NM State Aggies vs CBU Lancers Soccer 10-6-19

Aggie Kaitlyn May

What?  Read on.

Whoa there, JDH417!  Aren’t we skipping something here?  Yes.  I sort of missed the girls’ 10-4-19 game against GCU.  I say, “Sort of,” because I was there and did see some of the game later, but technically, I wasn’t there for the game.  Let me explain, hopefully in quick manner.

I took Friday off, in addition to Thursday, for volleyball.  Before Ron picked me up for the game, I got the impression there was a chance of rain, so I didn’t take my cushion and seat, neither of which would do well in the rain.  Just as he pulled up, it was sprinkling.  When we got to the soccer complex, there was no one in the stands and the gates were shut.  A helpful attendant came over when we drove by and said that they were in a lightning delay.  It’d be at least a half hour.

We waited for about an hour.  Various fans came and went or stayed.  Tom was there.  He sat down in his stadium chair in front of the ticket office waiting for the game.  After an hour and checking when sundown was going to happen, I concluded they weren’t going to get the game in, since there was still no one on the field.  I’d said before at work that I’d probably go ahead and come in if any of these soccer matches were rained out.  So, I told Ron I wanted my day off back more than I wanted to keep sitting around.  I felt bad for Ron, since this was his regular day off and he didn’t have anything else to do.

I surprised the people at work.  None of my supervisors were there to fix my timecard and my vacation day, but I’m sure this will get worked out eventually.  I checked the soccer team’s Twitter.  They were still determined to play.  They didn’t have much choice.  Though there were two cancellations earlier this season, they had to play this conference game and had another game scheduled on Sunday.  When I noticed the match had started, a co-worker suggested it might be on the Internet.  It was.  I thought the WAC Digital Network blacked out home games, but at least not this time. 

And, I’ve taken too long with this.  GCU scored twice.  Corey Kizer scored late in the second half to make it 2-1, which was the final.  But, with 7 minutes left, the game was stopped for darkness.  I was almost wrong; they nearly got it all in.  They should have played at the recreational park next door where they have stadium lighting, which they don’t have at the soccer field.  Dmitri Fong had 5 saves.  The Aggies actually had more shots on goal (6).  If they’d played it out, I could see the Aggies tying it, but I doubted they’d be able to win it.

I shouldn’t have gone to work either.  Though I seemed okay, I knew was actually sick from the bug I’d caught Thursday.  I hope I didn’t spread it around, since it was apparently highly contagious.  I did okay, but I was swigging cold medicine when I got home.  Saturday was unpleasant, but could have been worse.  Sunday morning, after more cold medicine, I was basically over it.  I sat around watching TV, waiting to leave for the match.

I have to give a little bonus coverage here of what I watched on TV.  Stadium showed a Women’s College Volleyball match between the Colorado State Rams and the Wyoming Cowgirls.  This was a replay, where they took out some of the dead time to fit the whole game into a two-hour timeslot.  I don’t know when it was actually played live.  They were in Wyoming’s small volleyball gym and it was packed.  I was eager to see CSU’s Kirstie Hillyer again (9-2-18).  To refresh, she’s 6’6”, well-built, a very good player, and gorgeous.             

I won’t recap the whole thing here.  (Why not?  I’ve blown two pages already not writing about today’s soccer match.)  CSU won 3-2 in five sets.  Set #3 was awesome.  The Rams were down by 6 early and went on a 9-0 to take the lead.  The Cowgirls came back and won it 29-27 in extra points.  CSU fought off at least four set points.  One of the announcers noted the Wyoming quarterback was there cheering on the team.  Kirstie had her knee wrapped and wasn’t jumping that well.  She still had double digit kills.  Breana Runnels was the high-scorer with 29!  I noticed CSU had a reserve player that looked about 5’ flat.  I would liked to have seen her next to Kirstie. 

Are we ready to talk about today’s game finally?  I had no misgivings about going.  I felt great.  It was warm and sunny with a little breeze outside.  After being in bed most of yesterday, I wanted to get out.  There was a light crowd again at the soccer field.  (They didn’t show the crowd on the video for Friday’s game, but from the sound, it might have been about the same number of people, even with a two-hour delay.)  The crowd probably doubled when the Gadsden High Lady Panthers soccer team came in.  

Danny was there.  He’d been out sick too and hadn’t made it out to volleyball Thursday or soccer Friday.  We talked a bit about the announcement of the WAC adding another school next year.  I’d heard about it during Aggie Football last night.  They’d shot themselves in the foot with three turnovers deep in the Liberty Flames’ red zone and with nearly 100 yards in penalties.  The final was 20-13 Liberty.  They really should have won this one.  (Liberty was even worse in penalties.)  Currently winless, if they can win two games this season, it’ll be an amazing comeback.  The two incoming schools have decent football programs, though not FBS-level.  This might help with the Aggies’ home scheduling.  Maybe the WAC picks up football as a conference sport?        

The Volleyball girls were there at the game at least.  Here they are with Striking the Wonder Dog.  The dog certainly has some choice company here and likewise for the girls.  (He’s one handsome pooch.)     

Out on field, the Cal Baptist Lancers looked really sharp in their warm-up tops.  They came out and played in an attractive Navy blue and gold.  The PA stumbled badly over one of the girls’ names.  I think it was Rola Badawiya, which is the only difficult name on their roster.  She tossed her head back and laughed.   She must get that a lot.  For the Aggies (speaking of interesting names), Xitlaly Hernandez was not in the lineup again.  She’s likely gone for the season.  Team captain, Kelly Burton, didn’t start again.  What’s up with that?

