The Elvis Collection: Newspaper Clips 11

Elvis on the front page of the Life Section of the Springfield, MO newspaper.

Newspaper tabloid article on Priscilla promoting a Naked Gun movie.

Article on the paparazzi's chasing Lisa Marie.

 

I think I thought this was Priscilla in an ad when I took the picture.  It's not.

A virtual tour of Graceland on CD.  (It's $80.)

Then we get weird with psychics contacting Elvis.

The Elvis Collection: Newspaper Clips 10

 A bunch of articles about the tenth anniversary of Elvis' death from the El Paso Times.

And a commentary on Elvis.

Memorial Day Weekend and Spring Sports Recap 2021 Part 4

Part 3

Monday 5-31-21

The first thing I heard after I got up was ESPN Radio.  I was planning on checking on them later, but the station was tuned to KROD since I was listening to the Chihuahuas last night.  I immediately changed stations, but changed right back because of what I’d momentarily heard.  ESPN was talking about tennis.  I know.  I could barely believe it myself. 

 

So, you could assume there was a controversy.  It’s not like they’re going to talk about X’s and O’s or actual matches.  I came in in the middle of the discussion.  They were talking about some female player I hadn’t heard of who was big timing the media and not doing a required interview.  Dat otay cuz she be a star playa.  She wanna blow offen da non-ESPN media, dat bein fine wit us.

 

Oh, jeez.  Sorry.  Listen to ESPN Radio sports talk for five minutes and your IQ goes straight down.  Anyway, this player not talking to the media is okay, because other sports media outlets don’t help to promote the sport.  This woman is a star player (whoever she is); she makes her own rules.  She’s like Lebron.  He violated the clown protocols the other day.  It’s okay, because the NBA can’t suspend their star player.  My takeaway from this discussion: What a bunch of media beta cucks. 

 

In any case, the story was timely.  The French Open was on NBC this morning.  I never heard the coverage mention the controversy, but then again, I found it impossible to sit and watch tennis.  I felt like something was missing from the coverage.  Oh, yeah.  Dick Enberg.  RIP.  Roger Federer was in the first match they showed, but I couldn’t get into it.  He was playing some opening round scrub.  The women’s match featured a bunch of very unattractive grunting.  Someday (maybe over the Fourth of July weekend), I’ll sit down and watch a match.  But likely, some new great player is going to have to come along to entice me to watch again.        

 

At the same time, Stadium was showing an All-Star High School football game.  Again, this couldn’t keep my interest.  The best part that I saw were the two squads of cheerleaders performing together at half time.  I think the cheerleaders were All-Star squads as well. 

 

What was pretty much distracting me was an X-Files marathon on Comet and a couple of war movies on This.  Every time I’ve seen the remastered X-Files, I’m amazed by the high quality job they did.  The prints are simply beautiful.  They were showing a bunch of the main conspiracy storyline episodes.  There’s a timeless quality to this show, but then they pick up an old fashion flip phone with an antenna, and the show is instantly dated.  Two of the war movies weren’t that great, but I really should have just stopped flipping around and watched Force 10 from Navarone.  I’ve seen it recently, but it’s a great movie that deserves to be over-watched.  I hope Amazon buying MGM doesn’t end up taking these stations off the air.

 

The other main distraction was lunch.  My big plans for the three-day weekend involved me walking over to 5 Guys for a hot dog and fries.  I’d noticed they were trending on Twitter on Friday.  Apparently, they’ve raised their prices.  Even then, the comments were unanimously, “Worth it.”  Unfortunately, that was not my experience today.  The hot dog was kind of flavorless and served on a stale bun . . . and it was all more expensive.  It’s been one disappointment after another this MDW. 

 

I checked ESPN Radio every hour starting at 11:00am until 2:00pm, but there was no national MLB game put on by KROD.  That wasn’t entirely unexpected, but I still can’t believe they put on a Saturday afternoon game with the NBA playoffs going on.  The Rockies and Rangers were inexplicably off today.  I had to wait for the evening Chihuahuas game.

