I've been quiet on the blog lately. I had planned on doing a minor league baseball trip with Sean, but life got in the way. I might have a pretty big trip coming up, but I guess I'm still unsure at this point. But I had wanted to do some kind of post in honor of Vin Scully and his last season. Well, yesterday was probably Vin's last weekday afternoon game, unless the Dodgers playing in the afternoon during the playoffs (I'm guessing an afternoon start wouldn't be too likely for them). Also, we have the Olympics going on (apparently I didn't blog about the Olympics in 2012, but I did in 2014). I decided I had to keep a running diary. Here's what transpired:
3:00- It's time for Dodger baseball! Vin says that today is the first time the Dodgers have had a share of first place since May 14. It's amazing how they've played without Clayton Kershaw. Kershaw made one start during my summer vacation. It was only his second loss of the season and he got hurt. Not a good night. And somehow, the Dodgers have the best record in baseball since then.
3:04- The Marlins could do the Dodgers a solid by beating the Giants. They're down 1-0 in the top of the ninth. The Giants have two runners on with two outs.
3:06- We have Olympic volleyball on. Some of my favorite students are big volleyball players so they might be watching this. The US and Serbia are tied, with the US leading the third set 14-13.
3:08- The US women are leading Serbia 49-31 in basketball in the second quarter. Basketball is definitely my favorite Summer Olympic sport (until 2020 when baseball comes back), but it's not really all that interesting since we're so much better than everybody else.
3:10- Vin guessed that the temperature was around 80 degrees. My phone says that it's 77 in Los Angeles. I would love to be at this game. Day baseball with great weather at Dodger Stadium. And yes, I have Los Angeles in my weather app. It comes after Notre Dame (90 degrees), Dublin (61), and Sydney (57). The Phillies single on the first pitch of the game by Scott Kazmir.
3:12- Vin just mentioned getting a visit from Juan Samuel. I remember him being on the Dodgers when I was little. And Scott Kazmir gets his first out with a strikeout.
3:13- 6-4-3 double play to end the inning. What's your favorite double play? I probably like the 5-4-3 the most of the fairly common double plays. I like seeing the ball go all around the infield. The 1-2-3 is my favorite of the less common double plays.
3:15- The Giants won 1-0. Nuts. It's an interesting lineup for the Dodgers today. Their first six batters will hit left-handed (one switch hitter in there). Corey Seager is hitting third. He's hit second for most of the season.
3:17- Vin gives us the full name of the Phillies' starter, Jeremy Robert Hellickson. He's from Des Moines, Iowa.
3:18- After Chase Utley strikes out, Josh Reddick is up. He has two hits since the Dodgers traded for him. The other guy they got in the trade can't pitch because of a blister. This trade isn't looking good.
3:19- Reddick hit a very hard single. If he hadn't hit it so hard, it would have been a double. It came off of the wall too fast. That's the kind of luck he's had since the Dodgers got him. And now Corey Seager is up. This kid is the real deal. He should be Rookie of the Year. And he has all the makings of a superstar.
3:20- Vin tells us that Jeremy Hellickson named his dog after Derek Jeter.
3:21- Corey Seager hits a hard single the other way. First and second for Adrian Gonzalez.
3:22- Gonzalez is hitting .364 in his last 36 games. That's pretty good.
3:23- Gonzalez hits a double off the first base umpire. I'm kind of surprised that you don't see something like that happen more often. Reddick scores and Seager goes to third.
3:25- Yasmani Grandal (not my favorite Dodger, even though he's been hitting well lately) strikes out for the second out.
3:28- Joc Peterson walks to load the bases for Howie Kendrick, the first right-handed batter for the Dodgers. Vin says that Barroid got kicked out in Miami today. He should just be kicked out of every game. That guy does not belong in baseball. He gets hired and Dee Gordon gets suspended for using steroids. I'm not surprised.
3:32- We're one ball away from one of my favorite baseball scenarios: bases loaded with two outs and a full count. You get to start the merry-go-round on the pitch. Unfortunately Howie Kendrick swings and misses on a pitch down and out of the zone.
3:33- The US won the third set and now we're up 17-13 in the fourth set. What's the deal with that one volleyball player that wears a different color?
3:34- It's the US vs. Belgium in tennis on Bravo. Why does Bravo only give us the countries and not the player's names in their score box? It's Venus Williams for the US. I have no idea who she's playing. USA has equestrian on. I have no idea why this is an Olympic sport and beer pong isn't.
