Baseball Notebook for August 18, 2016

I keep missing the big story.  When you watch games on TV you miss so much, for example, Orbit doing a rhythmic gymnastics routine during the Cards/Astros game Wednesday.  I tell you, as much as I like Chico and Pistol Pete, Orbit is da bomb.  He ends up on the MLB video roll all the time for a good reason.

The MLB Network game was the Cleveland Indians vs. the Chicago White Sox.  I’d been wanting to see the Indians ever since I said something about them being the anointed ones.  I can almost see it happening for them, if the plane carrying the Cubs crashes into Lake Erie.    

“I love you, Jason!” some guy yelled out during Kipnis’ 6th inning at bat.  While there may have only been 13,000 for the game (it looked reasonably full, except for the upper deck), they were quite vocal at times.  (And the guy with the drum was there.)  Properly inspired, Kipnis whacked a unique double.  The ball wedged into the space above the left field wall cushions and the video board.  I’d say it was the most improbable shot ever at the Jake (the team’s misfortunes started when they sponsored the stadium), but I think I saw another ball in there and the announcers didn’t seem too fazed by it.

Oh my God, is that Mike Napoli!  I couldn’t believe that was him at first base.  The man’s dropped like 30 pounds.  Not sure about the beard though.  It’s so thick, it looks like there’s a fake, plastic beard glued to his face.  Then there's Tyler Saladino on the Sox with the worst mustache ever.  It's what a handlebar mustache looks like if its not waxed.  Messy as hell.  Regardless, the Indians did not disappoint.  Though they went down 3-0 early, the Tribe managed to claw back into the game and won it on a sac fly in the 9th, 5-4.

While all this was going on, I was missing the finale of the Chihuahuas and the Sky Sox in Colorado Springs.  After the 1st inning, it was 5-4 Sky Sox, and there were three pass balls.  In the 3rd, it was 9-4 Sky Sox.  In the 8th, it was 13-5 Sky Sox, at which point I decided I didn’t want to know what the final score was going to be.  (That was the final.)  Right now, the only thing in the dogs’ favor is that there’s only a bit more than two weeks left in the season and their opponents are going to have to win for a week straight to beat them out of the division lead.
 
The Rangers and Rockies were off today.  They deserved it.  

Baseball Notebook for August 18, 2016

I came into work and brought up the Cardinals vs the Astros as the MLB.TV free game.  There was a potential no-hitter in progress for the Cards.  Please stop doing “No-hitter” alerts in the 6^th inning MLB.com.  Don’t even bother until the 8^th.  The birds won handily, but I doubt they’re going to the playoffs since I don’t think the Cubs are going to lose again until the World Series (against the Rangers).  The Astros are falling off again.  Look for management to start blaming the manager.  Meanwhile the Giants are swept by Pirates.  Who knew that all the Dodgers really needed in order to win was for them to lose their two best pitchers (Kershaw and Greinke), send down Yasiel Puig, get rid of some other cancerous elements on the team, and for the Giants to collapse?   

I again missed the story from Tuesday’s Ranger game.  Lucas Harrell came out of his start early and injured.  I don’t think they can afford to lose any more starting players.  Jon Daniels is likely looking for a waiver trade a lot more seriously than he was a week ago.  I was almost afraid to look in on Wednesday’s game versus the A’s, but leading 6-2 to in the 9^th, I thought I’d chance it.  Matt Bush struck out the side to end it.  That’s a three-game sweep.  I’d be tempted to anoint Bush the new closer, but it’s probably really more a matter of the bullpen guys getting overused and being constantly put into pressure situations that’s burning them out.  Yu Darvish pitching 7 innings and Ian Desmond and Jonathan Lucroy driving in all 6 runs (3 apiece) to provide a cushion had to help.      

Tim Hagerty was in much better spirits for the Chihuahuas game in Colorado Springs tonight.  Strangely, it seemed like the conditions at the stadium were what changed his attitude.  First, he had bad encounter with the concessions people.  Tim took time to praise the El Paso vendors for their friendliness.  (He’s right.  They’re been very nice when I’ve been there.)  Then, there were only a bit more than a 1000 people there for the game on a fairly pleasant night.  There were people enjoying the hot tub in the outfield.  I didn’t know there was a hot tub there.  Now, I’m really sorry I didn’t get to see a game when I was there in May.  And then, he needed to buy a light so he could see inside the dark pressbox.  In short, Tim may have come to the conclusion that since the Chihuahuas had a superior baseball organization, they will prevail.  And indeed they did tonight, 5-3, breaking their losing streak.  OKC even helped out by coming back in the 9^th to beat the Isotopes.

Tim had a great story about a minor league player during the game.  The pitcher had been informed that he was going to be released after the game.  He ended up coming in as a reliever.  When the manager started out of the dugout to take him out of the game, the pitcher tossed his glove and the ball, took off his shirt, walked off mound, left the stadium, and drove away.  But I’m sure he really loved his job.  