First Half

The crowd was amazingly quiet at the start of the match.  The girls on both teams and their coaches made up the difference with their shouting.  Danny and I were still chatting.  We were discussing arenas.  Our Pan-Am Center is apparently not nationally well-regarded.  “Are we supposed to build a new stadium every 20 years?” he asked.  It could be worse.  Danny mentioned a “Wall of Gum” at Seattle U.  People aren’t allowed to chew gum in their arena, so there’s a wall where people stick their gum before going in.  That’s truly gross.

42’ left in the half, the Aggies were on the attack to start.  They made a concentrated effort that ended in Shea O’Connor taking a header shot that was caught.  39’ Corey made a pass to Shea, who took another shot.  Lancer goalie, Romane Salvador  fell on the roller.  38’ CBU made their first attack.  The shot went high and hit the scoreboard.  It’s like there’s a target on it for opposing teams.  37’ the Lancers took another shot from the wing.  Dmitri started getting really vocal with her teammates.  She caught two more shots over the next couple of minutes. 

30’ I thought I saw a Lancer player pull down an Aggie player by her ponytail.  I must have mis-seen that, though the ref did issue a warning to the CBU player.  29’ Alexa Barerra took a shot that was caught.  28’ Dmitri had to come out to dive on a ball.  27’ the Aggies were called for a foul that gave CBU a free kick that was like a corner.  25’ CBU had an actual corner.  Dmitri caught it.  A little bitty kid was acting as the ballboy running around behind her net.  It was adorable.  Dmitri was yelling at him to get to the balls faster.  (Just kidding, though I could see her yelling at the crowd to cheer harder.)

23’ another CBU corner, and 21’ an Aggie foul.  The Aggie bench was in an uproar over that one.  Dmitri came out to get a loose ball and collided with an Aggie defender.  18’ back down field, Corey took a header shot that went wide.  17’ a CBU attack got a wide open look at Dmitri with no defenders.  The attack was broken up.  The ref waved off a possible handball by the Aggies in the box.  16’ another Aggie foul.  This time both teams were mad at the ref. 

At this point, I noticed the ballgirl on then near sideline.  It was a player who was off the roster, Kaitlyn May, who I may or may not have incorrectly identified at the autograph session.  (I’m using a program from last year to look her up.) Regardless, she’s very pretty and cool-looking.  (She has pretty turquoise-colored nails.)  She came to my attention as she tried to “help” a line judge with a call.  Nice try, and I was distracted for the rest of the match.           

 

7’ Hannah Leitner got tripped outside the CBU box.  The fans wanted a call and didn’t get it.  4’ Shea knocked down an attacker in the Aggie box.  No call.  Beautiful.  Can you see where this is heading though?  Right after that, Aggie Jordan Gregory and Lancer Ari Coronado got into it in front of the stands.  It started with some rough checking, and then they dropped any pretext of playing and went to slapping.  I think they both realized that continuing the fight would be a poor idea and allowed themselves to be separated. 

Ari threw the first punch, but the ref only saw Jordan’s retaliation.  Only Jordan got ejected.  The crowd was furious.  The Aggies were now down a player for the rest of the match.  Soccer rules suck, by the way.  Put in a penalty box and encourage fighting like hockey.  I’m not kidding.  This fight was easily the play of the match, perhaps even every match I’ve seen.   

2’ this ejection almost had immediate consequences as a CBU shot hit the Aggie goal crossbar and ricocheted straight down, somehow not going in.  The shorthanded Aggies went on the attack.  Eli Gonzalez had a running fight downfield as she took the ball onto the CBU side.  With under a minute left, Shea took a shot that just went high.  0-0 at the half.  The Aggies had 2 shots on goal with 1 corner.  The Lancers had 1 shot on goal with 4 corners.

Halftime

Some little soccer players ran out on to the field for a five-minute match with no goalies.  They were adorable.  The final was 1-1.  The PA hoped that they’d be playing out on this field when they were older, except they were all boys, so I don’t know how that would happen.  I noticed some of the Gadsden players went to the courtesy table and picked up the team picture cards.  Maybe they got them signed later.  Before the start of the second half, the Gadsden team went to the front of the stands.  The PA introduced them and they tossed shirts into the crowd.  Danny got up and waved and got one. 

Second Half

The Aggies were still down a player to start.  43’ the Aggies started off on offense anyway.  Katie Martinez took a shot that went wide.  42’ Corey took a header shot.  Eli made a follow up attack.  The Aggies wanted a foul as her attack was broken up hard.  A group of university firemen had come in during the first half.  They were into it.  They were shouting to the ref that these no-calls were going to start another fight.   

40’ a CBU corner.  37’ Coach Baarts furiously yelled out some instruction to Dmitri.  Right after that, she stopped a close shot.  Whatever it was, it was good advice.  I noticed ballgirl Kaitlyn was now exclusively staying on the side of the field I and, perhaps more relevantly, the firemen were on.  Hmm. . .  No complaints from me.  I was glad to see more of her. 

34’ CBU took a free kick that went just wide.  33’ a CBU girl went over Katie’s back for a header ball.  A foul was called after Katie and the crowd complained.  31’ Dmitri stopped a weak shot in front of the net.  Emma Smith went down on the play.  She came out and Kelly came in.  One of the firemen was yelling for her.  I wonder if that was Kelly’s boyfriend.

