Post World Series Sports Report Part 1

 

For the first time this year, I’m took a week off from work.  I scheduled it to watch the World Series.  I was terrified I’d be watching the Yankees and Dodgers play, but I had to take the time off and didn’t have anything else planned.  Let’s cover some other sports first though.

 

NFL

I’ve actually watched and listened to some games.  I still hate the league.  The NFL did some social justice crap on their opening weekend, but signaled that they wouldn’t do more than that afterward.  (Barring a couple of FOX announcers, Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, mocking the military during a flyover.  That incident is still being investigated, so we’re not sure exactly what that was about.)  The first Sunday featured a marquee matchup between Tom Brady with his new team, the Buccaneers, versus Drew Brees and the Saints.  The game, unfortunately, wasn’t that great. 

 

I’ve listened to some Cowboys games on the radio, mostly out of loyalty to Brad Sham and Babe Laufenberg, their broadcasters.  Quarterback Dak Prescott led an amazing comeback against the Falcons, but the Cowboys have been a terrible disappointment this season.  Dak’s ankle then got broke, putting him out for the season.  This only led to questions about whether Dak was going to get his big contract or not.  I am getting so sick of the professional sports world revolving around somebody getting the next gigantic contract, especially players who haven’t won anything. 

 

NHL

The Tampa Bay Lightning won the Stanley Cup.  Contrary to what I thought would happen, the players didn’t seem to miss the fans being there at all when they won.  Fortunately with the season over, their social justice messaging also ended.  There was bad news a couple of weeks after the championship.  Mike “Doc” Emrick announced his retirement.  He was my favorite play-by-play announcer.  Calling hockey games is very difficult, yet Doc made it look effortless.

 

NBA

Speaking of ending, the full-on social justice mission of the association was successful.  Racism ended because of Lebron James’ efforts.  Winning the championship on top of that was fully deserved.  Lebron didn’t have to demand my respect during his celebration like he did.  I give it freely. 

 

(Ratings were down 50% from last year.  The Michael Jordan documentary ratings this summer beat every playoff game.  The NBA officially said the social justice experiment was over starting next season.  They wouldn’t dare do protests in front of paying customers, assuming they show back up.  Lebron is now the most hated player in professional sports.)

 

Soccer

I feel like my criticism from last time was repeated and heard by the women of the NWSL.  A white player interviewed in the pregame was wearing a shirt that read, “You don’t have to be black to be outraged.”  They didn’t take a knee for the Anthem the last time I saw the beginning of a game, but did take a knee for a “moment of silence.”  We’re still protesting you viewers, but we’re hoping you’re dumb enough to not notice.

 

Out of the seven or eight games I’ve looked in on, I’ve only recognized three players from the US national team (and especially no Alex Morgan).  I think most of the games have also ended in ties too, including a dreaded nil-nil decision.  This weekend’s game did see one of the teams go up 3-0 at halftime.  It was 3-2 when I tuned back during extra time.  I flipped away for like 10 seconds.  When I got back, the score was tied at 3-3.  I slapped my chair in anger at missing every one of the six goals in the game.

 

Meanwhile, the El Paso Locomotive beat the New Mexico United to advance to the Western Conference final in the USL for the second year in a row.  Well done, lads.  (I would have watched, but the ALCS Game 7 was on at the same time.)  All three meetings between these teams this season occurred in El Paso.  The Lobos football team has permission to play in Albuquerque, but not the United.  Explain that to me.   

 

The Conference final came on late Saturday night the next week against Phoenix.  I was surprised, since I’d heard on the radio that there wouldn’t be local TV coverage.  Unfortunately, the World Series was on at the same time, but there ended up being plenty of soccer after the baseball was over.  Given that a bunch of the players were wearing BLM armbands, I didn’t feel too bad about missing most of it.  When I did tune in, the commentators were talking about some opponent of Phoenix that had taken themselves out of the playoffs because one of their players had used a gay slur during the game or something like that.  Some groups of people in this country are just above criticism and mockery, and offenders must be punished.  It’s as American as apple pie. 

 

A 1-1 regulation tie against Phoenix brought about two 15-minute OT periods (and I think they play the whole time out regardless of any scoring).  When this failed to produce a winner, they went to penalty kicks.  A bunch of the crowd suddenly seemed to be leaving, but actually they crowded around the rear of the goal to watch.  This was the third week in a row for PK’s for the Locomotive and it proved one too many as they lost out.   

 

College Football

Conference-USA started their season first before the major conferences got their act together.  Because of this, their teams got two weeks of more national exposure than they’d ever had before.  The Big 10 announced early that they were canceling out of the fall season.  They assumed the other big conferences would follow suit, but they didn’t.  After some Midwestern political ads blamed Trump for no Big 10 football, he immediately started working to get them playing this year, which they are.   

 

I got to watch a couple of good games with my dad’s friend, while dad was out of town on a trip.  I’ve been making appointment time to watch college games since the season started.  Unfortunately, there have been constant cancelations and reschedules do to positive cold test results.  I’ll watch what I can get.  I’ve said that a good college game will be more entertaining than a good NFL game.  The problem is that some many of the college games are complete mismatches, so you don’t know when you’re going to get a good game. 

 

Unfortunately, there’s still been irritating social justice sprinkled into the games.  It’s the networks and the teams behind it.  Not to say that the players aren’t for it, but they have no power and no money to do it in college sports.  The networks have gone out of their way to highlight whatever subtle protests the players are part of during the game.  The more pronounced this gets, the more I reconsider my viewing. 

 

Tennis

I watched a French Open Women’s match and enjoyed it.  I’m as surprised as anyone.  I tried to tune back in for the finals, but missed them.  I’m not sure if they were on cable or if I wasn’t looking in on the right station.  (The coverage has changed networks from where they used to be.)  I’m a bit embarrassed.    

 

Boxing

I tuned in for the next “big” fight between two guys I hadn’t heard of this Saturday.  Teofimo Lopez dominated the first half of the fight with Vasyl Lomachenko.  I was completely regretting watching, but eventually the two started really mixing it up.  In the twelfth round with only seconds left, Loma opened up a cut over Lopez’s right eye.  It started spurting blood.  The ref had to stop the fight, so that it could be bandaged.  He was probably lucky that didn’t happen earlier.  Lopez ended up winning in a unanimous decision.  I felt only slightly cheated for having watched.

 

NASCAR

It was such a great thing that there were fans at the Talladega race this fall.  They got to see Bubba Wallace leading the race late.  Then they got to cheer as he was pushed into the wall.  The commentators unsurprisingly had nothing to say about the cheering.  Then I got to be irritated as the race ran long and was red-flagged for a wreck.  NBC then dumped the coverage on to their cable channel.  Where I live, the station then went right to an infomercial.  Damn.

