The tradition
continues (“like no other”) though it’s going to be missing the usual. There’s no NASCAR or F1 on this
greatest weekend in motorsports. I
haven’t seen any NASCAR this season.
Surprisingly, I really haven’t missed it. I probably will next month when I don’t have
much else to do, but NBC will pick it up in July and I can watch again.
Aggie
Baseball and Softball Postseasons
I agonized about going to the Softball Tournament. I have
been to two tournaments (2017
and 2018),
which both resulted in the Aggie
Softball winning championships. I
wasn’t quite as confident about this time.
Given my workload, I didn’t know about taking three days off. With a $60 tournament pass (up from $25 the
last time), I would be committed to going to all four days regardless of the
results.
After looking at the schedule, I noticed that there would
be a noon game every day, which meant I could have gone to see a game before going
to work. But I just couldn’t do it. Between sitting out in the sun and my aching
back, I didn’t think I could be there and enjoy it. (The previous tournaments were a labor to sit
through.)
Boy did I regret that decision after the first game at
noon, which featured the Aggies winning in extra innings. Desirae
Spearman stole home early in the game.
Des and Dezianna Patmon both
solo homered in the seventh to send it to extras. Jillian
Taylor hit a walk off homer to win it.
The next day, also a noon game, the Aggies run ruled #1 seed Liberty.
They played a third noon game the next day and lost and
were eliminated later in the evening by Liberty, who would win the tournament
on Saturday. Jill did give the crowd one
last highlight in the Aggies’ final game, as she went over the wall to bring
back a home run. (That’s my girl!) So, I could have seen the Aggies three times
just going at noon without taking any days off, but I couldn’t have known that
beforehand. Sorry.
There was a news report on Sunday about Desirae. She was the C-USA Player of the Year.
Des was promoting a softball camp in El Paso at her alma mater, Hanks High School (mine, too). She’s ambitious. I kind hope this means that Desirae will
stick around at NMSU, at least as
long as Coach Rodolph is there.
After their two
wins over #1 in conference, La Tech,
Aggie Baseball went on to split a
pair with TCU. That was their second win this season over a
Power Five conference team. However, they
then lost two of three to WKU going
into the C-USA tournament. Their run
only lasted for two games, where they lost to DBU (who’d been nationally ranked) and were eliminated the next day
by WKU. I think the good news is that this team is a
definite improvement over last year. If
this Aggie team was still in the WAC,
they might be contending, but the bad news is that they are in a much better
baseball conference.
MLB
I’m looking pretty good to this point on my World
Series prediction. The Phillies
have the best record in baseball.
Everything else was self-evident or I’ve been surprised by. I’ve been listening to Rangers and Chihuahuas
games on the radio. (The pups are having
a down season again.) I’ve been
pleasantly surprised that MLB.TV
hasn’t been blacking out a bunch of games like they were. I’ve been able to watch the Rangers, Rockies, and Astros. So far, there’s been
an odd preponderance of the A’s and Tigers on their free games. I’m okay with it.
The Yankees and
Orioles are at the top of the AL
East. Aggie Kyle Bradish is thankfully back pitching for the O’s. Cleveland
is leading the Central and the Royals
are looking pretty good. The AL West is
a toss-up. So far, it’s the Mariners and everyone else is sub-500,
but even the A’s are competitive. The
Astros early season swoon appears to be over, but they’re still not looking
great. The Rangers’ injuries are
hobbling them badly, but they’re in second.
The Phillies own the NL East. The Braves
have had their injury issues and are looking mediocre. The Central is up for grabs. The Brewers
are the surprising leader for now (Aggie Joey
Ortiz is a regular player with them) and the Reds are at the bottom, which is also surprising. The Pirates’
new pitching prospect, Paul Skenes,
looks like Stephen Strassberg when
he first came into the league before his injuries set in. Aggie Nick
Gonzales is back up with them and hitting well. He had a walk off hit the other day. I’m excited.
The Dodgers are already
pulling away in the West. The Padres, Giants, and D-Backs aren’t
bad and will be fighting for Wild Card berths.
