October 15, 2022: A Remarkable Day in Sports

For me, anyway.  Your mileage may vary.  I wasn’t even going to write anything until I woke up on Sunday morning and reflected back on the previous day.  I’ve seldom seen such a confluence of amazing victories.  Even when the team I may have had a rooting interest in didn’t win, it was still interesting. 

It was unprecedented even starting on Friday.  I’d gotten an e-mail from our old friend, Tim Hagerty, voice of the Chihuahuas.  He was promoting his new book, Tales from the Dugout, a collection of humorous Minor League Baseball tales.  It was a personal e-mail, not even a mass e-mail.  I pre-ordered the book and wrote him back that I’d seen him this year at the park.  He hadn’t seen me hailing him.  Tim confirmed he was in a rush at the time (as I’d thought), only having 40 minutes to get a meal and eat it before the game started.          

First up in the morning, I checked in on Aggie Soccer.  They had one game this week, after a disappointing road loss to Utah Tech last Sunday (which featured an own goal).  They won on this Saturday 1-0 over Sam Houston.  It was Loma McNeese’s eighth goal of the year and Makenna Gottschalk’s eighth shutout.

 

Since Ron was out-of-town this weekend, I made plans to go see dad and watch the #3 Alabama vs. #6 Tennessee game, both unbeaten.  Clay Travis had been promoting the game on Friday’s Clay & Buck Show.  My apologies to Aggie Softball, who were playing an exhibition double header today, and to Aggie Football.  I just didn’t want to go by myself today for these events.  I decided I’d be listening to the Aggie/Lobo Football game on radio that night.

There were four touchdowns in the first quarter of the AL/TN game, so I was feeling good about my decision to watch the game.  The Volunteers had taken early control of the game, but it was 28-20 TN by halftime.  (I’m not doing detailed recaps for all these games.)  Dad and I went for pizza at Roadrunner Pizza.  Dad has been economically forced to like their pizza.  He went to Dominos last week (without me) and it was way more expensive than this one that I bought.  (And it was a good pizza.  They’re great.)

Before we left to get the pizza, I’d been checking in on the football game on ABC, mostly because their ticker was showing baseball scores.  I’d unfortunately noted that the Phillies had beaten the Braves and would be moving on to the LCS, 8-3.  I was sort of rooting for the Braves, though not as much as last year.  While at Roadrunner Pizza, their TV had a sports show on recapping the game.  They reported on the unlikely inside-the-park home run by Philly catcher, JT Realmuto.  I saw the clip later.  It didn’t even look like he was running hard. 

 

Dad and I enjoyed the pizza as the AL/TN game kept getting more dramatic.  Alabama took a one-point lead, with a missed TN extra point being the difference.  With the scored tied late, TN fumbled an exchange near their own goal line, which was scooped for an AL touchdown.  

I kept checking back to the ABC game for baseball scores from the Mariners and Astros’s game, but suddenly found their football game more interesting.  #8 Oklahoma State had been handling #13 TCU pretty well in another battle of unbeaten teams.  By the end of the game, the Horned Frogs had managed to tie the score and force it to overtime.  TCU won it, 43-40, in double overtime.  The Fort Worth crowd rushed the field in celebration.

Dad was happy that my furious channel-flipping was finally over with (though he found the TCU/OKST game interesting).  Back to Knoxville, they were tied at 49.  AL missed a 50-yard field goal to win it with under a minute left.  With seconds left, TN managed to work the ball right downfield.  This set up for a last-second 40-yard field goal.  Chase McGrath, who’d missed a PAT earlier, kicked a knuckleball.  

Somehow with the sheer will of the crowd, the ball made it over the crossbar.  I don’t know if anybody expected that kick to go over.  They played the TN radio call and even their announcer was about to call it short.  The fans stormed the field and tore down the goalposts and threw them into the river, which was really rude given how nice that goalpost was in bending down for that kick.  It was almost like they hadn’t beaten Alabama in 15 years.  Amazingly, both quarterbacks were in tears at the end.  They'd played their hearts out.  52-49 Tennessee.  

I returned home in time to start listening to the Aggie/Lobo game.  When I turned on my computer, I was shocked to see that the Mariners/Astros game was still going on.  The Yankees and Guacamoles’ game had already long started.  Via Gameday, I kept track of the game, which ended 1-0 Astros after 18 innings and taking six hours and 22 minutes to play!  This eliminated M’s.  Thanks to the expanded playoffs (I’ll probably get into that issue for my World Series post) for ending their terrible playoff drought.  They went out hard.  

Back to the Aggie/Lobo game.  The Aggie defense in the football game was stout and didn’t allow a touchdown.  The offense, with Gavin Frakes in for the whole game, was good and scored three touchdowns.  This was enough to secure a 21-9 win in the I-25 Rivalry.  The 20k in attendance did not rush the field.  They were instead treated to a fireworks display. 

The Yankees/Guacamoles game seemed to be headed towards a Yankee win in the bottom of the ninth as they were up 5-3.  Watching Gameday, I suddenly saw the Guacs score a run and load the bases.  With two outs, a clutch single drove in two more runs to win the game and put the Yankees on the brink of elimination.  I admit, I wasn’t for Cleveland at all, but this opportunity to wreck the Yankees was too good not to root for.

 

The late College Football game on Fox was on with undefeated #7 USC at #20 Utah.  I wasn’t paying attention until around the end.  In the closing moments of the game, Utah, down a touchdown, scored.  Their coach has nuts of the steel, because he went for two at that point for win.  Yep, they did it.  They held on and won 43-42.  And the crowd stormed the field.  It was that kind of day.

The late MLB playoff game was the Dodgers and the Padres.  San Diego had somehow managed to push LA to the brink to make this a possible closeout game.  I saw the Dodgers go up by two, and I was afraid to watch at that point.  When I finally checked back later (I was watching old Benny Hill reruns), the Padres were up in the ninth and won it, 5-3.  Going back in the game, the Dodgers were up 3-0, until the Padres scored 5 in the seventh.  The crowd did not storm the field, but I’m sure they wanted to if they’d watched any college football today. 

 

And just like that, the Dodgers and their 111 regular season wins get to watch the World Series like I do, on TV, except I didn’t spend $263M.  The Padres, sans Fernando Tatis Jr., are going to the LCS to play the Phillies.  How unlikely was this outcome?  This will be the first LCS between two teams with less than 90 wins each. 

 

Wow, what a day!  Even during that AL/TN game, dad and I had both remarked on hating football.  There were an interminable number of flags and bad calls that dragged out the game.  I didn’t get to see or hear any of the baseball while they were playing.  And yet, I got caught up in the drama and emotion that played out in these games.  This was one of those rare days that truly remind you why you’re a sports fan.