 

The next weekend, they were racing at the Charlotte “Roval.”  While the Xfinity race on Saturday was prepared to run in the rain, a heavy downpour stopped the race.  Dale Jr. commented on the wet racing carnage, “I feel bad for enjoying this as much as I am.”  It was finished later (say it with me) on cable.  The Cup race on Sunday didn’t happen for me as neither of my NBC affiliates came in over the air.  This was really annoying, but not as annoying as when I found out that AJ Allmendinger and Chase Elliot, two of my favorite drivers, won those races.  At least I was able to watch this weekend’s races without issue. 

 

Other Racing

Indycar had their season-ending race in St. Petersburg, where they would have normally started the season.  The race was mostly uneventful for the first half, but then there were several accidents in a row, including the leader, Alexander Rossi, crashing.  Scott Dixon avoided all of the carnage and won his seventh championship.  His nearest competitor, Josef Newgarden, won the race, including passing two cars with the same move for the lead.  He did all he could.

 

Right after that race was a MotoGP race from Spain.  Two riders crashed out at the start and then the race leader crashed soon afterward.  I was watching with my dad.  He couldn’t believe the spectacle of these guys laying the bikes over sideways around the corners.  Admittedly, it wasn’t that great a race though, but at least it was short.  There was only one commercial break during the race, which was prerecorded, because the Indycar race had run long with all the wrecks.  

Part 2                      

Another Pre-Labor Day Sports Update Part 1

NBA

I’m not entirely sure I want to write this.  On the other hand, I can’t resist.  (On the other hand, you should have seen the stuff I deleted after two editing passes.)  There was breaking news last weekend that would affect the sports world that I ignored in my previous update last week.  I was done with what I meant to write about and didn’t want to hold it back to wait on a developing story.  I was also hoping it would just go away.  No such luck.  I’m not commenting on the news event (the shooting), just the sporting reaction. 

Before the NBA post season started, a WNBA player announced her retirement to dedicate her time to social justice.  She was roundly applauded.  However, when an NBA player said he wouldn’t play and didn’t think it was appropriate that the league play at all, ESPN couldn’t stutter out a counter-argument fast enough.  “No, no, no!  You must play! (We need the content!)”  So, they played.  (No, I’m not going to the trouble of naming the players mentioned.  Who cares who they are?)

A couple of days after the shooting, the NBA players suddenly heard about it and decided to do something (or were, more likely, told to).  Two teams decided they wouldn’t play their scheduled game.  Then in a player meeting, Lebron James and his Lakers, along with the Clippers (and maybe the Bucks), voted to end the season.  (Lebron just didn’t want to keep playing and lose in the finals again as usual.)  The other teams wanted to play and overruled them. 

To save Lebron’s face, they negotiated to take a couple of days off instead and then resume play, but only if racism was ended in this country.  Thankfully that happened, so they started playing again.  If electing a black president twice didn’t solve racism, I’m not sure how a bunch of basketball players quitting the NBA playoffs was going to do it either.  I’m sure the WNBA players wearing shirts with fake bullet holes didn’t help.  (That was real sign of good taste ladies.) 

The NBA had just had a racist incident right before all this happened.  A black player had racially insulted a white player on court.  Yeah, I’m shocked too.  I didn’t know there were any white players in the league either.  He’s European of course.  This led to the black player apologizing to the white player on court before the next game and the white player being forced to accept it.  The white player also scored over 40 points, had a triple double, and hit the game winning shot.  (No, I’m still looking up who the players are.  I don’t know them and I don’t care.)  If he’d used a gay slur, the black player would have had to have apologized for that too (it’s happened), so that’s sort of consistent?   

ESPN Radio

Just last week, I was crowing about a couple of flaming liberals being replaced by a hard sports guy over the air.  Well, that small victory didn’t last long.  ESPN Radio was curiously rooting on the cessation of the NBA season.  (So was I.)  Perhaps their poor ratings for the post season to this point were motivating them.  Maybe they wanted the season to end before it became more embarrassing. 

The new guy was hyperbolically calling this break, “Historic,” and comparing it to other noteworthy sporting events with black athletes like Jackie Robinson, Jessie Owens, and Mohamed Ali.  ESPN figured the news story was worth more than the teams actually playing.  We’ll never know.  Most of the players just wanted to get paid.  The Disney executives wanted content for ESPN.  I guess China wanted them to keep playing too.  They pretty much set policy for the NBA.  As big a sports fan as I am, I’ve definitively been able to put them and everyone involved in perspective now.  That said, I can’t wait to see what new protests they’ll come up with next.       

NHL

Of course, hockey had to get back into the social justice act.  They went from their slogan being, “We skate for black lives,” to “We skate for victory (and other stuff)” last week, back to black lives.  I don’t know if any games were postponed, but at least they stood for the Anthems (American and Canadian).  The game I watched on Saturday between the Bruins and the Lightning was pretty good.  It was game that best exemplified the old maxim, “I was watching a fight when a hockey match broke out.”  (I don’t have any commentary for the game.  I’m just so happy I finally found an occasion to use that line.)

On Sunday during a game, the NHL announced the winner of their Hockeyville competition.  It’s $150,000 given to a minor league hockey facility along with a preseason exhibition NHL game.  I’d heard that El Paso was one of the four finalists.  At work, an e-mail went out on Friday asking people to vote.  I admit that I was sort of expecting El Paso to win, since their pitch video referenced the Wal-Mart shooting.  Still, there was some natural tension as the commissioner took the winner out of the envelope to give it to El Paso.  Having been there for a game, I can say that no other fans were more deserving and no other facility was more in need.  The arena owners will apparently first allocate the money to fixing the hole in the roof.

NFL

Just a little note, on a Mexican station on Sunday I ran across a Dallas Cowboys training camp broadcast.  The Cowboys are training at AT&T Cowboy Stadium right now.  The Mexican network had their own announcers there dressed in rather natty sponsored Cowboy polo shirts.  I’ve heard someone else say that the Cowboys are Mexico’s team.  There might be some agreement there right up until they start kneeling for the Mexican national anthem. 

 

Part Two

Baseball Journal August 1-3, 2018

8-1-18

The MLB.TV free game featured the uninspiring matchup of the Rays versus the Angels.  Thank goodness fans on the east coast will be able to see the greatness that is Mike Trout, whom none of them have ever heard of.  Only people in southern California and baseball experts have ever of this guy.  It’s a pity that this fellow who’s often in the running for league MVP is so unknown.  If only he’d promote himself more by making controversial statements and getting into trouble like NFL and NBA players.  The baseball media has done all it can by even making up and an entire stat, WAR, to mathematically prove that Trout is the greatest baseball player of all time. 

