Sports Journal 6-1-2014

I’m listening to 1380 KHEY El Paso to the Rangers game on Sunday.  I got to hear my first double video review, as two different elements of the same play were challenged by both managers.  For one heart-stopping minute, I thought they were about to take an extra commercial break to deal with it.  Oh God, if challenges came with an automatic commercial breaks, baseball is over!  Nobody, not even me, will sit through a five-hour game. 

(Meanwhile, in the Dodgers/Pirates game on Saturday, there was an unsuccessful challenge by the Pirates early in the game.  Later, there was another disputed call, that probably needed to be overturned, which lead to a big inning, that couldn’t be challenged because they were wrong on their first one.  I thought the purpose of this challenge crap was to make sure they got the calls right?) 

KHEY has had their up’s and down’s doing Ranger games.  This season, they’ve stopped broadcasting the pre-game for some reason.  They’ve joined games late and in progress for no reason (including the first game of the season).  Today, they carried the game on time, but a half-hour later, went back to Foxsports talk. 

I listened for a while, hoping they’d change back.  After a while, I had to turn it off though.  Two idiot hosts, that I hadn’t heard before, were explaining the fineries of the Donald Sterling situation to a Black caller.  The caller had said that he didn’t agree with the old man, but that his grandfather had fought in WWII to protect Free Speech pretty much regardless of content.  The hosts had to explain that Sterling wasn’t going to prison for what he said, therefore we have Free Speech.  If he’s punished to speaking his mind, that’s just a consequence of not being politically correct.  “So if I say something wrong, I deserve to lose my house?” asked the caller.  This is an important topic, but not as important as the game didn’t get to listen to.  Thanks, KHEY.

Not to be outdone, KROD powered down about an hour and half before sundown.  This meant I only got to listen to about an inning of the El Paso Chihuahuas game, instead the usual 2/3 that I usually get in this situation.  Thanks, KROD.

KVIA still broadcasting black.  That’s okay.  I wasn’t going to watch the two crummy Indycar road races this weekend anyway.  Screw you, KVIA.

Well, I did get to see the NASCAR race at Dover.  Two red flags later, it was like an all day affair.  Dover, in spite of whatever similarities to Bristol, seldom produces great races.  The strongest car has a habit of driving off into the sunset, unchallenged, with most of the field going laps down in the process.  This was Fox’s and my last race of the season (unless KVIA comes back on).  At least I'll be missing the Pocono races, thank goodness.  All I can do now is wait for next year and hope next year is better with KTSM (NBC) picking up the races.  The highlight of the race was Michael Waltrip's gridwalk when he asked Dale for hug.  (Comedic pause) "Okay, sure."      

A couple of notes from Saturday.  While I was laid up in bed listening to some really terrible reception of the Rangers getting pounded by the Nationals, I couldn’t help but notice that Eric Nadel and Matt Hicks were chatting with each other during the game.  The Rangers radio call is a little strange in format.  It’s not a true two-man booth.  Essentially, Eric calls most of the game, with Matt chipping in a few comments and taking over for a couple of innings.  For this blowout, they were interacting with each other like a regular two-man operation.  Frankly, I don’t know why they don’t do it all the time.  Keep in mind, I love both of these guys, both if I’ve got one complaint, it’s their lack of interaction.  If you’ve got two people there, why not have a conversation?

Foxsports must have been gagging to death during the two blowout games they were broadcasting Saturday night.  I wonder how close we’re getting to NOT seeing anymore over-the-air regular season baseball?  I wonder how bad the World Series ratings are going to be, even if it’s the Yankees/Red Sox vs. the Dodgers, if there’s no national over-the-air baseball anymore?  Though the media world has changed a lot since the 80’s, I still think the two are connected (along with teams like the Braves and others getting daily national broadcasts of their games on cable). 

Finally, I think I’m going to have to put a moratorium on complaining about my continuing inability to watch and listen to sports broadcasts.  Though it’s frankly not my fault by and large, if this is getting tedious to write, I can only imagine what it’s like to read it.  That said, this may necessarily severely limit my future sports writing, until/unless I go ahead and get cable and an Internet connection at home.   

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.

