Baseball Journal August 2023

 Or thereabouts.  This was just a convenient stopping point to make a post.  The Chihuahuas have continued fading in the second half, so I’ve only been keeping up with them sporadically.  MLB.TV hasn’t been doing daily free games lately.  They had a Saturday with all free games, but I was busy and none of the match ups that day were all that great.  Not to mention, Aggie Sports have started up.  Also, the Rangers have swooned, so I’m a bit depressed about baseball.     

 

8-8-23

In an otherwise forgettable 18-1 loss to Sugarland by the Chihuahuas today, Jantzen Witte was a highlight.  The outfielder pitching was at least interesting.  He had a 33 mph eephus pitch that didn’t register on the pitch tracker.  Unfortunately, the hitters weren’t as fooled, as he gave up 4 runs in the ninth.   

 

8-9-23

Michael Lorenzen pitched a no-hitter for the Phillies.  He thanked the fans for giving him encouragement late in the game.  A few days ago, Trea Turner, who’s been slumping all season, was given a standing ovation there.  He rewarded them with a three-run homer later in the game.  Okay, what’s happened to the Philly Fans and who are these people in the stands in Philadelphia?  At this rate, I may have to bury my Philly Fan impersonation.  Boooooo!

 

While that was going on, I was watching the Blue Jays play the Indians.  (MLB.TV had a live look-in of the no-hitter ending.)  The Jays won 1-0 off of a solo home run by George Springer in the first.  He fought off 13 pitches before homering.  

 

8-12-23

Brett Sullivan slammed a line drive homer into the scoreboard tonight against the Sugar Land Space Cowboys.  Later in the game, with the score 18-11, broadcaster Tim Hagerty noted that with the double digit scores you could see that some bulbs had been broken in the display.  (Admittedly, I only listened to about an inning.  I was listening to the Rangers winning against the Giants.)         

 

Meanwhile in other games I didn’t see, the Braves swept a double header against the Mets, 21-3 and 6-0.  These two teams were supposed to be fighting each other for the division all season.  Further west, the Orioles beat the Mariners 1-0 in ten innings.  That must have been like a playoff game.

 

8-13-23

I came into today’s Rangers/Giants’ game late.  The Giants were leading 1-0 through 8 and 2/3 innings.  Thanks to an error and some hustle, the Rangers managed to score the tying run.  In the 10-th, the Rangers took the lead off of a runner being balked in from third.  Even the Ranger announcers seemed to be skeptical of the call.  In the bottom with the automatic runner on second and two outs, the Giants hit a two-run homer to suddenly win the game.  Matt Hicks was nearly in shock calling the game-winner.  I was disappointed, but it didn’t seem like the Rangers deserved to win today.  Like I used to hear said on Aggie Basketball, “Ball don’t lie.” 

 

8-16-23

I chose badly.  I listened to the Rangers lose 2-0 to Angels.  They were no hit for 7 innings.  This reminded me too much of Sunday’s game.  The Rangers are still doing well.  The problem seems to be me listening.

 

I should have listened to the Chihuahuas versus the Isotopes.  I noticed that they were up 10-4 in the second and didn’t start listening until late in the game.  The pups won 20-7!  They had an 8-run second inning, which included Ray-Patrick Didder hitting two home runs!  Brandon Dixon had a heck of a night with three homers and 8 RBI’s.  The wind was blowing out, but only when the Chihuahuas were batting apparently.

 

Broadcaster Tim Hagerty mentioned the crowd size the previous night.  The Isotopes are actually one of the biggest draws in Minor League baseball (and have one of the biggest MILB ballparks).  He seemed a little dismissive and wondered if there was a special promotion going on.  I checked.  There wasn’t and they’re not that great a team either.  Perhaps Tim should be asking the staff there what they’re doing to get the turnout.

 

8-18-23

The Angels got a grand slam from Shohei Ohtani and turned a triple play in the ninth and yet still lost to the Rays today.  Meanwhile in St. Louis, highly touted prospect, Masyn Winn, made his debut for the Cardinals.  He collected his first hit on an infield single, which Pete Alonso of Mets promptly threw into the stands . . . for real.  I’ve seen players fake doing this to freak out the rookie.  Pete apologized profusely to Winn and the media afterward.  He just had a “brain fart,” as he put it.  Also, since this happened in St. Louis, the receiving fan did give back the ball in exchange for some gear.

 

8-19-23

I tuned in late to the Chihuahuas vs Isotopes tonight, since I was late getting back from Aggie Volleyball.  I didn’t miss much as they were scoreless through 7 innings.  After that 20-run game (and Chihuahuas’ pitching in general) on Wednesday, this was hard to believe.  There was a hard wind blowing, but it must have been blowing in.