 

After yesterday’s shelling, the pups were unfortunately having a scheduled bullpen day.  The OKC Dodgers scored in the first, but the Chihuahuas came right back in the bottom to tie it.  The Chihuahuas starting pitcher actually lasted until the fourth.  The wind started kicking up at the ballpark.  I’d noticed the sky was overcast here in Las Cruces.  It eventually worked its way to El Paso. 

 

There was a great play by the Chihuahuas’ Matt Batten to rob a sure two-RBI hit in the sixth to preserve the tie.  In the bottom, a fly ball lost in the wind resulted in double.  Then there was a walk, all with no outs.  Batten came up with two outs and hit a high fly that might have been a home run, but was knocked down by the wind.  I went out to the garbage.  It looked rainy outside, but nothing materialized here.  In the eighth inning, there was a great diving catch on a Dodger hit that was dropped when the fielder hit the ground.  Tim had to go to the rulebook to confirm the call.  Two wild pitches brought in a run.  Another RBI and a ninth inning two-run homer gave OKC a 5-1 win.

 

At least the crowd there got fireworks and the game didn’t even take three hours.  I was left with editing this mess.  Yeah, this has been a largely unsuccessful MDW.  Even with no rainouts for the races, disappointment abounded.  I need to make better food choices, too.  (I should probably just get hamburgers at 5 Guys.)  The good news is that I think at least everyone else at the various sporting events really enjoyed themselves.  I think the main problem for me is that I’ve been stressed lately.  Over this three-day weekend, I didn’t relax at all.  That’s totally my fault.  I’ll take note of that the next time I get a day off.

Memorial Day Weekend and Spring Sports Recap 2021 Part 3

Part 2

Sunday 5-30-21

I got up a bit early to exercise and shower.  I turned on the Indy 500 prerace, but was only watching it on-and-off.  Danica Patrick and Jimmie Johnson were part of the two hosting crews.  (That’s in addition to the actual crew calling the race.)  Jimmie was sitting this race out.  I’m not sure why, but he did say he was uncomfortable with the thought of driving into Turn 1 to start the race in an Indy car. 

 

I did see the tribute to Dan Wheldon.  It’s been 10 years since he died on track.  I saw that race at my parent’s apartment that day.  His two boys are now racing themselves with their mom managing them.  (And the Mrs. is looking hotter than when Dan married her.  Now I feel even worse for him being gone.)  Race team owner, David Letterman, was almost unrecognizable in his big white beard.  He was very lively and enthusiastic about the race.  He won last year with Takuma Sato as his driver.  Letterman thought winning in front of an empty stadium was like having a birthday party with no one invited.

 

No problem this year.  There were 135,000 in attendance.  That’s 40%, but it looked full there.  So 135,000 unmasked people in the stands were watching Back Home in Indiana performed by a band with trumpet players wearing masks.  It’s all been theater, folks.  (That song was always mom’s favorite part.)  The American flag was at half-mast in the background for some reason.  (Don’t bother telling me.  I don’t care.)  That’s its usual position whenever a democrat is in the White House.         

 

I’d expected to go to dad’s apartment to see the race, but he called and said that he couldn’t get the station to come in.  His friend, Joe, was supposed to be joining us for lunch.  We changed plans to have them come over to my apartment.  I’m not really set up to entertain guests.  I hustled to get things ready.  Dad brought over Dominos for lunch.  Frankly, they’re not my favorite pizza place, but it was okay.

   

It was a cool 63-degrees and fair weather in Indianapolis for the race.  (I’m missing The Jetsons for this.  It’s an Astro episode.  This had better be good.)  Scott Dixon started on the pole, but Colton Herta led Lap 1 to the approval of the crowd.  There was an accident on pit lane during the first stop.  This had the effect of Dixon running out of fuel and having trouble re-firing his car.  This took him and Alexander Rossi, with a similar problem, out of contention for the win.