3:38- I just googled "sports that should be in the Olympics." Here's what I want: beer pong, tug of war, and cricket. I'm open to other ideas. The other thing that needs to happen is America's Team Olympics (go to about the 6:30 mark of this podcast, it is just a brilliant idea).
3:42- Scott Kazmir allowed a walk, but nothing else in the second inning.
3:44- I'm enjoying a Sam Adams Summer Ale. Day baseball with Vin Scully, the Olympics, Summer Ale. Not a bad day. I wanted to cap it off by watching outside on my iPad, but the weather is questionable.
3:45- Vin starts talking about Pearl Harbor. He mentions listening to a New York Giants football game on December 7 that was interrupted for the news about Pearl Harbor. Vin thought it was in China because Japan and China had been fighting. He says that it was the only time he ever heard his father swear. I was hoping for a great Vin story for this blog post and I got it. This is what we're not going to have anymore. He's the best.
3:49- Chase Utley strikes out to end the inning. 1-0 Dodgers.
3:50- Not a great selection of Olympics on TV. I assume we won in volleyball since it appears to be over and it would have taken a fifth set for us to lose. I want some rugby.
3:52- Vin says everybody wants to know what his father said. Vin says, "I'll spell it: G-D."
3:55- Jeremy Hellickson gets a hit, but Joc Pederson makes a good play to hold him to a single.
4:03- Vin mentions that school is just around the corner with some shots of kids in the stands. I'll tell you, I'm ready to go back to school. I guess what I really want is for it to be football season, which would entail being back in school.
4:04- Josh Reddick hits it hard, but right at the right fielder. Of course he did.
4:06- Yes, Fiji against New Zealand in rugby sevens. This sport is crazy. The whistle blows and it doesn't seem to mean anything. The players just keep beating the hell out of each other. New Zealand is up 7-5. I think I understand how the scoring in this game works. One of the reason that I want cricket in the Olympics is because I want to understand it. I've tried to figure it out, but it still makes no sense to me.
4:11- I just googled rugby sevens rules. I was right about the scoring. I just discovered that they play two seven-minute halves. That's it? 14 minutes? That's like a video game version of a sport.
4:12- Fiji just went up 12-7. I might as well watch the end of this game. They just went to halftime and now there are only four minutes left in the game.
4:14- What does the referee do in this game? It seems like the players are allowed to do whatever they want.
4:15- Offsides against New Zealand. I have no idea what that means.
4:16- Fiji apparently has never finished better than 8th in anything at the Olympics. They're a minute away from being in the Final Four for rugby sevens (which might be over in about an hour considering how short this game is).
4:19- Fiji kicks the ball out of bounds and that ends the game. I get the scoring, but I don't get anything else about this game.
4:20- Vin is telling a story about Mike Schmidt taking batting practice left-handed.
4:21- The Dodgers have the best record in the league in day games.
4:25- It just came across my TV that there's a tornado warning for Suffolk County until 4:51. That's an oddly specific time.
4:28- I just checked Vin's Pearl Harbor story. It checks out. The Giants were playing that day. Their opponent? The Brooklyn Dodgers. The Dodgers won 21-7. They had five yards passing on four attempts.
4:30- More rugby sevens. It's France against Japan. And there's kayaking on NBC. It reminds me of all the kayaking I did in my camp days. I remember once getting chased down by Alex because I went all the way to Centerport beach.
4:32- It's still 1-0 Dodgers in the fifth. I'm getting ready for Vin Scully Story Time at the beginning of the sixth.
4:37- The US is beating Japan 3-0 in field hockey.
4:38- For story time, Vin tells about how the Dodgers made the playoffs in 1981 because they were in first place before the strike. It was August 10, 1981 that play resumed after the strike. Of course, the Dodgers went on to win the World Series that year. It would be so great if they went on to win the World Series this year in four of five games so that Vin's last game would be at Dodger Stadium calling the Dodgers winning the World Series.
4:43- Kazmir is through six without allowing a run. This is highly irregular for a Dodgers starter to pitch this well.
4:45- Jeremy Hellickson is done with an injury after five. He pitched really well after the first inning. Elvis Araujo replaces him. Hopefully he'll give up a few runs.
4:46- Reddick leads off with a single. He has two hits in the game. This is also highly irregular.
4:48- Corey Seager just got hit. He looks like he's hurting. Not good.
4:49- Seager is staying in. I hope he's okay. He got hit right near the right wrist.