Baseball Notebook for August 17, 2016

Okay, another day and another loss by the Chihuahuas.  This time it was an 11-3 loss to Colorado Springs.  (I didn’t get to see them when I was in Colorado in May.  I wonder how they’re doing with the fans there, since the Sky Sox aren’t an affiliate of the Rockies anymore.)  Tim Hagerty is trying to be brave, but he’s getting worried and depressed.  That’s pretty easy to get when the team gets clobbered, stops hitting, and commits three errors in the game.  Worse, the game seemed to take forever to play out, even with the outcome not in doubt.  They’re up like 7 games on the Isotopes, but have 9 games with them remaining, 5 of them in Albuquerque.

I missed the big story with the Rangers on Monday.  Shin-Soo Choo’s arm was broken and he’s out for the season.  Choo and Prince being out so much this season has at least gotten several other players significant major league playing time.  Let’s hope they’re up to it.  Joey Gallo still lurks in the shadows.  If he’s capable of getting hits without striking out ¾ of the time, now’s a good time to start showing it.

This was one time when watching the game playing out on Gameday, without TV or radio, was still really exciting.  In the 9^th, the Rangers had a 1 run lead over the friggin’ A’s.  (Yes, I’ve decided to tag these guys like I have the “hated” Angels.)  Another blown save.  The Rangers really need to explore the concept of the insurance run.  In the 10^th, the A’s knock in two runs to take the lead.  In the bottom of the frame, with the bases loaded and one out, Beltran singles to drive in two and tie the game.  Nice game for Carlos, 4 for 5, 3 RBI’s.  Adrian Beltre, who’d burned the A’s so badly yesterday, was given a free pass to reload the bases.  And the first pitch to Roogie hits him.  I’m sure he didn’t even feel it.  Rangers win 5-4.

Thanks to a two-hour rain delay, I was able to catch half of the Rockies/Nationals game on the radio when I got home, and I had good signal.  The rain had chased off the four-legged fans, who had come for Bark at the Park.  Wet dog smell and thunder and lightning doesn’t work well with a bunch of dogs in attendance. 

The game was tied at 2 in the 5^th.  I arrived just in time.  DJ LeMahieu hit a triple and was driven in by Nolan Arenado on a grounder.  DJ had a heck of a game.  In the post-game, I heard the dramatic call from earlier, as he hit a monster home run into the wind, rain, and lightning.  David Dahl came in as a pinch hitter in the 7^th and drove in two runs on a double.  Dahl’s consecutive game hitting streak was broken, but he’s still gotten a hit in 21 of 22 games he’s been in.  Rockies win 6-2.  Two notes.  Nolan drove in two runs making outs while I was listening.  That’s a professional team player who wants to win.  The new higher fence at Coors Field kept in two potential homers for the Rockies.  I don’t know if this is good or bad.  If they just had some pitching (and Trevor Story hadn’t gotten hurt), they’d be winning the division.  Sigh.  Yeah, that news came in during the game.  The Giants lost and are a ½ game out of first to the Dodgers.  They’re 9-20 since the break; the worst in the MLB.          

Baseball Notebook for August 2016 Part 4

The Yahoo game was Royals vs Tigers.  While I like this service, I don’t think I can take that Katie Couric promo much longer.  It’s about the same with any baseball coverage on any media.  If you’re listening to a local minor league radio broadcast, you’re going to hearing the same commercials every inning for the whole season.  The best you can hope for is that none of them are too annoying.  I remember once on a mid-season Diablos broadcast with Matt Hicks and his co-host, the station wasn’t able play the commercials.   During a break, they started to do the spots word-for-word as a joke.  The station manager likely immediately stepped in and told them to knock it off.  TV isn’t much better.  Viagra anyone?

Anyway, I was happy to see the Royals, even if the Sabermetricians are going to be right about their record this season being lousy.  Of course, they were only totally wrong about them the last two seasons, and the only reason they aren’t contending now is because of a season-long series of injuries to key players.  This was the Tigers’ team broadcast.  I was surprised to hear Kirk Gibson as the color commentator.  I wonder if this means he’s been totally bounced out of managing?  He doesn’t have the best voice for a speaking gig, but his knowledge and resume always make Gibby worth listening to.  Rod Allen is still with the broadcast as field reporter.  I used to listen to him and Greg Schulte everyday doing Diamondbacks games on the radio.  They were pure “homers,” but Rod had definitely toned it down when he went over to the Tigers.      

KC wins 3-1, but the story was the praying mantis on their dugout.  The cameras were watching it like a hawk.  Like a bunch of little kids, the players were trying to catch it.  I think I missed the story behind why they were doing this.  Something about a “rally mantis.”  The players managed to corral it into a cage and kept it under close guard.  Only in baseball.