 

Hometown boy, Connor Daly, took the lead after the restart and heard it from the crowd.  Dad mentioned something about an all-female pit crew and they showed them at work.  There was a female driver in the field.  I’m not sure if that was her crew.  She wasn’t in contention.  Our only wreck of the race came about halfway through, when Graham Rahal lost a wheel coming off pit lane.  The loose tire also damaged Daly’s car.

 

Helio Castroneves took the lead on the restart and the crowd loved it.  What I’m loving is that NBC is only going full screen on commercials during cautions.  I’m pretty sure that will go away when they take over NASCAR coverage.  Jimmie Johnson had a different commercial on every break for his sponsor.  That’s a lot of coverage for a guy not in the race. 

 

Helio and Alex Palou started swapping the lead as cars on an alternate fueling strategy finally peeled off.  Dad said, “This is about the time in a NASCAR race when there’s a caution.”  He was right in general, but not about this race.  Helio took the white flag going into a crowd of lapped cars, but he worked around them.  He’d win and become the fourth four-time winner of the Indianapolis 500.  The crowd went nuts.  I’m sure he heard them in his car. 

 

Spider-man took to the fence to salute the fans.  He cried on his team owner when he came down.  I think a hundred people congratulated him on track as Helio ran along the wall.  Mario Andretti kissed him on the top of his head and blessed him.  As the commentator said, “It was the fastest Indy 500 ever and the longest on-track celebration.”  It was very hard to not feel happy for him. 

 

Helio thanked the fans especially in Victory Circle.  As Helio is 46 and just beat a 24-year old, he repeated a comparison he’d just heard about himself and Tom Brady and  Phil Mickelson (who won the US Open golf tournament last weekend).  The old guys are taking over.  He also took a shot at Paul Tracy, who probably didn’t appreciate it.  Helio chugged the milk.  He handed it to a crew member, who took a swig himself, as two masked pageant girls kissed Helio on his cheeks.  It’s all theater. 

 

Dad and Joe enjoyed the race, even lacking some drama this year.  I was glad to see Helio win too.  After they left, I skipped around the dial and got some bonus coverage of an MLB game on a Mexican station.  It was the Tigers versus the Yankees in the ninth inning.  Surprisingly, the Tigers were up 6-2.  They almost lost it with the bases loaded and two outs.  Aaron Judge struck out looking on a slider up in the zone in the middle of the plate.        

 

I hadn’t had dessert, so I took a quick trip over to the Paleta Bar for a frozen ice cream bar.  This one was vanilla with embedded peanut butter cups covered in milk chocolate.  The last two times I’d gone there, I got a bellyache, but I attributed it to the big meal I’d had beforehand.  This time I’m attributing it to the bar itself.  Though the service was very friendly and fast, the product is expensive and might disagree with me.  I’m going to have to ban them.  Once again looking back, I went to Orange Leaf for Froyo in 2019 over MDW.  I do nothing original. 

 

I still had time before the NASCAR race started.  I scanned around again and found another Mexican League Baseball game.  This time I identified the teams: the Oaxaca Warriors and the Puebla Parrots (?).  The Parrots were wearing the A’s colors and had a player with a Polish name.  I couldn’t quite figure out what the Warriors mascot was supposed to be. 

 

Like other Mexican League games I’ve seen, the PA only stops the music when the pitcher goes into his motion.  I saw one batter hit a home run to center, which was pretty impressive given how far back the walls are.  Mostly, this was just something to watch during NASCAR commercial breaks, so I got to see quite a bit.  The Parrots came back from 3 down to tie it.  An ill-timed PSA break caused everyone to miss their go-ahead run in top of the ninth for a 4-3 win. 

 

Ah, the *oca-*ola 600 at Charlotte.  I’m not promoting the sponsoring company.  They’re a bunch of *ssholes.  (Granted, I will still drink their soda when offered.)  This race is a lot like my ice cream indigestion; too much of what I like, especially after just having watched another race, and F1’s Monaco most years.  They ran their race last weekend.  The pole sitter’s car was damaged and couldn’t start the race.  The car in second damaged a tire on a pit stop.  That was functionally everything interesting in the whole race. 