Or maybe, he plays for a team that is under the curse of Albert Pujols, or more specifically Pujols’ contract, which has hamstrung the team from being really competitive.  No matter how great a player you are, you only win and lose as a team (right, Lebron?) and if you’re on a .500 team, you don’t matter.  Unless your entire sport is actually a reality show, starring you, and the game results don’t matter (right, Lebron?).  Yes, I’m apparently feeling feisty this month. 

The Rays put their new acquisition, Tyler Glasnow, right on the mound today.  Kole Calhoun greeted him with a leadoff home run that went into the Ray tank in the outfield.  Plop!  In the third, Ray Mallex Smith was almost driven in on a single, but tripped and fell at third base.  The inning ended with a double play and nothing coming across.  Glasnow only went three innings, but this is a pitching strategy by Rays’ management, and not because of a bad start.  I don’t know what to say about this theory yet.  Others have tried it unsuccessfully, but the league seems to be trending in this direction anyway.

In the fourth with the Angels up 2-0, Tommy Pham, who I thought was on the Cardinals but is now on the Rays, tripped rounding second.  He would have scored otherwise.  It seemed like this wasn’t the Rays’ night, but on the next play Pham advanced to third on a liner to the outfield.  Andrelton Simmons was running over to cover the base and was smiling at Pham about to talk to him, when suddenly Luis Valbuena threw the ball in his direction.  It was a poor decision that caught everyone off guard.  There was no chance of getting Pham at third and no chance of getting him at home as the ball went out of the field of play. 

The Rays would then go ahead and tie it and take the lead on a Mallex Smith triple, 3-2.  The Rays kept hitting.  They loaded the bases in the fifth without scoring.  Willie Adames homered in the sixth to make it 4-2.  Then, they got three in the eighth to make it 7-2, which was the final.  The Rays’ announcers during the game seemed convinced that their team was ready to win now with their current team.  Not in AL east they’re not, but I wish them luck.  This organization seems to stay competitive all the time with innovative strategies and doing more with less.  Meanwhile, the Angels, with more cash, in a bigger media market, and in an historically easier division, seem to do less with more.

The Chihuahuas’ broadcast was blocked at my other workstation.  Hmph, the nerve.  The Flying Squirrels weren’t playing and FOX Sports Radio was doing endless moralizing over a personal situation in college football, which has now become national sports news.  See, this is the kind thing that Mike Trout needs to get involved in.  This would really raise the raise the profile of baseball in general.  Actually, there is one with the Astros trade of Ken Giles to the Blue Jays for Roberto Osuna.  Osuna has an unresolved domestic abuse trial hanging over him.  Hopefully, this too will reach the level of a national hand-wringing scandal. 

I got a Papa Johns pizza over the weekend.  I wanted a good pizza, but there’s some scandal in management there.  I’m not sure, if by buying the pizza, which side of the situation I was supporting.  Now I’m conflicted if I should have gotten the pizza or not.  Now this scandal-driven society is starting to hit me where I live with my precious pizza.  I don’t like a bunch of amoral, unethical, un-virtuous sub-humans pronouncing judgment on what they find unacceptable in society, especially when they cover for others of their degenerate kind when it benefits them and their Agenda.  The media is about to create a society that nobody can live in. 

I joined the Chihuahuas versus the Baby Cakes, henceforth referred to as New Orleans, under overcast skies in El Paso halfway through the game.  Undefeated Brett Kennedy was on the mound, but New Orleans was up 3-0 in the fourth.  Javy Guerra doubled in a run in the frame.  Tim Hagerty gave a great call as the ball headed foul and somehow landed fair.  The pups scored again, but left the bases loaded, 3-2. 

Brad Wieck came in in relief for two scoreless innings and with five strikeouts. Allen Craig led off the eighth with a double that made took an odd bounce off the outfield wall.  Raffy Lopez then came up and hit a monster two-run home run that went over the batter’s eye and out of the ballpark.  4-3 Chihuahuas with extreme prejudice.  Trey Wingenter closed it out with three straight outs, though the final two batters did drive it to the warning track. 

The Rangers and Diamondbacks were probably playing tonight on TV, but I was busy and, frankly, the Rangers aren’t worth making an effort to watch.  They traded Jake Diekman at the deadline to the D-Backs, so he changed dugouts during the series.  I noticed that Ranger closer, Keone Kela, was also traded to the Pirates.  Given how the Rangers keep burning out their closers, at least until they get the new stadium with a roof, this was likely a good move for everyone involved.  The Pirates’ pitching has definitely been upgraded.

8-2-18

It was a light day for baseball for me, not really voluntarily.  The MLB.TV free game was during the day and I missed it.  I’m still blocked on getting Chihuahuas’ games at my other workstation.  I tried getting the other team’s broadcast, but it was blocked too.  I did listen to some more Flying Squirrels baseball, but I’ve decided that unless something really interesting happens during their games, it’s not worth writing about.

So, I joined the Chihuahuas versus New Orleans late.  I did walk in on Franmil Reyes hitting a three-run homer in the first, but it was in the third when I finally sat down and started listening.  By this time, the game was basically over at 7-0 pups and that wasn’t even the end of it.  The inning went 13 batters.  Three more runs scored as the NO outfielders lost a couple fly balls to make it 10-0. 

In the eighth, Jumbo Diaz (his actual name) came in as a reliever for NO.  I remember Tim Hagerty calling him pitching before in 2017 (and I think I wrote about him and I can’t find the entry, damnit).  He’s still in fighting trim at 350 lbs.  The main drama in the inning started with the first batter, Diego Goris, getting called for a penalty strike for not being in the box when play started.  The ump endured a small amount of heckling from the dugout before tossing someone.  It might have been Brett Nicholas, who wasn’t even playing today.  Goris ended up doubling and Auston Bousfield drove him in.  The final was 11-4 Chihuahuas.  It was a good win, but I wasn’t totally into it.  Hey, Gen Con is on Twitch this year!  (They were showing a Pathfinder 2 demo.  I didn’t care.  Oh, well.  No point in linking to it; it’s over.)

8-3-18

Time to rant some more, but I have reasons this time.  In addition to losing Chihuahuas’ games at my other workstation, MLB.TV suddenly started giving me crap about my login.  The site wanted my login and password, which it then rejects.  When I try to reset the password, it rejects the password it just gave me to reset it.  This has come up before, but isn’t an issue on a daily basis.  In any case, I can’t watch or listen to any the games there today.  Let’s hope this sorts itself out. 

