NM State Sports Wrap up Report 2022-23

 

This wasn’t a good school year in NM State Sports, but the bright spots were really bright.  I’ll start with the good stuff.

 

People didn’t have a lot of expectations for Aggie Football even with a new coach, who was known for turning around programs.  Even Coach Kill didn’t expect this much success in Year 1.  He beat one of the Aggies’ rivals (UNM) and beat Liberty, who’d been in the Top 25 earlier in the season.  With a waiver, the Aggies were bowl eligible.  Granted, there wasn’t much of an Aggie fan showing at the game (NM ticket sales were terrible), but the team showed up and won.  This also broke Coach Kill’s personal winless streak in bowl games.

 

There were expectations for Aggie Soccer.  Coach Baarts had been steadily building the program.  They had a very tough, but competitive road tour to start the season.  At home, they went undefeated.  It was fun to be able to go to the pitch every game and feel that your team has a decent chance of winning.  They won a tight conference tournament and suffered a heartbreaking loss in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

 

And now the bad.  Basically everything else.

 

Aggie Volleyball lacked firepower last season.  For this season, Coach Jordan recruited a bunch of hitters.  What was unanticipated was losing their setters and having to essentially use their emergency setter for much of the season.  Even before then, the coach had trouble finding playing time for his arsenal of hitters.  The players never coalesced into a team.  Transfer grad Molly Johnson eventually took over leadership of the team, but it was too late and they didn’t have the cohesion or setters to win. 

 

It was sort of the same situation with Aggie Softball.  Last season, the team was short on the arms.  This season, Coach Rodolph recruited several new pitchers.  Unfortunately, they didn’t really pan out.  Aydenne Brown was the best of the bunch, but overuse probably shortened her effectiveness later in the season.  Kayla Brown was the team’s star thumper.  Newcomer Jillian Taylor was exciting to watch.  There were other good players, but the team’s offense never seemed to live up to its potential.  It was a bit of a shock to me that they didn’t make the conference tournament.    

 

Coach Kirby had taken over a very competitive Aggie Baseball program from Coach Green last season.  It was a quick slide into non-competitiveness.  The life and the good recruits were sucked out of the team.  Somehow, they straggled into the conference tournament and won.  They nearly even won their first game in the NCCA Tournament. 

 

That was last year.  This year, they got worse.  Their two best pitchers were drafted and there was nothing to replace them.  They lost players to the portal before the season and steadily lost key players to injury during the season.  After going 0-7 to start the season, including a loss an NAIA school, Coach Kirby was released.  He’d never gotten a contract extension after winning the WAC Tournament.  Apparently, AD Mario Moccia wasn’t convinced Kirby was going to improve the program, even with the tournament win, and gave him a quick hook.  The team didn’t do any better afterward.  They’ve got the heart, but not the talent to compete.                

 

Coach Adams took over a Women’s Basketball program in shambles.  She managed to beat the UNM Lobos, who had owned the Aggies for several years, and that was a titanic struggle.  The team was a bunch of mismatched parts, but the coach got them to play hard.  They lost heartbreakers all season long, but kept fighting back.  They just needed one more good piece to really succeed. 

 

Then there’s the Aggie Men’s Basketball team.  I hashed most of this out in an earlier post.  Since then, two players have come forward with a lawsuit, Shakiru Odunewu and Deuce Benjamin.  Another player and a staff member, both unnamed, were also part of the suit.  They confirmed the rumors of their assault and named three players as the perpetrators.  Coach Heiar, Associate Coach Dominique Taylor, and the NMSU Board of Regents were also named in the suit. 

 

The assault details were . . . uncomfortable . . . to say the least.  They were of a sexual nature.  Apparently everyone on the team got the treatment from these three guys, but some got it worse.  (Interestingly, Shak and Deuce were the biggest and smallest guys on the team respectively.)  Finally, they reported the treatment to the coaches, who didn’t care.  Dominique even reportedly laughed and said, “What do you want me to do about it?”  Wrong answer.  Deuce’s dad, an alumni ex-player, said he tried to get a hold of AD Moccia, but never got a response.          