 

The over/under you should be betting for this race is 9 cars finishing on the lead lap.  Less than 15 minutes into this race, drivers were already getting lapped.  After the longest green flag start to a 600, half the field was down a lap.  Pole-sitter Kyle Larson took an eventless Stage 1.

 

Chase Elliot aggressively took the lead in Stage 2, but lost it during a green flag pit stop.  Meanwhile, hockey and local baseball started at the same time.  The Colorado Avalanche scored twice on the Vegas Golden Knights in the first period.  The big news at the baseball game was that Mackenzie Gore wouldn’t be starting because of a blister.  I think this probably hurt the Chihuahuas’ pitching today.  The OKC Dodgers homered twice in the first for a 4-0 lead, but the Chihuahuas punched back for 2 in the bottom.  They then proceeded to get buried third inning, 7-2.

 

There was a yellow flag back at the race.  I didn’t see what caused it.  That jumbled things up a bit after a pit stop.  Chase retook the lead, but Larson came back and won Stage 2.  The four Hendricks cars briefly filled the first four spots.  They finished that way in Dover a few weeks ago (I didn’t see it).  Great sponsored segment with Denny Hamlin.  He showed off his good-looking Meatball Sliders.  I want to have dinner at Denny’s.

 

In Denver, the Avalanche went up 3 early in the second, then 4-0, the 5-0.  In El Paso, OKC went up 10-3 in the fourth.  In Charlotte, Ryan Newman hit the wall late in the third stage.  Kyle won the stage under caution.  This is all turning into a massacre regardless of the venue.

 

Larson and Kyle Busch fought like heck at the Stage 4 start.  Larson prevailed and took his teammates with him to the front.  Elliot and William Byron fought over second.  Colorado took a 6-1 lead after two periods.  The crowd there loved it.  I think Vegas’ strategy of playing without a goalie is backfiring on them.  OKC hit a grand slam in the sixth inning for a 14-3 lead.  Worse for the fans, there’s no fireworks scheduled tonight.

 

A position player was pitching for pups in the seventh, Matt Batten.  He has a win.  Broadcaster Tim Haggerty was reminding everyone that he was the pitcher when the Chihuahuas had their biggest comeback ever.  Kyle Larson won the race.  He’d come in a frustrating second in three straight races before this.  Kyle Busch spoiled an all Hendricks top four.  Alex Bowman finished fifth anyway.  This win gave Rick Hendricks the NASCAR team wins record.  Perhaps a bigger win was that this event was at full capacity.  And you should have taken the over for cars finishing on the lead lap.     

 

Finally, there’s a fight in the third period of the hockey game, an ugly one.  I can’t believe it took this long.  Five players went to the penalty box with Vegas getting the worst of it.  Colorado got a 9-minute power play with 12 minutes left in the game.  They did win, surprise, 7-1. 

 

Back at the ballpark, Steven Sousa Jr. hit his third home run of the game for the Dodgers in the eighth off of Batten.  Batten returned the favor and singled in two runs in the bottom.  In the ninth, Luke Raley hits his third home run of the game for the Dodgers.  There’d be no four-homer night though, as Batten plunked Sousa, who came up next.  Patrick Kivelhan homered for the fourth straight game for the Chihuahuas in the ninth.  Tim was busy keeping track of all the players going for cycles and home run achievements.  20-9 OKC was the exhausting final in another three-and-a-half hour game.

 

Okay, I don’t know what to make of this.  I was flipping around channels and ran into a Mexican soccer game, Cruz Azul versus Santos for the championship.  It’s tied and in 5 minutes of extra time.  However, the clock had gone well past that as there were 20 guys on the field fighting.  I’ve not seen this in a soccer match ever.  It’s eventually broken up.  They replay the incident leading to the scrum.  It seemed like a pretty nominal trip and push.  There must have been something leading up to it.  The ref handed out two yellow cards.  Play resumed for 30 seconds.  The game finished tied.  Blue Cross wins the championship?  The blue shirted fans in the crowd went nuts.  A guy on the sidelines started engraving the trophy. 