Here’s how you break out of a 24-inning scoreless streak: Adrian Beltre hitting a grand slam.  (Actually, Elvis Andrus drove in a run the inning before, but that wasn’t dramatic enough for the lead of this paragraph.)  Even over the drought, Beltre’s been getting his hits.  It was just a matter of somebody getting on in front of him or driving him in.  The Rangers beat the friggin’ A’s 5-2.  Though they’ve been beating them on paper, the A’s have been giving the Rangers fits this season.

The Chihuahuas were still in Oklahoma City and clearly wished they weren’t.  The final was 8-1.  It wasn’t even that close, as that one run came in the 9th.  The opposing pitcher had a complete game and a no-hitter into the 7th.  That’s a four-game sweep for the OKC Dodgers.  No wonder Tim sounded so down during the broadcast.          

Things got too quiet at work without a game on, so I impulsively found the Albuquerque Isotopes’ broadcast on the MiLB site.  I might be visiting them later this month, so I wanted to check in, and they’ve been in the news lately.  Tim had surprisingly mentioned that the ‘Topes were tied in second place in the division behind the Chihuahuas (apparently the Las Vegas 51’s have also faded).  Albuquerque was so bad earlier this year with a double-digit losing streak that the Chihuahuas broadcast was actually doing updates on their games and pulling for them to end it.  Now, the pups have gone 3-11 in the month of August (it’s finally happening, they’ve had too many good players called up to the Padres), while the Isotopes have had an 8 game winning streak.  They’ve picked up 6 games in the standings.  However, they lost tonight to end the streak, and they’re still well below .500.  I’m not worried yet.

Baseball Notebook for August 2016 Part 3

8-8-16

This is out of order, and I missed this when it happened.  Brandon Crawford got 7 hits in a 14-inning Giants win.  We’re going to have to polish these little bright spots, because it hasn’t been good for the Giants after the All-Star break.

8-9-16

Steve Kaplowitz joined Tim Hagerty in the Chihuahuas’ booth for the game versus Fresno.  This is always a good time as Kappy loves talking baseball, but isn’t able to do it on his own local afternoon sports talk show very often.  Two topics that stood out for me were the discussions of ERA of infinity (a pitcher comes into a game and gives up runs without recording an out) and that Shea Stadium was a dump.  Tim kind of stood up for the place, but he’d never been there.  Kappy had.  The pups win 5-1 and are up 8 in the standings.

The Rockies host the Rangers for a day game in Denver.  Again, the Rangers come from behind late.  It was 5-2 in the 8^th when the Rangers scored 4 to win 7-5.  For the Rockies, Arenado had two RBI’s and David Dahl extended his rookie hitting streak with two runs scored.

8-10-16

The Rangers do it again to the Rockies, this time in Arlington.  Down by a run in the 8^th, they come back and win 5-4.  Lucroy gets another RBI for the Rangers.  David Dahl gets another hit and two RBI’s.  Of course, the big Ranger news was the injury retirement of Prince Fielder.  For a fan, he’s been good and he’s been frustrating.  For the team, he was a good guy that was well-liked in the clubhouse.  For management, his contract was insured and the Tigers are still paying part of his enormous salary.  If he wasn’t able to play at a high-level, this was probably the only possible good outcome for the team.  For Prince, his and his kids’ press conference tears obviously meant he still really wanted to play.  He’s only in his early 30’s after all.  The one good thing about just being a fan, we always get another season.  The players don’t.  And, Brandon Crawford hits a walk-off homer to win for the Giants.  BC for MVP!     

8-11-16

It was 100+ degrees in Arlington and I presume with high humidity.  What a better time to play a four-hour day game for the Rangers.  Their new retractable roof stadium cannot be built soon enough.  I got to hear a couple of static-filled innings before I went to work.  After three come-from-behind wins against the Rockies, the Rangers kind of had today coming.  While they had a big 7^th to take the lead, the Rox had a bigger one in the 8^th and won 12-9.  Beltre, Odor, and Blackmon had great offensive games.  David Dahl’s rookie hitting streak goes to 17 games in a row. 

The Chihuahuas had a rare night off.  (Triple-A teams get like one day off a month.)  The game of the day was the Brewers vs the Braves.  Not that it was particularly significant, or even close as it was 11-3 Brewers.  More rare than a perfect game, the Brewers managed to score in every inning they had an at-bat.  This was only the 16^th time this had ever happened in MLB history.  There’s a lot of 1 run innings, and they got some help off of errors, and they only had to bat for 8 innings, but yikes!  Apparently, everything has to go your way for this kind of event to happen.  

It took awhile, but I finally remembered an oddly reminiscent incident to Chris Sale’s attack on the White Sox throwback uniforms.  Somewhere in the late 90’s or even early 2000’s, the Dodgers briefly experimented with a solid blue top.  Yes, I know.  Hersey!  It’s like when the Yankees tried out a sliver-billed hat.  (Yes, it was in the regular season, not a Spring Training game.)  Don’t mess with a classic.  In the Dodgers case, I think they lost every time they wore the alternate top.  You know how superstitious ball players are.  The whole thing ended with high-priced, low-performance free agent Kevin Brown making his only contribution to the team.  Him and some others took the tops behind the bullpen and set them on fire before a game. 

