Baseball

Greenville, SC – Day 33: Take Me Out To The Ballgame

Field of Dreams


 
I have been totally jinxed on getting to see some Minor League baseball this trip. I spent 7 days in total in Santa Fe and on all of them the Albuquerque Isotopes were playing away games in Reno, NV playing the Aces. I did stop in at the ballpark and purchase one of their baseball hats.

The next chance I had was the 4 days I spent in the Augusta area. But the GreenJackets were also playing away games. They were in Columbia, SC playing the Fireflies. I did stop at their stadium and buy a ball cap.

Who You Calling a Bobblehead?

Now I’m in Greenville and their team, a High A farm team of the Boston Red Sox was also away. They were in Bowling Green, KY playing the Hot Rods. I didn’t go to their stadium; instead, we drove 15 miles east and went to Spartanburg to watch the Hub City Spartanburgers play the Rome (GA) Emperors. And of course, I bought a Spartanburger hat.

Sure Didn’t Need That Break

The Red Sox had the best record in baseball from June 15th until July 14th with a 17-7 record. Then the 4 day All-Star break happened. “Second” half started Friday night and the Sox were in LA to play the Dodgers. They promptly lost all three games in spite of being ahead by several runs in two of them. Admittedly the Dodgers are a better ball club than the FRS, but they should have been able to win one of those three games.

Now they are off to play 3 games against the Colorado Rockies who are 36-64 and 23 games behind their division leaders, those same Dodgers. I hope the altitude doesn’t make them high1 and the Red Sox win at least 2 out of the three games.

Santa Fe Fuego

We arrived at Casa de Sally in Santa Fe around lunch time after a shortish drive from Clovis, NM near the Texas border. We then spent the afternoon chatting until it came time to take ourselves out to the ballgame. We were off to Fort Marcy Park to see the Santa Fe Fuego play the Trinidad (CO) Triggers.

Because Sally has extra bedrooms (even with Donna and I there) she is hosting a couple ball players for the local independent minor league baseball team of the Pecos League. For housing these two players, she is compensated with 4 sets of season tickets for all 30 of their home games. The season just started and tonight was just the second home game and Sally has seen both of them. It is a fun night out, but I don’t think Sally will be there for all the other 28.

Putting the F in FRS

After last year’s miserable showing of 24-36 and last place in the division during the COVID shortened season, the outlook for 2021 was just hoping for a mid-pack finish in the division. But something wonderous happened, the Red Sox were playing great baseball. At the All-Star break they had the third best record (55-36) in all of baseball and were leading the division by a game and a half over Tampa Bay. The Yankees and Blue Jays were 8 games back. They had 5 players make the All-Star team.

Something changed in the second half of the season, the All-Stars stopped playing like they were and the stellar pitching cooled way off. Since the break the FRS has reverted to playing like it was anticipated they would – mediocre. They are playing exactly .500 ball with 36 wins and 36 loses. Unfortunately every one else in the division started playing great. A month after the All-Star break Tampa was in first by 3 games. By the end of August the Rays were ahead of the Red Sox 9 games and the Yankees had past them too.

We are heading into the last three games of the 2021 baseball season. And the Sox are hanging on for dear life to the second Wild Card spot. The last three games are against the Washington Nationals who are the fifth worse team in baseball having won only 65 games and losing 94. But winning all three of these games is not assured as they just finished a 3 game set against the Baltimore Orioles who are 52-107 and the Sox lost 2 of those. The way they are playing they don’t deserve to be in the playoffs.

The F in FRS stands in for an expletive, but in this case, because I expect them to choke, I think it really stands for something our previous President reserved for the New York Times (among others) – Failing.

Hope Springs Eternal

⚾ 2018 seems so long ago.

For 2019 I just listened to the Red Sox play baseball and was glad I hadn’t coughed up the hundred bucks or so for the video because they were just a mid-level team finishing mid-division and out of the playoffs. For 2020 I bought the radio package again expecting more of the same. COVID put a damper on the season, limiting the season to a mere 60 games, but the FRS did not disappoint me and lost 60% of those games, finishing last in the division.2

With our move to the west coast I though listening to the games in the afternoon would be more fun that late evening, but I was wrong, I probably listened to maybe a quarter of those 60 games. Just wasn’t the same. So this year I thought maybe I’d try watching the games. I’d have two options, watch them live at 4:00pm or watch the replay of the game at 8:00. I cancelled the audio package and signed up for the TV package.

Because it is April and still chilly in Beantown the first 3 games of the season, at home against Baltimore, were 1:00pm games meaning that they stated at 10:00am here. Morning baseball, mmm, weird, but okay in a way. But not fun as the Sox lost all three games, including an 11-3 shellacking in the finale that was over by the 3rd inning. There are like 3 players left on the the team that I remember from 2018 and now I’m sort of regretting paying that much money to watch a team that looks destined to finish dead last in the division again.

Fortunately I signed up for the free 7 day trial to start, so as of yet they haven’t hit the charge card. The Tampa Bay Rays come to town for the next three games and if they don’t win at least 2 of those, I’m going to just cancel and not be out the money.