 

After a tie? 

 

Even if this was explained to me, I doubt I would understand it.

    

Not going to lie, today has been a bit disappointing all the way around.  I was happy for Helio, but that wasn’t the greatest Indy.  I almost feel like I should have just watched that Mexican League baseball game.  Okay, I’m done for the day.  We’ll see what happens tomorrow. 

Part 4

Memorial Day Weekend and Spring Sports Recap 2021 Part 2

Part 1

Saturday 5-29-21

Though I’d gotten to bed late Friday night after month end processing, I’d gotten up only a bit late.  After exercising and showering, I tried to decide what to do next as Major League Baseball came on a Mexican channel.  It was the Devil Rays (the Rays in their throwbacks) against the Phillies.  I watched all of the first inning, where Austin Meadows hit a two-run homer to put the Rays up 2-0. 

 

Hunger finally made up my mind.  I left to run by the Barnes & Noble for a minute to look for a couple of magazines.  I couldn’t find the Archie digest I was looking for, but finally found the latest issue of Imagine FX.  The last issue I’d gotten didn’t really convince me to buy another, but after seeing that spectacular Pernille Orum cover, I was interested in taking a look at it. 

 

After two fruitless visits to the bookstore to find a copy, I finally looked online for a good image of the cover for wallpaper.  Unexpectedly, I found the issue available for free and downloaded it from what looked like a somewhat reputable website.  That sounds bad, doesn’t it?  It really didn’t occur to me that the whole issue would be posted up for grabs anywhere.  I’d planned on buying it anyway, but after reading it, only the Pernille material interested me.  If they sell it with a poster of the cover, I’d probably still want it, I thought. 

 

Today, there it was and it did have a poster inside.  Swell.  How much?  $17!  Owww!  The other issue I’d gotten was $20, but it was a third bigger and had a bunch of art I liked in it.  If it was $15, I could have probably still talked myself into it.  I’m just going to have to live with being a pirate.  (There was also a link in the PDF for a download of Imagine FX’s first issue.  Even with that, it still wouldn’t have been worth $17.)     

 

I went to McAlisters on the way back.  I’d run right into the heavy lunch crowd and had to cool my heels for a while waiting for my Chicken Avocado BLT.  I got back home famished after walking for the whole trip in 90-something-degree heat.  The sandwich was great.  Admittedly, anything would have tasted great.  Oddly, the bacon was actually weakest ingredient involved.  (Sidebar: I had one of these in 2019.  I didn’t even remember it.  I wrote, “It didn’t hold together well.”  The current sandwich is an improvement.) 

 

The game score hadn’t changed three innings later.  I got back in time to see the Phillies tie it in a painful manner.  Roman Quinn blew his hammy rounding third.  He had to be carried off.  The Rays eventually won 5-3.  I missed the go-ahead score, as I was flipping between this and another game.

 

Dad called.  He was out of town.  He’d gone with Joe to City of Rocks park and was about to eat lunch.  He hadn’t mentioned planning this trip.  I wasn’t invited.  He said he tried calling me, but didn’t leave a message or try my cell.  I guess I’ll see him tomorrow anyway.

 

The other game was Oklahoma versus Washington in the NCAA Softball tournament.  They said this was the first time they’d shown softball on ABC.  Last week, I’d hit the wrong numbers on the remote for the TV at work and saw a little of ESPN2 showing a softball game, which was by odd coincidence, Seattle U playing Michigan.  I’m sure the Redhawks, who’d beaten the Aggies to get in, were thrilled to be on national TV. 

