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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