 

I was shocked.  A co-worker, who knew Deuce, who’s a local kid, was downright angry.  He questioned why neither of these guys fought back.  Perhaps it because everyone was getting the treatment and some hazing is normal.  Later though, listening to a comic book podcast with some veterans, they were talking about their military experience with a form of hazing called, “Gay chicken.”  I was made . . . uncomfortable . . .  listening to these stories.  (“The Navy guys were the worst, because they meant it.”)    

 

From a brief chat with Director of Player Development, Darian Graham, while getting pizza for the Superbowl, he didn’t seem disturbed by the hazing.  “It’s overblown,” he said.  I’m somewhat inclined to believe that the staff really didn’t know how bad it had gotten.  When they were told, they might have thought the players were whining over normal hijinks.  I can see where the players were reluctant to talk about it for so long because of the sexual nature of the harassment. 

 

Whatever the nature of what was going on, it went way too far.  Judging from the team’s poor performance, the hazing obviously didn’t help them bond.  Coach Heiar was even mixing and matching groups of players on court trying to find a combination of guys were willing to play together.  Alternately, Heiar and Taylor knew how bad the hazing had gotten, but by the point they knew there were hard feelings by everyone on the team.  There would have been no fixing it without dismissing the offenders, leaving the team shorthanded, and exposing what had happened. 

 

The one real question a lot of people, including myself, have concerns Athletic Director, Mario Moccia.  After the shooting, he was seriously questioned by the Media about the allowing the team to continue playing.  I can answer that.  Alabama’s star player was involved in a shooting during the season.  They ended up with a number one seed going into the NCAA Tournament as punishment.  Then again, that’s Alabama, not NMSU. 

 

The staff had done their due diligence in keeping track of the players and Mike Peake had willfully circumvented them.  Peake got three other players involved and a couple of coaches were questioned, but nobody on the Aggie side was charged.  (Whew! was probably their reaction.) There wasn’t an obvious staffer to fire.  Peake was taken off the team, but the other players only received a one-game suspension.  (One of them had violated his parole by getting involved and couldn’t leave the state for games for a month.)  After all this, the team was not playing well on court, as you’d expect, but the bad play continued well into the conference schedule. 

 

Mario’s apologetic attitude towards the team changed into irritation over the course of the season.  I’m sure Heiar was going to be let go at the end of the season, even if the buyout hurt.  Did Mario know about the hazing before it came out?  Was he just trying to ride it out to the end of the season and cover up the hazing?  Somehow, he missed getting fired when Heiar was let go and wasn’t named in the lawsuit.  If Mario knew, nobody could prove it. 

 

Mario got a five-year contract extension right before the outgoing chancellor left.  I’ve heard from multiple sources that the contracts of all the NM State coaches are tied to his.  If Mario is fired, all the coaches are released from their contracts.  I almost have to believe this because Mario is still there.  He’s generally done a good job and gotten the Aggies back into a conference and seems to know everyone in college sports.  The university likely doesn’t want to lose him.  Still, any more scandals, he’s out.

 

Speaking of the new conference affiliation, what are NM State’s prospects in Conference-USA next school year?  The good news is that the best basketball team, FAU, and the best football team, UTSA, will not be there.  The bad news is that, even with a raft of defections, it’s still probably a better conference than the WAC.  Also, a lot of the schools in C-USA are in the east.  UTEP has had virtually no success in any sport since moving to the conference.  I keep wondering if the time zone difference is one of the problems.

 

I think Football and Soccer are the best equipped to do well in the new conference.  With their coaching and recent success, I think they’ll be competitive out of the box.  Volleyball and Softball, however, I just don’t know.  The coaches should be able to recruit better for the new conference, but both programs fell well behind in the expanded WAC, which they used to dominate.  C-USA had two Top 25 Volleyball teams last year.  The Aggies had trouble beating UTEP, who wasn’t one of those two.