30’ from what I saw, a CBU shot near the Aggie net deflected off Rola Badawiya and went in.  1-0 CBU.  I think this happened just to give the PA more trouble pronouncing her name again.  I’d hoped this score would end the ejection, but it did not.  (I don’t know soccer rules.)  The Aggies were still a player down.  Right after, Katie complained to the ref about another collision.  29’ CBU did a mass substitution.  I wondered if it was for more defense. 

27’ there was a play over by the Aggie bench on the other side of the field.  The reserves went crazy cheering.  I couldn’t see what that was about.  22’ CBU corner.  21’ Kelly was knocked over.  19’ Dmitri fell on a roller at the net.  18’ CBU corner.  Maybe they subbed in more offensive players?  16’ Katie made a big kick out-of-bounds to clear the box.  The ball went into the stands and bounced back on field.  CBU got a free kick on another Aggie foul.  The crowd was angry again. 

13’ Shea charged at a Lancer defender with the ball on their side of the field.  She mishandled ball and Shea took it.  The Lancer then tripped Shea right outside the CBU box.  The ref corrected his previous mistake and ejected the Lancer player.  The Aggies got a free kick, but didn’t get a shot off on goal, though the number of players now was even.  One of the firemen asked Kaitlyn a couple of soccer questions about the play.  Come on, guys.  She was literally standing in front of you for of whole half, even when the ball was at the other end of the field.  I think she was hoping for a little more interaction than that. 

11’ Dmitri caught a shot.  The Aggies tried to push here.  10’ Shea passed to Alexa, who had a reasonably good shot that went wide.  8’ Hannah passed to Shea in front of the CBU net and that shot just missed.  6’ Jody Hernandez accidently kicked the ball into the ref’s back.  I do think it was unintentional.  The crowd cheering was not.  The ref shrugged.  I guess I had that coming.  4’ Shea and CBU keeper Romane  tangled chasing a ball out of the box.  Shea wanted a call.  She was fairly relentless in chasing any loose ball by the net. 

For the final minutes, the ball stayed in the far corner by the Aggie net.  CBU more-or-less kept the ball there until time expired.  1-0 Lancers was your final.  The PA announced the score with such dejection that someone might want to keep an eye on her for the rest of the day.  She’s been calling defeats here for the last two seasons.  I’m not sure why this one was any worse than the others.  The team came over to the stands and hesitantly waved.  The crowd stood and gave them a hearty round of applause for their effort.   

I forgot to get the final stats off the scoreboard.  From box score, the Lancers were up 8-1 in corners and 5-3 in shots on goal.  If there’s some lessons to take away from this one, I don’t know what they are.  The teams came into this match with mirror records: Aggies 1-8-2, Lancers 8-2-1.  The Aggies at least did a good job of keeping a better team honest.  If they could just finish on a few of their attacks or get more of them, they’d have some more wins, since their defense is pretty solid.

I confronted the firemen afterward on their indolence or apathy or ignorance dealing with Kaitlyn.  Actually, I did talk to one of them about building safety.  Really.  This came up at work.  As part of their active shooter escape plan, management was going to try to break one of the building’s outside windows to test that as an exit.  I had a shocked reaction to that plan.  I told Ron on Thursday and he gave a rather technical response that boiled down to, that’s a dumb idea.  The fireman rolled his eyes after I told him.  I can guess what he thinks.  He asked who I worked for to make sure he didn’t do any business with us.           

I was not depressed afterward.  The time in the sun with my health more-or-less back had rejuvenated me, regardless of the outcome on the field.  At least I got to see a girl fight.  Maybe there’ll be some hair-pulling next time.  I went out for that Honey Barbeque Chicken Strip Sandwich from Whataburger that I meant to get last weekend.  So, I was in a decent mood. 

However, before I left the parking lot, I was somewhat haunted by a forlorn pretty blonde teen girl sitting on the back of a truck in front of me.  She looked so depressed.  (I’m sure she wasn’t the PA.)  I, of course, had no idea if this anything to do with the game.  She put on a pair of sunglasses as I pulled out, like she was hiding her eyes.  Well, maybe the Aggies will win next time and cheer her up.

NM State Aggies vs UTRGV Vaqueros Volleyball 10-3-19

My downfall for the next couple of days, I think happened while me and Ron were at Chick-fil-a.  We were having dinner before tonight’s volleyball match with the Vaqueros.  The wait staff there was as pleasant as usual and everyone seemed healthy, but I think this was where I caught my cold.  I won’t hold it against them.  I feel like I had this coming, since I had done nothing during my day off waiting for the game.  I was maybe a bit of a glutton going back and ordering a side of mac and cheese after finishing my sandwich.  It was good though.  Am I going to be ordering an extra side every time I go to Chick-fil-a now?

Up until when my throat started hurting about halfway through the match, I was otherwise having a good time.  There was a new poster card of the team up front.  I wasn’t going to mention her anymore, because there’s no reason to, but staffer Emerson looked really on point tonight.  She wouldn’t be working with PA Ed, though.  The Softball PA would be working instead.  (I need to find out his name.)  I hope Ed isn’t out with a cold.  During player introductions, the replacement actually did a fairly credible impersonation (or homage) of Ed.   