8-12-16

I watched a Yankee game.  The Chihuahuas were on, but they were getting blasted in OKC.  The Rangers/Tigers game was in a delay.  Okay, I had to see A-Rod’s last game.  The Yankee announcers were fans, but deeply ambiguous about this event.  The fans in New York weren’t.  They stood and cheered for him for every appearance.  Alex Rodriguez goes 1 for 4 with a double and an RBI.  His last AB was a groundout to Short.  In the 9^th, with the Yankees up 6-3, Alex was put out at third for one batter and then taken out, so he could get a send-off coming off the field from the crowd.  After the game, he got a big ovation and grabbed a handful of infield dirt to take with him.  Afterward, he thanked the fans and apologized in general for his scandals.  So ends the A-Rod saga. 

Thanks to a two hour, 40 minute rain delay, I was able to catch about half of the Rangers game when I got home.  (Strangely, it was also raining here.)  I joined the game with Rangers up big.  By the 6^th, after a Carlos Beltran home run, it was 8-1 with bases loaded and no outs.  However, they didn’t score any runs.  In the 7^th, Rangers’ starter, Yu Darvish, ran out of gas, or alternately ran out of the patience after a bad error, and got run out of the game.  The team’s defense unfortunately didn’t improve and the Tigers scored 4 runs to make it interesting.  Thankfully, Sam Dyson came in in the 9^th and locked it down.  Rangers win 8-5.  Awkwardly during the game, Sean Tolleson and Prince Fielder are still doing commercials for the team, though they are not with the club anymore.  

8-13-16

This was a poor Saturday.  Unfortunately, the baseball didn’t help.  The Chihuahuas were still in Oklahoma City playing the Dodgers.  I’d missed last night’s game.  Apparently, Yasiel Puig went 3 for 4.  He’s hitting well, but still has baseball acumen issues, such as getting thrown out at home in the 1^st. 

Annoyingly as usual, the Rangers were on at the same time.  I flipped over to listen to the first half of the game.  Cole Hammels didn’t have his best stuff and kept getting into trouble.  Unlike last night, the defense behind him was stellar.  In the 4^th, Profar got his first outfield assist and then Choo threw out a runner at home to end the inning.  Around the 6^th, I lost signal on the El Paso station as the sun went down.  I heard the Tigers score, breaking the 0-0 tie, but not how many runs they scored.

Back to the Chihuahuas.  In the 7^th, OKC takes the lead.  Puig gets thrown out trying to steal home.  The Chihuahuas lose 4-2.  By this time, I was able to pick up another Texas station, and I’m in time to listen to the Rangers lose 2-0.  The Tigers get two runs on 14 hits.  I completely forget about the Rockies game this evening, but it was likely just about over by the time I’d be able to get KOA anyway.  Ironically, I had just bought a Rockies pennant today at Hastings.  (They’re going out of business.  It’s pretty sad going there.) 

While flipping radio stations, I got a Dallas station and was able to amazingly hear the end of the post-game, loud and clear.  I even got to hear Jared Sandler doing his post-game call-in show finally.  A Cowboys pre-season game had knocked the Rangers off FM and onto AM.  I could have heard the game on a much clearer signal.  Sigh.  I also wish I could have heard the call-in show after a win where presumably there might have been callers.  Once again, no recap of the day’s other games.  It’s just weird that they won’t give out all of the scores after a game, just division opponents.  I hope tomorrow is better all the way around.

8-14-16

I should have appreciated Beltran’s home run Friday night more.  I didn’t realize it was going to be the last time I was going to hear the Rangers score this weekend.  After three day games and no days off last week, the team may be fatigued.  Their defense certainly showed signs of a lack of mental and physical sharpness again today. 

Given a 21-inning scoreless streak, you might infer that the Rangers lost today.  The Tigers won 7-0 as their pitcher, Michael Fullmer, threw a complete game shutout.  The Rangers didn’t show up at all, but at least the game went quickly.  Come out to the ballpark later this week for the Elvis Lan-drus-rissan Star Wars bobblehead giveaway.  It’s sure to be a fan-favorite.

The Oklahoma City Dodgers manager took the blame for Yasiel Puig getting caught trying to steal home yesterday.  It was part of complex situational play that Puig apparently didn’t understand when the manager called for it.  So, Puig isn’t stupid because he tried to steal home; he’s dumb because he didn’t understand the signs.   

After a couple of close calls from foul balls, the pressbox finally took a direct hit in the 5^th.  Much like a couple of years ago in Iowa, there was a sound of crashing and then ominous silence for a few seconds.  Finally, a slightly shaken Tim Hagerty resumed calling the game.  He gave a thumbs up to the crowd, who applauded his valor.  There was a knocking sound on the window that confused him for a moment.  A guy in the suite next door was asking for the ball. 