 

In the top of eighth, Brett Sullivan called time, but was still hit on the knee by a pitch.  The players started jawing at each other and a Chihuahuas player was ejected.  Sullivan was not given first, because time was called before he was hit.  He drew a walk anyway (painfully).  The pups loaded the bases and scored on a tapper in front of the plate that the catcher dropped. 

 

In the bottom, the Isotopes loaded the bases with no outs.  There was a run on an infield hit and then a grand slam.  The ball got caught in the wind, which must have shifted.  It had an exit velo of only 88mph.  5-3 Isotopes was the final.  The dogs did try to make a bit of a comeback in the ninth.

 

In the afternoon beforehand, I was watching Stadium and saw the Triple-A Worchester Red Sox playing the Scranton Wilkes-Barre Railriders.  I was impressed with the Woo Sox’s facility and the full house there.  (I have also reluctantly praised the Yankee’s affiliate for their stadium.)  The Sox went up 7-1 early, but the Railriders came back.  I was kind of sorry I had to leave for Volleyball before the end.  Curious, I looked up the score after I got back.  The Sox hit a grand slam in the 8-th.  The Railriders scored 4 in the ninth, but fell short.  14-12 Woo Sox final.  The crowd got their money’s worth.

 

8-20-23

Everybody I was rooting for lost today.  The Rangers lost three in a row to the Brewers.  The only possible cause was that I listened to all of those games.  Lucky for them, the Astros ran into a buzzsaw against the Mariners and lost all three of their games to them this weekend.  The teeth of the saw were named Julio Rodriguez, who has gotten 18 hits in five games, which are video game numbers.  (My prediction of his “sophomore slump,” has now expired.)  The AL West is becoming a three-horse race. 

 

The Chihuahuas and Rockies lost, as well.  Annoyingly, everything I wanted to see or listen to today was all on at the same time.  I listened to the Rangers, switched to the pups, and then to the Rox as each game ended.  There was also a Minor League game on Stadium. 

 

An NHRA drag race also came on TV during all of this.  I was kind of excited as Leah Pruett made it to the finals, though things kept getting in the way of me watching.  She lost in the final, but at least it was to Antron Brown, who I also like.  (I didn’t get to hear his winning interview, because I was on the phone.)  And I found out that there was Monkees marathon going on another station, which I might have wanted to watch.  At least, I derived some pleasure from the Yankees losing their eighth game in a row today. 

 

   

8-22-23

What a surprise.  I came into tonight’s Chihuahuas game late (from having to go offsite for a meeting and dinner.)  Suddenly, Daniel Johnson came to bat.  Yes, our former Aggie Baseball star was now playing for the pups.  He’s bounced around a bit from when he played with the Indians.  This was his first game and he made a good impression going 3 for 4 with a home run.  Aggie Sports Twitter was all over it.  They also reported that Kyle Bradish with the Orioles was tied for the ERA lead in the American League.

 

8-25-23

I came in late (this seems to be a recurring theme in this post) to the Tigers versus the Astros on today’s MLB.TV free game, but I think I got the best part.  Framber Valdez tossed a no-hitter for the Astros through his 7 innings, but it was broken up in the eighth off a reliever.  Still, the Tigers were down 1-0 in the ninth.  Strikingly, the fans were standing and cheering for the whole inning and they were rewarded.  Rookie Parker Meadows jacked a walk-off 3-run homer off Ryan Pressley to win the game, 4-1.  (Obviously, the Astros had a bad inning leading up to that shot.)  Meadows had even robbed a homer earlier in the game in the outfield. 

 

8-26-23

There was a Free Saturday on MLB.TV, unfortunately I only really watched one game.  (The matchups this weekend weren’t that great and I was busy with other sports.)  I did watch the end of the Reds versus the Diamondbacks.  The Reds managed to tie the score with 2 runs in the ninth and went on to score 3 in the tenth.  The D-Backs responded with 3 in the bottom of the tenth.  With a runner on third in the top of the 11-th with 2 out, the D-Backs almost wiggled out of it, but an untimely balk brought in what would be the winning run.  Reds win 8-7. 

 

Those two teams are still fighting for NL wild card spots.  Meanwhile, the Seattle Mariners are suddenly leading the AL West.  How did this happen?  Didn’t they trade away their closer at the deadline?  Well, going 9-1 in their last 10 games probably helped, while the Rangers went 1-9 in their last 10.  The Rangers won Saturday night, but would lose on Sunday.  The Astros haven’t been able to capitalize and aren’t winning either.

 

8-27-23

I was waiting to go somewhere and caught some of an Indianapolis Indians game on Stadium.  Nick Gonzales had been sent down from the Pirates this month and was back with the Indians.  The game I was watching was a rebroadcast, so at the time I didn’t make note of the particulars of it.  What I did note was that Nick had a great game.  He was 4 for 4 when I left.  This was the other team’s broadcast and by this point, they’d taken notice of him.  They chatted about his epic career at New Mexico State, which pleased me to no end.  Joey Ortiz is also doing well in Triple-A.  Barring injuries to the big league clubs, I think these two will be juicy trade bait in the offseason.

