No TV baseball, no hockey, no problem. I’ve still got plenty to write about.
Indycar
We’ll consider this a warm-up post before the 500. It was a beautiful day in Indianapolis for the inaugural Grand Prix of
Indy. It’s the clockwise-running road
course that’s been used by F1 and Moto GP, but this time with Indycars. The cars lined up for the standing
start. The starting lights went
out. And pole-sitter Sebastian Saavadra’s
car did not start. Most of the cars
behind him, managed to dodge him. The
two that didn’t created a spectacular shower of carbon-fiber. Meanwhile, every F1 team that was watching
the race snickered.
I keep waiting for this “great” strategy of US
open wheel racing of ditching ovals, using option tires, and standing starts to
pay off. So far, it’s only been a death march
of Indycar following in the same failed steps of Champ Car. It’s not like this isn’t the first time I’ve
seen standing starts become moving junkyards.
If you’re going to emulate F1, you’re going to get compared
to them. Even if the races are more
interesting (more on that later), it’s because Indycar is amateur hour by
comparison. Fans of F1 don’t think much
of you. Fans of NASCAR don’t think much
of your twisty races either. Anybody in
between that (like me), would rather watch a sports car race on a road course,
because your cars are very ugly compared to any other race car.
It was hard to get a sense of the crowd size. Because of the track configuration, the
grandstands were only occupied at certain points. There were infield seats and areas for sitting
out on the grass. Unlike most road
courses, Indy is flat. Elevation changes
actually probably don’t make for a better race, but they are more interesting
to look at.
I’m reminded of the old Cleveland Airport
track by the lake. Completely flat and
basically course laid was out with a few soft barriers and some traffic
cones. It produced a cool race, but
maybe I’m just remembering the starts.
Turn 1 was wide enough to accommodate half the field running side by
side, which is what would happen. Of
course, they all tried to get to the inside and kapow! The survivors would race much smarter.
There was passing for the lead on track at Indy, but mostly only
on restarts. After that, there was
little passing. The bulk of the race
discussion concerned tire wear and fuel mileage. Frenchman, Simon Pagenaud, would be the first
winner of the event based on his ability to save fuel. Was this event an attempt to lure F1
back? Was it just a tease for the Indy
500? (Certainly they mentioned Kurt
Busch’s upcoming attempt at the Memorial Day Double enough.) Are they out of municipalities to trick into
running street races in their downtowns?
F1
I got up at 7:00 am on a Sunday to watch this. While I enjoyed Bahrain, we’re back to typical F1
here. Essentially nothing happened in
the race. Hamilton and Rosberg started
in front and Hammy won. Red Bull’s
Ricciardo came in third. Vettel was told
during the race to stay on “Plan A,” which was apparently start somewhere
mid-pack and finish in fourth. Mercedes
might start looking over their shoulder at these guys, but I think the driver’s
and constructor’s championships are safe.
The race was at Catalunya outside Barcelona, Spain. There was a large crowd there, many lounging
on the green hills surrounding the track.
They started the race clapping to Queen’s “We will rock you,” over the
PA. I’m not sure if the crowd showed up
for a race or a party. The Uni-mas
announcers showed up to root on the Mexican drivers, but didn’t have much to
cheer about. I never heard them talk
about the World Cup. I figured the
over/under on that would be at least two mentions, since the race was boring. Speaking of that.
Soccer
I flipped past NBC and noticed they were showing English
Premier League soccer. They said there
was some sort of championship on the line.
Since I may not have much else in sports to watch later this summer, I
thought I’d watch. What’s the worst that
could happen?
Sigh. It’s not even
worth coming up with a joke. In
fairness, I did join the match halfway through, and the guys sponsored by Jihad
Airways were up by the insurmountable score of 2-nil. The fans swarmed the field to congratulate
the players and celebrate. If this
happened at an American football game (not including the Superbowl, since the
fans in attendance there don’t care who wins), they’d be machine gunned,
possibly drone-striked. ESPN
commentators would be saying that they had it coming and call for barbed wire
to surround the stands.
What’s really frightening is that the nine other games in
progress for the end of the English soccer season were being simultaneously
broadcast over nine different US
cable networks, including Syfy. Not one
freaking over the air baseball game this weekend, but 10 different English
soccer matches to choose from, including one over the air. Wait’ll you see ESPN promoting the World Cup
this summer. Somebody seems to think
there’s an audience for this here and is determined to service it. The only feature to recommend soccer is that
the matches are shown without commercial interruption, unlike certain American
sports, like NASCAR, who insist that showing the race is optional compared to
the commercials. (F1 coverage is also
commercial-less.) Speaking of that.
NASCAR
It was the race that wouldn’t end. The half-hour late start was insignificant to
the time spent under caution for wrecks and spins. An incident near the end of pit cycle lead to
a first time 30 car wave around and the “Lucky Dog” ending up on the front row
with the only other car starting on the lead lap. For all of the threatening weather in the
area, it was not a race to half way and the crowd was tremendous. This first Kansas NASCAR night race was a
success. They did have a rookie incident
with the lights going out in a corner, but the drivers were okay with it. This again reminds me of the Cleveland Airport track. The last race that I know of there was a
night race, which I didn’t see, but was told that there was a complete black
out spot in one of the corners.
Baseball
It was a bad weekend for baseball for me, flat out. Friday night, I noticed that the Texas Rangers
were winning 8-0 over the Red Sox. I
didn’t notice Yu Darvish had a perfect game/no-hitter going until
afterward. I never quite got the story
straight about hit/error that spoiled it.
An ESPN update used Matt Hicks’ spirited call of the incident, which
surprised me since you’d think they’d use the Sox call instead. Unfortunately, while Eric Nadel routinely
gets credit for his calls, I’ve yet to hear Matt get credit for his. He should at some point.
I ended up listening to the NMSU Aggie game Saturday
night. The Aggies had it won in the 9th,
but Bakersfield
tied it. The Aggies would go on to do
this two more times in the 13 inning game, before finally losing it on an
error. Ouch. They also fell victim to the hidden ball trick
during the game. Double ouch. The next day, they’d bounce back and win it
19-7, but I only heard the last couple of innings. They were up 14-0 after like two innings.
I missed the Saturday Ranger game for the Aggies, and missed
the Aggies for the Sunday Ranger game.
The Rangers were fairly listless in their 5-2 loss. I also missed the Chihuahuas Sunday game, which they won
11-0. I wonder if they stopped putting
the balls in the humidor? I caught a
little of their Saturday game. Their coverage
started late and, of course, cut off for people listening in Las Cruces after the sun went down.
I was struck by the crowd.
They were still oohhing and aahhing on every play. Where were these people for the Diablos? This question merits discussion. I remember seeing the team once at the old
Dudley Dome, which wasn’t a dome, it was a step above a vacant lot. I think the only reason Dad took me was
because we had free tickets, which they gave out all over El Paso, all the time. I later went to Cohen Stadium several times,
which was a very pleasant place to see a ballgame (which was easy to get to
with plenty of close parking I might add).
They gave out souvenirs and had fireworks constantly, and some cheap
concession items (unlike the current place from what I’ve heard). The crowds were never that into the
game.
Is it the new stadium?
Is it the level of play? Is it
the promotion? Has El
Paso become a baseball town (at least until football season
starts)? Are they getting a crowd from
Juarez who are into baseball (at least until World Cup)? I just don’t know.
In any case, dad, who did listen to the Sunday
game, made me feel a little better about my continuing use of faux pas of using
the name, Diablos, when he finally did it too.
