Okay, let’s get real.
I haven’t been covering baseball this year and I barely watched the
postseason. Baseball is still my
favorite sport. I really enjoyed the El Paso Chihuahuas run to PCL Championship. That took up a lot of my attention during the
season. The MLB team I was rooting for, the Padres, got shot in the foot twice by Fernando Tatis Jr. They
still made it to the NLCS by beating
the Dodgers. That was kind of awesome, but they never
seemed like World Series winners.
On the other hand, who had the Philadelphia Phillies as the National
League champs at any point of this season?
They fired their manager early on, lost Bryce Harper for significant time, and he couldn’t play the field
when he returned. Still, they caught
fire when they made it into the postseason.
I was rooting for them. I wanted
Harper to have some redemption after he’d joined the team as a free agent, only
to watch his previous team, the Washington
Nationals, immediately win the World Series without him.
The Astros were
a good pick. They had the best record in
the American League and seemed to
have the Yankees’ number all season.
However, they’d left a bad taste in
people’s mouths after their 2017 World Series win when their sign-stealing
scheme was exposed. I was actually ambivalent. Since then, the team has lost their GM, their
manager, and two great players all from that winning team. And they haven’t missed a beat.
I wasn’t for the Astros, but I was okay with them
winning. This was another redemption arc
of sorts. If they’re still cheating,
they’re doing a heck of a job of hiding it.
I’ll take it at face value that they’re just a really good baseball
organization. I appreciate that the
Astros aren’t just trying to buy their championships. (Ahem. Dodgers and Yankees. Okay, that’s not fair. They’re smart organizations, too.)
I felt good for Dusty
Baker, the Astros’ manager. Granted,
he was something of a diversity-hire that was meant to deflect any criticism
from him replacing AJ Hinch. Yeah, Dusty had plenty of successful managerial
experience, but he hadn’t won it all and seemed to be basically put out to
pasture, as his age worked against him getting hired elsewhere. Dusty didn’t cry upon winning, instead he was
happy as a kid on Christmas. That was
good to see.
Okay, let’s get to the report card. As usual, my pre-season
report was a litany of prognostication failure. I had some happy miscalculations. The Orioles
resurgence and run at the postseason, I think delighted everyone. Keep an eye them next year. Cleveland
also surprised everyone, but screw them and their crappy new name. The Mets
and Braves did fight it out all
season long for the NL East. I got that right, but having the Blue Jays winning it all was just dumb. I can’t wait to look like a fool next year. In the meantime, I’ll probably do a Hot Stove recap at some point this winter.
NASCAR
Championship
The day after the baseball season ended, NASCAR’s did as well. I hate the Chase format. It’s contrived
and somewhat fixed, as drivers not in the championship are almost obliged to
pull over for those who are. Its set up
to produce a dramatic end and then pretty much fails to do so. It does make it easier on the broadcasters,
who really only have to call four drivers’ activities on track.
Even if the format was good, the chosen venue for the
event at Phoenix can only produce a
boring race. Homestead-Miami used to be in that spot before the Chase to
basically coronate a champion, not to have an exciting race. Phoenix seemed to be chosen because of
climate. It’s track unlikely to be
rained or snowed out in November. If you
have to do this Chase thing, fine, run it at a road course or a Daytona for some real drama. Imagine all four Chasers taken out in one
wreck. Oh, that’d be awesome and would finally
end the format.
So, it was a lousy race, though the contenders were intriguing. You had Chase
Elliot, past champion and had won the most races this season. There was Ross Chastain, who’d nipped out Denny Hamlin with a move that will live forever in NASCAR. He’d also had a surprisingly great, if not very
interesting, season. Christopher Bell, who still looks 17,
had won twice in the Chase in “walk-off” fashion to advance to this final
round. Clutch. However, the day belonged to Joey Logano. Him and his crew were perfect in the race, as
he started on pole and led most of it.
After winning, Joey seemed lightyears ahead in maturity in his postrace
interview compared to previous years. I
felt okay with him winning. Given the
format and the venue, he’d played it all correct.
There were two major bummers right at the beginning. Before the ceremonies, it was announced that Coy Gibbs had died. He was Joe
Gibbs’ son and Ty Gibbs’
father. Ty had just won the Xfinity Championship the previous
day. (Ty is also the biggest villain in
NASCAR. I don’t know if winning changed
that opinion.) Coy was 50-ish and
suddenly died in his sleep for no given reason.
That seems to be going around a lot.
The other problem was that right before the race started,
there was a commercial condemning anti-Semitism. What’s wrong with that? Ask Kayne
West, Kyrie Irving, and Elon Musk and get back to me. I was with my dad and friend Ron watching the
race. I bit my tongue, not wanting to go
into some sort of tirade. Granted, that
would have been more interesting than race.
College
Football
After watching Tennessee
beat Alabama in an epic game a couple
of weeks ago, everyone was looking forward to the Volunteers playing Georgia. Inexplicably, though both teams were
undefeated, Georgia had been dropped from #1 to #3, with Tennessee taking over
the top spot. With the Bulldogs playing
at home and coming off of being insulted by the press, it wasn’t even close as
Georgia easily covered. This is why
college football can be hard to watch at times.
There can be upsets, but usually its blowouts.
Aggie
Volleyball
Oh, boy. They lost
on Thursday to Utah Valley. Unlike their loss to SFA last week, the Aggies did play hard, but were overwhelmed. Molly
Johnson had a career game with 18 kills.
This loss had put them ninth in conference and out of the tournament. Luckily, they were playing Seattle U next, who were winless in
conference.
Five sets later, the Aggies squeaked out a 15-13 win in the final set. Oh, my God.
They’re worse than I thought. Katie Birtcil seems to be hurt or every
team has her well game-planned. Once
again, Molly stepped up with an awesome 37 kills in the match. The Aggies’ last two matches for the regular
season are at home and I’m set to see them.
They’re back in the tournament with the win and their next two opponents
are beneath them in the standings.
Meanwhile, I’d gotten this in the mail last week. It’s pretty cool. At least it allows me to remember better
times for the Volleyball team.
A great iconic image of Johnny McCants.
Here’s a sweet pic of Cat
Kelly.
Aggie
Soccer
Finally, I have some news I’m enthusiastic about. Aggie
Soccer won the WAC Championship
on Sunday! Ron and I were following
along with the team’s Twitter feed during the race. Check out this tournament stat line: the
Aggies scored 3 goals in 3 games and gave up 0.
With three shutouts, goalie Makenna
Gottschalk was the tournament MVP.
Four other Aggies made the first team, including Tati Jerman. Tati picked a great time to get her first two goals of the season, both obviously game-winners. One was on a penalty kick. Sofia Beerworth won the first tournament game with a goal in double overtime. (The two OT’s were required by the tournament rules and there were no “golden goals” awarded, so all 20 minutes were played out.) On to the NCAA tournament ladies! Melika at work had talked to them last year (when she was on the Softball team) and they'd told her, this would be their year.
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