Pre-Labor Day Sports Update Part 2

Part 1

ESPN Radio

I have to take a moment to gloat about this.  Usually when I mention something that pissed me off on sports radio, it involves these two a-holes on in the morning on ESPN Radio.  Even with a guest host in for one of them, it was just as bad.  The regular and the guest explained how ESPN’s audience had dropped during their wokness a couple of years ago (the Colin Kaepernick incident) and the current nonsense (all driven by presidential politics).  People just didn’t want social lecturing with their sports.  Well, they explained, you’re GD going to get it anyway!  You’re all a bunch of racists for not watching and listening to this.  What’s wrong with you people in the audience!

I could barely believe what I was hearing.  Apparently, neither could management.  A few weeks later, these guys were finally taken off the air.  They gave them a final show which was unsurprisingly salty and bitter.  I can understand.  Certainly they thought they were good soldiers in The Agenda’s war against America.  This was nothing but a betrayal for them.  The new replacement show has just focused on sports as far as I’ve heard.

One down, but there’s still plenty of SWJ sports jerkoffs out there.  One is on Fox Sports Radio, an infiltrator reject from ESPN Radio.  I was disgusted enough by ESPN once to listen to him.  (It’s a lower power station and hard to listen to.)  He started off by condescendingly explaining to his audience that they’re all a bunch of racists, NFL ratings are going to go up this season even with the kneeling, that sports will now be all social justice, that Trump was going to lose, and that you’ve all lost and you’re going to have to get over it and embrace everything.  I’m kind of hoping a BLM mob breaks into his studio someday and kills him on the air because he’s white and rich.  

Local sports talk isn’t much better.  Steve Kaplowitz had on his baseball expert Jay Jaffe last week on KROD’s Sportstalk.  Jaffe was thrilled about Fernando Tatis Jr. doing so well, because baseball was “too white” to be popular.  I’ve had a theory that soccer won’t be really popular in this country until the sport is dominated by large black men.  This Jaffe guy more-or-less sideways agrees with me apparently.  Liberal thinking is that all athletic scholarships and all high-paying sports jobs should go to black men.    

In a similar but less racist fashion on an ESPN baseball broadcast, one of their experts commented that Mike Trout had had a bad game that night.  This was why baseball wasn’t popular: their star players don’t always perform well every night.  It’s like he’d never seen a ball game before.  So much for professional sports commentary.    

Monster Truck Jam

Here, we’ll get into motorsports.  NBC broadcast a Monster Truck Jam this Saturday.  I tuned in out of curiosity, but ended up enjoying it.  It’s quite the spectacle.  The gigantic trucks do big jumps, balance on this front wheels, balance on two side wheels, roll over, and bleach smoke and fire.  It’s a real crowd-pleaser.  There’s a natural toy tie-in for the kids.  In person, it must be awe inspiring.

NHRA

Here’s another event that probably works a lot better in person.  At least you’re saving your hearing by watching at home.  There were still a restricted number of fans allowed at the Indianapolis event and FOX Sports continually emphasized masks, social distancing, and cleaning hands as they ruthlessly promoted the Cold Agenda.  If you’re broadcasting sports you’re either pushing the Cold or BLM. 

FOX at least stuck with the whole event this time, though it ran over three and a half hours.  My favorite, Leah Pruett, did a bit better at the event than previous ones I’d watched.  The big showdown turned out to be the Pro Stock Motorcycles between a first time finalist and Angelle Sampey, who hadn’t won in a couple of years.  Angelle took it even after an impromptu repair at the start line before the race.

  

NASCAR

NBC finally broadcast a race last week, as opposed to dumping it off on NBCSN.  It was the first time with the road course at Daytona for the NASCARs.  Except for a couple of drivers who had run the 24-hour sportscar race, none of the rest of the field had ever driven it.  There wasn’t even any qualifying or practice. 

The race turned out to be pretty clean and entertaining.  My judgment might be a bit biased since Chase Elliot won.  Even better, there was little in the way of social justice, Bubba, nooses, or even cold coverage during the race.  There were fans in attendance, I think.  The stands are so cavernous, a small number of fans can get lost in the picture.  Camera shots panning by occasionally showed a crowd in a section, but then didn’t on the next pass by.

 

Indy 500

It was a couple of months late, but here was my favorite race of the year, Indy.  Inexplicably, there were no fans present for the race.  NHRA has been racing in Indianapolis the last two months and had fans there.  NASCAR has been allowing fans at their races for an even longer period of time.  IMS is so huge, you could put thousands of people there and not have any of them within shouting distance of each other.  I have heard no explanation for this decision.