 

The Sooner’s stadium was filled and an impressive facility with multiple stands, outfield seating, and free berm lawn seating.  The team is averaging 12 runs a game this season, including dropping 30+ runs on the Lobos.  The Huskies, meanwhile, were a 16 seed.  They’d been ranked in the national top 10 all year and were disappointed by the placement to the point of actually walking out after their selection.

 

I’ll say this much, in addition to some attractive players, both head coaches were pretty good-looking.  The Washington main pitcher was also catching my eye.  Admittedly, not the sort of girl I usually go for, but she was always flashing a pretty smile in the circle with a light shade of red hair.   

 

As for the game, OK dominated and won on a run rule, 9-1.  The crowd there loved their team.  One of the girls even came out for curtain call after a home run.  Afterward, the team went to the outfield wall with the years of their College World Series births on it, took it off, and carried it to home plate to have another year added to it.  They go into the CWS with a 50-2 record.

 

Flipping around, I saw 7’ of extra time as Chelsea beat Man City for the UEFA Championship, 1-nil.  I thought I read something on the ticker that this was the first time an American player had been on a championship-winning team.  There was also Mexican League Baseball on.  I couldn’t identify the teams.  It looked like an interesting game, but it couldn’t hold my attention, other than the rabbit mascot waving to the crowd.  Stadium was also showing indoor football later.  There was even outdoor football on Fox earlier.  It’s some kind of developmental league.

 

I was waiting for the Dodgers versus Giants game coming up.  Fox started showing games again on Saturday nights, basically exclusively Dodger games so far in my area.  The Dodgers swept out the Giants in San Francisco earlier in the month.  The Giants had been looking good up and surprisingly leading the division up to that point.  No one was surprised by the sweep.  With the reciprocal series in LA, the Giants have come back with a vengeance.  They blasted the Dodgers Friday night.    

 

The pregame showed Cody Bellinger back with the team.  The Giants picked right up from last night with the hitting, but good Dodger defense kept them from scoring in the first.  Though the Dodgers took a lead, Julio Urias proved very hittable.  He walked in a run in the second for a 3-1 Giants lead.  Donavan Solano at second made two errors in a row next inning leading to a run.  Buster Posey called time and talked to the infield.  He’s basically coaching the team.  Gabe Kapler just gets coffee and donuts for him. 

 

Donavan came up the next inning and hit a two-run homer.  I missed it live.  I was watching the end of Twister in Spanish on a Mexican station.  I couldn’t resist.  It’s such a big dumb, but entertaining movie.  It’s not Bill Paxton’s best or best-remembered role, but it was his biggest. 

 

Oh, I forgot to mention that Albert Pujols is now playing for the Dodgers.  I’d say this would help the Angels by finally getting rid of him, but Mike Trout is on the IL.  The curse continues.  Shohei Ohtani is meanwhile having a great season hitting and pitching.  He’s well on his way to being Andre Dawson: the league MVP on a last place team.  Anyway, the Giants continued to pour it on and won 11-6.  The play of the game belonged to Mike Yastrzemski, who handed a ball to a delighted child between innings, which was all caught on camera.  The little boy then handed it to a pretty lady next to him.  Power move, junior, especially with her husband right there.     

 

And there was playoff hockey between the Islanders vs Bruins.  I just haven’t sat down to try and watch any hockey since that Winter Classic debacle by Lake Tahoe.   I’m still smarting that I missed the NBC special on Mike “Doc” Emrick, who quietly retired before the season.  (It was bad enough losing “Uncle” Ted Leitner.)  Emrick was my actual favorite play-by-play announcer.       

 

The game looked pretty good as I was flipping between it and baseball.  The score went back-and-forth.  There was a big fight at end of the second period.  David Pastrnak scored a hat trick for Boston.  He picked a good time for it as there was a full house of fans there, who showered the rink with hats.  Boston won 5-2.  There was an empty net goal late.   