Memorial Day-Vacation Sports Journal 2014 Part 6

Tuesday

Today’s meal: A Chik-fil-a sandwich along with some Sweet Potato tots.  Pretty good.  I spent a good deal of time at the mall without buying anything other than lunch.  Kinda feels like a waste of time.

Baseball

The El Paso Chihuahuas made it back into town about two hours before the game.  Their new pitcher and tonight’s starter, The Cuban (whose name defies simple phonetic spelling), had come directly to El Paso from his last assignment and spent the day in an empty clubhouse, wondering if someone had played a prank on him.  The team and The Cuban probably didn’t completely recover from the experience, as the dogs lose 8-5 to the 51’s. 

That the Rangers lost 4-3 to the Twins was bad enough, but it was the way they lost that hurt.  A blown save by Soria, an error, and some controversy turned a one run lead in the bottom of the 9^th to a loss. 

Wednesday

Today’s meal: I’m pretty much out of franchise fast food places that I can walk to, that I’d want to go to.  I had a Spam sandwich and later, some spaghetti.  After spending money and effort to go out and eat, I hate to admit that today’s meals were probably the best of the vacation.  Hey, the Spam was fresh out of the can.  In a couple of days, I won’t be so enthusiastic about it.  Of course, my spaghetti is just awesome.  On the other hand, I haven’t been able to stop snacking all evening.  Rich meals apparently fill you up better. 

Baseball

It was another El Paso Chihuahuas day game with a few busloads of kids in attendance.  Every time the dogs got something going, the kids would chime in with some chanting and yelling.  It was great.  Unfortunately, they didn’t have a whole lot to cheer about during the game.  They also mostly had to leave before the end, which had to have depressed the players on both sides a bit.  Tim mentioned broadcasting a game such as this somewhere else where the kids were forced out from a game where the pitcher had a no-hitter going.  They didn’t take it well.

The broadcast was great and disappointing.  They had some technical difficulties at the ballpark and the radio call didn’t start until about the second inning, and it sounded like Tim was literally phoning it in via a cellphone.  Meanwhile, something was interfering with the signal at home, so I was having to strain to listen most of the time. 

At least the issues at the ballpark were ironed out, at which point KROD’s program director Steve Kaplowitz joined the broadcast.  Given his enthusiasm for baseball, I was hoping he’d find way into a game at some point.  Kappy was clearly enjoying himself, talking baseball, and telling stories. 

Tim asked about yesterday’s sportstalk show, where Steve had spent quite a bit of time talking about international soccer.  I would have used a more accusatory tone, along with a few thinly veiled threats in bringing up the subject.  Foxsports radio was also talking about it.  Conspiracy.  Look, all the hype in the world (which will apparently occur over the next couple of months) cannot make that “sport” interesting to actually watch.  You can build the brand, increase awareness, constantly give people the scores, tell them that everyone else in the world is watching, and won’t make a difference, because every other major sport available to watch in this country is more interesting to watch.

In the 8^th, with the score 13-7 51’s ahead, dogs pitching sensation/outfielder, Jeff Francoeur, locked down a scoreless frame, smiling and tipping his hat to the crowd.  I actually figured out what was going to happen next before it occurred.  It was the moment we’d all been waiting for, Cody Decker took the mound for the top of the 9^th.  He worked a scoreless 4 minute inning with his masterful 70 mph fastball and 59 mph offspeed pitches.  The inning was highlighted by the opposing relief pitcher facing an infielder as the pitcher.  Moments like this are why I love baseball.

Taking a cue from the 51’s manager, perhaps I should go to the media and openly criticize my co-workers.  It seemed to work for him.  Meanwhile, dad told me that Rocky Ward, 16 year manager of the NMSU baseball team had just been dismissed.  Looking back on a few of my baseball posts talking about the team, I can see how it happened.  When they talked to him at the end of any given game, the spark that had been there, just wasn’t there anymore.  The stadium’s about to get an upgrade, hopefully it will help the new manager recruit.