 

Baseball is a disaster and will need a new coach.  He’ll have to turn it around against a conference that is known for good baseball.  (I’m not sure if those good teams are leaving though.)  I like the direction of the Women’s Basketball program.  Give Coach Adams a couple of years, I could see her building a very good program, but I don’t guarantee it. 

 

Men’s Basketball is a real wildcard.  The entire Heiar team and staff are all gone.  It’s going to be a complete rebuild for NMSU.  They’ve hired Sam Houston State’s Coach Jason Hooten.  His main qualification was that he’d beaten the Aggies the last two seasons.  Sam Houston is also moving into C-USA, so that’s going to be another rivalry.  I’m sure Coach Hooten will be recruiting high character players, but apart from that, there’s no telling what will show up on court.  In this transfer portal era, don’t count out the possibility of putting together a good team on the fly.  There will be players wanting to come.  Since the team is wide open, they’ll all have a good chance of playing. 

 

I suspect it’s going to be a difficult year upcoming.  The lawsuit is going to court at some point.  It should include charges against the offending players, but if it’s just a big money suit and settlement by the university, then only the lawyers will be made whole.  There’s a possibility of some athletic success in C-USA, but just being competitive in most of the sports would likely be the best outcome.

NM State Aggies vs St Thomas Tommies Baseball 5-20-23

 

 Aggie Baseball finished their season this week with four games.  Here’s a quick recap of the three games I didn’t attend.

 

5-16-23 vs UNM Lobos

This was the rescheduled rivalry game from earlier in the season.  It was supposed to be played at Tuesday 6:00pm, but was moved up to 3:00pm to accommodate the Lobos’ travel schedule.  This change happened late Monday afternoon.  I had already decided to not take the night off, because their last meeting.  If they’d moved it to noon or 1:00pm, I would have gone. 

 

Surprisingly, the Aggies won 8-0.  Cade Swenson, in his second start of the year, pitched all 7 innings of the shutout.  There was a Lightning delay in the bottom of the seventh, though no rain fell.  After about a 45-minute wait, the game bumped up on the Lobos’ travel curfew and the game was called.  There were a couple of scouts at the game.  They might have been looking at Keith Jones II on the Aggies.  What a strange I-25 series this season.  The Lobos won two blowouts.  The Aggies took this game in a blowout and won a 2-0 nail biter behind Darius Garcia’s pitching.  

 

5-18-23 vs  St. Thomas Tommies.  It was a 9-12 loss to a team transitioning to D1.  Wait.  Didn’t we do this at the beginning of the season?  St. Thomas isn’t even a good team, but neither are the Aggies.  (And isn’t their name a little on the nose, by the way?)  The game started off with a 4-0 lead for St. Thomas, including 2 unearned runs.  The Aggies came back and made it 9-6 in the sixth off a grand slam by Preston Godfrey, but St. Thomas came back for the win.  In the game, Kevin Jimenez fouled a ball that that hit a light stand and shattered the glass on the blub.  The crowd loved it (and the light still worked afterward). 

 

5-19-23 vs St. Thomas Tommies.  This was 13-12 win for the Aggies, at least avoiding getting swept by another team transitioning to D1, but it was a close thing.  St. Thomas built up a 5-0 lead in the first.  There was nearly another weather delay with blowing dust from the next door construction site.  This was the precursor to another storm that, again, didn’t materialize.

 

The Aggies came back and took the lead, but lost it in the ninth and were down by 1, 11-12.  Christian Perez came up the in bottom with a runner on and jacked out a walk off two-run homer to win it.  I kind of questioned the strategy before the home run, when they didn’t bunt over a leadoff runner, but clearly, what do I know?  

 

That brings us up the present Saturday morning game.  The time was adjusted to 11:00am from noon for the Tommies’ travel schedule.  I wanted to see the Senior Day ceremony, which was going to take place an hour before the game.  I had to get up an hour early to make it.  What a sacrifice!