Saturday
After a long week (they all seem long now), I made it to
the weekend with little in the way of plans.
I executed on that lack of planning by doing nothing. At least I had baseball to keep me
company.
I got lucky turning on the radio in the morning and
running into the start of ESPN Radio’s coverage of the Blue Jays at the Tigers. They were also the
free game last night on MLB.TV and
the Jays won on a late rally. I was
surprised by the cheering I was hearing for the Jays, but then I remembered
Detroit was next to Canada. (Games in Seattle also get plenty of Canadian
fans for the Jays.)
It was a good thing I came in on time for this game. It ran just a little over two hours. Blink and you’d have missed it. The Tigers
came out on top in this 2-1
pitchers’ duel. Tiger pitcher, Reese Olson, who’d gone into the game
with a hard luck 0-5 record and a low ERA in the 2’s, came out of it with his
first win and a sub-2 ERA.
I really enjoyed the commentary from Dave Jageler and color from Greg
Olson. Even with short game and
quickened pace, they managed to keep it fun and lively and informative. I mention this mostly because I noticed a
puff piece interview with Joe Buck
on Youtube. I didn’t watch it, but it was titled that Buck
“Didn’t care what the fans thought of him.”
Yeah, right back at you, pal. FOX actually replaced his hysterical
woman-like call of the game with some guy that sounds like the game is
interrupting his nap time. There are so
many good announcers out there, like Jason
Benetti and Jon Sciambi. Why were tortured with Buck for so long?
I did have a dilemma during the game. Coverage of the Rangers’ game with the Twins
started a half hour after the Tigers’ game started. Well, I couldn’t possibly listen to two
radios at the same time, could I? Of
course, I could! I was mostly listening
to the Tigers and walking over to hear the Rangers on another radio during the
breaks. The Tigers’ game was through six
innings before the Rangers’ game started the second, so that strategy seemed
like a good one.
The Rangers had lost a close one last night for their fifth-straight
loss. Just as the Tigers’ game finished,
I could hear them shouting on the other radio.
Ezequiel Duan had hit his
first home run of the year and his second deck blast put the Rangers up 2-1 in
the fourth.
Things started going downhill later. In the seventh, manager Bruce Bochy was ejected after questioning a foul tip strikeout for
his pitcher. Umpire Laz Diaz, had made the correct call initially (on video replay)
that it had been caught by catcher, but the third base ump changed the call in
conference afterward. This resulted in a
walk, which loaded the bases, and then a sac fly made it 3-2 Rangers. Duran threw out a runner at home from the
outfield that ended the inning, which would have tied the score. Finally, a three-run Twins’ home run in the
eighth would decide it. 5-3 Twins, for the Rangers’
sixth-straight loss.
I watched a couple of short PBS WWII documentaries in the afternoon, so don’t say I didn’t do
anything for Memorial Day. In the evening, I listened to the Chihuahuas play the Rivercats on the radio. On TV, I sort of watched a couple of women’s professional
soccer games on ION. The network, which normally shows cop shows,
has been running double headers on Saturday nights. Alex
Morgan has been injured, so I’m not getting much out of this. Occasionally, the play is lively and
interesting. This just makes me miss the
Aggie Soccer girls.
The Chihuahuas
won their second in a row, 9-5. It was 9-0 after four innings, so there
wasn’t much drama. The Rivercats got
four of their runs off of a pair of two-run homers. The offending players were booed as they
rounded the bases.
At the conclusion of the game, I was finally able to tune
in KOA to listen to the Rockies and the Phillies. The Rockies were
leading 3-2 in the bottom of sixth. The signal
kept fading in and out. Regrettably, I
did get to listen to the ninth, where the Phillies
scored six runs and ended up winning, 8-4. At least my World Series pick is still on track. In the out-of-town scoreboard segment, Joey Ortiz was mentioned in Brewers’ win over Red Sox. Also, the Astros
and Mariners lost today to keep up the race to the bottom in the AL West with
the Rangers.
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