Ask Roger Penske.  He bought the place from Tony George and the Hulman family earlier this year.  He might have reconsidered if he could have seen the future.  Penske had made a bunch of fan-centered renovations to IMS after the purchase.  According to a newspaper article I read this morning, so much of most teams’ sponsorships were tied to this race, they had to run it at some point no matter what. 

I was watching the race with dad.  We missed most of the pre-race to go out and get a pizza.  (Certainly, I’ll make that trade.)  We were also watching the race on dad’s new 40” TV.  Actually, last week’s Daytona race was the first sport we’d watched on it, but I think this race was more impressively displayed on the bigger screen. 

The first thing we saw was Ryan Hunter-Reay making a speech before the driver introductions.  He said how much they missed the fans and couldn’t wait to have them back next year.  This would be a continuing theme for the afternoon.  Danica Patrick was admittedly looking good in the pre-race as a commentator.  I’m not sure what’s currently going on in her love life, which is what most of her fans are interested in.    

A probably local doctor sang the Anthem with another doctor accompanying him on piano.  It was very well done.  The Air Force Thunderbirds made two flyovers, one during the Anthem and another with an air show starburst after Back Home in Indiana.  (The Air Force and the Space Force, both sponsored cars today.)  Up on the victory podium, Penske again officially said how much they wished the fans were there and gave the command to start engines.  Is it just me, or did the Corvette Stingray pace car look a whole lot like a Ferrari?  Heresy!

There were actually some enterprising fans at the track.  There was a large tailgate going in the parking lot.  One fan had rented a tree for $400 at a house that had a clear view of a corner.  Yes, he even put up a treehouse to sit in.  The track director had made an unprecedented proclamation that any fan who had a consecutive race attendance streak going could still count this race as long as they watched it somewhere. 

You can maybe tell that I was taking notes for this event.  However, I’m going to condense what I wrote.  (I can’t believe I’ve already written this much.)  Marco Andretti won the pole, but Scott Dixon quickly passed him to take the lead.  He would dominate much of the first half of the race.  The first wreck happened on Lap 6 with a right front brake explosion, which caused the tire to catch on fire.  The next accident happened on Lap 25 with a car slapping the wall and catching on fire. 

The current Indycar design features an enclosing windshield.  When I first saw it, I’d worried a bit about how easily drivers would be able to get out quickly in the event of a fire, and right off the bat, here were two fires.  The answer was unfortunately, not easily.  Track safety officials are going to need to be real quick getting to damaged cars.

Teams were testing out various strategies after the wrecks, but there are no winning strategies this early in the race, only losing ones.  Around Lap 90, there was a spin on a restart at the front of pit lane.  Another driver lost control trying to avoid the spin and slammed very hard into the pit wall.  Amazingly, he was okay. 

By Lap 103, Dixon and Alexander Rossi were swapping the lead.  They were taking turns breaking the air to increase their gas mileage.  Unfortunately on pit road, Rossi collided with Takuma Sato and was assessed a penalty that sent him to the back of the field.  Rossi made some impressive moves, but ended up being the next wreck on Lap 144.  Now legitimate fuel mileage strategies would come into play.

The winning move of the race happened during side-by-side coverage during a commercial break.  It seemed fairly innocent.  Taku made a nearly uncontested pass of Dixon on the front stretch with 26 laps to go.  Neither were leading at the time, but the two cars that were, were going to have to pit.  Dixon’s team was convinced Sato was going to be too tight on fuel to keep up a fast pace up front.  He’d have to slow down to finish the race.

Before 10 laps to go, Dixon made move to retake the lead on the front stretch.  Sato held a line that kept him from easily doing it.  This may have been a feint to get Sato to either block and be penalized or to get him to use up more fuel.  Lapped traffic then came into play.  Sato had to slow down, which may have helped his mileage.  Dixon, though, was not catching up. 

With five laps to go, Indy had its final twist.  The worst crash of the day saw a car plowing into the tire barrier at the end of the pit lane wall.  A live camera shot actually caught the end of the wreck.  The driver was sent to the hospital, but he did pull himself out of the car and step away, before promptly sitting down on the track.  The hero of this race was undoubtedly chassis manufacturer Dallara and track safety improvements.     

 

Takuma Sato won the race under caution.  Indycar does not have a Green/White/Checker Overtime rule and there were too few laps left to red flag the race and restart it.  Moreover, the tire barrier would probably need a lengthy repair.  This was Taku’s second Indy win.  Over in Japan, the people there would be waking to the news of his victory.  The new Victory Lane elevator was used for its first Indy 500 winner.  At the top, a heavily bearded David Letterman gave Taku a big hug and blessed him for giving him another victory as a team owner.    