 

It was a cool 70-ish degrees, a little muggy, and partly cloudy.  Rain was in today’s forecast.  A large cloud kind of hovered nearby for the whole game, but there was no rain from it.  (It rained later in the evening.)  The clouds never really blocked the sun at the stadium, though.  Thankfully, it never got terribly hot.  There was a wind blowing, but it didn’t seem to affect the balls in flight much.  Also, I noticed that a loose section of the canopy had finally disappeared.  I don’t know if it was taken down or blew off.  The whole thing needs to be repaired (or better, replaced with a roof).

 

Driving in, I ran into Fan Michael in the parking lot.  He had a sack with him of autographed posters, which he distributed to player family members.  I think he knows everyone involved with Aggie Baseball.  Inside, I picked up a Brisk tea and corn-in-a-cup for the last time this year.  Both of the previous games had gone over three hours.  I figured the pitching would be about the same today, so I’d better have something to drink and eat.  

 

The Aggie Dugout was full of players, their families, and their friends.  I felt a little silly wearing my Aggie Baseball jersey, but several of the parents were also wearing theirs.  There were hot player girlfriends, hot sisters, and even hot moms in attendance.  Not to mention, hottest of them all, the hot Pan-Am Girl was working the event.  Her golden brown hair seemed to be waving even when she was standing still.  The university Provost was also there in full regalia.     

 

There were eight grads that came out to get their diplomas: Preston Godfrey, Nolan Funke (who was injured and had trouble walking), Hayden Johns (came out with his blonde flow and with a couple of kids), Kevin Jimenez (a hot, exotic girl was taking his picture at the ceremony), Cal Villareal (who’d already had a grad ceremony last year and he had a section of girls cheering for him), Pablo Cortes, Will Sierra (who came out with some teammates), and Noah Estrella. 

 

During the ceremony, Hayden Walker’s dad came over and chatted with Michael.  He talked about his son’s eligibility.  I tossed out my pet notion that college athletes should just be given five years of eligibility and forget red-shirting.  He didn’t think that was a bad idea.

 

The crowd was kind of light at 480.  The students are already gone for the semester.  The Tommies did bring some fans with them.  I could hear them over the radio for the past two games.  Michael had made friends with them.  Players in the Aggie dugout once again razzed the umps when they came out.  I know Friday’s home plate ump had a high strike zone, but it was consistent for both teams.  Maybe it was good-natured ribbing?  I really don’t know.  (It’s weird.)

I can't believe it.  With all the runs and hits today, everything added up on the first try.  The scoreboard at the end of the game was wrong, but the radio call corrected it.  The scoring was all pretty straight forward.  Errors and other weirdness usually derails my score keeping efforts.

 

Pablo Cortes was starting today.  He’d thrown 6 pitches last night to finish the game.  Tyler Hoeft had been scheduled, but was a late scratch.  This was probably unfortunate.  Very unfortunate.  The Tommies began the game with five straight hits scoring three runs.  The last hit was off Cortes’ leg.  As Coach Zuniga and the trainers looked at him, there was already someone warming up in the bullpen.  Pablo got three straight outs to finish the inning, 3-0 St. Thomas.

 

In the bottom, Mitch Namie was apparently hit by a pitch.  On the deflection, umpire Jacob Gustafson was hit on the wrist.  It was hard enough that the trainers had to come out for him and wrap up it up so that he could continue.  (I was wondering if this would impede his ability to motion for strikes.)  Adam Young on the radio call said it was the catcher’s job to protect the ump.  Also, the St. Thomas coach had to wait a couple of minutes to argue Mitch getting hit.     

 

A wild pitch went to the backstop and got lodged under the padding there.  Mitch took third, but was sent back to second.  Kevin Jimenez worked a walk afterward.  The bat boy almost ran off with his bat, before Christian Perez came up and asked for it back.  Unfortunately, no further damage was done.

 

Romeo Ballesteros at short made a jump catch to start the top of the second.  Cortes then gave up a three more singles, which brought in two more runs.  Alan Aguero came in with two outs.  He threw one pitch for a flyball out.  Keith Jones II made a running catch at his waist.  5-0 Tommies.  The Aggie went down in order with two strikeouts in the bottom. 