Eric Nadel is back with the Rangers today.  We all breathe a sigh of relief.  All’s right with the world, except that my reception tonight wasn’t letting me hear enough of the game to matter.  I was only able to clearly hear the bottom of the 9^th.  Soria came in again with a one run lead, facing about the same part of the Twins order as last night.  This time, no drama, 1-2-3, save.  Rangers win 1-0.  If that was all I was going to get to hear, that was the part I would have wanted.

Memorial Day-Vacation Sports Journal 2014 Part 5

Monday

Today’s meal: A Dominos Chicken Bacon Ranch sub sandwich.  It’s not like I’d go there for their pizza.  Their subs are actually excellent, but they do take about 15 minutes since they run them through their oven.  That’s enough time for me to walk over there to pick it up and work up an appetite.  It was a beautiful day, why not?  I baked up a side of sweet potato tots to go with it.  Yeah, it was good.

Movies

It doesn’t have to be all sports, does it? 

I picked up the Director’s Cut of Blade Runner at the used bookstore.  (I suppose it’s not going to boost my literary credentials to say that I also got two comics and a graphic novel there.)  I’d heard about the cut version, but never actually seen it, though I’ve seen the original many times.  This was a barebones, no extras or commentary version, which is okay, since most extras are a complete waste of time. 

I was, as always, struck by the level of detail in the sets, just layer upon layer of detail.  Incredible.  I’ve heard that they’re making a sequel.  They’ve got their work cut out for them to duplicate the look (especially as technology has dramatically moved on from what was featured in the movie).  Harrison Ford hated the movie (and it mostly shows).  He said about director Ridley Scott’s production, “The actors were just human props on his massive sets.”  In this case, the sets were the real star of the movie.  

Essentially the cut had to two differences.  There’s no Marlowe-esqe voice-over.  Given how listlessly Harrison Ford did it, you’d think you wouldn’t miss it.  In this case, the studio was right to insist on it.  At least in the beginning part of the film, it’s way too spare and uninvolving without it.  The other thing was the insertion of a Unicorn dream sequence.  It’s like an outtake from another Scott movie, Legend.  It’s supposed to show that Deckard might actually be a Replicant himself.  I don’t get it or why you’d want to insinuate it either.  Thankfully, they didn’t really change the ending, which I was most afraid of.

Green Lantern was on a Juarez station Sunday night.  I say this with full irony, it’s like a Disney animated movie.  If it had been, you might not have questioned all of the questionable motivations and plotting, chalking it up as a Sci-fi fairy tale.  Ryan Reynolds wasn’t bad and there were a few witty lines, but you can’t make sh*t shine.  If this had been part of some larger DC universe of films, where Superman and Batman were well-known heroes, Hal Jordan taking up the mantle, might have made more sense.

Soccer

During the Green Lantern broadcast there were non-stop commercials featuring the World Cup.  Not to mention, Fox broadcast yet another European soccer championship on Saturday.  Somehow they can show these matches without constant commercial interruption, but not NASCAR.  If baseball is boring, then what is soccer?  What am I missing whenever I’ve tried watching?  Why is this national, international, all forms of media whether sports related or not, all-out marketing blitz somehow not improving my opinion of the actual sport itself.  The collective media is trying very, very hard to get my attention for a sport that they don’t get to run commercials during every five minutes.  Highly suspicious.  I don’t see soccer as a sport in this country; I see it as an agenda.   

Tennis

I tried watching French Open tennis while I was eating, but I couldn’t sit through it.  If Maria Sharapova was playing, maybe, but without some sex appeal, the sport no longer has any appeal for me.  I used to love watching, pretty much regardless of who was playing (more so if there was an attractive girl involved).    

Baseball

I didn’t like rooting against the Tigers for the last two days.  I have a Tigers pennant and a black and white, mounted photo of my long-lost, beloved Tigers hat on my wall.  But, I have to show loyalty to one of my other favorite teams, the Rangers, since it’s their broadcast.  Eric Nadel was absent again for the Memorial Day game.  Matt Hicks had it covered for the Rangers 7-2 win over the Twins, whom I have no trouble rooting against.  Once again, there were challenges on every close play, though not all successfully.  It looks like this will be a constant interruption in the game.  Look, if you don’t want managers and players arguing, just do what you do for balls and strikes, automatic ejection.   