It was that kind of game in OKC today.  A Dodger runner scored from second on a bad throw to first.  A ball fouled off at the plate, bounced up and hit the Chihuahuas batter on the top of the helmet.  The Chihuahuas lose 13-2.  There’s nothing to talk about.  It’s been a crappy baseball weekend.

Hey, show up at the Cohan Stadium next month for Beerfest.  Bring the kids.  Yes, the old Diablos stadium is still in use.

Baseball Notebook for August 2016 Part 2

I don’t why I’m suddenly so loquacious.  This was just supposed to be some little random notes, like a diary, but less girly.

8-9-16

Royals’ clubhouse fractious and divided because of Dungeons and Dragons Redux.  Okay, after re-reading this article, perhaps it is actually a gag, a very impressive analogy between D&D and how the team plays baseball.  I think.  Fantasy and reality (baseball) are starting to blur.  Someone needs to do a D&D fan film with Hosmer as that Half-Elf Ranger. 

Oh, to be Eric Hosmer in Kansas City for a day.  I don’t want to go looking for the link, but there was story earlier this year where he showed up at a Justin Bieber concert.  Suffice it to say from seeing the videos, amongst the women, there’s no contest between the two for their affections.  Hos was the rock star with the screaming girls clamoring for him.

Rangers vs. Rockies.  I was actually seated in front of the computer, counting the minutes until the game.  It was scheduled to be the Yahoo game and I was all over it.  6:40 MST.  Click.  “We’re sorry.  Due to blackout restrictions this game is not available in your area.”  Well.  That was disappointing.  I thought, wiping away a manly tear.  Technically, I guess we’re considered to be in the area of one, the other, or even both teams.  Practically, we don’t actually get either team’s TV broadcasts in this area, unless it’s a national game.  I considered turning on the TV and checking if it was the MLB Network game, but certainly it would also be blacked out. 

I resigned myself to listening to tonight’s Chihuahuas game.  This was one day when I really wasn’t enthusiastic about the dogs for other reasons.  My place of business announced a group outing to a Chihuahuas game in September.  I won’t be going since it’s on Friday night.  My backup will be heading out of town for the Labor Day weekend that night, so I’m stuck.  And to make it worse, I’d already decided that I wouldn’t want to go for inter-personal reasons anyway (and half convinced that this event was scheduled for a week night so I wouldn’t be able to go).  And adding further insult, a pair of party busses pulled up that evening to take some of the officers and their favored customers to tonight’s game, at the businesses’ expense (thus alienating any of the employees who found out).  (It was a 5-2 win for pups as I kept checking in on the game.) 

All was not lost though.  As I later clicked on MLB.com to check to on the game, I noticed that the Rangers and Rockies was the MLB.TV free game.  (I also noticed an upsetting story that Bruce Bochy was back in the hospital.  He seems to not be in good health.)  I’d tried accessing this service a couple years ago and it didn’t work for me, so I hadn’t tried it again since.  Silly me.  It works fine with an unrestricted Internet connection.  There were four options for the game (both teams’ radio and TV broadcasts).  I turned off the Chihuahuas (a bit reluctantly) and chose the Rangers’ radio broadcast.  Why not watch the TV broadcast, dummy?  How could I resist hearing Eric and Matt on a strong signal without a bunch of static and fade out? 

I made the right choice.  The guys gave a great broadcast tonight.  Perhaps they were happy to be a mile-high in Denver or maybe since they weren’t together over the weekend, they were happy to be back together.  In any case, Eric and Matt were interacting and bantering a lot more than usual.  They seem to get along well.  I don’t know why this doesn’t happen on every broadcast.  They’re both Hall of Famer broadcasters now (though different halls of the fame).    

What’s ironic, I actually learned more about the Rockies from the Rangers’ broadcast than I had listening to the Rockies’ broadcasts this season.  First, I got the AR-Enado thing cleared up.  At the Denver airport tram, various Denver sports stars greet the visitors on a video.  Nolan did pronounce his name AR-Enado there.  When later questioned by the local media, he confirmed that that’s how he pronounces it.  Apparently, different members of his own family disagree on the pronunciation, so that was the source of the confusion.  This also led to a discussion of the proper pronunciation of Colorado.  Next, there was a discussion on Rockies pitching.  They are organizationally committed to groundball pitchers, owing to the thin air and thus value plus infield defenders. 

Eric Nadel was excited about the hotel they were staying at.  He met Peter Frampton in an elevator there.  Frampton is doing a show in town, as is Demi Lovato.  Eric is a big music fan and digs the music scene in the Denver area, especially the Red Rocks venue.  This led to this exchange:

Matt Hicks: “Do you, you, feel like I do?”

Eric Nadel: “Oh, just show me the way.”