 

There was a constant beeping noise next door from construction machinery throughout the game.  It was annoying.  I had earbuds in with the radio call, but I was still getting it.  The top of the third destroyed my scorecard.  Aguero gave up a walk, two singles, and a triple.  That was four more runs. 

 

Aaron Treloar came in and didn't do any better with two singles, two doubles, a walk, and four (!) wild pitches.  That was another four runs.  I think the St. Thomas fans actually got tired of clapping and cheering by the end.  Far too late, Darius Garcia came in and got the final out.  13-0 St. Thomas.  Senior Day was up in flames.

 

Between innings, a fan came by and asked me why a pitcher on the program had a 99 ERA.  If you're sitting at a ballpark with a scorecard, you're going to get questions like this.  Not knowing the formula off the top of my head, I said that pitchers will get a high ERA if they give up a bunch of runs without getting an out.  I thought that 99 was a misprint, but I looked it up later.  No, that was correct.  It wasn't 99 runs given up.  It was a numeric placeholder to show the pitcher had an “infinite” ERA.  Ouch.      

 

The Aggies punched back in the bottom of the third.  St. Thomas pitcher, Walker Retz, gave up three walks in a row.  Perez drove in a run with a grounder, but that was all.  13-1 St. Thomas.

 

Darius gave up a leadoff single in the fourth, but worked three outs after.  In the bottom, Preston Godfrey jacked a homer to left.  Finally the crowd had something to cheer about.  If you can believe it that was the first Aggie hit of the game.  Hunter Antillon, DH'ing today, walked and stole second.  The throw from the catcher went into the outfield and Hunter took third.  He was brought in on a groundout by Cal.  KJII singled and stole second as well.  Mitch brought him in with a single.  13-4 St. Thomas.

 

Darius began the fifth with two strikeouts.  He hit a batter and then gave up a single, but got out of it with a groundout.  Again, the Aggies led off the bottom with a homer.  This time it was Christian hitting one to left.  He blew a kiss passing second base.  That's his thing.  That was also my last view of the hot Pan-Am Girl, as she threw out a home run t-shirt to the crowd.  13-5 St. Thomas.

 

Darius only gave up a single in the top of the sixth.  I was surprised that Retz came out for the bottom, as he'd looked a bit shaky and already qualified for the win.  He gave up a double, but that was all.  It was a quick inning for a change.  The top of the seventh went 1-2-3.  The odd “4U” on the scorecard came about on a grounder to first.  It got past Mitch.  KJ snared it and slid into first ahead of the runner.  This play happened again in the next inning, but Kevin wasn’t able to get there in time.  First isn’t Mitch’s normal position.

 

The PA was late on the Seventh Inning Stretch.  We almost thought they'd forgotten about it.  Retz was relieved in the inning by Jeremy Klick.  He gave up a couple of walks before Preston came up and hit his second home run.  It was a three-run shot into the trees in center.  His dad walked by.  Michael identified him and gave him a high-five.  It was now 13-8 Tommies.  A little light ginger-haired boy started running around the front of the stands.  He'd grab the fence watching the action on the field.  It was too cute.

 

Adam on the radio was almost making me believe that the Aggies were going to come back.  Unfortunately in the top of the eighth, the Tommies added on.  Darius hit a batter and gave up two singles to load the bases.  He was taken out to a big round of applause, even from the St. Thomas fans. 

 

Matt Maloney, who'd had a bad, stressful outing on Thursday, came in and gave up a double and a single, which scored everyone on base.  I was briefly worried what to do with my scorecard if the Tommies batted around again, but Matt got a strikeout to end the inning.  17-8 St. Thomas.  The Aggies went down with a double play in the bottom of the eighth. 

 

I was mildly annoyed that this game didn't end in the seventh with a run rule.  As long as the game went to the ninth, Coach Zuniga decided to honor a few players.  He pulled Cal Villareal and Kevin Jimenez off the field individually so that everyone could give them a round of applause.  After two outs, he put in local kid, Saxon Marr, to pitch.  He threw five straight balls, but got a groundout end the inning.  I felt a little better about the game being extended.   