After Rangers game, I flipped over to the El Paso Chihuahuas game.  I tuned in just as Brooks Conrad hit a two-run homer against the Rainiers in the 3rd, for the first score of the game.  Timing is everything.   I keep meaning to mention Matt Wisler, one of the Padres’ top pitching prospects.  I keep not doing it, because he hadn’t done anything worthwhile.  Today, however, he totally nailed it: 7 innings, 1 unearned run, 2 hits, 1 walk, 7 strikeouts.  Little wonder the dogs won 3-1 in a bit more than two hours.  No doubt both teams were exhausted after the first three games in the series.

Meanwhile, I hear in the update that the Tigers’ freefall continues, as they lose 10-0 to the A’s.  I had hoped KROD would join an ESPN game in progress, as I got to listen to a Memorial Day double header last year, but I was being too greedy.

Memorial Day-Vacation Sports Journal 2014 Part 4

Sunday Continued

Off-Road Truck Race

Strangely, there was still racing to be watched, namely a CORR night race.  Why was this scheduled opposite the Indy 500?  I can’t even imagine the thinking or lack thereof.  Good for me though. 

Race one featured a massive crash and flip before even the first turn.  The driver had to be helped out and taken away by ambulance.  There were plenty of other hard crashes too.  Since it was at night, there were some great shots of the glowing underside of the trucks while they were jumping.

In the second race, a truck hit a dirt mound by the side of the track, barrel-rolled across the track, and had a cabin fire.  Thankfully, it was mostly confined to the passenger side and the driver was taken out and the ambulance had to make another trip.  I don’t know if the nighttime conditions were causing more wrecks, but somebody might want to look into it.  Pretty exciting races anyway.

What may have excited most viewers more was a commercial during the broadcast for CBS Thursday Night Football.  They called it a partnership with the NFL Network.  I’d call it more of a white flag of surrender.  The NFL Network was never a good idea begin with. 

Baseball

The Texas Rangers played another matinee against the Detroit Tigers, this time with Justin Verlander on the mound.  Eric Nadel was cryptically out today for personal reasons.  As much as I love Matt Hicks (and he had some great play calls on Saturday), we all become nervous when the Voice of the Rangers is absent.  It wasn’t Verlander’s day as he gave up 9 runs by the 6^th inning before he was removed.  The final score was 12-4 Rangers.  Take your time getting back, Prince.  During the game, it was reported that Josh Beckett of the Dodgers pitched a no-hitter against the Phillies.  In spite of my current Dodger hatred, I was impressed.

Between the NASCAR pre-race and an emergency trip to Sears to help my dad buy a new microwave (trust me, I was not in a fit mood to go out in public today), I missed about half of the El Paso Chihuahua’s game, but apparently not the interesting half.  There was no score through four, but from there, the lead changed hands several times. 

The dogs came back from losing the lead to a grand slam and another time after the Rainiers batted around.  Finally in the 9^th, down a run and down to their last out, they’d drive in three runs and take the lead for good.  Final 14-12 Dogs.  I can’t help but think that the double-header yesterday somehow depleted both teams, if not in pitching, then in fatigue.

I feel bad for the Tacoma fans.  It was a four hour game in an off and on light rain.  The players were playing in the mud, which probably thrilled the grounds crew.  The PA there kept playing the Imperial March, but I couldn’t quite figure out why.  I head WGN playing it when the Yankees were in town playing the Cubs; I get that.  More important than this win, I think Tim mentioned that the Chihuahua’s hat won the minor league hat competition.  A triumph of marketing over any common sense. 

NASCAR

It’s the Coca-Cola 600, where Foxsports attempts to jam 600 commercials into a six-hour broadcast.  (I shouldn’t joke.  That’s almost happened.)  At least the broadcast started well with a display by the Marine Silent Drill Platoon, those guys who flip rifles at each other.  Very impressive. 

The end of the Indy 500 was apparently pretty exciting, which makes me feel wonderful.  American Ryan Hunter-Reay won, fine young man.  Kurt Busch arrived at Charlotte Motor Speedway via helicopter, fresh off his sixth place finish in Indy.  That’s pretty awesome for a guy who’d never raced a lap of competition in Indycar.  I’m waiting for someone to do “The Triple,” and add in Monaco.  It’ll never happen, if for no other reason than you’d need the Concord back in service and a direct flight from Monaco to Indianapolis.  Juan Pablo Montoya has driven and won in all three types of cars, though.  Just speculating.    