We were there way early and watched the girls on both teams stretch out.  Ron observed that the Vaqueros looked tall, which they are.  The tallest person on court may have been their attractive assistant coach Leah Best.  She may have been taller than our own Megan Hart, who’s 6’5”.  (And Megan is, as always, beautiful.)  I remembered athletic Brazilian Barbara Silva from previous meetings.  Talita Olivera was very tall and thin and still had a hunchback.  I still admire her out there playing.  They had a redhead, Sarah Cruz, and a tall pretty blonde, Veronika Jandova (pictured right).  Nearly the whole team is made up of foreign students. 

Both teams were loose and seemingly carefree warming up.  Tainted Love came on over the PA and one of the Vaquero girls shouted, “I love this song!” and started singing along.  She danced around to the next song.  Things were a bit too loose.  One ball rebounded high into the stands and knocked over a guy’s drink. 

There was radio tonight.  This was a bit of a revenge match for the Aggies.  They’d lost to the Vaqueros last year (10-27-18) in five-heartbreaking sets in front of a big crowd for a Pack-the-Pan-Am event.  They’d had their home conference winning streak broken and lost out on first place in the standings.  When Adam Young interviewed both Coach Jordan and Megan, they remembered.  (Adam talked to Megan on the Coaches Show yesterday.  Lucky guy.)  However, this UTRGV team wasn’t the same; they have a losing record.  They were also missing Ragni Knudsen, who’d torched the Aggies in last year’s match.    

It was a pretty good crowd.  There was one too many, namely a guy in front of me eating a big, smelly pickle.  (I hate pickles.)  Analyssa Acosta was still in at libero.  The coach said he was grudgingly proud of her working her way into the lineup.  She was okay, but still had some issues.  Wow, that is actually high praise in-season from Coach Jordan.  Hey, we had a special guest here.  Aggie great from last year, Tatyana Battle came in to watch.  Doesn’t she work for UTEP now?  I guess she had a day off.  Maybe she told Coach Wallis she was scouting.  Coach Jordan went up to her to chat. 

Set 1

Let’s get right to the action.  Our first bang was at 3-1 Aggies.  Julianna Salanoa got a solo block and the kill.  5-1, the Aggies got a good early lead on a block by Ashley Anselmo and Jules.  6-2, Silva got her second kill for the Vaqueros.  6-3, Savannah Davison had hit out on the previous point, but came right back with a kill here.  7-5, Meg put down a kill after a couple of Aggie errors got the Vaqueros close.  8-5, Sav took a little something off a swing and it dropped in for an easy kill.  9-6, a Vaquero player slipped on a wetspot on the court.  I didn’t see any stoppages for cleaning in the match, so it was an isolated incident.

10-6 Aggies, Sav served up an ace.  Before the match, Coach had said that he’d tried to tell the girls to put in good serves.  What was hurting their serving was the girls trying too hard, hitting too hard and picking low percentage targets.  Just taking a bit off to keep a run going was more important.  11-6, a double touch call on the Vaqueros.  They took a timeout.  The Vaqueros other assistant coach was doing the head coaching today with their head coach out for a family funeral.

12-9 Aggies, but there were still issues.  Sav had a service error and a couple of attack errors, but the Vaqueros sided out on an attack error.  13-10, Lia Mosher put a fastball down the middle of the court for a kill.  16-11, Sav went cross-court for a kill.  17-11, Jules and Sav combined to stuff Silva at the net finally.  Timeout UTRGV.  17-13, Cruz and Jandova blocked Jules.  It was a good play.  19-15, the weirdest point of the match.  The Aggies free balled twice, but still won it on a block by Meg and Sav. 

20-16 Aggies, Sav was unblocked and put in another fastball.  All those tall girls, but UTRGV was missing blocks.  22-17, Meg buried one.  22-20, the Vaqueros aced.  They weren’t going away.  After an Aggie attack error, Coach Jordan took a timeout.  It didn’t help, 23-23, and the Aggies took their second timeout.  A Vaquero service error got the score to 24-23 and set point, but Silva got her sixth kill to tie it at 24. 

25-24 Vaqueros, Sav took an angry swing and was blocked.  UTRGV took their first lead with a set point.  25-25, this was probably the crucial point of the match.  A Vaquero player dugout a ball that was going out that would have won the set for them.  The Aggies won that point.  I felt bad for her.  It still wasn’t over.  Sav tied it again at 26.  27-26 Aggies, Ashley made her first serve of the season.  I think somebody had to show her where the service line was.  It was a good one that went to the backline.  Sav had a solo block for the point.  28-26 Aggies, Ashley was clearly nervous, but her second serve of the season was another good one.  Sav won the set with a kill.       

Set 2: Aggies 1, Vaqueros 0

That was exciting.  Right back to Set 2.  2-1, the Vaqueros took a quick lead as Silva hit a ball hard enough to bounce over the scorer’s table and up the tunnel.  AAD Herb Taylor had to go retrieve it.  3-3, Jules tied it on an ace.  7-6, the Aggies took the lead on a Vaquero net violation.  8-6 Aggies, the Vaqueros took a timeout as Savannah was on a run serving.  Women’s Basketball star, Gia Pack, came in and said, “Hi,” to Taty.  Star players on different teams do know each other.

9-9, the Vaqueros tied it, but Sav made a tremendous save on the point.  11-9 Aggies, they got two blocks on this point to get back in the lead.  17-14, Krysten Garrison hit the sideline on an ace.  That was good to see.  19-16, Lia got another kill, which led to a Vaquero timeout on the next point.  Brigette Lowe subbed in.  23-16, Sav was on another serving run.  She hit the tape here, but it fell in for an ace.  24-17, Sav made an out-serve on set point, but Cat Kelly finished it off on the next point.  25-17, Aggies took Set 2.