There also wasn’t any Flying Squirrels baseball on.  All of sports talk on all three radio networks (ESPN, FOX, CBS) were discussing a spousal abuse issue.  At no point was it explained to me how this story was any of my business.  Nor did they explain how this involved the Ohio State football coach (excuse me, THE Ohio State), who wasn’t the one beating his wife, but simply MUST resign anyway.  I assume the d*ckheads at the NCAA are getting ready to vacate wins and championships from the university.  (I don’t even like THE Ohio State.  I’m more of a Michigan fan.)

Between this kind of stuff and the NFL kneelers, we may be only a few months away from the end of all major sports as we know them.  We may already be there.  As I said, the NBA is a reality show.  Their games are irrelevant.  The NFL has all the sporting integrity of professional wrestling.  Its only real entertainment value, like horse racing, is betting.  You know we could replace all these jerkoff players with some Korean kids playing Madden on Twitch.  The only difference would be that the games might not be fixed. 

Wait, let me give some love to my former favorite team, the Dallas Cowboys.  Yes, up until last year, even with my love for baseball, the Cowboys were my favorite team.  On some level I should thank the kneelers.  I was really sick of watching my team lose, but still getting talked about all the time.  The Cowboys are like the Lebron James of football. 

I give no props to Jerry Jones for his recent comments, but Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliot both came out and said the Cowboys will stand as a team.  Elliot said something like, “We’re America’s team.  We stand for the Anthem.”  Thanks, guys.  I’ll consider watching and listening to the Cowboys this year just for that, but I have a feeling this kneeling thing is being primed for a bigger political protest in the near future (which is what the protest is really about). 

Oh, I could go on (last month’s recaps ran out to 50 pages), but let’s get to tonight’s baseball game.  The Chihuahuas were playing their last game of the series against New Orleans.  (Don’t get me started on their team name, and Chihuahuas isn’t exactly a great name either for that matter.)  NO took the lead in the first, but Forrestt Allday did make a great jumping catch on the warning track.  Basically, that’s all I heard of the first half of the game.  Francisco Mejia did tie the score in the bottom with his first Chihuahuas’ home run.

I started listening again in the fifth with the score 3-2 New Orleans.  The wind started picking up at the park.  You could hear it whipping on the mics.  The Chihuahuas started a rally, but I had to step away to work.  When I came back a couple minutes later, the Chihuahuas were now up 5-3.  This just wasn’t my night for baseball. 

In the sixth, Auston Bousfield made another jumping catch on the warning track.  The wind seemed to be carrying the ball.  It carried a monster home run by NO on to the Big Dog house to make it 5-4.  In the bottom, their catcher made a visit to the mound to allow the ump to regroup after getting hit.  No mound visit was charged, so there’s still courtesy visits allowed between the guys behind the plate even with the new rule.      

Trey Wingenter was charged with a pace of play violation, but still got the outs in the eighth.  The Chihuahuas put two on in the bottom with nobody out, but failed to plate any insurance runs.  There was a little drama getting the final out, but Rowan Wick closed it out in the ninth for a 5-4 Chihuahuas win.  That’s a home sweep for the pups and nine errorless games.  They are looking good.

Review of Deadpool 2

Warning: This isn’t really a review.

I went out with Ron and his niece to see Deadpool 2 Fourth of July afternoon.  Quick review: it’s a great movie.  Like the first one, it’s really funny, it has heart, and has a decent story.  The bloodshed might be toned down a small bit.  As Deadpool says during the movie, “It’s a family film.”  (Not really, not at all.)  Ron’s niece mentioned anyone young-looking who went to see the first film at the theater she went to got carded twice (buying tickets and before going into the film) to give you an idea of the nature of the content of that one. 

I am mad that Internet reviewers again misled me, as they called the film disappointing at best and kept me away.  (The film even put in a couple of liberal “jokes,” just for the reviewers.)  I don’t know who to trust anymore.  Reviews seem to have an Agenda attached to them, rather than an honest appraisal.  Then again, the first Deadpool, which me (and judging by its box office) and bunch of other people loved, just as many other people saw it and went, “Meh.”  Ron was perhaps in that category, but really liked this movie, but his niece, who was the one who showed me the first movie, was apathetic towards this one.  “I may be over superhero movies,” she said afterward.  There’s no accounting for taste.

         

I feel somewhat compelled to comment on the violence, though not just on this movie.  Both Deadpool films are extremely graphic, but the violence is generally played for laughs.  It’s violent like a Warner Brothers’ Roadrunner/Coyote cartoon.  On some level, it may satire of the violence in the rest of the movie industry.  I bring this up more because of a couple of previews that came on before the movie.  These showed essentially the same level of mass random destruction and graphic bloodshed for some sort of shock value. 

I don’t know if fictional movie and TV violence has desensitized me to real world violence, but it has desensitized me to movie and TV violence.  If I don’t feel anything for the characters or empathy for innocent bystanders, it’s just mindless bloody destruction.  To go along with the Independence Day theme, it’s like a fireworks show, but not as pretty.  I think the job of a filmmaker is to make the audience feel something, so if you’re showing death and destruction, there should be more to it than just explosions and gunfire.  Less would be more, if there was an emotional investment.  Deadpool at least made the events funny.  

In one of the trailers before the movie, I was really impressed with how Lebron James coordinated his move to the Los Angeles Lakers with the release of his new film.  I guess we can look forward to seeing more Lebron on film as he’ll likely have more offseason time to fill, since he won’t be in the finals.  Oh, wait.  My bad.  That wasn’t Lebron.  It was Denzil Washington in a bad beard.  Silly me.  There he is without the beard. 

Wait.  Is that Denzil?  Looks more like Bill Cosby.  What a daring career move, going from disgraced comedian to bad ass action hero, mindlessly killing everyone in pursuit of vengeance, which is actually the definition of a villain.  (Deadpool sort of addresses that issue during the movie.)  No.  I’m sorry.  It is Denzil.  I can see his name in the credits there.  (He’s not aging well.) 

It has been speculated that Lebron is going to Los Angeles to perhaps work on an acting career.  His first job will be acting surprised that the crummy team he’s on isn’t instantly a contender just because of his presence.  Lebron seems to have trouble grasping that basketball is a team sport and that the other four guys on the court aren’t just there to make him look good.  I understand his confusion, since, according to the sports media, the entire rest of the Association is just there to provide a foil for him to perform against (and lose to in the finals) and has no other significance.  (Can you name three of Lebron’s teammates?  Can even his coach name three of his teammates?  Does Lebron even know his coach’s name?)