4:54- Well, I survived that tornado warning. The Dodgers have runners on the corners with two outs for Joc Pederson.
4:56- Corey Seager ran and was going to be out by a mile so Reddick took off from third and was eventually tagged out after a run down. You can score that one 2-6-2-5-6
4:58- Apparently today's Giants-Marlins game was the first matchup of Notre Dame alumni as starting pitchers in 102 years. Both Jeff Samardzija and David Phelps pitched well. But it was one game where I could root against Jeff Samardzija without feeling any guilt and the Giants won. Nuts.
5:03- Single and a walk for the Phillies to start the seventh. This isn't good. Scott Kazmir is coming out for Grant Dayton.
5:07- Why does NBC have the news on instead of the Olympics? If I want to watch the news, there are plenty of other channels I could watch. So instead of competition that happens once every four years, they have some moron climbing some other moron's tower.
5:11- Freddy Galvis just hit a three-run home run. Lame.
5:14- Grant Dayton had pitched five innings without allowing a hit. That first one was costly.
5:18- If you pick a player up and his hips are above his shoulders and you let him go, apparently that's a penalty in rugby sevens. I think the only other penalty is murder. Argentina is a man down after a penalty against Great Britain. They're scoreless late in the game (which is also early in the game since it lasts for 14 minutes).
5:20- Argentina just missed a field goal (I don't think that's what it's really called), that would have won it 3-0 at the end of regulation. They're going to overtime.
5:22- Howie Kendrick doubled with one out in the bottom of the seventh. The Dodgers have the tying run at the plate.
5:24- Vin is talking about the 20-80 scouting scale, which only uses multiples of 5. Why not just 1-13? Or 0-60? 20-80 makes no sense.
5:25- Rob Segedin singles home Howie Kendrick. 3-2. By the way, I did once look into why it's 20-80 and there is some reason for it. But adjusting it to 1-13 or 0-60 would make a lot more sense.
5:27- Justin Turner is pinch hitting for Grant Dayton. He's tied for the team lead with 21 home runs.
5:28- Great Britain just scored in overtime to win. And Justin Turner just struck out.
5:30- The US just beat Japan 6-1 in field hockey.
5:33- Chase Utley pulled a ball just foul.
5:34- Utley flies out to center. Nuts.
5:45- Corey Seager doubles to deep center with one out in the eighth.
5:52- With runners on first and second, Freddy Galvis makes a nice play on a ground ball to end the inning.
5:55- Kenley Jansen is in for the Dodgers. He hasn't pitched in a few days and the Dodgers are off tomorrow, so this makes sense.
6:01- The US and Australia just tipped off in basketball. The US has Nike uniforms and Australia has Adidas uniforms. This is good news because we have different uniforms. The US has the same uniforms as China (and all the other Nike countries), just with different colors. Australia has the same uniforms as France with different colors. Why are Nike and Adidas so uncreative? They doe this for college basketball too. I was infuriated when Notre Dame was an Adidas school and we had the exact same uniforms as Michigan (just with gold instead of ugly yellow).
6:04- We're almost two and a half minutes in and Australia has the lead. What? Let's get it together.
6:05- Aron Baynes has some ridiculous hair. He might have a great accent, but his hair is ridiculous.
6:06- The bases are loaded for Ryan Howard with one out. We have a chance for a 1-2-3 double play.
6:09- Howard clears the bases with a double down the right field line. Nuts. And why are we still losing to Australia?
6:11- I just did some googling to find out why Australia wears green and gold. It's a good color combination, but neither color is in their flag. The explanation is that they come from Australia's national floral emblem, the golden wattle.
6:13- Andrew Bogut just had a big block, but it was a Dwight Howard block. He blocked it out of bounds, which gives it right back to us.
6:14- And Klay Thompson hits a three off the inbound pass. Australia still leads by five.
6:15- It's coming down outside. So watching sitting outside for this would be no good right now. And we're going to the bottom of the ninth with the Phillies leading 6-2.
6:21- Carmelo Anthony now has the most points ever for the US in Olympic basketball. He's never going to win an NBA Championship, but he's got that going for him. He's probably my least favorite player now that Kobe Bryant is gone. And the US finally has the lead.
6:27- Josh Reddick grounds out to end the game. The Dodgers fall back to a game behind the Giants. That's not good, but an afternoon spent with Vin Scully is never all bad. This has gone on long enough so as Vin just said, wishing you all a very pleasant good afternoon everybody.