Kurt Busch would come up a couple hundred miles short as his engine blew about ¾ of the way through the race.  He was still pretty upbeat afterward.  Danica ran up front early, went down two laps, got dinged in a wreck, then blew up.  I know, who cares?  Junior had a cool Superman image on the hood, but problems underneath the hood took him out of the running for the win, but was still running at the end.  Jeff Gordon guts out a bad back to finish 7^th.

My favorite paint scheme was Logano’s Pennzoil car in an eye-catching green, yellow, and grey.  More than half the field was not on the lead lap by halfway.  13 cars were on the lead lap at the end.  Jimmie Johnson, class of the field from the beginning, closed it out for his first win of the year, punching his ticket to the Chase.  But the most important question is: Who was that hot Sprint Cup girl in Victory Lane?

Hello, Juliana White!

In spite of some great sports entertainment today, I still feel terribly cheated.  I wonder if I’m going to get ABC back for viewing.  The black screen wasn’t the IRL’s fault, but I can’t watch any of their races for the rest of the year, even if the station comes back.  Between not getting any sleep the night before, waking up super early, constantly doing and watching stuff, I swear that Sunday never showed up.  It was all one contiguous 48-hour Saturday.

Memorial Day-Vacation Sports Journal 2014 Part 3

Sunday

Today’s meal: Reheated pizza from yesterday.  They can’t all be gourmet meals.  Still great though.   

F1 Monaco

It’s 5:30 am.  The sun isn’t even up yet, but I am.  How could I resist the opportunity to finally see the Monaco race in English for the first time?  The broadcast said it was live as well (but I’m still skeptical).  In the pre-race, this track was compared to “threading a needle at 100mph,” and “riding a unicycle through a fine china shop.”  But who cares about the race?  It’s all about the glamour.  They showed scenes of the street parties that were going on only a few hours before the race.  The stands, the yachts, the hotel balconies, and even the even the free seating on the overlooking hill were filled.

Local boy, Nico Rosberg had won the all-important pole position, with his teammate Lewis Hamilton right next to him at the start.  The announcers mentioned there was some controversy about qualifying, which was never explained.  Mostly the rivalry between these two was hyped up. 

The only hope of an interesting race was either rain or a bunch of NASCAR’s showing up.  Essentially, Rosberg took the lead at the start and never gave it up.  The announcers tried to build up some drama, saying he might run out of fuel before the end.  Right.  Hamilton came in second, though he had to fight for it at the end against third place Daniel Ricciardo.  Even the other drivers politely pulled over to let them race, desperate to see some racing action themselves.  Hammy may have had some vision problems that cut his speed in the later laps.  I didn’t get confirmation during the broadcast.

There were a few interesting incidents.  Perez was knocked out by Button early in the race.  Gutierrez hit a barrier late and was taken out.  Suddenly I was missing the hysterical call of the Uni-mas announcers.  Four-time champion Vettel retired early with electrical issues.  Adrian Sutil, who’d managed to make three passes on track had the biggest wreck.  This brought out the Safety Car and a bunch of cars pitting for tires.  There was some gamesmanship as racers were blocked in to help teammates, such is the desperation for position on the world’s most famous slot-car track.

NBC went side-by-side with commercials during green flag racing, but did not break away during a wreck though.  I only noticed one, full-screen local break, and that was during another Safety Car period.  The feel-good story of the race for me was hearing that recently retired Mark Weber was out on one of the yachts, finally able to watch a Monaco race in peace.    

Indy 500

KVIA El Paso was still broadcasting sound with no pictures on Sunday.  I can hardly convey my disappointment.  This might be my favorite sporting event of the year, ruined for no apparent reason.  I didn’t even care to follow what happened.  Worst of all, I didn’t even get to hear Jim Nabors last performance of “My Indiana Home.”