 

I tuned in for tonight’s Chihuahuas game and was surprised by ESPN Radio coverage of the Padres and Astros.  I had no idea that was on.  (I’m planning on checking for a day game on Monday.)  I sort of wish I’d been listening, but on the other hand, they broke away from the game in the 12-th inning to go to the local team.  That would have sucked, if I’d been more invested in it.  The Padres would win it as I saw on the out-of-town scoreboard in Dodger Stadium.  Apparently, Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a game-tying three-run homer to send it to extras.  Okay, now I’m sorry I missed that game.

 

I listened to a couple of innings and heard the Chihuahuas take the lead.  At sundown at around 8:00, the station powered down.  The only Rangers game of the three-day weekend that I could listen to (having lost the El Paso affiliate and still bitter) was coming on at that time.  I switched over to the after dark Amarillo affiliate to hear their game against the Mariners.  I’m only going to get so many opportunities to hear Eric Nadel and Matt Hicks calling these games this season.  The Rockies aren’t doing any night games over the holiday that I could listen to.

 

Reading an MLB article on possible beneficial trades for contending teams, they’d written about what a great fit Joey Gallo would be for the Yankees.  Indeed, they made a great case.  Just one problem, they never mentioned what the Yankees would be trading the Rangers in return.  I guess the Rangers should just do it for the good of the league.

 

The Mariners were playing with Jarred Kelenic, baseball’s top prospect.  The Chihuahuas had faced him on the Tacoma Rainiers in their first series of the season.  After hitting a couple of home runs and doing well, the M’s moved him up to the big league.  On the Rangers, they suddenly had a rookie phenom in Adolis Garcia, who I think is leading the league in home runs.  Meanwhile, the Rangers have been better known for getting no-hit twice this season.  (That’s okay.  So have the Mariners and the Indians.  I begin to wonder if the issue here isn’t that there’s several historically bad hitting teams in the league this year.)  One of those no-no’s was by Corey Kluber on the Yankees.  Kluber pitched one inning for the Rangers last season before having a season-ending injury. 

 

The two games nearly finished at the same time in spite of the hour difference in start times.  I really wish I’d just stuck with the Rangers game, since it turned out to be pretty good.  The Chihuahuas were losing bad when I checked back and the game was dragging.  Two-and-a-half hours in and they were in the sixth.  I just wanted the final score.  It could have been worse.  The crowd there endured a 12-5 loss that took three-and-a-half hours while they were waiting for fireworks.  The Rangers made it interesting in the ninth when they were down by 2.  The tying run was on base, but they lost 3-2.

 

Finally, after doing a drawing and giving up on doing any more writing, I sat down and watched Ring of Honor Wrestling.  Does that count as a sport?  Well, if watching a fake competition with real athleticism isn’t a sport, then I’ll start excluding any NFL coverage from this blog.  (No, I don’t get tired of saying that.)  Quinn McKay was darling as ever.  She was featured in several segments.  The feature match was an 8-man tag team bout, which was surprisingly entertaining.  With that, I went to bed early. 

Part 3

Memorial Day Weekend and Spring Sports Recap 2021 Part 1

 

Unlike last years’ maudlin MDW, here I have a full slate of sports to report on.  Unfortunately, I’m still not really enthusiastic.  Let me recap a few things I took note of in the interim.    

 

Aggie Baseball

The Aggies limped into the WAC Tournament.  They beat SU pretty convincingly in their first game.  They lost to GCU, the number 1 seed, in a close game.  The Lopes had disrespected the Aggies a little by not starting their best pitcher.  The Aggies got a lead in the first off of the replacement pitcher, but couldn’t hold it.  Finally, they faced SU again the next day and basically self-destructed.  Late in the game, they even threw out their next scheduled starter to finish the game when it was out-of-reach.  Chris Barraza had spent most of the season on the disabled list.  The coach wanted to make sure he got to pitch.       

