Thursday, September 4, 2014

Baseball Journal 8-24-14

[I kept meaning to write about baseball, but all I did was write out little random notes about interesting events, without actually finishing the thought.  I didn’t even date most of this stuff, further complicating the writing a month later.  This is just going to be baseball mad libs here.  Worse, I’m going to be removing a bunch of stuff that deserved mention at the time.]

Ranger Notes
Speaking of soccer, the Rangers are lucky they haven’t been relegated to Triple A to play to the Chihuahuas.  Essentially over the last month, they’re losing about five times a week.  They’re the worst team in the league, looking up at the Astros (who Sports Illustrated thinks are going to win the World Series in five years, but with their cover jinx, there’s no chance of that).

*******

Eric Nadel was highlighted on the Fox’s Saturday night broadcast.  I was also listening to the Rangers’ radio call as Matt Hicks called attention to it.  The Fox guys mentioned Eric was from Brooklyn and that he used to go to games at Shea Stadium.  Eric told the story of the first game that he was old enough to take the subway by himself to go to.  His father told him to be back by 10:00.  The game went 18 innings, way past 10:00, but young Eric just couldn’t leave it.  Already showing his broadcasting chops as a teen.

Rangers vs. Mets: Can you believe a National League game running 4 + hours.  No, there wasn’t a rain delay.  Eric Nadel was complaining again about the length of the games.  Who can blame him?  He started waxing nostalgic, as he’s from NYC and was a big Met’s fan as a kid, though apparently a lot of his Met memories are kind of sour.  At least Eric and Matt had plenty of time to discuss Broadway plays.

Once again on the Fox Saturday game, they featured the Rangers and spotlighted Eric Nadel.  He was received an award on the field before the game.  Is Eric about to retire?  [Actually, he was about to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.  I’m a little dense keeping up with team news.  Boy, Eric gave a great speech.] 

7-20
Matt Hicks hit by a foul ball in the booth.  Yet another Ranger injury.  Thankfully, he was laughing about it afterward.  Eric asked, “Was it your ‘scoring’ arm?”

I loved one of the calls in the game.  Just as Eric was mentioning Ranger pitcher,   Ryan Feierabend’s, pickoff move, he immediately picked off a runner.

Meanwhile, one of the team commercials is promoting the Ranger Fans singles match service.  Here you can find of the love of life and commiserate about how bad the team is this year.

7-24
Matt Hicks was discussing my favorite soccer team, Arsenal.  Apparently, he’s a big soccer fan.  And also apparently, it must have been another boring game.


MLB Notes
I’m not letting baseball off the hook either.  People say, “It’s boring.”  You know what, a lot of times when I’m watching, I find myself agreeing with that.  MLB has done NOTHING to pick up the pace of the game.  In fact, they’ve slowed it down with their video review crap.  I still think it’s a great game, but even long-time Rangers’ broadcaster, Eric Nadel, has been complaining constantly about how long the games have been dragging out.  Between two-and-a-half and under three hours, most people can enjoy a ballgame.  Beyond that, most people (if not everyone) start getting bored with it.  Three-plus hour, 9 inning games aren’t necessarily high-scoring, but are more likely to be low action, that is players standing around waiting on the pitcher and the batter to get their acts together.   






Lincecum pitched another no-hitter.  [And judging by the 2 1/3 inning, 6 run performance I heard today, 8-23-14, Good Tim has become Bad Tim again.]   















Check out this blurb from the same paper.  This would have been an interesting game to watch.


Kershaw also pitched a no-hitter soon after.  This touched off a broadcasting topic about whether the announcer should mention a no-hitter in progress.  Tim Hagerty with the Chihuahuas said he’ll do it.  In today’s instant mass media age, it would be absurd not to, and also Vin Scully does it.  On a Cardinal’s broadcast, another Tim (McCarver, who sounded happier than he ever did with Fox), said he wouldn’t, because he thought he’d jinxed one once.  They talked about Vin’s call of the Kershaw game.  He’d told viewers to call their friends.  During a break, an aide told him most people tweet stuff like this.  Vin came back and told everyone to tweet it, “Hashtag Kershaw!”

The All-Star Game got off to a rip-boring start with a four-hour home run derby.  They need to tell the pitchers to speed up their delivery.  (Okay, two rain delays might have been the culprit.)  Even Chris Berman was bored.  It’s his one trip for the year outside the sanitarium. 