What was I writing about again?  Yeah, Deadpool 2 is a great movie.  This review is way late (thanks Internet reviewers) and will likely be out of the theaters by this weekend.  I missed Infinity War and I’m bitter.  This also means I can’t even look forward to seeing Part 2, which I won’t be able to see, since I missed Part 1.  I didn’t even really write a review here.  I should stick to baseball.  

Sports Journal-ESPN-Soccer Rant

[I wrote this a couple of months ago, thinking I was about to start sports blogging again.  Work on the my next RPG setting took over my writing life.]

Is it over?  Is it?  Is it over?

Somewhere in the middle of this World Cup crap, I flat out stopped listening to sportstalk radio.  That’s okay, I got to hear Tim with the Chihuahuas’ talk about it.  ESPN’s baseball broadcasts have blathering on and on about it.  Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter were talking about it.  My parents were talking about it.  It’s been inescapable in any media format.  The World Cup, the triumph of pervasive, marketing.  Hopefully nobody will use these techniques to get some hopelessly inept, Anti-American politician elected president.

Right before a Chihuahuas’ game, they were playing a Colin Cowherd ESPN promo, where he was all but threatening the audience with more soccer coverage.  “With the ‘browning’ of America, you’re going to get more soccer.  It’s here to stay, and it’s only going to get bigger.”  It’s amazing how outright racist you can be when you’re a liberal.  (“Browning” was a direct quote.) 

He’d say he could back up his racist statements with facts and statistics.  If I used facts and statistics to make some general observations about various races in this country, my blog would suddenly disappear due to inappropriate content, no matter how true they were.  Even threatening to use facts to back up racial statements is considered racist, depending on who you are and how you’re using them. 

Cowherd’s threat outlines ESPN sportstalk (and Fox Sports as well for the most part) agenda.  Let’s examine their content, from my own very personal viewpoint. 

1. The NFL.  I think the sport’s fixed.  Since all of the main networks partake of the Shield, no one except TMZ would ever investigate it.  I also think I’ve heard enough of their Top Ten Mad Libs lists (“Who are the Top Ten . . . Receivers. . . Right now!”)

2. LeBron James.  The entire rest of the Association only matters in their relationship to LeBron.  He can lose in the Finals and that’s the only story.  Whoever actually won didn’t matter.

3. Tiger Woods.  Need I say more? 

4. Soccer.  We’re shoving this down your throats bitches!  Like it or not, our demographics say that this is going to be popular in this country.  It’s still the same boring sport that Americans have snubbed their noses at for decades.  It’s just better promoted now.   

5. Baseball.  Only denigrate it, to make soccer look better.

6. Tim Tebow.  Cowherd: “I just want all of you to understand what a terrible football player he is.  I’m not a homosexual for obsessing over this man, really.  And what if I was, there’s nothing wrong with that.  Now, he works down the hall from me at ESPN.  I hate him!  I hate him!”  (Starts weeping like a Jane Austin heroine.)  You almost have to feel sorry for Cowherd, having to work next to his gay crush.  Professionally and politically despising him, yet having such a strong, embarrassing attraction to him. 

     

LeBron James going back to Cleveland has at least momentarily knocked the World Cup off the top of sports feed.  Well, the day came when I stopped hating the New York Mets, my previous least favorite team (now it’s the Angels).  He certainly didn’t have to go back there, and there were plenty of personal reasons not to.  But LeBron really wanted to go back home and wants to play for Cleveland (unlike every other athlete who has to be assigned there or doesn’t have any better option). 

Just for that act of hometown loyalty (a little late and after he’s won championships in Miami), I’m lifting his “Jerk” tag on a probationary basis.  If he can actually bring a championship to Cleveland (I’m not putting much hope in Manziel, who as a white rookie quarterback with questionable NFL abilities (in other words, he’s not black) is destined to be Colin Cowherd’s next gay crush, Tebow will heartbroken), I may actually give him a hearty round of applause and think highly of him when his career ends.  As far as Albert Pujols and Josh Hamilton, however, the feud is still on. 

[That went explosively out-of-control and off-topic.  Why even bother complaining about the ISIS conglomeration that controls sports broadcasting and metaphorically beheads everyone who listens and watches?]

Memorial Day-Vacation Sports Journal 2014 Part 7

Thursday

Today’s Meal: For the last day of this vacation I’m just having some more pasta and another Spam sandwich.  I don’t feel like having a banquet.  Tomorrow, I plan on trying a Five Guys Hot Dog.  Seems like a waste of time going to a hamburger place for a hot dog, but I can’t resist trying one.

Baseball

After several minutes of tentative placements, I found a spot to put the radio where I could get lousy, but audible, reception for the morning Rangers game.  Unfortunately, the Twins starting pitcher is one of the slowest, and most inaccurate workers in the league.  The Rangers’ pitcher wasn’t any better in that regard.  Matt Hicks commented on how they weren’t through the 3^rd inning and they were an hour, fifteen minutes into the broadcast.  Need I describe the torture combination of poor reception and slow-working pitchers?

Soria again in the 9^th had a one run lead and had to face that last two batters with one out.  The first batter jumped the first pitch and took it to the warning track.  The next batter also swung at the first pitch and got a hit.  For the next batter, Soria dropped a sub-60mph curveball on him, as the batter almost came out of his shoes swinging at it.  Soria would throw it again a couple of pitches later and ended the game with a strikeout.  Eric Nadel was absolutely in awe of the pitches.  Apparently the umpire was too.  His final strike call was delayed a couple of seconds so he could admire it.  Being interviewed afterward, Soria said he knew it was a strike and that the ump had called it out immediately.  Rangers 5-4 in a three hour, 40 minute, 9 inning game.

Meanwhile, dad told me that Prince Fielder was going to be out for the season, recovering from surgery.  Maybe it’s better that he’s gone, rather than being in the lineup everyday and disappointing.

The Aggie Baseball coaching story just suddenly got a little more interesting.  An assistant coach is suing the team.  He says he was harassed and fired for claiming that team was doing drugs and drinking and driving.  Scandal.  Perhaps there were reasons beyond the team’s record why the coach was let go.

El Paso Chihuahuas

The big news about the team had nothing to do with their game.  Steve Kaplowitz, KROD program director, on the local sportstalk show, spent at least half the broadcast describing how he got a parking ticket at the stadium that morning.  He even called out the ticketing officer by name and shield number.  In listening to his story (too long to relate here), he would seem to have a legitimate beef.  It was not hard to figure out that the city was going to have zealous enforcement of parking around the stadium.  I’d hazard to say anyone parking at a meter there is likely to eventually get a ticket, regardless if you paid for the spot correctly.

