game.  It was like a Mexican League game where the music doesn’t stop until the pitcher starts his delivery.  However, the music was pretty good and the players were into it.  They caught one player on mic cheering on music.  The players were pretty happy in general during the game. 

 

There were 8000 excited fans in attendance.  There was a lottery to get in even at $3000 seat.  There were a pretty good contingent of Yankee fans there cheering.  They even did a roll call during the game.  There was a hand-operated scoreboard in center, but also a video board next to it.  The operators and the broadcast crew, including the camera men, were in period costume (20’s).  In the postgame, I saw that Frank Thomas with the commentators apparently didn’t get the memo and showed up in a suit.  I’m sure he was razzed in the pregame. 

 

Unfortunately, the postgame was the only lowlight of the broadcast.  Alex Rodriguez spouted off a comment of pure racism as he crowed that black players had hit all the home runs in the game.  Alex hopes that more blacks will play the game because of this event.  Sure.  All that’s happened is my opinion of A-Rod has dropped right back to his steroid disclosure era.  He basically ruined the Fox broadcast, but thankfully not the game.  Nice job.

 


8-14-21

Patrick Kivlehan returned to the Chihuahuas tonight from his Olympics duty.  He was introduced by the PA as a silver medalist and the Olympics theme was his walk up music.  The crowd gave him a big ovation.  He seemed touched and acknowledged the fans.  Japan won the gold, by the way.  There was no way they were going to be beaten in their home country in baseball, so there was no shame for the Americans.

 

Later during the game, the Chihuahuas’ opponent, the Reno Aces, had a reaction in their dugout.  They had just heard about their former teammate, Tyler Gilbert, no-hitting the Padres in his first major league start with the Diamondbacks.  He even had a three-pitch inning.  The worst team in the league no-hits the Padres with a rookie?  Boy, are they slumping.

 

The White Sox and the Yankees were back at it in Chicago.  I was watching in the evening on a Mexican station.  Once again, the closers blew it.  Jose Abreu homered in the ninth to tie it at 4-4.  Liam Hendricks gave up the lead in the tenth.  Joey Gallo homered as part of a three-run inning.  In the bottom, Zach Britton gave up a run and loaded the bases before being chased from the game.  There was Tim Anderson again with a chance to win it with two outs, but unfortunately grounded out.  7-5 Yankees final.  The best play I saw in the game was a ball girl backhanding a foul hard liner in flight.



9-5-21

Apart from my Aggie Volleyball coverage, I guess this Labor Day Sports report should contain at least one Labor Day weekend entry.  The only sporting event that I really watched was the NASCAR Southern 500 at Darlington.  This particular Darlington race didn’t just punish the drivers, it was really rough on the Chase drivers.  Several of them, including my favorite, Chase Elliot, are now basically in a position of having to win one of the next two races to continue in the “playoffs.” 

 

Denny Hamlin finally won a race this season to assure he’ll move on.  Kyle Larson came in second, but tried his best to either win or wreck.  He used what he called, “a video game,” maneuver on the final turn of the race.  From about a half-second behind, Kyle basically floored it and used the wall to complete the turn.  With a shower of sparks flying from the side of his car, he nearly caught Denny on the final straightaway.  Kyle was going so fast, it actually looked like Denny had slowed down.  It was a memorable finish to a grueling race. 

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