Sunday
I started watching a Blondie
marathon Saturday night. The Catchy Comedy network was showing the
old movies and they are funny stuff.
They did a bunch of these in the 40’s.
There were running gags going through them, like Dagwood running over
the mailman. It was like a sitcom
series, but for the movies. Penny Singleton is extremely
charismatic as the titular character (and also the voice of Jane Jetson). Watching the kid actors grow up over the
series was a trip. I’d forgotten that
there was also a string very classy hotties guest-starring in these movies as
well.
I’m only mentioning this because there was a four-hour
rain delay before the Indy 500
started. I had plenty of time to watch Blondie.
This year, this would also be my only Memorial Day race. Monaco’s F1 race was moved to ESPN, while ABC instead showed the NHL playoffs. (The NY
Rangers beat the Florida Panthers
in OT. They’re still early in the
Western Conference final.)
Also, dad was sick, so I was watching at home. He said he didn’t need anything other than
rest, so I just called a couple of times to check in on him. He sounded better in the evening and did get
up to watch the end of the race. This
left me in some suspense, as I wasn’t sure about dad or the race, so I just sat
around waiting. I wanted to rest my sore
back, anyway.
The Rangers
were playing the Twins at noon on
the radio to keep me company. Corey Seager hit a couple of home runs
in the game to help give the Rangers
a 6-2 win and break their losing
streak. After Seager’s second homer in
the fifth, the Indy coverage said they were an hour away from starting the race
and dad said he was going to keep sleeping.
I hadn’t eaten yet, so I took off next door to 5 Guys.
They’d sort of fallen out of favor with me. (Legend
Burger in the mall is better for the same inflated price.) I got my usual plain hot dog and they gave me
a bunch of fries. It was really
good. The last two dogs I’d had there
had had stale buns, but this one was fresh and perfect. Still, dad had mentioned getting pizza today
on Friday. This was a bit of a comedown.
I was a little shocked by the sunny skies over Indy when
the race started. It was overcast and
raining hard earlier. The Thunderbirds themselves were there for
the Anthem flyover. They made a surprise
return for Back Home in Indiana and
finished with a crowd-pleasing bomb burst over the track. (Wait.
Not actually bombing the track.
They were flying in formation and then flew apart at the same time.)
The main storyline going into the race was NASCAR driver, Kyle Larson, was planning on doing the “Double” today. The rain was messing up his tight schedule,
but I was shocked he said, “Indy is the priority today.” He would stick it out, as long as there was a
chance of running the race today. Jimmie Johnson was there doing some
pre-race commentary with Danica Patrick. He did bump out before the start of the race
to go race in Charlotte today.
The first wreck happened even before the first lap
finished. Four cars were out almost
immediately in the race for different reasons.
Katherine Legge’s engine blew
up 23 laps in. They were still running
her sponsor commercial after she was out.
There was another blow up and a couple more solo crashes before we got
inside 50 to go. Larson did lead late,
but that was due to a pit stop error earlier and he ended up on a different
strategy.
Josef
Newgarden and Alexander
Rossi started trading the lead as the laps wound down. Pato
O’Ward forced his way into second and passed for the lead with five to go
to the cheers of the crowd. (He’s got a
lot of fans.) Newgarden retook the lead
with four to go, but Pato was in front to start the final lap. Newgarden made the final pass for the lead
coming out of the backstretch and took the checkers.
Josef had won last year and had memorably rushed into the
crowd at the finish line. (Wait. He got out of his car first and then went
into the crowd.) He did so again this
time and went around further. Josef had
to sit down for a minute before his interview.
The exercise had winded him. He
and his crew had been penalized after the first race of the season and stripped
of the win. With much of his regular crew
still suspended, this win was some vindication.
I’d mentioned Newgarden to a co-worker on Friday and said
he had “matinee idol” looks. She looked
at some of his pictures online and didn’t think he was that handsome. Good grief, this guy makes my heart flutter a
little. She either has impossibly high
standards or a really specific taste in men.
Poor Pato. He sat
in his car with his head down after the race.
To know how much this race means to the drivers, just look the reaction
of the winner and the guy who came in second.
Kyle Larson took off in a helicopter after the race to catch a private
jet. He finished 18-th. That’s pretty awesome for a rookie. He was on his way to the NASCAR race, though
it had probably been going on for two hours.
(And he didn’t to race. It was
rained out halfway through.)
The Chihuahuas
started their game with the Rivercats
right after the race ended. Sacramento
went up 3-0 early. It also got chippie. After the third hit batter (hit in the back),
the benches cleared (no fighting), and both teams were warned.
In the bottom of the fourth, a Rivercat player going after
a flyball, hit the wall hard enough to open the gate. He lost his hat and mitt, but still managed
to throw the ball back in and hold the batter to a triple, instead of an
inside-the-park home run. The fielder
had to come out after the play. The pups
get two runs in the inning to make it, 3-2.
In the sixth, the Rivercats exploded for six runs to make
it, 9-2. Broadcaster Tim Haggerty started focusing on doing
out-of-town scores after that. In the eighth,
Mason McCoy stole home on a loose
ball at the plate. The crowd loved it. The Chihuahuas scored a couple more, but left
the bases loaded. McCoy also made a
great diving play in the ninth, but pups didn’t have another rally in them and
lost, 9-4.
Monday
Well, this recap is going to be quick and
anticlimactic. The Chihuahuas and Rangers
had the day off and the Rockies were
playing a day game I couldn’t get on the radio.
I was lucky that on Friday, KROD
announced that they’d be carrying the Dodgers
and the Mets in the afternoon, so
wouldn’t be shutout.
Unless there was a rain out. I was lucky I tuned in on time and got the message. I did try to watch tennis, after going out to get a slice of somewhat questionable pizza at the mall. I lasted my usual 30 seconds. Even watching my hero, Novak Djokovic, I couldn’t put up with the grunting. I ended up watching some old sitcoms, reading a Conan trade paperback (which I’ll be reviewing in the near future), and taking an impromptu nap. Well, not the worst way to spend the day off.
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