It was another great race.  The unnecessary lack of fans only spoiled the ambiance, not the drama.  Takuma and the other drivers deserved a round of live applause.  Honestly, I’m not sure when I’m going to be writing again.  I was mostly just venting for these two posts.  That’s not really worth my time to write about.  We’ll see what happens next.  Hopefully, current events don’t step in to ruin any more of this year’s sports.

Summer Sports Report 2020 Part 1

I can hardly believe everything that has happened since my last report, or just don’t want to believe.  The good news is that there are sports.  The bad news is that they are all ruined.  (Well, we’ll see about hockey next week.  There’s some momentary hope.)  I’ll make some quick comments on several sports and a longer commentary on baseball in Part 2.

NASCAR

The makings of disaster were properly foreshadowed, but didn’t fully blossom until after I’d written my last report.  I’m too disgusted to go over the Bubba Wallace saga.  The only result of this sorted tale is that he’s cleverly marketed himself into fame and riches because of his race.  He was never going to get there with his driving abilities.  The whole noose hoax seemed to have been staged to distract and quiet fans who were angry about the Confederate Flag ban.  (So only bring your Swastikas to the races.)    

NBC took over the broadcasting with an Indycar/Xfinity Series double header at the road course at Indy.  I was really impressed how quickly they got ready in between the races.  So far this year, the Xfinity Series has easily produced the best races.  The Cup Series race coverage was only an excuse to remind everyone of the cold going around every five minutes (when not in commercial, of course).     

NHRA

FOX went to covering drag racing.  Just like NBC, the only purpose of the broadcast was to remind everyone of the cold as they came out of every commercial break.  I was watching the races with my dad.  He was skeptical, but I was telling him about this larger-than-life John Force guy and this really hot chick, Leah Pritchett.

Well, John Force wasn’t there.  There was no explanation during the broadcast.  From looking into it on the Internet, he may have folded his team, but I’m not really sure.  This meant Brittany Force wasn’t racing either, since she races for him.  (I knew Ashley had retired.  I found out Courtney had just retired.)  Leah is now Leah Pruett, as she has gotten divorce.  (Now I just need to get to a race to ask her out.)  She was still gorgeous in a mask, but I feel like I over-sold her looks because of it. 

The second race that was broadcast for some reason didn’t feature the Pro-Stock or Pro-Stock Motorcycle races.  There was also a rain delay right before the Funny Car and Top Fuel finals.  They ended up not running them at all.  All they needed was 8 more seconds of racing to decide everything.

NM State Aggie Sports

Nick Gonzales was drafted in the top 10 and went to the Pirates.  This was good news for him and the program as their highest ever draftee.  The bad news is that Aggie Football’s money games were canceled and the governor is threatening to end their and UNM’s seasons altogether.  Someone should have AD Moccia on suicide watch.  Volleyball and Soccer’s seasons have been pushed back a month by the WAC.

NFL

What a proud moment.  The NFL, via corporate cronies, has finally forced the Redskins to change their name to TBD.  They got rid of a logo designed by a Native American that featured the image of a Native American.  Of course the term, “Redskin,” had fallen out of usage long ago as a racial insult.  If only there had been some popular Native American rap stars using the word a hundred times in every song to have brought the word back into common usage. 

In slightly related reservation news, I read a newspaper story that the New Mexico Lieutenant Governor wants the Chief Wahoo logo taken off of a high school stadium named after him.  (The team is called the Indians.  MLB allows their names and logos to be used by high school and lower level kids teams.)  A girl at the high school has started a petition to have the Lt. Governor’s name taken off the stadium if this this happens.    

MotoGP

I’ve watched and enjoyed the motorcycle races over the last two weekends, but was doing something else and had the sound off both times, so I can’t really comment on the races.  Several times, I was the horrifying sight of a rider crashing and going into the gravel.  Each time, the safety crew would run out past the rider to go check on the bike.  The riders certainly know what the sport’s priorities are.     

NWSL (Women’s Professional Soccer/PLL (Premier Lacrosse League)

The first team sport to restart playing was Women’s Soccer a few weeks ago for a tournament.  I did tune in for their first game and their championship game.  What I was immediately greeted with both times was a bunch of white girls wearing Black Lives Matter t-shirts out warming up on the field.  Next, they brought out a live Anthem singer as both teams took a knee.  I heard one player in another game got in trouble for standing.  She couldn’t apologize fast enough after getting Twitter raped.

After watching the motorcycle race today, I left it on to watch Lacrosse.  This would be the outdoor professional lacrosse league, the PLL, not to the confused with the indoor professional lacrosse league, the NLL.  The TV coverage started by showing a bunch of white guys wearing Black Lives Matter t-shirts.  They were exactly the same as the Women’s Soccer shirts, so they must get them from the same company.  They also had BLM patches on their uniforms.  One of the teams then made a circle and took a knee like they were praying to black people.  (The other team didn’t, so the cameras just showed the praying team.)  They didn’t show the Anthem so I don’t know what the teams did there. 