During the game itself, I’m embarrassed to admit that I spent time watching an interesting roundtable discussion on baseball on the MLB Network.  Tom Verducci summed up what everyone else has noticed:  Scoring is down, but the time of the games going up.  I don’t know if anyone at the table had any worthwhile ideas to fix it.  Verducci is pretty astute, but then again he’s also championing the idea of the “Bonus Batter.”  I’m not even bothering to explain or discuss the concept, if for no other reason than the name.

[Hey, serious suggestion here.  I’m watching the Arthur Ashe Kid’s Day at the US Open Tennis tournament.  It’s always a great, fun event, especially for kids.  Why not dump the Home Derby at the All-Star Game for something similar?]   

7-26
Giants pick up Dan Uggla for Second Base.  Why didn’t they call me?  I’m available, and I could probably hit and field just as well. 

7-27
Giants trade for Jake Peavy, who immediately blew out his arm signing the contract.

******

Darwin Barney was released by the Cubs.  Great defense, lousy hitting.  Now instead of the Giants picking him up, they went after Dan Uggla, who was released by the Braves, because he could neither field, nor hit.  The “Uggla Experiment” went for a week.  He went 0 for 12 with three errors.  It wasn’t a good sign that he was double-switched for in his first game.  Uggla didn’t accompany the team on their next road trip. 

Meanwhile, just to rub it in, the Dodgers picked up Barney.  From a personal perspective this is terrible.  Now the Buy-a-Championship Dodgers actually have a player that I like, creating a rooting dilemma for myself.  If they end up playing the Angels in the World Series, I was going to reluctantly root for them anyway.

[Rookie Joe Panik has actually been doing a pretty good for the Giants at Second, so what do I know?]

8-4


Tigers vs. Yankees on ESPN.  They show Kate Upton behind the Visitor’s Dugout.  Now this was a highlight and then some.

7-29
Watching a Cubs broadcast.  Len and JD are sitting in the bleachers (or that beer patio thing in Right Field).  I start watching the game during dinner, but leave it to get to work.  I tune back in three hours later.  They’re in top of the 7th and it’s 3-3!  Len is complaining that because this game is dragging on so long, he’s eating too much sitting in the bleachers.  Little does he know at the time that he’s going to end up being there for six hours and extra innings.

8-14
Watching a Mets team broadcast on the MLB network.  One of their announcers called Yankee Stadium a “mausoleum.”  Awesome.

8-22
Gordon Beckham dealt to the Angels from the White Sox, for cash.  Another one of my favorite players, traded to a team I hate.  Yes, between Beckham, Barney, and Kinsler, I do seem to like Second Basemen.


Chihuahuas Notes
Southwest University Ballpark won the stadium of the year award.  When is somebody going to come up with a good nickname for that mouthful of syllables?  (The ‘U?’)  Here’s a review of the park.

The Chihuahuas July trip to Des Moines to play the ICubs was somewhat eventful.  After not being able to take their original flight, they ended up taking a chartered flight the morning of the game.  The team bus arrived an hour before the game.  The parking lot attendant asked them to pay for the parking while they were unloading.    

During the game, Tim called, “And there’s a foul ball straight back.”  Suddenly, there’s a crash and a scuffle.  For five horrifying seconds there was dead air.  Have we lost Tim?  Oh, no!  Thankfully, he composed himself and got back to the microphone, a little shaken.  It had just missed him.

Tim reporting smelling skunk while the team was playing in Omaha.  He couldn’t resist telling another minor league story about a skunk actually wandering out on to the field during a game.  The pitcher, from the Caribbean, not understanding why a black “cat” was holding up the game, walked over to it, picked it up, and took it off the field.  The skunk must have been so shocked by the friendly behavior, he forgot to spray him.  

7-9 vs Albuquerque
Tim reported a light mist to start the game.  By the start of the bottom of the first inning, the mist was occluding the outfield hill.  Then it started to rain.  There were flashes of lightning and thunder in the distance.  By the bottom of the second, it became a heavy rain, the heaviest he’d seen in a game.  Fans were starting to take cover.  With rising concern in his voice, Tim started to report hail falling on the field.  Finally, there was a loud crack of thunder.  “I’m sure you all heard that!” I’d have to think Tim was standing when he said that.  The field was finally evacuated.  Matt Wisler, the Chihuahuas’ pitcher on the mound, threw up his arms.  “Why couldn’t you guys have called the game before I gave up that two run homer!” 

Last month, El Paso county property tax went up for “quality of life” funding.  What a surprise that the new motel tax isn’t covering the cost of the new ballpark.    

[Okay, that was all over place, but fun.  Baseball is a great game.]

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