Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Sports Journal 4-13-14



It’s been a Scarlett Johansson sort of weekend.  I saw her in two movies on Saturday.  (No, this isn’t a sports take.  I’m getting to it.  Be patient.)  There she was with an English accent in The Other Boleyn Girl with Natalie Portman.  David Morrissey and Eric Bana were also in this, along with a blink-and-you’ll miss him Benedict Cumberbatch.  I’d like to say I enjoyed it, but it’s Henry the VIII and Anne Boleyn.  You know how it’s going to end.


More surprisingly but probably not coincidentally, I later saw her with her Captain America: the Winter Soldier (now playing in theaters) co-star, Chris Evans in the MTV produced The Perfect Score.  This movie must be about ten years old, but you can already see them practicing for their future parts.  Evans, the leader of these high school Avengers as they scam to steal the SAT test answers, at one point rallies them in a very inspirational manner.  (Though he has a very un-Captain America like moment when he leaves somebody behind that gets caught during the heist.)  Scarlett as a gothy, punk school girl, after his speech, imagines herself (I’m not making this up) clad in black leather, performing wire-fu and taking out a bunch of security guards single-handed.  Destiny.  The film was okay, I think, since I was flipping back and forth between this and the fight.          

Hockey:
They make a lot of the “Original Six” teams whenever they’re playing each other for some reason.  With the broadcast schedule, by and large, it’s the “Exclusive Eight,” whom they mix and match together all season for the NBC national game, ignoring the other 22 teams entirely.  I guess with the morning timing of these broadcasts, they are limited to East Coast games, but since they’re not doing regional broadcasts, it might be nice to see a few more good teams, maybe some western teams. 

The Sunday game was a 3-0 blanking of the Blues by the Red Wings, but the Saturday game was pretty good.  Very late in the third period, the Flyers took the lead, but moments later, the Penguins scored and tied it, sending the game to overtime, where the Flyers would win it on a soft goal.  What made it great was the full team brawl that took place at the end of regulation.  This how every hockey match should end. 

Baseball:
On Saturday, Fox Sports 1 had a double header of action.  Yes, you guessed it!  One of the games was Yankees vs. Red Sox.  If they could get both teams to play an actual double header every Saturday, they’d do it.  No, I still don’t have an upper tier cable package to watch these games.  No, I’m not paying to watch Yankees vs. Red Sox every other week, much less a premium, and much less listen to Joe Buck’s histrionic play calling and demanding replays on every close play.  Without even having seen a game that Bucks’s called this year, I know that’s what he’s doing.  That’s how tedious and predictable he is.   

On Sunday, I invited my dad over so he could watch the Masters, so I missed listening to most of the Rangers and Chihuahuas’ games on the radio.  Has any son ever made a greater sacrifice?  (I also bought dinner.)  From what I could tell lately, the Rangers have forgotten which end of the bat to hold.  Every team goes into an offensive slump sometimes, but they’re playing the freaking Astros!  At least they won, by the minimum, 1-0. 

The El Paso Chihuahuas, meanwhile, were continuing their “home” series in Tucson, playing the Reno Aces.  Yes, that’s a little confusing.  I don’t know what the baseball situation is in Tucson since El Paso enticed away their team, but this seems like a cruel taunt to baseball fans there.  “Hey, the stadium we bought for your team isn’t ready yet.  Mind if we use yours for a few more games?  It’s not like anybody else is using it.”  Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to listen to the last few games.  I’m sure these questions have been answered. 

Tim Hagerty was joined in the booth by Mark Miller, whom I really can’t tell you anything about, since I wasn’t able to listen much.  I do hope he’ll be there for other home games at least.  The dogs lost 6-4, but apparently did have some El Paso fans in attendance for this faux home game.  Tim mentioned they had a cheering section of two Little League teams who made the trip to see them.  That’s cool.     

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