Set 3: Aggies 2, Vaqueros 0

Aggie reserve Kassi Stolz was dancing as the teams changed sides.  Then she salsa’ed to Jump in the Line.  3-2 Aggies, there was a long rally that ended on a Vaquero DT.  Jules made a great save on the play.  The down official finally told a guy sitting behind the scorer’s table to turn off his smartphone light.  It was annoying the players.  It was annoying me across the court. 

6-5 Aggies, Sav served into the net.  That one was on Adam.  He was talking about how much better she was serving.  8-6, Analyssa hit an out-serve.  The team had kept the errors down to this point, but started having problems again.  9-6, Jules slapped back an overpass that bounced off three players.  10-6, Sav had another great dig and Jules got a tip kill to end it.  11-8, Jules and Cat combined on a block.  Silva complained to the down official that it was out.  She might have had a point.

13-9 Aggies, Analyssa fell and dropped on Kiley Tonge’s ankle.  They were okay.  13-10, Annie went to the floor again.  Jules got stuffed on this point.  14-10, Julianna came right back with a great tip into the corner.  15-11, Meg pounded one into the middle of the court.  I could just see the Vaqueros collectively slump after that one.  Megan has that effect on other teams.  That took us into a media timeout. 

16-12 Aggies, both teams exchanged service errors.  Annie looked seriously unhappy after hers.  18-13, Sav was unblocked again for a kill.  20-15, another long rally ended on a Jules’ kill down the line.  Annie sat on the bench for a point next to Assistant Coach Rubio.  She was gassed out and stroking her hair back.  She may have been giving herself a mental pep talk. 

The Vaqueros went on a late serving run.  23-19, Meg broke it up with a kill and got another kill at 24-20 to get it to match point.  And then we had this oddity.  5’4” Halle Razo cycled into the Aggie front court.  Umm . . .  24-21, Halle took an inadvertent pass at the net.  She didn’t know what to do with it, she wasn’t going to spike it, and had to free ball it over.  24-22, the Aggies took a timeout, but Halle went back in at the net.  Right out of the timeout, Cat, with no hesitation, ended the set and match with a kill.  25-22 and 3-0 Aggies. 

In the post-match interview, Coach Jordan said he’d miscounted on the number of the subs, which left Halle stranded.  I think Ashley serving was also a goof on subs, but he was very pleased with her coming up with a couple of big serves.  The coach also mentioned that he likes Barbara Silva on UTRGV, who led the Vaqueros with 12 kills.  Savannah Davison matched that to lead the Aggies.  Megan Hart followed with 10 and Julianna Salanoa had 8.  Lia Mosher took 4 swings and had 3 kills.  I think she’s underused.  The team had 13 blocks, but also 13 service errors.  It’s still an issue.   

Tatyana went down to talk to her former teammates.  She probably gave them a few coaching tips too.  Brigette talked to her mom, maybe.  She seemed unhappy, even with the win.  You so seldom see her without a smile.  I was unhappy.  I knew I was getting sick.  At one point, I couldn’t talk to Ron with a sore throat.  I hope I didn’t breathe on him.  I meant to write this up that night, but I just sat and watched TV with a pounding headache.  I took some stuff and went to bed, hoping I’d be okay for tomorrow’s soccer match.

New Comic Reviews: D&D-A Darkened Wish and The New Mutants-War Children

D&D-A Darkened Wish

I’ll sum this up in one word: gay. 

Interpret that as you will.  I’m sure the writer would say, “Why, thank you.”  Really, they should have warning labels on comics, not for age, but rather sensibilities.  Let us say, het-pale-male was not the target audience for this comic.  I love the cover, but even though it’s by the same artist, the artwork inside isn’t anywhere near as appealing.  As for the story, I got no idea what’s going on.  It didn’t make any sense, and I suspect reading issue #1 would not have helped.       

  

Check out all of these other (hopeful better) comics that IDW is publishing.  I see G.I. Joe, Star Wars, Star Trek, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Disney characters, Batman, and Marvel characters.  I’m guessing the Marvel comics are kids versions of various superheroes.  Clearly, nobody working at Marvel would be capable of making a comic for kids or even human beings at this point.  There was an ad in the back for a Godzilla comic.  IDW apparently wants as many licensed properties as they can get.  If only there was a better, more accessible, venue than comic book stores for these kind of comics.  Not the one I bought, of course.  This comic should be kept in the darkest corner of the most obscure shops. 

Regardless, I only bought this comic as a throw-in extra.  The below comic was what I was there for.   

   

The New Mutants-War Children

I thought this was a facsimile edition of an 80’s New Mutants comic that I didn’t recognize.  I certainly recognized the names on it: writer Chris Claremont and artist Bill Sienkiewicz (hereto after referred to as just Bill).  As soon as I saw that combination of title and creators listed for this week’s releases, I hopped right down to Zia Comics for it.  I, rather embarrassingly, didn’t notice on my first flip through that it was, in fact, a new comic book.  I had to look twice to figure that out.  Suddenly, I was even more excited.  This was a brand new adventure with the New Mutants.

  

Why was I excited?  I didn’t have a good introduction to the junior team of X-Men.  This group has always suffered from the poor team name.  Not to mention, they have a poor origin.  This group was recruited by a Brood-infected Xavier for the purpose of being super-powered hosts for the alien species.  It was never an auspicious start.  I never read their first appearance (though I think Karma appeared in an earlier comic) in their graphic novel.  (I saw it once in a used bookstore and passed it over.  Mistake.  Just like getting rid of my Demon Bear trade paperback.)    