There was also a lively discussion about the clouds.  I think they were worried about the weather, but that never came into play.  I kept hearing cheering whenever the Rangers made a good play.  I didn’t think there were that many fans in the area.  Actually, there were three sections of Ranger fans in attendance as part of a travel package the team was offering.  I’m sure I heard multiple mentions of it over the season during the team broadcasts, but didn’t retain any details of it.  I’m sure it was pretty cool.

Oh, and there was game going on.  Let’s pick it up in the top of the 9^th with the Rangers down 3-1.  A double-steal on the play before, set up Elvis Andrus driving in two with a base hit to tie the score.  Mitch Moreland then drove him home with a double to give the Rangers the lead, 4-3, which would be the final.  Afterward, it was discussed with the team that they had game-planned that double-steal before the game if that situation came up in the game.  There was also an acknowledgement of the Rangers fans in attendance.  They love getting cheers on the road.

Once again, some divided loyalties.  I do like the Rockies.  Arenado had a great game, driving in two runs, including a home run.  He also had a great bare-handed play in the game.  Rookie David Dahl continues to impress.  I think he’s hit in all 14 games since his call up.  His OPS is 1.004.  (Superstar Arenado is like .980.)  If only Trevor Story hadn’t gotten hurt.

After the game, I made a futile search for the Rangers post-game call in show that they always mention during the post game.  It’s on their flagship station in Dallas, but they were only doing network programming.  Perhaps it’s only for home games or not available over the Internet at all.  Well, that’s fine.  I’d had a good night.

Baseball Notebook for August 2016

8-1-2016

Trade deadline day, but the on-field action also continues.  The Chihuahuas come from behind to lose, 10-7, to the 51’s.  Jabari Blash was called up, but the team doesn’t seem to be missing much on offense.  The Rangers were idle today, awaiting their reinforcements.  The Astros won in 14 innings, 2-1, thanks to a walk-off by Carlos Correa.  I was watching the Yankees vs Mets on ESPN, but managed to completely miss the end of the game and the score.  (It was 6-5, Yankees over Mets.  It was a good game.) 

8-2-16

The Rangers start a series in Baltimore with their new acquisitions.  Darvish allows three solo home runs before being chased from the game.  As I read later, on all three homers, Darvish had shaken off his new catcher Jonathan Lucroy.  The real problem in this game though was that the team again left their bats in Arlington.  Rangers lose 5-1.  Fire the equipment manager.  I was watching this game on Yahoo again and, in spite of the outcome, I was so glad I did.  Ruggie’s at bat in 9^th had me rolling.  I saw him sniff his bat and then he hit himself on his helmet with his bat after a bad swing.

So much for my prediction of the Rockies coming out of nowhere to win the NL West.  The day after I posted it, Trevor Story tears a ligament on his thumb and is out for the season.  I don’t suppose they’ve got another super-powered rookie somewhere in the minors.

8-3-16

Giants vs Phillies.  I’m watching the game on Yahoo, but you could tell where you were just by listening.  “Hey Span, we all know Nunez should be batting leadoff!”  That is truly excellent opposition research by the Philly fans.  The crowd mic kept fading in and out as the hecklers got more vocal, and the production director had to avoid some interesting language.  Yeah, those full houses, happy fans, and winning teams were just an aberration in Philadelphia.  (Actually, I remember a laser pointer incident in that era.)

The Giants go up 4-0 for most of the game.  Johnny Cueto goes 7 2/3 innings with 10 k’s, but gives up 4 runs late, tying the game.  Even with some recently acquired bullpen help, Bochy seemed very reluctant to use them and left Cueto in too long.  It ends up being a 5-4 loss for the Giants in the 12^th inning.  There was an error right before the winning hit, which made it even worse.  I admit I did like the Liberty Bell sound effect on home runs and after the win. 

The Rangers lose again to the O’s 3-2.  The new guys, Carlos Beltran and Lucroy, drive in both runs for Texas.  That, at least, is a good sign.

You can guess what kind of game the Chihuahuas are having when a position player is pitching for them in the 9^th.  (And can you believe they were still calling infield shifts.  For the last batter, they put four players on the right side, nobody on the left.  It worked.  Nobody scored in the 9^th at least.)  It was a 9-2 a-kicking courtesy of the Tacoma Rainiers.  This included an inside-the-park home run by Tacoma, because they got bored trotting around the bases to score.          

Royals’ clubhouse fractious and divided because of Dungeons and Dragons.  I’m still half-convinced this is a late April Fool’s gag.  Seldom, if ever, do D&D and baseball ever come up in the same post on this blog.  These two pastimes never crossover for me . . . until now.  I’m really having a hard time imaging this bunch of World Series winners sitting down to roll dice and kill Orcs, with their skipper, Ned Yost, as the DM no less.  But, there’s way too many details to dismiss this as some Kansas City nerd’s fan-fiction.  I can totally believe Hosmer would roll up a Half-Elf Ranger.  (On the Eight Game Master Alignments scale, Yost seems to be an Enabler Fudge.)  Oh, for a video of these proceedings.  Name your price.  I will pay.   