Also during the show, I think someone else on staff said “Diablos” instead of “Chihuahuas,” and got ridden for it.  I’d say the name change will be inevitable at some point in the team’s future.  Kappy brought up his parking problems with Tim before the game.  In a show of solidarity, Tim even brought it up during the game broadcast.  Ah, Tim Haggerty, who became a beloved local sportscaster about five minutes into his first broadcast.

Soccer

Watching the local TV news last night, I noticed the sports segment featured a nice, long segment on the Mexican soccer match last night.  It was a “friendly” against Israel, so that meant that it didn’t count for anything.  Why was this on a local American English-language TV sports report?  When I say that this is an agenda, believe me.

NBA

Speaking of agenda, this whole Donald Sterling/NBA thing is really starting to just look like a publicity stunt to generate interest in the playoffs.  Look at the teams in the conference finals.  Unless you’re a specific fan of any of the teams, do you really want to see any combination of them in the finals?  The NBA regular season is pointless.  You could ink in half the playoff teams before the season starts, along with probably picking three of the four finalists.  The format of the playoffs essentially ensures an inventible outcome to a long-drawn out process.  Regardless of the number near upsets in the first round, none of them actually happened.  There’s no “Cinderellas.”  There’s been the usual complaints about the officiating, but since betting doesn’t run the sport (like the NFL), it might just be the league trying to gin up some additional controversy and extend series.

Friday

Today’s Meal: Back to work today.  Before going, I went back to 5 Guys to try one of their hot dogs.  While it wasn’t very impressive looking, it packed a wallop.  Quite tasty and filling with a full load of fries.

NBA    

Sorry, I couldn’t resist this little coda to an otherwise disappointing Memorial Day vacation post series.  My reception on the radio cleared up just in time for me to not listen to any baseball games today.  Poetic.  Meanwhile, the Clippers have been sold off for $2 Billion to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.  Not sure if this means the team will be moved to Seattle eventually.  They should, they’ll always be the Lakers JV team in L.A.  Then again, somebody has to help pay that rent on the Staples Center, and unlike football, Angelinos will support basketball. 

So, Donald Sterling, who it’s been revealed to be dying of cancer and has Alzheimer’s, who employed Black people for his team and paid them 10’s of millions of dollars, has gotten what he had coming to him for being a racist.  For his initial $12 million purchase of the team, he was bought out for $2 Billion.  That’ll teach him, that dying, forgetful racist! 

Jay Mohr, Fox sportstalk, wondered if there’s ever been a bigger Return on Investment.  Let’s see: the Louisiana Purchase and the purchase of Alaska.  That’s about it.  Meanwhile, Magic Johnson is furiously trying to dig up some racism charges against the Lakers.  His scheme worked, just not the anticipated final result; his ownership of the team.  This time for sure.  He just needs to scrape up about $5 Billion to close the deal.

Sports Journal 4-27-14

Baseball:

I hate to start this by backtracking to last week.  During the Chihuahua’s game last Sunday, Tim mentioned that the Isotopes were having an interesting game in Salt Lake City Bees.  Specifically, they scored 11 runs in the first inning.  Listening to updates, I felt compelled to get the final score.  Albuquerque ended up winning by two runs, 13 to 11.  Feel bad for anybody who left early. 

I was able to listen to some of the day game on Tuesday.  The dogs were in Las Vegas playing the 51’s.  They’re named after Area 51.  Their mascot is an alien named Cosmo.  Talk about giving “Chihuahuas” a run for their money in dumb naming.  It was windy there that day, mostly from the swinging bats of the players, to the tune of 21 to 9, 51’s winning.  I let my dad know about the day game, and he was able to listen to whole thing.  He liked Tim Hagerty’s call a lot.  I suspect Tim has won over a lot of listeners.  Dad also told me that he kept listening to game just to see how many runs were going to get scored.  I’m chalking up these blowouts to the extended road trip.  At least Jeff Francoeur got the opportunity to keep his 0.00 ERA going and added a strikeout.

During the week, some guy named Al hit his 500^th home run.  I remember him.  I thought this guy retired?  He seemed to disappear off the face of the earth a couple of years ago for some reason.  Yankees pitcher Michael Pineda finally got a few days off, though it took him a second attempt to finally get caught for pinetar usage.  It was only slightly less blatant than Bond’s steroid usage.  I got to listen to several great, close Ranger games this week.  I’ve been enjoying radio coverage a lot this year, because whenever I watch baseball on TV all they talk about is THE SHIFT, THE SHIFT, and THE SHIFT.  Let me tell you, I’m sick of this shift!  Okay, they’re shifting.  I get it.  We all get it.  Move on.  Shift topics.  

Sunday the Chihuahuas were playing the Sacramento River Cats.  Now there’s a minor league team name!  You know, names like the Mountain Sharks, or the Desert Grasshoppers, or the Flying Rhinos, or the Surfing Bears!  (I just made those up, but I can see it now.  A guy in a bear suit, wearing a pair of jams, named “Cowabunga.”)  The dogs started the ill-named Billy Buckner in his first appearance for the team.  He did well and nothing rolled between his legs.  The River Cats had Phil Humber pitching for them late in the game.

That Phil Humber.  The last I saw him, he was with the Astros.  I’ve taken some potshots at Humber (in some other posts), but the guy did pitch a perfect game. Unlike every other perfect game, I got to see this one happen live. (Almost got to hear another on the radio with Yu Darvish.) I’ve never been more nervous in my life watching a baseball game. Every pitch was life or death/End of the World stuff. That was really a thrill.  The box score was actually clipped from the newspaper the next day and is in a shoe box in my apartment.

I’m sure Tim talked about Humber (and it’s pronounced “Umber,” by the way), but I didn’t hear it.  Unfortunately, in what will be an ongoing scheduling issue on Sundays, the NMSU Aggie baseball team and the Rangers were also playing.  I started flipping back and forth and basically couldn’t follow any of the action.  When will I learn?  The Aggies lost badly again.  The Rangers had the lead late, but lost.  The dogs had the lead late, nearly lost it, but managed to hold on 6-5.

Okay, here we go for Monday and the big debut.  Tim was asking about the weather and which way the wind will be blowing at the new stadium.  He said that many of the dogs had never been to El Paso, so this will be a homecoming and an introduction.  Some fans wanted to know when the team would be arriving so they could greet them.  For the Sun Bowl, both teams usually get a Mariachi band and Folklorico dancers, but it’s going to probably going to be a little too late for that to happen here.  It’ll happen during the day’s events.  KROD will be during their local sports talk from the stadium.  At least one TV station will be doing their newscasts from there.  I fully intend on listening.  Everyone was in high spirits for this adventure.  (Cue ominous music.)     

