The highlight of my life, perhaps, came last night at about 3 a.m. during the National Baseball Congress World Series game between Liberal and Hays.
As Liberal manager Mike Hargrove (read previous blog entires to learn about the history between the former Indians skipper and me) was trotting to his third-base coaching box … OK, wait. Just so everybody knows, I was running the sound for that game. You know, all the music and the sound clips and stuff like that.
And we’ve been using Limewire to download some songs to play between innings because after 80 games, the same old songs get pretty lame and boring. So we like to keep it fresh. And since I’m an Indians fan and everything, I decided to look for this geeky, nerdy Indians theme song that they play as like an introduction to radio broadcasts and stuff. I don’t even know where it came from.
So I played it and good ol’ Human Rain Delay Grover Mike Hargrove looks up to the booth and shakes his head and smiles. I think it was a look of appreciation, but mostly I think it was — How did they find that song? Oh, I know, Mike …. I know. So to be acknowledged by a guy who was partly responsible for several heartbeaking experiences for me …. well, I guess that’s something.
The next thing I need to rant about is the USA’s olympic baseball game against South Korea. Highly disappointing. And I’m into the USA olympic baseball team this year because it features two Indians prospects — relief pitcher Jeff Stevens and outfielder Matt LaPorta. Both were acquired in trades for stars (Stevens for Brandon Phillips, LaPorta for CC Sabathia).
So the USA leads 7-6 in the 9th and Stevens comes on to close it. Yeah, he blew it and the USA lost 8-7, but it wasn’t his fault. The USA third baseman, Mike Hessman, was playing way off the line and Stevens allowed a leadoff double to the left-field corner. If Hessman is playing where he’s supposed to be, guarding the line against a double, that’s an out.
And so is the groundball by the guy two batters later. Instead, with a guy on third base the infield is in — to protect against the TYING, not WINNING run, and I’m not sure why — and Jayson Nix makes a bad throw home from second base and the run scores. By the way, Nix was a complete jerk to me in an interview a few years ago when I covered the Wranglers and he played for Tulsa. Karma, baby.
Then Stevens makes a wild pickoff throw to first, the guy gets to third then scores on a sacrifice fly to win the game. But he wouldn’t have been on first if Hessman just knew how to play third base. I guess they don’t teach you that in the midst of the 7 million minor league games he’s played.
Finally, I must mention that the Wingnuts are actually more alive for a playoff spot then I let on yesterday. At least I think they are. If Sioux Falls can somehow catch Sioux City and win the second half, the next playoff spot goes to the team with the second best overall record. And right now, the Wingnuts are 2.5 games behind Sioux City for that mark.
That’s where it gets confusing. Sioux Falls and the Wingnuts play six times down the stretch — four more I think — and it’s going to be difficult for both teams to make up ground on the teams they’re chasing. So while it’s only 2.5 games, the Wingnuts probably won’t do it because every Sioux Falls win prevents Wichita from making up ground and every Wingnuts win doesn’t help Sioux Falls win the second half. You got that?
Go USA.