8-4-16

The Rangers finally beat the O’s 5-3.  Beltran and Lucroy again drove in runs.  It took an extra inning, but the Giants finally beat the Phillies on a walk-off by Denard Span.

At the beginning of the game, Tim speculated that tonight’s game between the Chihuahuas and Rainiers might be high-scoring.  As the dogs were down 10-4 in the 7^th, that seemed to be true.  By the end of the 7^th, it was 10-10, and the final Chihuahua out was thrown out at home with the go-ahead run.  (It was a mirror image of that game in April vs the Zephers.)  In the top of the 8^th, the Rainiers bat around and scored 6 more runs.  It wasn’t over.  The Chihuahuas managed to score 5 more runs before running out of outs in the 9^th.  Clearly the team has not had all of their best hitters called up.  Final, 16-15 Tacoma Rainiers.  The El Paso fans didn’t get to see a win, but got their money’s worth.    

8-5-16

After losing four in a row, the Chihuahuas needed a win tonight.  Unfortunately, their last two series have been against two good teams.  There was a small amount of fratricide within the Tacoma team as a player in the dugout got hit by a foul ball by another one of their players in the 1^st.  After a brief trip to the clubhouse, the injured player came back wearing a trash can lid.  Only in baseball.  The game itself was quite serious as the lead changed hands six times over 9 innings.  The dogs would prevail 7-5. 

The MLB Network game featured the Giants losing again, this time to the Washington Nationals, 5-1.  When am I going to see these guys win again?  I was surprised to see the Nationals’ closer was Mark Melancon.  He was on the Pirates last time I looked, though the subject of trade rumors.  I guess they were right, and I don’t know how I missed that one.  I didn’t realize the Pirates had totally given up on this season. 

The Rangers lose 5-0 to the Astros tonight.  Looking over the Rangers’ lineup, I don’t think they had their best guys out against Keuchel.  (Yeah, I know he’s a lefty and you’re supposed to sit your lefties, but still.)  Or could it have been Astros Girl?  I don’t even if she was there, but I just saw this story today about her appearance at the Tuesday night game versus the Blue Jays.  Essentially, what we have here is a hot chick in homemade team gear cheering behind home plate.  She caused an Internet sensation as the camera just sort of gravitated towards her.  She said she was hoping to distract the opposition, but unfortunately it didn’t work as the Astros lost.  Afterward, Astros Girl got a text from a friend reporting her newfound fame, “Hey, you’re famous in Canada!”   

8-6-16

I was surprised that KOA out of Denver was my strongest radio station as the sun went down.  I picked up the Rockies vs the Marlins in the 7^th with the Rockies already up big.  In spite of the score, it took forever for the Rox to finally put the fish away, 12-6.  I asked if they had any more rookies to step in for the injured Trevor Story.  His name is David Dahl.  I don’t know much about him, but he’s hitting well, including three today.  DJ LeMahieu made a great play to get the final out, on DJ LeMahieu Ghostbuster Bobblehead night, no less.  (Yes, I’m jealous, even with my Cody Decker Bobblehead.)

The main reason I was listening was actually because of the Marlins.  Ichiro Suzuki is still two hits shy of 3,000, which is where I left him the last time I saw him last week.  They’ve been holding him out of the lineup on their current roadtrip, but put him in to pitch hit in the 8^th and he delivered.  He came up again in the 9^th to an ovation, but grounded out to the pitcher.  There was a slight delay afterward.  All of the balls for his at bats are specially marked and are taken out of play after.  Meanwhile, 65 members of the Japanese media get to enjoy the Mile-high city for another day.  Oh, and Stanton hit a 495ft home run or a 500+ft home run, depending on the contested measurement.  Whatever, it was very long.

The Rangers game must have started earlier than the listed time.  It just finished as I tuned in.  At least they won 3-2 over the Astros.  Again, Beltran and Lucroy contributed to the victory.  No word on whether Astros Girl was there.

I listened to the first part of the Chihuahuas game, but wasn’t getting good signal.  The dogs made a game of it, but couldn’t overcome a big deficit and lost 7-5 to the Rainiers.  Every time I hear the name of Tacoma’s manager, I keep remembering his nickname when he played with the Diablos, “Lightning” Pat Listach.

8-7-16

Rangers vs Astros.  It was 1-0 through 7 innings.  In the 5^th, Lucroy drove in Ruggie on first base on a hit and run.  Meanwhile, Yu Darvish pitched 7 scoreless innings with 8 strikeouts and no walks.  You could hear a legion of Rangers fans cheering at the park in Houston.  From here, things got interesting.