NASCAR:

I don’t really get those Sprint “Framily” commercials.  They’re weird.  I don’t understand them.  However, that Jeff Gordon with the gerbil commercial was hysterical.  Jeff has perhaps done enough media that he can now “act.”  If that’s the case, I demand to see him in more clever commercials like this.

Oh, the race itself?  Pshaw!  Don’t be an old fuddy-duddy NASCAR fan, demanding to see a “race.”  The enjoyment of the broadcast is in the “experience.”  It’s not just cars driving fast and turning left.  In fact, it’s not even totally essential to the broadcast.  The sponsorship is just as entertaining as any “race.”  So, I’ll just be commentating on the commercials from on now on.

 Okay, in spite of being assured in the pre-race that tires would not be an issue here, tires were the issue at Richmond.  Tires blew and caught on fire.  The closing laps were exciting as multiple drivers battled hard.  Joey Logano would win his second race of the year.  Tempers flared on track.  There would be on track, post-race retaliation and a fight in the pits. 

Seems like we’ve checked all the boxes on great NASCAR race, except for a large multi-car wreck, which we’ll be doing next week at Talledega.  You’ll get to see it on replay, after the commercial break is over.  NASCAR has finally found a way to keep races interesting and unpredictable, exploding Goodyears.  The best races so far this season have mostly involved “Darlington-esqe” tire issues adding drama to every lap.  You have to admit, it’s an equalizer.      

Hockey:

I’ve been enjoying the Saturday afternoon hockey, though when baseball was on the radio on Sunday, I had trouble paying attention to the two hockey games that were on.  So, hockey hasn’t replaced baseball with me.  One thing that did fatigue my viewing this weekend was that all three games were exactly the same match ups as last weekend.  If any of these series had ended during the week, I wonder if they would have shown a different series or nothing at all?  I wonder if it would have completely depended upon who else was playing?

Random Notes:

There were two NFL draft shows on two different networks on Saturday (that I know of).  During the NASCAR pre-race, they had the drivers promoting the NFL.  RG III was there on a pitbox during the race.  Is there really enough significant betting action on the draft to merit this kind of attention?  I can’t believe anybody would really care about this unless they had money riding on it.       

There was a motocross race on Sunday that was held in the NFL stadium in New Jersey (nobody pays me to mention the stadium sponsor).  I didn’t watch it (which was likely yet another poor viewing choice on my part), but it looked like a full house.  Other races I’ve seen were similarly packed.  Just an observation.

Oh, and I’ve figured out this Donald Sterling thing in the NBA.  Let’s see, this guy has been well known for his “colorful” opinions on people for quite a long time.  His soon to be estranged girlfriend was recording their conversation where she was goading him into clearly stating his opinions.  This was after she seen hanging out with Magic Johnson, who is part of owner of the Dodgers.  I’ll let you connect the dots, but don’t be surprised if we all see Magic being announced as the next owner of the Clippers in the near future.  His arm will be in a sling at the time from an injury sustained from patting himself on the back too hard.   

Oh, lookee here!  Just to confirm my theory.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/darrenheitner/2014/04/28/magic-johnson-and-al-sharpton-weigh-in-on-donald-sterling-situation/

Radio Sports Talk and Baseball

All national sports talk radio follows the same format when the subject of baseball eventually comes up.  One, ghetto the coverage into its own special segment, unlike other sports, which get stream-of-conscious coverage throughout the show.  Two, apologize to the audience for talking about baseball, instead of some more important sport.  Three, assure the audience that you will quickly return to talking about those more important sports immediately after this segment.  And finally four, make sure the audience knows how little you care for baseball and how you totally empathize with them. 

When discussing baseball, make sure to mention its low ratings, unpopularity, how boring it is, how meaningless the regular season games are, and all the things that the MLB does wrong.  Dump any baseball coverage to talk about the Olympics or the World Cup, if they’re taking place.  Offhandedly mention that you were a baseball fan as a kid.  This implies that baseball is somehow a sport that you outgrow, like soccer.  When you're an adult, you watch football, golf, and the basketball.  Somehow these sports are more mature.

Baseball is a hard sport for general sports talk radio.  They play every day and the players and teams will invariably have winning and losing streaks during the season.  This completely works against the sports talk format.  Sports talk is all about endlessly hyping upcoming events, endlessly analyzing those events, assigning blame and heaping praise afterward, and pronouncing trends from the smallest evidence.  The NFL gets the in depth coverage.  NBA coverage consists of talking about the Lakers and whoever the best player in the league is and only doing that for the entire season.  With baseball, you can’t quite get away with that.  Certainly they try.  Sports talk thinks that just mentioning the Yankees somehow constitutes worthwhile coverage.   

You can't really hype a daily event.  Baseball players who are goats one day, may be the hero the next.  A player hyped as the next big thing, enviably goes into a slump, or the team they play for will, negating their great performance.  A great baseball team will slump.  Even if they keep winning at a prodigious rate, after a couple of months, you can't keep on hyping them endlessly. 

Simply, cogent baseball talk, like on the MLB network, requires paying daily attention to the actual games and looking at them from an historical perspective.  General sports talk cannot do either reliably, which make them the perfect vehicle for the PGA, NBA, and the NFL (which is the ultimate in reality television, in that they don't use Writer's Guild screenwriters to script their events either). 

It could be worse.  I’m sure hockey fans would love to get baseball level coverage.  I don’t understand why hockey isn’t more popular.  It’s sport that can truly appeal to men and women.  They should adopt my motto: Hockey-Come for the fights, stay for the figure skating.

Sports Journal 6-23-13 A Pleasant Little NBA Season Recap

For me the highlight of the NBA season, which I didn’t watch, was the coach of the Indiana Pacers being asked if he had any regrets about eliminating New York Knicks from the playoffs. You see, the Knicks play for a much larger media market, so it would be better for the Association if they were the ones going deeper into the playoffs. As near as I could tell, it was an earnest question, not a gag.

Yes, of course I heard it on ESPN Radio. Who else would ask that question? Fox Sports Radio isn’t much better in that regard. I heard one host wringing his hands over the possibility of having to promote a Memphis Grizzlies-Indiana Pacers series. “How am I supposed to sell that?”

What if Lebron James had not made it into the finals? (I suppose technically, the Miami Heat would have to be there with him, mostly to take the blame if he lost.) There is always this sense of inevitability to the NBA season. Much like the PGA, it’s a single storyline league. How’s Tiger doing in the tournament? Let’s constantly watch what Tiger is doing, even if he’s not contending. What? Tiger isn’t at this tournament? Well, we’ll talk about him anyway and how we think he’ll do at his next tournament. (If you’ve watched any golf coverage, you know I’m not kidding here.)