The premise kept getting worse.  I think their first crossover was with Team America, a bunch of guys riding motorcycles who fight crime.  (It was also later revealed that they were mutants too, like everyone in Marvel Comics at the time.)  They lost member Karma in that exchange with only perfunctory tears shed by her teammates.  They then immediately picked up a new member, Magma, who was living in a lost Roman civilization hidden in the middle of the Amazon jungle.  Yeah.  I collected nearly the first year of the comic before I finally bailed. 

Further irritating me, right after that, Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter must have agreed with my opinion and ordered a shakeup.  What followed was a tremendous run with Bill and Claremont changing the comic for good and for the better.  New members were added.  Old ones were more sharply defined.  Conflicts included the creation of their rivals, the Hellions, at the Hellfire Club-run academy.  The apex of this version of the team resulted in my favorite comic book: New Mutants Special Edition #1.  With Arthur Adams’ finely detailed, but playful and friendly, artwork, the kids had an incredible adventure in Asgard with lasting consequences.

All good things come to an end.  Some other artists came along, but the strong precedent produced some good work.  But when Claremont left, the comic took a sharp downturn.  When you introduce a bird-man character named, Birdbrain, you can’t expect quality stories at that point.  Then Rob Liefield came on and took the group in a totally different direction to become X-Force.  It wasn’t to my tastes, but that was easily the most popular incarnation of the group.  Later, under another change of concept, X-Force, somewhat at loose ends, took a road trip across the country.  I picked up these issues in a $1 box later.  It was one of the most refreshing comic book storylines I’d ever read.  It felt like a true follow up to the New Mutants. 

 

Bill’s art style might not be to everyone’s tastes.  I’ve seen him compared unfavorably to Neal Adams.  I’ve seen Bill on Moon Knight, Daredevil, and Elektra: Assassin.  All he does is make great comics.  His work on the New Mutants was probably his most complete expression, whether he’d see it that way or not.  The bold characterization and visuals of the New Mutants during his run became indelible in the minds of many of the readers.     

     

For this issue, the artwork was all-over-the-place wild.  The story was disjointed and a bit hard to follow.  (If you don’t know the characters well, don’t even bother picking this up.)  It was overpriced and had a bunch of ads that disrupted the flow of the story even further.  Even for the extra price, it was printed on cheaper paper than the thicker paper that the various facsimile editions were printed on.  

I liked it. 

It was great seeing the classic New Mutants team again in a new adventure.  The artwork was dramatic and evocative and emotive.  The story basically examined the characters.  With their complexity, it worked well.  It was an all-too brief visit with old literary friends.  Some were way too brief.  That’s the problem with working with large ensemble casts.  For a one-shot, some characters are going to be slighted in favor of a couple of others.  The characters were all fully in their familiar voices.  It was like slipping on a comfy old pair of jeans for a long-time fan.  If you’re one of those people, you’ll like it too.

I was made aware that there were some persistent complaints about the linguist character, Cypher, who does play a prominent role in this issue.  Doug Ramsey was introduced as a friend of Kitty Pride well before becoming a member, or even knowing he was a mutant.  I never questioned having the character on the team, even without any offensive powers, since he’d usually prove useful in some other aspect.  Frankly, not every mutant has great powers.  This is way it actually should be, though this did take it to an extreme.  The New Mutants weren’t supposed to be a combat team like the X-Men.  (Of course, conflict happened anyway.) 

Apparently, some writers and the fans disliked his helpless status (even though he was usually paired up with Warlock in combat) and wanted him killed off, which one writer did, and then replaced him with Birdbrain (?).  Cypher was later brought back with some uber-version of his powers imaginatively tricked out.  It was sort of like when Princess Projectra came back as Sensor Girl in the Legion of Superheroes.  (It was questionable both times.) 

My favorite character, Magik, had a mutant teleportation power, which she had trouble controlling (which led to a memorable time travel adventure into the future), and had a sword that could disrupt magic, which the team usually never fought against.  Sunspot’s super strength power was initially almost useless at night.  My next favorite, Mirage’s power just made scary illusions (much later upgraded to psychic arrows) and she was the team’s combat leader.  The New Mutants were a team of kids still learning their powers.  In certain situations, all of them were “useless.”  That’s why they were a team.

     

If you have no familiarity with these characters, you’re going to have to wait a bit.  We might finally see a heavily-edited version of their Fox movie next year that fits into the MCU.  (Fox waited too late to make this movie for their X-Men franchise.)  That girl playing Magik is a spot-on dead ringer for the comic book character.  I’m pretty sure Marvel wants to develop the New Mutants for their movies.  A teen version of the X-Men seems like an irresistible concept.  This movie could open up the superhero genre to horror (as it’s been advertised), or it might be a messy betrayal for the fans.  The potential is still there waiting to be exploited.

I noticed this ad in the comic.  Last time I was at Zia Comics, I saw the Cloak & Dagger statue.  It was so cool and not expensive at all, but I had nowhere to put it.  It was gone when I looked this time.  Oh well. 

NM State Aggies vs Midland College Lady Chaps Softball 9-28-19

Aggie Softball roster

Accept with a grain of salt

I’m not sure how to start this, since I can’t finish it and didn’t entirely understand what I saw.  This was a scheduled exhibition softball double header.  I only attended the first game.  I had the foresight to print up a roster before going to the game, but just to foil me and my cleverness, none of the players had numbers on their uniforms.  So I can’t identify several of the Aggie players, and I’m clueless about the opposition.

