Weekend Notes

Not the most exciting weekend we’ve ever had, although there was one, massive event that sucked up a lot of my attention and messed with my sleep schedule.

Halloween

As usual a low-key night at our house. We had maybe 40 total trick or treaters. It’s always weird because we can see tons of kids just a block away, but few of them come to our door because they would have to scamper across a very busy street to get here.

Our favorites were a group of 7–8 10 year old boys who all had the inflatable sumo costumes…and the one little brother who was forced to tag along in his non-matching costume. Then there was the sweetest little girl, probably just 3 or 4, dressed as a princess, who after picking her candy from our bowl took two steps into our entryway and gave S a hug. I was a little disappointed I didn’t get one, too, but S is a lot more approachable than me if you’re barely three feet tall.

I was also impressed by the number of pre-teen girls who complimented us on our porch decorations. Well raised!

L went to a party last week, so spent Halloween night seeing a movie with some of her friends.

HS Football

I kind of forgot Friday was a football night until after we had turned off the porch lights and switched World Series game six on. I quickly checked the Cathedral broadcast and heard the announcers rummaging through the record book, looking up the most points CHS had scored in the state playoffs. I’m not sure if they set a record, but they won 68–0. I guess they got some injured players back? But the opponent was really bad, too.

Now they move on to the sectional title game, where they will face #1 New Palestine, who have won 24 straight games, 47 of their last 51, and haven’t lost at home in five years. It is #1 vs #2, but it’s going to be a very tall task for the Irish to extend their season next week.

College Football

Kind of a boring weekend at the college level.

KU got off to a sloppy and slow start against Oklahoma State, but thankfully got their shit together at halftime and blew the game open. The running backs were healthy-ish, so that was nice, but you still see such a big difference from last year when Devin Neal was there. Hopefully this gets addressed in the offseason.

Five wins with three to play. If the defensive secondary could cover anyone I would hope the Jayhawks could pick off at least one of those games to get bowl eligible. But Arizona and Iowa State both have quarterbacks that can sling the ball around, so we’ll have to hope for a hyper efficient game from the offense and turn those into shootouts where we score last. The season finale against Utah is likely hopeless, as they are just too good.

The Utes knocked off M’s Bearcats in convincing fashion late Saturday. And the Hoosiers just kept rolling along.

Colts

Well, I guess a game like this had to come along at some point, it might as well be at Pittsburgh where the Colts never, ever play well. They had four total turnovers on the season coming into the game; they turned it over six times against the Steelers. The first was a flukey, although totally avoidable, error fielding a punt by Josh Downs. At least one interception was tipped. I kept hearing on podcasts how crap the Pittsburgh D had been this season. For one day at least, they fixed all their issues. Lots of pressure, receivers couldn’t get open, and they mostly kept Jonathan Taylor contained.

Hopefully the Colts got all the bad vibes out of the way and can get back on track in Berlin next week.

World Series

HOLY SHIT!!! What was already an entertaining series achieved legendary status with its epic game seven Saturday night. I had no real care which team won – more on that in a moment – but I was literally yelling at my TV in delight multiple times as game seven went off the rails.

First off, what a fantastic crowd in Toronto! As someone who endured a 30 year gap between World Series wins by my team, I appreciated the emotions pouring out of Blue Jays fans as they got closer and closer to ending their title drought.

Until Miguel Rojas decided to fuck all that up by yanking a hanging, 3–2 slider over the left field wall with one out in the ninth. Miguel Rojas! Or, as Canadians will now call him forever, Miguel Fucking Rojas. The Blue Jays had a 91% win probability before he connected.

Rojas wasn’t done, though. With the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth, he fielded a ball on a bad hop, somehow managed to not fall down, and fired a throw to home that just beat the potential winning run. Naturally, and correctly, it went to a replay review and OH SHIT, Will Smith’s foot might have come off the plate!!!! We were about to get the absolute nightmare scenario for sports, a championship decided because a replay review overturned a call on the field. Fortunately for everyone but Blue Jays fans, it appeared that Smith got his toe back down just in time and we avoided that nonsense. Besides, Toronto still had the bases loaded. Which led to one of the craziest plays you will ever see, Dodger centerfielder Andy Pages wiping out teammate Kiké Hernández to haul in a deep shot that would have won the game had it fallen.

On to extras innings!

In the top of the 10th the Dodgers loaded the bases with one out…and could not score. A 1–2–3 inning by the Blue Jays set up professional ballplayer Smith to declare he only wanted to catch one more inning by crushing a two-out homer that gave the Dodgers the lead.

The Blue Jays got two on with one out before a double play ended things, making the Dodgers the first team to repeat since the turn-of-the-millennium Yankees.

What a freaking game! And I didn’t even mention Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto coming in and pitching 2.2 innings and getting the win…one night after throwing 96 pitches and getting the win that evened the Series at three games each. After throwing a complete game earlier in the series. Shohei Ohtani does so many things that we label as unbelievable, but his teammate and countryman one-upped him Saturday night (and Sunday morning).

That was one of the wildest sporting events I have ever watched. I was so wound up afterward that I couldn’t sleep. I was still buzzing, tossing, and turning as the clock briefly hit 2:00 then fell back to 1:00. Not the first time a World Series game has caused me to miss my extra hour of sleep.

I got the feeling that almost all my friends but one or two were pulling for the Blue Jays. I get all the Dodgers hate; it is ridiculous how much money they have spent over the past couple years assembling their roster. Call me a hypocrite, but I’ve never been able to muster up the same hate for them I’ve always had for the Yankees. The Yankees out-spent everyone when there were no financial ramifications for doing so. The Dodgers pay a hefty premium for all their spending. And somehow they still manage to develop young prospects within their system. By one ranking, they had the fourth-best collection of minor league prospects this summer. And I’ve always admired their progressive view of talent. They were one of the first franchises to go after players from Latin America hard. They’ve developed a bit of a pipeline to Japan. Oh, and waaaay back they kind of broke the color barrier.

As fun and (mostly) likable as this Blue Jays team was, and as terrific as their fans were, I have this weird, strong dislike of the franchise because of the two ALCSes the Royals have played them in. Which is strange because the Royals won both times. That 2015 team, especially, had some real dicks on it, and for some reason I hold that against their current roster.

That is not to say I was pulling hard for the Dodgers. I just wasn’t rooting against them like most non-LA people were.

Now to start hoping the Royals can find a bat or two over the summer and get back to the postseason themselves next October.