 

In the bottom, the Aggie first base coach ran by and got some contact information from Michael before taking his spot on field.  Christian wasn't done.  He hustled a leadoff triple to start the bottom of the ninth.  Nick Gore drove him in with a grounder.  That's where we end it.  St. Thomas wins 17-9.

 

Our final Gameballs.  For St. Thomas, Ben Vujovich went 5 for 6 with an RBI.  He was only a home run short of a cycle.  Brigs Richartz went 4 for 6 with 4 RBI's, and Charlie Bartholomew went 4 for 6 with 3 RBI's.  After 17 runs, Aggie pitching obviously wasn't very effective, but there were only 3 walks.  (There were also 2 hit batters and 5 wild pitches.)  The Tommies did it without hitting any homers today.  It was just a hit parade with 16 singles out of their 22 hits. 

 

For the Aggies, Christian Perez went 2 for 5 with a home run and 2 RBI's.  Preston Godfrey had 2 homers and 4 RBI's.  Darius Garcia saved the game with his 5 innings of relief.  He had 3 earned runs, which all came in after he left.  It was good to see him return to something like the form that he'd shown in Albuquerque against the Lobos earlier in the season.  It wasn't a good day for Aggie (or Tommies’) pitching otherwise.  That's pretty much been the story all season.  I appreciate that Aggie hitting made a game of it, at least.

 

The game was a tick over three hours.  It certainly wasn't boring.  Fan Michael and I said our goodbyes.  I was going to go up and see Adam in the booth.  I noticed him hanging out of the window after the game, so I waved to him instead.  He waved back.  Good luck with the baby this summer. 

 

On the way out, they were handing out coupons to Raising Canes since the Aggies had scored 7 or more runs.  Thanks again to Aggie hitting.  I cashed in on that on Sunday, but went to Burger King for lunch today.  They want my business with those coupons they send out.  It was pretty good, especially the fries. 

 

Aggie Baseball was a disaster this season.  There's my season recap.  I do have an Aggie Sports in general season recap coming up next and the usual Memorial Day Sport report after that.                 

2,000-th Post Edition Part 2

Part 1

 

2020

2-4-20 My mom died in December 2019.  I ended up inheriting a lot material from that.  This would be the first of the collections I’d be posting: Our Great Heritage books.

 

2-26-20 I went to an El Paso Rhinos hockey game and really enjoyed it.  I also got really sick afterward, though I didn’t mention it in the post. 

 

3-16-20 Yeah, then this happened.  Everything got cancelled: NCAA Tournament, Aggie Softball, and Aggie Baseball.  I’m sure this will all be over soon and everyone will be so glad that all these precautions were taken.  I was making fun of this at the time.  My opinion hasn’t changed a bit.

 

3-18-20 I even wrote up a two-part MLB Season preview for a season that wouldn’t begin for months.

 

3-20-20 I began posting my mom’s Country Music magazine collection.  Since I was in banking and we were “essential,” I had to show up for work every day during the lockdown.  I guess this was where I started doing daily posting.

 

4-15-20 I started posting my friend Mike’s caving expeditions.

 

5-27-20 I posted a bunch of interesting artifacts around this time, such as this is a cute little Easter book.

 

5-26-20 My usual yearly Memorial Day post.  This time there was only event to report on.  Thank you, NASCAR.

 

6-1-20 I went to a local used bookstore the day before the lockdown and finally posted about what I got there.  The art book I got ended up starting my other daily obsession: drawing every day. 

 

6-3-20 I started posting greeting cards that my mom had saved in a bunch of scrapbooks.  I couldn’t keep all of them, so I settled on this as a way of preserving them.

 

7-10-20 My favorite Card post.

 

7-23-20, 7-24-20 How about some grade school art?

 

7-28-20 MLB started their season.  I had a few choice words about it.