I have seen the Midland College Lady Chaps (Chaparrals) before (9-30-17).  I had no idea who they were last time.  The team endeared itself to me when they came to the foot of the stands after the game and said, “Thank you for coming to our game!  Bird is the word!”  I got their name off of the Aggies’ exhibition schedule.  I didn’t get it off their uniforms.  Both teams wore the same uniform for the game: black pants and a plain white shirt with nothing on it.  Really.  A couple of Aggies wore plain crimson shirts.  That was the only differentiation. 

On the Aggie side, there was quite a bit of turnover.  Senior star player Kelsey Horton was graduated and gone.  Great senior centerfielder Victoria Castro was here, but only as a student assistant at the scorer’s table.  (A pair of older fans in the stands yelled out “Hi, Tori!” to her there.)  Senior pitcher Kayla Green was gone under a cloud of doubt.  Kennedy Johnson, who’d had some good moments with the team, had also graduated.

Unfortunately, with those expected losses, there’d been some unexpected key losses in the off-season.  As I found out at the first Aggie event of the season (8-23-19), ace pitcher, Samaria Diaz, had graduated early and left for Oregon.  (They’re quite pleased to have her, by the way.)  Freshman of the year, Mya Felder, had also transferred for greener pastures.  Looking over the roster, Kennedi Sorenson had also left.  She hadn’t gotten a lot of work as the third catcher.  (There are only two listed now.)  I was glad to see Caity Szczesny take the field for this game.  She’d had limited playing time last year.  There had been something wrong with her as she won a Comeback Player of the Year award after last season. 

I was sorry I’d missed the team’s exhibition games last weekend.  They’d posted their fall schedule right after the last time I’d checked their social media.  I wasn’t doing anything last Saturday and could have seen them play UTEP.  On Sunday, I was there during their game with El Paso Community College, but had gone to see the soccer match.  I would have come early to watch some of the game, if I’d known.  The Aggies won both series.  Even for today’s game, I’d rechecked the schedule Friday and found out they’d changed the time to an hour earlier.  I didn’t bother seeing if Ron could come for an 11:00am game. 

There were some ominous signs in the softball parking lot restricting parking later for the football game this evening.  Theoretically, I was okay for the afternoon, but it made me nervous pulling in.  Inside, I was grateful that the girls were out warming up and that I wouldn’t be sitting around long waiting for the game.  There were only a handful of opposing fans there at first.  A nice lady with them offered me a bottle of water.  (I’d actually thought ahead and brought my own.)  The crowd would fill out reasonably for an exhibition softball game where the time had been changed.  The Midland bus driver briefly came in to watch.  It was warm and sunny with a cool breeze.  I deployed my umbrella for the game.

Here, it starts getting fuzzy.  I sort of wished I’d brought a scorecard for the Aggie’s batting, but it would have had a bunch of question marks for the batting order and there were subs late.  There were no announcements for the batters, though the scoreboard was working and there was PA music.  Not to mention, some of the girls sort of look alike from the stands, especially when wearing batting helmets. 

Let’s give it a shot anyway.  The ever versatile Jeanelle Medina was leading off and playing shortstop.  Brandy Hernandez moved over to play center and batted second.  Casie Roberto batted third.  Freshman Riley Carley was the DP batting cleanup.   Matalasi Faapito was pitching and batted for herself in fifth.  Kayla Bowen was at first, batting sixth.  Nikki Butler was catching and batting seventh.  (I don’t know why the WAC MVP was batting so low in the order.)  Caity Szczesny was playing left field and batting eighth.  Freshman Hailey Tanori was at second and batting ninth.

(I’m sure this is wrong.  The following game commentary will also likely be wrong in terms of the players.  I apologize.  There was nothing posted online to help.  Sorry.)

Mata was a little shaky in the first.  She put two on and double brought them in.  The ball went over Caity’s head.  Somewhat like last season when Brandy was playing there, I wondered if a taller player might have had a better chance on the ball.  I also have to question taking Brandy out of left with her cannon arm.  She threw out at least a couple of runners at the plate.  She’s probably not going to be able to do that from center.  The batter took third on a bad throw to the infield, but she was left stranded.  2-0 Midland. 

A couple of players from the Women’s Basketball team came in, Kalei Atkinson and Tayelin Grays.  They’d been around before.  There was also a player from Men’s team, who also been there before.  I wonder if he has a girlfriend of the softball team?  I know who this guy is and it’s killing me.  He’s on the team poster.  I didn’t go to any Men’s games last season, but I listened to most of them on the radio.  Thus, I don’t recognize most of them in-person.  The players all sat together and chatted.  I think a booster couple was with them and held umbrellas over them.  That’s going the extra mile to support the players.

The Lady Chaps had a lot of spirit coming out of their dugout in top of the inning.  The Aggies returned it in the bottom.  They had songs prepared for most of the batters.  Jeanelle got the “Hola!  Que pasa!  Aggies in the casa!” chant and they called her, “Nellie.”  When Brandy came up, they did an unexpected slow jam for her.  She drove in Jeanelle with a double.  With a bobble in the outfield, Brandy made it to third.  She was driven in on a fly ball that dropped between three fielders (and probably should have been caught). 

