Baseball Notebook September 2024

I only noted three games in September, but I had quite a bit to say about them.

 

9-22-24

For the last time this season, the Chihuahuas and the Rangers would be on the radio at the same time.  I really wanted to listen to both games, though.  This was the final Chihuahuas game and the final Rangers home game. 

 

The Rangers started an hour before.  They weren’t playing for anything, but their opponent, the Mariners, was trying to get into the playoffs.  Corey Seager is out for surgery.  Evan Carter never made it back.  Max Scherzer made it back but was scratched for the season a couple of days ago.  At least, Jacob DeGrom and Josh Jung are recovered and playing.  There have been a couple of revelations in Josh Smith and Wyatt Langford. 

 

The Rangers went down 5-0, but there was a full house in Arlington and the team didn’t want to disappoint.  They tied it in the seventh.  A Wyatt Langford three-run homer in previous inning got them most of the way there.  In the bottom of the ninth, the Rangers got a single, a stolen base, and an RBI single by Marcus Semien to win it, 6-5.  This was their biggest comeback of the season.

 

Meanwhile, the Chihuahuas were playing to a full house in Las Vegas.  They’d knocked out the Aviators from their playoff hopes as part of the pup’s 10-game winning streak.  As the bonus, the Chihuahuas would be avoiding finishing in last place. 

 

I found out that it wasn’t bad reception that spoiled last night’s game for me.  I could hear the commercials fine, but not the game.  It was the same thing today.  Their volume was low for the game broadcast, but I could hear it better.  I just had to turn it down during the commercials. 

 

This was a tight game.  Tirso Ornelas hit two home runs and the Chihuahuas took a one-run lead into the ninth and added an insurance run in the top.  They’d played with fire all week having to come back from behind and nearly lost it last night after an error in the bottom of the ninth to put the tying run on third.  It finally caught up to them here.  The Aviators managed to load the bases with no outs in the bottom and scored all of them to win it, 6-5. 

 

Still, it was fun, and after enduring two 10-game losing streaks, this last week of the season has been great.  Tim Hagerty’s send off at the end of the final game is always so sad, but the tears of a bad season always water the hope of the next. 

 

9-27-24

“This is it,” said Eric Nadel for the introduction of today’s game between the Rangers and the A’s.  This would be the last time the Coliseum, and maybe the city of Oakland, would be hosting an MLB game after over 50 years of baseball there.  Their iconic GM, Billy Beane, had passed away recent, so he didn’t have to see this.  (I’d also read Moneyball last month.  Beane did a tremendous job of keeping the team competitive with a very low payroll.) 

 

The media and fans there have villainized A’s owner, John Fisher, for planning to move the team to Sacramento and then to Las Vegas, rather than finding a new home in Oakland.  I view him as the last rat fleeing a sinking ship, as the Golden State Warriors and the Raiders have already abandoned the city.  There was something of an MLB mandate for the A’s to find a new stadium now, as them and the Rays have holding up possible expansion of the league.

 

I was listening to the Rangers’ radio broadcast, but they spent much of their time talking about the Oakland fans and the stadium.  Eric had many memories there (mostly not happy ones for Ranger fans).  Matt Hicks mentioned he had already personally gone through this as a 10-year-old, when his Washington Senators left for Arlington.  He’d been at their last game. 

 

Eric interviewed Manager Bruce Bochy, who was “bothered” by today’s events.  That’s strong language coming from him.  Matt had rode over to the stadium via BART with a bunch of A’s and Rangers’ fans.  Instead of interviewing a player for the pregame, he went into the stands and spoke to three lady A’s fans and a Rangers fan all sitting together.  The ladies were long time fans and even legacy fans. 

 

There was a good contingent Ranger fans there, as this final game was known about at the beginning of the season and many of them wanted to be there for it.  The Ranger fan being interviewed was there on a tour the nation’s ballparks with his daughter.  They’d come just for the final game and even he was emotional being there.  He wasn’t the only one.  A’s great, Dave Stewart, had said he was in denial up until this morning when he broke down in tears.  Another A’s great, Barry Zito, sang the Anthem and the team took the field to a standing ovation. 

 

There was, of course, a full house for the game (over 46,000) and even a full parking lot of tailgaters.  Fans and attendants inside were seen hugging everywhere.  There were fans still coming in well after the game started.  The field mics were picking up a continuous low roar from the crowd.  They would pipe up at times with chants of, “Sell the team!”  I remember these fans had filled that stadium last year for a “Buy-cott” game trying to show that they could sustain the team if it was kept in Oakland.

 

The Rangers had also closed out the Kingdome playing against the Mariners’ there.  That was a different circumstance, as the team was just moving into a nice new stadium in the same city.  Also, Eric noted, “It was a terrible facility.”  While the broadcasters praised the Coliseum today, it’s a dump.  I haven’t been there, but I’ve seen two different streamers take tours in the facility and point out all the warts.  The Ranger guys have also picked in the small crowds in Oakland.  I will say the videos did show how great the hardcore fans were there.  

 

During the game, it was reported that Charlie Blackmon hit a home run today at Coors Field to the approval of the Rangers’ broadcasters, as he’s going to be retiring at the end of the season.  Stuff was tossed on the field in the seventh to the disapproval of the vast majority of the crowd.  In the top of the ninth, a couple of fans ran on the field and a couple of smoke bombs were tossed.  I think a pitch was waved off at one point for a disruption.  Given that the A’s were winning, I think that the crowd just wanted the game to finish peacefully.  (If they were losing . . . eh?)

 

The A’s won, 3-2.  I suppose the only relevant detail of the game was that a Ranger outfielder dropped a flyball in the sun that scored a run, as Josh Hamilton did in 2012, which handed the A’s the AL West that year.  The final result probably didn’t make the fans feel any better, but it made them feel no worse.  Even Jared Sandler on Rangers broadcast and a lifelong fan admitted he was okay with the Rangers not winning this one.  Eric agreed. 

 

The teams had been advised to evacuate the field right after the game, but the A’s stayed on the field to salute the fans.  The A’s manager, Mark Kotsay, addressed the crowd with some pauses from being choked up.  He led the crowd in one more, “Let’s go Oakland!” chant.

 

Nobody left the stands after the game.  Given the crowd, leaving might have been difficult anyway.  It was sort of a party/wake.  A player, Max Schuemann, ran around with an Oakland flag and planted it behind home plate.  He got a hug from Stomper, the team’s elephant mascot. 

 

It was an otherwise meaningless game between two non-contending teams at the end of the season that weren’t playing for anything.  And yet, this was far more emotional than probably any other game so far this season.