I didn’t actually watch much of either sport and their games.  Apparently, they didn’t want my kind (an American) watching anyway.  The soccer was quite disappointing in that nearly all of the World Cup-winning US team didn’t appear to be playing.  I was kind of hoping to see Rose Lavelle again, maybe Christen Press.  (Alex Morgan is, I think, still on maternity leave.)  Julie Ertz and Alyssa Naeher were there playing in championship.     

 

WWE

Still the most entertaining sport so far this year.  They haven’t disappointed me a bit.  

Baseball will be covered in Part 2.

Baseball Journal August 2019 Part 3 and Labor Day

I’m going to be the first to admit that I haven’t really been covering most of the Chihuahuas games I’ve been listening to this season.  It’s been very dramatic this last week with the tight race for the playoffs.  Here’s just some quick hits with a few other sports mixed in.

8-27-19

The Chihuahuas won a late night game after an hour hail delay in El Paso!  There was some dithering about starting the game as the overcast cloud cover and radar weren’t promising.  While I was waiting, I tried to get into the free MLB.TV day, where all the games were available.  Unfortunately, unlike the last time (7-12-19), most of the games were blowouts.  The teams I was most interested in were on late and audio-only, which conflicted with the Chihuahuas’ broadcast.  I did get to hear Jon Miller doing a Giants game, but only the bottom of the ninth.

8-28-19

12 batters, 9 runs, 9 hits in a row.  That was a busy inning for the Chihuahuas on their way to another win.  Michael Gettys also set the team season record for home runs with 31.

8-29-19

The Chihuahuas dropped their last home game, losing it in the ninth with a one-run lead.  Las Vegas also lost, so the pups didn’t lose any ground.  They are two games back with four games left.

8-31-19

The Chihuahuas got a big win at Sacramento, 3-0.  They were facing Johnny Cueto on rehab, who I’ve seen pitch in-person (5-29-16).  This time, the pups’ pitching was up to the task.  After six scoreless innings, the Chihuahuas scored and held on.  Las Vegas lost, so the Chihuahuas are now one game back.

I attempted to watch the NASCAR Xfinity race at Darlington, but my reception of NBC today was suboptimal.  NBC was passing tomorrow’s Southern 500 off to cable so that I couldn’t watch altogether.  Dale Earnhardt Jr. was in the race after being in a plane crash two weeks ago.  Frustratingly, reception only cleared up just before the end.  Denny Hamlin won, but his car failed inspection and he was stripped of the win, as he was not racing for points in this series.  Junior finished in sixth.  He seemed in very good spirits, though he said after that his crash injuries caught up with him about halfway through the race.  He was a trooper here.

 

9-1-19

I’m not sure how much sports writing I’m going to be doing outside of Aggie games this month.  I’m going to go ahead post Labor Day weekend here with the end of August, instead of doing a September post.

While listening to the Rangers’ game in the afternoon, Jared Sandler broke into the guys’ commentary to give play-by-play of Justin Verlander getting Bo Bichette to ground out for his third career no-hitter.  Even though he’s an Astro, the Rangers announcers were impressed.  I was also watching a Rays game on a Mexican station and they showed the highlight as well.

The Chihuahuas were shutout on a bullpen day for the Rivercats.  Possibly not coincidentally, Travis Jankowski was called up.  The pups have lost too much of their great lineup and the pitching is as poor as ever.  Their only hope was that the Aviators lost later in the night. 

   

9-2-19 Labor Day

And, we’re disappointed.  When I tuned into the Chihuahuas for this Labor Day afternoon, Tim Hagerty informed us that Las Vegas had won last night thus winning the division.  Just to make my life needlessly difficult, the Rangers/Yankees game that I’d tuned in on the radio this morning was in a rain delay that lasted until the Chihuahuas game started.  Great.  My last opportunity to hear the pups this season crossed with one of my last chances to hear the Rangers this season.  (Likely most of the rest of their weekend games will be preempted by football.) 

Not to mention, the whole time I was watching the NHRA US Nationals at Indianapolis.  The last couple of times that I meant to watch this event, I was at a Chihuahuas game (9-3-18 and 9-5-16).  Yet another disappointment was Leah Pritchett being eliminated in the first round again.  It wasn’t even live; it had happened earlier in the morning.  How am I supposed to develop an unhealthy obsession with Leah if I don’t get to see her race?  I only got to see her featured in a commercial.  That was it.  

That said, I did enjoy the rest of the coverage.  John Force won in Funny Cars.  His insane ranting post-race interview alone would have been worth the price of admission.  He walked away from the microphone saying, “Boy, I screwed that interview up!”  The Top Fuel final featured both cars blowing their engines.  They had to coast over the finish line (at over 250-mph).    