 

8-04-20 This was a pretty cool inheritance, a 1960 USS Ranger yearbook.  I ended up giving it away to a lady at work whose father served on the ship.

 

8-27-20 One of my better sketch pages.  Unfortunately, a whole bunch of bad ones follow.  I peaked way too early.

 

9-24-20 Space Squid.  My finest artwork.

 

9-25-20 Some fan strips I did.  I managed to stuff in some Evangelion jokes.  I’m not saying these are my best sketches; they’re just the most entertaining.

 

12-15-20 I did a series of posts featuring my old photographs.     

 

 

 

2021

 

1-5-21 Here’s where I started posting my mom’s Elvis collection.  Regrettably, I wasn’t able to sell it to an Elvis fan.  Dad still has it.  I don’t know what will happen to it.  This continues into July.

 

2-11-21  My favorite memory of 2020.  It’s nothing, but it was pleasant.

 

3-21-21 I finally return to a live sport event . . . wearing a mask . . . outdoors. 

 

5-11-21 My first and only (ever) account of a high school baseball game.  At least it’s funny now.  I spent the first quarter of the post talking about pro wrestling.

 

7-30-21, 8-2-21  Pics of my bedroom from when I was in high school and pics of a trip to see a friend.

 

8-9-21 I start posting the PO Sketchbook, inspired by Pernille Orum.

 

9-7-21, 9-8-21 I didn’t recognize it at the time, but I think here was the downfall of Aggie Volleyball.  The brand new court at the Pan-Am Center was ruined right before the start of the season.  But right afterward, I got the best souvenir ever at a game.

 

9-28-21 I start posting the Asia Notebook, inspired by Asia Ladowska.

 

10-27-21 Posts of some Toy Soldiers from my childhood.

 

11-23-21 I missed out on going to the WAC Volleyball tournament because I was in quarantine.  (I wasn’t sick.)  Just as well, the Aggies were dismissed early.

 

11-24-21 One of my better NASCAR posts ranting about the Chase.

 

11-30-21 Aggie Football wins their second game in their last game of the season.  I was there mostly because they were offering free Basketball tickets.  There was a little heartwarming story at the end of this.

 

12-16-21  I start posting mom’s Postcard collection.  This takes a while.  It finishes in December 2022.

Part 3  

2,000-th Post Edition Part 1

 

This is about as good as place as any to post this St. Jude Thank You card.

It’s a blog anniversary, except I’m actually over 2,300 posts.  I blew past that nice round milestone a while back.  I noticed it, but wasn’t in a position to stop and smell the roses like I did for the 1,000-th Post in 2017.  (There was also my “final” RPG post review in 2016.)  I thought here I’d briefly (or not so briefly) go over what I’ve posted for the last six or so years since the 1,000-th post.

2017

11-13-17 I was doing a lot of nearly daily baseball and Aggie Sports posts.  I was running myself ragged.  I even did a recap of my recaps.

 

12-4-17 Probably the best Aggie Women’s Basketball game . . . ever.  In sum, Lobos 101, Aggies 93.  Yes, even in a loss, it was great.

 

12-5-17 This was Aggie Football’s fabled game against South Alabama at the end of their season.  The Aggies were playing to get in a bowl game, which was a big deal if you haven’t been for 57 years.  I was there and it was epic.  (This was also the same day as that Basketball game.)

 

12-26-17 How the X-Men will enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Still waiting to see how this turns out.

 

12-27-17 My review of The Last Jedi.  I wasn’t kind. 

2018

1-3-18 Here it was: the Aggie Football bowl game that broke the 57-year curse.  I wasn’t there, but I watched the win and it was suitably epic again.

 

2-1-18 RIP Chief Wahoo.  I did predict the name change, just not how bad it would be.

 

2-12-18 and 2-13-18 Two of the biggest wins I’ve ever seen for Aggie Softball.  It was a double header sweep of SEC Kentucky.  And there was a big Men’s Basketball win the same night.

 

2-27-18 Aggie Baseball wins 39-0.  Not a misprint. 

 

4-12-18 Here I did a post on some high-end Toy Soldiers I got from an estate sale.