The Rangers tacked on a couple of runs in the 8^th, but so did the Astros, 3-2.  In the top of the 9^th, the Rangers loaded the bases with no outs, but failed to score.  In the bottom, the Astros scratched out a run off Sam Dyson to tie it.  In the 10^th, the Rangers again loaded the bases with one out and did not score, but would score two in the 11^th.  On the mound, Matt Bush pitched both extra innings.  While there were two on in the 11th for the Astros, Bush ended the game with a strikeout.  5-3 Rangers.  With that loss the Astros fall to third in the division.  The Rangers are up by 7 on the Mariners.

When I tried listening yesterday, I didn’t hear Matt Hicks on the broadcast.  We don’t get the pre-game, so I didn’t the story as to why he wasn’t there for the weekend.  Apparently, he was on a honeymoon in El Paso, and entering the El Paso Sports Hall of Fame as a broadcaster.  Congratulations, Matt!  I just love being able to hear him again daily, like I used to listening to Diablos games.

The Chihuahuas were not on at their scheduled time.  Normally if there’s a delay, Tim comes on for a minute to say why, but not this time.  Frankly, this screwed up my oh-so-busy evening.  He came on, after about an hour, and apologized.  It was another missing equipment delay.  How does this keep happening? 

I went ahead and listened to ESPN Radio programming in the intervening interval.  We just lost our local Fox Sports Radio affiliate to Oldies programming.  This happened last year too, when they went to the Oldies Country format, so I wonder if this will last.  I’d just about stopped listening to them anyway.  One, they just about only talk about the NFL and the NBA.  They might break down international soccer the Olympics a little bit, just to irritate me.  Two, their only other major topic was liberal political agenda stuff.  Jay Mohr, for example, who was a middle-aged, white comedian, married to Nikki Cox with a couple of kids, suddenly turned into a radical black activist, who took every sports story personally as a reason to agitate for social justice.  Jason Smith, who I had been really enjoying last year since he talked about baseball a lot (okay, really just the Mets), suddenly stopped and started breaking down the Republican and Democrat conventions and how stupid Trump is and how great Hilary is.  The other hosts weren’t any better, if not worse.  Maybe I wasn’t the only person to stop listening.

ESPN Radio, for a change, was talking baseball.  Granted, this was only because the football Hall of Fame game was cancelled this evening, and there were a couple of interesting baseball stories today.  Alex Rodriguez announced his retirement at the end of the week.  (This right after Mark Teixeira also announced his retirement from the Yankees last week.)  Surprisingly, this didn’t come up during the 4+ hours of the Rangers game.  (Or maybe not.  Perhaps they’re still sore about his contract.) 

I found about it watching the Univision sports show, Republica Deportiva.  (I like one of the women hosts of the show.  I don’t care about Mexican league soccer.)  ESPN Radio had Raul Ibanez on talk about A-Rod, who had nothing but glowing things to say about him as a teammate.  I didn’t like Raul as a player (he was always on a team playing against a team I was rooting for), but he’s been a very articulate commentator in retirement.  Seeing Alex trying not to breakdown down during his press conference, I admit to feeling some sympathy for him.  (Tex also got choked up.)  Much like Bonds, the guy easily had the credentials to get into the Hall of Fame before he started using PED’s, and pretty much wrecked his career and reputation from there.                  

Raul was also a teammate of the other ball player in the news, Ichiro Suzuki.  He got his 3,000^th hit this afternoon in Colorado.  (They did mention this on the Rangers broadcast.)  The Marlins could have held him out for a day, since they were going back to Miami tomorrow, but started him today anyway.  Maybe this getting to be a distraction for team that’s contending and they wanted it over with.  The fish win, 10-7, over the Rockies. 

So eventually, the Chihuahuas game came on.  Their opponents were the Fresno Grizzlies.  Tim sounded a little out of sorts to start the game and the players were maybe a bit listless too, all owing to the late start.  You could hear some periodic barking in background for “Bark at the Park.”  At least the four-legged fans were into it. 

    

This was a bad night to start an hour late.  After the game, the team was doing a special showing of Pitch, a new show about a girl pitching for the Padres.  (Actually, they could have shown it during the delay.)  I’d like to say something nice about a baseball-themed show on network television, but it’s likely to just be a short-lived, agenda-driven piece of drivel.  Given how the Padres’ pitching is this season, it will also illicit a lot of unwanted, obvious jokes at their expense.  No word from Tim about showing that TV show that I heard, but they mentioned it on the TV news yesterday.

Until the 9^th, the score was 1-0.  My reception was again poor, so I was missing some details.  The Chihuahuas haven’t scored on Fresno pitcher, Chapman, for like 19 straight innings.  Tonight was no exception.  The Grizzlies’ closer was another matter.  The dogs managed to score a tying run in their last inning.  The bases were then loaded, but the pups weren’t able to win it there.  In the 10^th, a two-run homer for the Grizzlies would turn out to be the game-winner.  Fresno wins 3-1.