The bases were loaded when Kayla came up.  The Midland pitcher was throwing very hard.  One of Kayla’s fouls went straight up and back.  The Midland catcher shouted, “Heads up!” to the people in the stands as the ball landed up and behind me, just missing a bunch of people.  With my umbrella out, I had no track on the ball in flight.  Scary.  Kayla drove in a run on a fielder’s choice.  Nikki drove in a run.  The Midland catcher took what sounded like a hard foul.  The ump called time and cleaned the plate.  The dugout called to her, but she gave them a thumbs up.  After that, Nikki stole a base.  I’m a little surprised to be writing that too.  The Aggie dugout hooted and hollered for her.  4-2 Aggies.

Some of the Baseball team was practicing on their field next door.  They were guests at the local speedway for Aggie Night Friday night.  To start the second, Jeanelle looked good on her first grounder.  A foul ball almost went over the backstop on the other side of the grandstand.  Kalei and the guy basketball player went diving for cover.  Caity shagged a couple of fly balls to end the inning.

Hailey started off the bottom of the second.  She got on and was then thrown out trying to steal second.  Or not.  Associate Coach Cat Heifner argued and talked the ump into changing the call.  I’m pretty sure that’s not going to happen during the season.  Jeanelle hit a bouncer on the line and took first.  She tried for second, as Hailey got to third.  Jeanelle drew the throw to run her down, which allowed Hailey to break for the plate.  There, she was tagged out.  Or not.  The ump immediately said the catcher missed the tag.  I think throw beat her and the tag was in time, but the ump’s call works for me here too.

Brandy drove in Jeanelle.  I think she’s been working on her hitting.  Brandy rounded first and headed to second with the throw slow to come in.  She pulled up just slightly, realizing she about to be thrown out, but she made it in anyway.  Casie came up to the “Big Booty” serenade.  I don’t know why some of the players put up with this.  Finally, the Aggies don’t get a call, as Brandy was thrown out trying to take third. 

Cleanup hitter, Riley, then came up and banged one out to center and hit the top of the scoreboard.  What a great first impression!  Somewhere, AD Mario Moccia felt a cold chill run through him, “I feel like there was nearly some expensive damage done to the facilities here.”  Mata singled. She looks good at the plate.  Keala Brown came in to pinch run.  She stole second and took third on a bad throw.  The Aggies went up 7-4. 

Mata gave up a hit in the third, but finished the inning with a strikeout.  She looked good pitching too.  A new Midland pitcher came in for the bottom.  She hit Nikki leading off.  Caity hit a beauty of a bunt, but was called out for the ball touching her out of the box.  Once again, Coach Heifner argued.  The umps conferred, but the call stood.  I was surprised arguing even worked once.  I suppose the umps need their preseason work too.  The new pitcher hit the backstop on another pitch.  Nikki moved up to second, but ended the inning there.

 

In the fourth, it sounded like a guy was leading the cheering in the Midland dugout, but I didn’t notice any male assistant coaches.  Maybe a girl with a really deep voice?  A new Aggie pitcher came in for the fifth.  The girls were calling her, “Chloe.”  Chloe Rivas is the only “Chloe” listed on the roster, but this girl was shorter than Nikki and didn’t look like Rivas.  So, the roster wasn’t entirely useful either.  In any case, she could pitch.  She started and ended the inning with strikeouts and seemed to have a good offspeed.

Kayla got on with an error in the bottom of the fifth.  She was erased, but Nikki and Caity got on and were driven in by Jeanelle.  That made it 9-2 Aggies, though the scoreboard said, “19-2.”  A new first baseman came in for the sixth.  Chloe got two more strikeouts, both looking.  In the bottom, Casie got on as the Midland third baseman took the liner off her foot.  She was left stranded.  For the seventh, freshman Gabby Aragon came in to play center.  Chloe finished off the game with another strikeout.  9-2 Aggies was the final. 

I’m going to have to say it: it’s just not the same without Kelsey Horton.  She just had that magnetism out there.  You had to stop and watch her play, especially her at bats.  This new group might be just as good as last season’s team, but we’ll have to see if anyone breaks out as a star player, and who has the charisma.  I was impressed with Riley Carley and Chloe (?) in this short exposure to them.

With the end of the game, I left.  Don’t take it personally.  I wasn’t feeling great by the end of the game.  I don’t know why.  I felt better after I’d left, so maybe it was just sitting in the sun, even though I had sunblock on and was under an umbrella.  Maybe it was because my arm was getting cramped holding the umbrella.  Maybe it was the parking uncertainty.  I might have also been frustrated.  I didn’t want to take a bunch of notes for another game where I couldn’t identify all of the players.  I felt bad about leaving, but I couldn’t stay for another two-and-a-half hours in this condition for a game that didn’t count.

I talked myself into going to What-a-burger to try their Mushroom Swiss Burger.  I had a coupon for a free one (after buying drink and fries) that expired today.  I had some trepidation, mostly because I thought it’d be too much food.  At about 1:00pm, I wasn’t the only person wanting a burger.  Their parking lot was full.  My backup plan was going to Jack-in-the-Box to use another coupon for free tacos.  They were okay, but ironically, I spent the rest of the day hungry.  That was an unnecessarily long way to go get home finally. 

Right after I got there, I didn’t stay.  I walked over to the closeout sale at Sears at the mall and bought some clothes and a pair of shoes.  As I walked out, I looked at the time and realized Game 2 was probably just ending.  I felt fine even after all that activity.  Now, I really felt bad about not staying.  I’m only in preseason softball shape myself.  I’ll have to work on it and be ready for the start of the season next year.