Memorial Day-Vacation Sports Journal 2014 Part 2

Saturday

Today’s meal: A Digiorno rising crust pepperoni pizza from my oven.  Honestly, it probably beats pizzas from most pizza shops.  Recommended.

Gobal Rallycross

“Who?” you’re asking.  I think saw one of their races once before, perhaps last year, or maybe it was a different rally series.  It was on a different network.  Whatever.  It’s on.  This is the weekend for motorsports.

The series consists of little, up-armored compact cars racing around an asphalt and dirt track in heat races.  They use standing starts, which the cars didn’t have any trouble with.  (Ahem, Indycar.  Consider taking some notes.)  The track they were at was in Barbados and featured one jump.  The rules allow the cars to a take a “Joker” lap, which lets them to bypass the jump once during the race. 

How was the action?  Pretty darn good.  One of the heats featured a car flying too far on the jump that caused his passenger side door to fly off.  The main event started with one car sent flying into another car after hitting a high curb.  The car rolled and flipped on its back, spurting oil like a geyser.  For the rest of the race, you had cars going sideways and then some around the corners as they banged off one another.  The crowd there went nuts watching.   

Scott Speed, yes that F1/NASCAR washout, won the event easily, with what the commentators were saying was a possibly broken car.  I recognized a couple other names in field.  Speed was racing for an Andretti team, so it has some participation by a well-known organization.  F1 driver, Lewis Hamilton and his F1 car, were there for a short exhibition race with one of the rally cars.  I’m not sure when this event actually took place, but I’d think Lewis would have some business in Monaco to attend to this weekend.  The expense of sending him and that car over must have been enormous for a publicity stunt.  Red Bull may be putting up some big money for this series.

In addition to commercials for the F1 race tomorrow, NBC was also advertising for a special on Kurt Busch as he attempts “The Double.”  There was also an ad for NASCAR on NBC, coming summer 2015.  I think they’re excited to have them coming back.

NASCAR

I didn’t bother reiterating by ban on watching Nationwide races as I sat down for the race.  How to describe what happened next?  I was receiving clear audio over the air for the local EL Paso ABC affiliate KVIA, but no video.  The other three digital stations that come in on Channel 7 were fine.  It was working fine earlier this week.  Unlike most of my problems, this one did not seem like a personal one, but rather one with the station.  Needless to say, I didn’t “watch” the race (or bother listening, I’m not that desperate for racing action).  I have some grim foreboding about tomorrow’s Indy 500.

Baseball

The Tigers played the Rangers Saturday afternoon wearing throwback Negro League Jerseys.  Likely this choice was made when they thought this would be a nationally broadcast game on Fox, which it wasn’t.  There wasn’t a lot of suspense in this game as the Rangers won 12-2.  I still haven’t heard the result of Prince Fielder’s injury, whether he’ll be out for the season or not.  They didn’t miss him today.  Of note, I think the Rangers had three triples in the game.  There were three challenges, all successful, two for the Tigers, one for the Rangers.  I’m forced to admit that all three were rather quickly done.

Fox finally decided to broadcast a national game Saturday night.  When I saw the lineup, I said, “Oh God, no!”  To have to wait two months into the season to finally get to watch an entire ball game on TV and then be subjected to an Angel’s game, was too cruel.  Somewhere, the Baseball Gods took pity, or weren’t paying attention.  We got the Cardinals vs. the Reds.  Whew!

Fox seems to have ended their association with the MLB Network.  The pre-game was in the Fox studios and all of the announcers were Fox.  This may be because the networks are now broadcasting national games against one another.  Veteran play-by-play and Reds’ announcer Thom Brennaman was joined by the rookie color debut of Gabe Kapler.  There was a highly unwarranted complimentary career reel for Kapler, who in my mind was one of the most over-hyped, underperforming ballplayers of his era.  In front of the microphone, I thought he was pretty good, though he was talking way too fast.  Keep the enthusiasm, but slow down the delivery.  Cardinals 6-3 with some 9^th inning drama. 

The El Paso Chihuahuas had a double-header versus Rainiers in Tacoma.  Though both games were seven innings, they started too late for me to even hear the results of one of them.  I was pleased to finally have confirmation of Rule 4.10 (a), which allows for seven inning games for double-headers.