 

5-29-18 Aggie Softball wins the WAC Tournament.  I was there for every game.

 

6-6-18 Aggie Baseball wins WAC Tournament.  It was a gut wrenching experience to listen to over the radio.

 

7-19-18, 7-20-18 These are posts featuring some Old School Star Wars kid’s books.

 

9-18-18 This is it!  Aggie Volleyball beat Arizona!  The best win for the team I’ve ever seen.

 

12-3-18 Aggie Volleyball wins the WAC Tournament.  Boy was I spoiled in 2018.

 

12-24-18, 1-23-19 A poem about Robotech and a post about my Alpha Fighter model.  It was a little foreshadowing for my Robomeck RPG.

 

 

2019

1-22-19 I don’t even remember the controversy, but I was really mad at the NFL.

 

3-18-19 Aggie Women’s Basketball wins the WAC Tournament.  The Aggies won it with an overtime semi-final win and a double OT championship game win.  It was absolutely exhausting to listen to over the radio.  I can’t imagine what it was like playing in it.  Brooke Salas and Gia Pack were epic.

 

3-19-19 And then the Men win the WAC Basketball Tournament.

 

6-6-16 I started posting my Robomeck RPG three years after quitting RPG’s.  Jury is still out on whether I should have stayed quit, but I really enjoyed writing the commentary text.  I don’t give a damn if it’s not canonical. 

    

12-9-19 Aggie Volleyball goes undefeated in conference play and wins the WAC Tournament.  Lowly Chicago State almost broke the streak. 

 

2019 seems a little thin.  I think it was because of how much time I spent writing Robomeck. 

 

Part 2.   

Diecast Carshow: Seuss and Friends

 These are the rest of my NASCAR collection.

This is a Michael Waltrip Busch Series car with the Cat in the Hat paint scheme.  It's kinda fun.  

Here's a close up.

Another Michael Waltrip car.  Hey, he was Junior's teammate at the time.  Not to mention, the car looks good and Mikey's NAPA commercials were pretty funny.

This is actually a Hot Wheels car, a 2001 Dodge Intrepid.  I think I remember a bin filled with these and another model with the paint scheme colors reversed.     

I don't think this was an actual racecar, but I've always liked it.  It has rubber wheels, which only a couple other cars I have feature.  The only problem with it is that the white on the hood has somehow changed color.  

 

I like Jamie McMurray as a driver and currently as a commentator.  (I don't know why he isn't calling races.)  I was happy to purchase this good-looking car.  Unfortunately, the extended hood, which makes the model look good, interferes with the diecast rolling well.  

This is a Reed Sorenson Target car.  I've never really engaged in searching for my favorite diecasts.  I was just picking up whatever I found that I liked.  This one is as close I've come to getting a diecast I was looking for.

  

I wasn't a fan of the driver, but I loved the car when I saw it at races.  I could understand Wal-Mart and K-Mart not selling a Target car, but I couldn't understand Target not selling them.  They even sold Target Indy cars, but not the NASCAR.  

One Sunday, I was reading the newspaper at my parents' house and in a Target insert, there was a small ad for a Fuji Film disposable camera that came with a Target car.  Yes!  I ran back home and immediately took off to Target.  

I spent maybe 15 minutes wandering around the right department looking for the cameras.  The area was deserted and there was no one to ask.  Finally, there it was with the car attached.  I didn't care about the price.  I grabbed it and I swear I heard a heavenly chorus.  I may have actually skipped to the register.  Honestly, this silly car was one of the happiest purchases I've ever made.  I gave the camera to my folks, by the way. 

And here's my current last diecast, which I got for Christmas a couple of years ago.  It's my current favorite driver, Chase Elliot.  I really am just a band-wagoner, aren't I?  

I love these cars.  They're irresistible.  I've had to kind of stop buying them for various reasons, but if I ever happen to notice a another good one, I'll probably have to pick it up.  (Might be unlikely.  Moving the door number on the cars for more advertising is not aesthetic.)