 

Polo

Yes, Polo.  I got to see a match last month.  It was the second time I’d ever seen the sport.  I’d talked my dad and his friend, Joe, into watching it with me after we’d gone out to visit mom’s grave and to get pizza.  Joe would ask me questions and I’d say, “I saw five minutes of a match two years ago.  I don’t know what’s going on.”  As I’d seen before, it was fast and dangerous.  The upscale crowd watched in pavilions on the sidelines.  Even the commercials were really classy.

 

MLB

So far, one of the best things about this season has unexpectedly been Stadium’s Inside Baseball show.  It must have some popularity, because they expanded to do two new episodes a week.  They do stories, stats, commentary, and have some fun.  They did not mention the ASG getting moved when it happened, so they are not doing politics, which is appreciated.  Meanwhile, the MLB was very disappointed in the verdict of the so-called murder trial in Minnesota.  They had all sorts of fun protest activities and boycotts planned if it had gone the other way.  Thank goodness for mob rule and politicians intimidating the jury.

 

There have been two main storylines this season in baseball.  One has been pitching dominance.  There have been six no-hitters (seven if you count Madison Bumgarner throwing one in a scheduled 7-inning game).  Even the Padres got a no-hitter for the first time in franchise history.  Now all of the teams have one.  It’s too bad Ted Leitner retired before this season and wasn’t calling it.  That game was probably on MLB Network.  As I started to watch it, they blacked it out in my area.

 

This brings me to the next big story.  The Dodgers and Padres have been fighting their own private World Series.  Their meetings so far this season have been memorable.  If only anybody was able to watch them.  Pity that none of them were on national over-the-air TV.  Even Trevor Bauer was annoyed with the local blackouts. 

 

I got to hear one of their games on the ESPN Sunday Night game on the radio.  This one was truly epic.  The Dodgers went up 7-1 and I nearly bailed on the game.  I’m glad I stuck with it.  The Padres somehow tied it in the ninth.  The teams ran out of players in extras.  Clayton Kershaw pinch hit at one point.  The Padres won 8-7 in 11-th.  The game took five hours, but it was worth it.

 

Chihuahuas

The Chihuahuas are back.  It’s like being reacquainted with an old friend.  They won their opening game on the road in Tacoma in extra innings.  I felt bad for the crowd there because they were waiting for fireworks.  Mackenzie Gore, the Padres’ top prospect, pitched the home opener.  I’ve listened to him pitch into and out of trouble consistently.  He’s still learning. 

 

More recently, the Chihuahuas were on a six-game losing streak.  They’d won five games in a row against the Isotopes, but lost the last one after giving up a big lead.  It went downhill from there against the Sugar Land Skeeters.  For a new team, couldn’t they have come up with a better name than “Skeeters?”  (Then I remember my own team’s name and shut up.)  The pups might have lost all six games against them, except one got rained out.  (Be prepared for a 7-game series to make up that game next time.) 

 

The Chihuahuas came back home to face the OKC Dodgers with Cody Bellinger there on rehab.  (Old Chihuahuas’ farmhand, Carlos Asuaje, was also on their team.)  The pups managed to break a tie in the eighth and win it.  Cody played hard and well in the game.  He made the final out with men on with a very hard line drive.  People watching in person were shocked by his power.  Reports were also that he enjoyed being there.  He tossed balls to the crowd between innings and signed a bunch of autographs.  His appearance in the game was in doubt up until game time, but a full house showed up, including a bunch of Dodger fans. 

Part 2

The Elvis Collection: Newspaper Clips 9

 We start here with an Elvis fraternity.

Story about Natalie Wood's romance with Elvis.  It just served to make her future husband, Robert Wagner, jealous . . . and then he later killed her . . . err . . . just kidding.  Maybe she should have tried harder to stay with Elvis.

This seems a little more dangerous in the romance department: dating Frank Sinatra's girlfriend and then his daughter.  Lucky Elvis didn't end up with broken kneecaps.  

An Elvis guitar, that he discarded in a concert, ended up in a museum.

I can't find an Elvis reference skimming this Route 66 article.  It's interesting anyway.  It's about a Mother Road museum in Springfield, MO.