Meanwhile, I settled on trying to listen to both baseball games and came away with feeling like I hadn’t listened to either.  After a three-hour delay, the Rangers beat the Yankees 7-0.  Mike Minor pitched seven shutout innings for the win.  I did hear Delino DeShields hitting a monster three-run homer.  But the story was that this was the first time since last June that the Yankees had been shutout.  That was 220 games!  It made the bottom of the ninth more exciting with something on the line in spite of the lopsided score. 

The Chihuahuas lost 8-4.  They’d led for much of the game, but gave up a big inning late.  Tim sounded much more relaxed and conversational during the coverage.  For the last week, he’d been explaining playoff scenario tiebreakers constantly.  He got a bit emotional in the postgame talking about the games following the El Paso Wal-Mart shooting.  I’ll save the post-season stats for a Chihuahuas’ season recap.  Their opponent today, the Sacramento Rivercats, are going on to the playoffs.  Before the game, their players were out in uniform greeting the fans as they came in.  That’s a nice tradition for the last home game of the year.  This was the last game of the Triple-A regular season.  Every other game of the day was already done.      

Later in the evening, KOA out of Denver was coming in decently, so I was able to listen to the Rockies versus the Dodgers.  Boy, are the Rockies inexplicably bad this year.  I guess it’s their pitching, but even the armless Padres are ahead of them in the standings.  The game was a 16-9 Dodger victory that was not even that close and it dragged out terribly.

The Rockies’ announcers appreciated the Dodger organist, Dieter Ruehle, and his sense of humor, playing the Gilligan’s Island theme at the three-hour mark.  Unfortunately, it blew right past that to go over four hours.  There were delays for an injured umpire, an injured Joc Pederson (robbing Charlie Blackmon of a home run), and various pitching changes.  The announcers were horrified by a combined 11 home runs in a pitcher’s park that is Dodger Stadium.  Ian Desmond for the Rockies had a good game.  He pitched a scoreless eighth, when the game wasn’t in doubt, and put the ball in his back pocket.  He then hit a home run in the ninth. 

I finished by Labor Day Weekend watching the end of a classic Godzilla film festival on Comet.  Why not?  Our longtime talk radio station here in Las Cruces finally dumped their recent Spanish music format change and went back to talk this weekend.  I think this means I’m living in the United States again, at least for the moment.

Food-wise, Dad bought and shared a Papa John’s pizza with me on Sunday.  I used a two-for-one coupon at Barnes & Noble for a pair of salted caramel toffee cookies for dessert.  (Dad didn’t like his.)  I put some bacon on my Monday leftover slices.  That worked surprisingly well.  In a fit of indulgence later, I walked over and bought a cup of pistachio froyo with cheesecake chunks at Orange Leaf.  It was overpriced and I shouldn’t have done it, but it was very tasty mistake.  I didn’t work on my fiction story all weekend, so that was a poor use of my time.  On the other hand, this was the most restful time off from work I’ve had all year. 

Baseball Journal August 2019 Part 1

I wish I hadn’t formatted July’s entries the way I did.  That was dumb.  I really didn’t intend to do any sports writing this summer.  At least I haven’t been writing about every game or sport I’ve been watching or listening to, so it’s been a bit of a break.  I’d never been so tired of writing as I was earlier this year after the Aggie sports season had ended.

Just as a sidebar, I’d like to backtrack and mention some tennis I saw in July on CBS.  It was called “Team Tennis.”  The teams were affiliated with various cities and there was a league.  They played five sets, but each set featured different players in different formats.  They played women’s doubles, men’s doubles, mixed doubles, women’s singles, and men’s singles.  The total number of game wins determined the match winner.  It was interesting.  The crowd there in Las Vegas seemed to be into it.  There were even cheerleaders.  I’ll give it another shot if I have the opportunity.  It’s good to see a sport not being too hamstrung by tradition to try something new.

 

8-1-19

I saw some of the O’s versus the Blue Jays on MLB.TV.  Obviously not much of a game in the matchup and not much of a game with an 11-2 Jays win.  However, there was the thrill of seeing Bo Bichette, Cavan Biggio, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. all batting back-to-back at the top of the Jays’ lineup.  Let’s go Legacy Jays!

Also in the Eastern time zone, the Chihuahuas finished off taking two of three in Nashville.  The Sounds are the Rangers’ new Triple-A affiliate.  The “Condor,” Ronald Guzman, had been sent down there recently.  He had a pure frustration outburst after making an out in one of the games, but tonight he did hit a grand slam home run, though in a losing effort.

                                            

8-2-19

How about some Little League action?  Stadium was showing an international tournament in Branson all day today.  I was really impressed with the facility at Ballparks of America.  The field was a bit like a minor league park with seats and sunken dugouts.  I wonder if a Little League field has the same dimensions as a softball field.  Unlike college and professional parks, I think the PA was asking for foul balls back from the fans.  Unfamiliar with Little League rules, I didn’t realize they used ten-batter lineups.  (Is this why there’s a tenth batter slot on scorecards?)     