There’s only been two stories in the NBA this season. Will the troubled Lakers make the playoffs, and will Lebron win his second championship? That’s it. Nothing else really mattered. If both storylines had fallen through, they would have still sat there and talked about Lebron and the Lakers as much, if not more than, anything else going on. Don’t worry, that was never going to happen though.

I’m tying this all together here. You see, match ups, ratings, and storylines are becoming the most important topics in commenting on certain sports on sportstalk radio. For better or worse, sportstalk radio is the voice of sports. TV shows like Sports Center are important, but they’re mostly one-way communication. Every time a listener calls in (or uses some form of electronic media) and announces a belief in a conspiracy theory by a league to engineer a match up or a storyline for ratings, the hosts snicker long and hard at them. But where do the listeners get these ideas? From hearing hosts talk about match ups and storylines being beneficial or not beneficial to the league and their ratings.

Sports that don’t lend themselves well to single storylines, like the MLB or the NFL, still get shoehorned into them. How does a sub-500 Angels team keep ending up as a game of the week? The storyline of the last few World Series has been how bad the matchups have been in terms of potential ratings. There’s always a controversy or some weird storyline that gets hyped up for the Superbowl. I personally find it hard to look at Instant Replay in football and not think it’s there to ensure the game is rigged. Like maybe a popular team wins the Superbowl over a much less popular one, but somehow doesn’t cover the betting points spread. That’s only happened twice recently.

See how easy it is to believe in conspiracies? I look at the NBA as the eventual model for all sports. Over-hyped individuals pushed in storylines, leading to inevitable confrontations in the playoffs. Perhaps, eventually there could be a two-tiered playoff system, where small market teams play for their own championship, while large market teams play for the real one, thus ensuring better ratings.

Glad I got this all off my chest, but I feel dirty now. I’m going to go take a shower.

Sports Journal 6-23-13 “I’m the champion!”

That’s right Lebron. You sure are. Seldom has accomplishment met eloquence more profoundly than in your NBA championship victory speech. And it was so succinctly accurate too. You are the champion. Your team was irrelevant to your victory. Hell, the Spurs, the rest of the league, and frankly every player that came before you, don’t matter, because you are THE Champion. Then mentioning your two rings and a shot of profanity at your detractors was just the cherry on top. You certainly earned that and put everyone in their place, because you are THE CHAMPION!

Lebron, you’ve won not one, but two championships. But will you win more? I don’t know, because I don’t think you can count any higher. Your excellent basketball abilities have more than made up for your few crude language skills and lack of any social graces. Congratulations.

Coca-Cola was running a “Meet Lebron James” contest. I was entering furiously, just on the possibility I’d win. I’d go up him, fake a handshake, kick him in nuts, and scream “Cleveland Rocks!” over him. “You’ll never be a Jordan. You’ll never be a Shaq! Hell, you’re not even a Kobe!” There’s something to be said for being likeable (or at least not a total jerk), even if you’re rich, and famous, and a champion. Namely, you don’t get rude posts like this written about you. And you don’t feel compelled to take time away from your victory celebration to give a shout out to your legion of anti-fans.

Baseball Journal 5-6-13

It was a momentous weekend in sports. The gay NBA player, Jason Collins, won the MVP award and the league renamed itself the GayBA in his honor. LeBron James was inconsolable. It was almost like he’d won the award, but not unanimously and ESPN spent the day complaining about it. (The way the sports media covers MVP awards, you’d they came with a sash and a crown, as the recipient walks down a runway, waving and crying.)

In NASCAR, fans in the stands at Tallagdega, braved heavy rains and hail during a three and half hour delay to watch 50 laps of single file racing. Home viewers had it no better, as they were forced to endure three commercial breaks inside of 15 minutes when racing resumed. There was a high-degree of tension about the weather and on-coming darkness. The drivers had to turn on their headlights. (Ahem.) However, there was a second “Big One,” that wrecked a good deal of the field and David Ragan, against all odds (you were better off betting the longshot at the Kentucky Derby, where there was also lots of rain), won the race to stick it to all the dominating big teams. So, everyone went home happy.

In much less important sporting news, Fox has cancelled next week’s Saturday baseball game to instead broadcast European soccer. Here’s where I wish that I was just making a sarcastic joke. [Explicative Fox Sports!] Will I watch? Perhaps there’s something about this sport, where half the matches end in ties (many times, nil-nil), that I’ve been blind to. Perhaps I could watch and be inspired to write an amusing piece of satire about it. Perhaps I’ll wait to turn on the TV until the NASCAR Darlington race comes on later in the evening, and then write an amusing piece satire about that. Who cares?

Oh wait, I should mention some baseball, since that’s what it says in the heading. This weekend, Fox Sports treated us in the West region to our third Angel game of this young season. (And there’ll be another one after the soccer break.) I used to think their regional coverage was bad when they just rotated between four different western teams. Now it’s down to one! (Still better than their coverage strategy a couple of years ago where they showed the Yankees vs. the Red Sox every other week.) So, another game at the Big A-Hole to see Albert Pus-Hole and Angels lose (as Josh Hamilton continues to suck). Maybe I shouldn’t complain.

Yes, the Rangers also swept out the Red Sox. That was nice. The Dodgers are swept out by the Giants, twice by walk-off home runs. (Heh, heh, heh.) I only got to hear bits and pieces of any these games on the radio.

There was a decidedly Mexican flavor at Wrigley Field in Chicago for the ballgame on Cinco de Mayo Sunday. The Windy City became . . . well, still windy, but for this day we attribute it to flatulence from refried beans. Outside the ballpark, a Mariachi band played for the crowd. (The usual Dixieland jazz band was also there.) “La Bomba” was played during the Fan Cam segment. Out in the bleachers were several people were dressed in sombreros, big fake, mustaches, and colorful panchos. (DHS later picked up these people for sneaking into the game illegally.)

Okay! Time out! J, I know you’re upset about baseball being replaced by soccer this weekend, but stop taking it out on everybody!

It was a good-looking, happy crowd and bleachers were full, and by and large deserted by the 7th inning as the Cubs were clearly going down to defeat, 7-4 to Reds in the end. There were some highlights. Gary Sinise leading the crowd in a spirited rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” Shin Soo Choo taking a deflected flyball off his face and then having the trainer basically tell him to “walk it off.” And then Len Kasper mentioning Dave Stewart’s pitching stats and then casually dropping in how great he was with the Eurythmics. A couple of minutes later, the studio guys then played a snippet of “Sweet Dreams.” It was that kind of game. If you’re a Cubs fan, I’d get used to it for this season.