They were showing games played on the main field called “St. Louis.”  It’s a 2/3 size replica of Busch Stadium with an arch painted onto the artificial grass outfield.  How hard can it be to grow grass in Missouri?  Judging by the half-barren grassy knolls by the field, apparently it’s harder than you’d think.  There are four other fields named after cities at the complex, including a “Boston” field with a little Green Monster.  We assume the right field dimensions at the “New York” field are the same as Yankee Stadium, thus allowing popups to the outfield to fly right out, just like the big league.

I saw parts of two American regional games and two international games.  The last game had New Zealand versus Canada.  The announcers hyped up all afternoon that the Kiwi boys would be doing the “haka” war dance before the game, like their championship rugby team, the All-Blacks.  However, they didn’t actually show it when it came time for the game.  Annoyed, when I got to work, I searched for them on the Internet and found their Facebook page with a haka video.  It was an impressive performance (even surprising, because it was a bunch of white kids).  I’m sorry I didn’t get to see it live.     

Later in the evening, I heard the Chihuahuas versus Memphis Redbirds.  Actually, it was more like they were playing the Cardinals, the Redbirds’ MLB parent club.  Harrison Bader, Matt Carpenter, and Yadier Molina were in the lineup for the Redbirds.  They just missed playing against Marcel Ozuna as well.  Yadi got a big ovation for his first at bat and was big fan draw tonight.  Chihuahuas’ catcher, Austin Allen, from St. Louis, is a big fan of Yadi’s.  He was introduced to him by Chihuahuas’ coach, Edwin Rodriguez, before the game.  The coach had worked with Yadi years before.  It was Elvis Night in Memphis, so there were Elvis impersonators performing between innings.  This should be a fixture everywhere.

8-3-19

I want to mention that Aaron Sanchez was the starter in a combined no-hitter for the Astros on Saturday.  He was just traded to Astros from the Blue Jays.  In spite of his atrocious record this year, I’d seen him pitch a couple of weeks ago and had a feeling this move would do him good. 

8-4-19

Baseball did not work out so well for me today.  I had the opportunity to see all of the Padres versus the Dodgers.  I saw Eric Hosmer hit a grand slam home run and the Padres take a lead into the ninth.  Unfortunately, because the coverage started late, the Mexican station I was watching cut away to a local soccer match before the end.  The Padres would lose 11-10. 

The Chihuahuas were scheduled to play at the same time as the Rangers on the radio, but a three-hour rain delay in Memphis allowed me to hear both games.  While the Rangers beat the Tigers, the pups were one-hit in their game against the Redbirds and lost.  The ESPN Radio baseball game came on right after, which was a nice surprise and that game had also been delayed, so I could have listened to most it.  Unfortunately, it was the Red Sox versus the Yankees.  Worse, the Yankees went up 7-0 early and then the signal dropped for the night.

I had a little better luck with sports earlier.  NBC put USA Volleyball on TV.  It was an Olympic qualifier, and it was the girls and it was indoors, my favorite combination for volleyball.  Due to the previous match running over, they replayed the fifth set of yesterday’s match against Bulgaria and then showed today’s match against Argentina.  I was impressed with the matches’ handling of challenge calls.  There was a high-speed camera for touches at the net (regular cameras just show blurs on replay) and a tennis-like silhouette system for in/out calls.  

The US women are big, built, and tall.  The shortest, thinnest girl was their libero and she could have been a middle blocker for the Aggies.  Regrettably, for the most part, they weren’t winning any beauty contests.  Some of the girls on the other two teams, who were also quite impressively built, had more of my attention.  The US girls won the tournament and will be in the Olympics.  They unfurled and waved a big American flag for the big home court crowd in Louisiana.  That’s how to get on my good side.

I keep trying to give Leah Pritchett, NHRA Top Fuel drag racer, my adoration.  (I need a new sports crush, since Alex Morgan disappointed me so badly.)  For the last two weeks though, she’s been eliminated in the opening round.  That means no interviews, no honey shots, no nothing.  Even the announcers were very gently saying she needs to perform better, since she’s with a top team. 

But this event was still worth watching.  John Force has been sitting on 149 wins for a while.  Today, he made it to the finals and won it for win #150.  The larger-than-life racer was exuberant coming out of the cockpit.  He might have come out of something else as he kissed competitor Ron Capps on the mouth.  I’m sure Capps regretted coming over to congratulate him.  Force then gave an over-the-top speech, thanking everybody, and, in reference to finally getting this win, said, “I’m over this sh*t!”  He then took off on a scooter, went over to the stands, hopped a fence, fell down (I was afraid we’d lost him for a moment), and then ran into the grandstands to be with the fans.  What a guy!