Tag Archives: baseball

As the Wild Card ends, the Padres Advance

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

Congratulations to the San Diego Padres who, today, won the final game of MLB Wild Card playoffs when they defeated the Mets, 6-0!  With the Mets now eliminated from the post-season (which means that we won’t be getting a second Yankees/Mets World Series), the Padres are moving on to play the Dodgers in the Divisional Playoffs.

For the record, even though they didn’t advance today, the Mets still have my favorite mascot of all the teams that did make the postseason:

Congratulations to all the advancing teams!

Congratulations the Seattle Mariners On The Best Comeback of The Postseason!

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

Congratulations to the Seattle Mariners, who pulled off one of the most amazing comebacks that I’ve ever seen and defeated the Blue Jays in the Wild Card!  Starting with the sixth inning, the Mariners went from being behind seven runs to winning the game by 10 runs to 9!  This is one of those games that reminds me of why I love baseball!

The Mariners are going to be playing the Astros in the Divisional Series.  I’m a Texan so I’ll have to cheer for the Astros but that doesn’t make me any less proud of the Mariners!

Also, congrats to the Phillies and the Guardians.  The Guardians defeated the Rays 1-0 and are now moving on to play the Yankees in the Divisional.  The Phillies defeated the Cardinals by 2-0 and will now move on to play the Braves.  That just leaves one more Wild Card game for tomorrow, between the Mets and the Padres.  Whichever team wins will face the Dodgers in the Divisional playoffs.

Congratulations to all the advancing teams!

Go Mariners!

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

The MLB Wild Card has begun and the Seattle Mariners won their first game, 4-0, against the Blue Jays!  Thank you, Mariners!  At the risk of being petty, I don’t really care who wins the World Series as long as it’s not the Blue Jays.  I’m hoping Seattle can eliminate that possibility early.

Go Mariners!

Another Rangers Season Comes To An End

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

‘The regular MLB season came to an end today. 

My Texas Rangers ended up with a 68-94 record.  I wish they had done better but there’s always next season.  One thing about being a fan of a team is that you can’t just be a fan when your team is winning.  Sometimes, it’s even more important to continue to support them when they’re struggling.  The last time we made the postseason was in 2016.  Hopefully, we’ll get there in 2023.  

At least we won our final game of the regular season.

Congratulations to the Astros, Yankees, Rays, Indians Guardians, and Mariners for making it to the AL postseason!  And congratulations to Phillies, Braves, Mets, Cardinals, Dodgers, and Padres for making it in the NL.  I’m looking forward to an Astros vs Dodgers World Series.

Congratulations to the Phillies!

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

I’m from Texas so I really can’t cheer against the Astros but I was still really hoping that, during this final three-game series, the Phillies would manage to win that last game they needed to clinch a wild card spot.  Tonight, they did!  For the first time in 11 seasons, the Phillies are going to the playoffs!  What a great baseball story!  I’m so happy for both the team and their fans and the next time I’m tempted to give up on my own team, I’m going to remember how, a few weeks ago, a lot of people weren’t even giving the Phillies a chance of making it.

Congratulations, Phillies!  Good luck in the wild card!

Albert Pujols Goes Deep

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

Usually, I only share Rangers stuff but today, Albert Pujols played his final regular season home game and he hit his 702nd career home run and the 23rd of what he says is going to be his final season.  Pujols is now fourth on the career home run list, behind Babe Ruth (714), Hank Aaron (755) and Barry Bonds (762).

Moments like these are a huge reason why I love baseball.

I Watched Pitching Love And Catching Faith (2015, dir. by Randy, Randolph, and Rebecca Sternberg)

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

I watched Pitching Love and Catching Faith on Tubi because I will always take a chance on a baseball movie.

Heather (Lala Kent) and Tyler (Derek Boone) are both students at the same college.  Heather is a softball pitcher.  Tyler plays baseball and has a chance to play in the majors.  They meet and date but it turns out that they have different approaches to life.  Tyler thinks that a purity ring is romantic gift and he’s never even kissed a girl because he made a pledge to wait until he met “the one.”  Heather has kissed a lot of people because Heather is a normal human being.

One big problem with this movie is that Tyler’s not just weird but also awfully judgmental of anyone who doesn’t agree with him.  There are a lot of people who, for various and understandable reasons, hold off on having sex until they’re married or at least in a committed relationship but Tyler takes it one step further by declaring that he won’t even kiss anyone until he’s sure that he’s in love.  And it’s not just that Tyler won’t kiss anyone.  It’s also that he’ll judge anyone else who kisses someone without marrying them first.  It’s not just kissing, though.  Tyler even judges Heather for flirting with him and then he gives her a purity ring without even finding out if that’s something that she believes in.  I never miss Sunday Mass and even I thought Tyler was being overbearing.  Tyler’s not that much of a catch but every woman in the movie is swooning over him.  I wanted someone to tell Heather that she could do better.

The other big problem is that there wasn’t enough baseball.  There wasn’t even enough softball.  Heather got to pitch once.  Tyler swung the bat once.  But if your movie has the words “pitching” and “catching” in the title, it better have more baseball than this movie!

Final verdict on this movie: Go Rangers!  The whole time I was watching the movie, I was thinking about how much I’d rather see the Rangers have a winning season for once.

I Watched Angels In The Outfield (1951, dir. by Clarence Brown)

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

Major League Baseball could use some angels right about now.

When this year started, I was so excited for the start of Spring Training at the end of this month.  Finally, I thought, football will be over, baseball will be starting, and maybe my Rangers will finally have another winning season!  Instead, for the last 80 days, we’ve had a lockout while the owners and the players negotiate the terms under which the season can begin.  The start of Spring Training has been delayed.  Opening Day could be delayed.  All I want to do is to enjoy some baseball but who knows when that’s going to happen.

At least I can still watch baseball movies.  The original Angels in the Outfield is about the general manger of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Guffy McGovern (Paul Douglas).  The Pirates are having a terrible season.  They’re last in the league.  Guffy starts fights with the umpires and shocks the media with his unprintable language but he just can’t put together a winning season.  Things are so bad that an orphan named Bridget (Donna Corcoran) stops praying for a new family and instead prays for the Pirates  Then, one night, Guffy hears the voice of an angel who tells him that if he stops cursing and stops fighting, the Pirates will get some heavenly help.

Guffy cuts back on his cursing and learns to control his temper and the Pirates start winning.  Is it because of the angels or is it because Guffy has become a better manager?  He falls in love with reporter Jennifer Paige (Janet Leigh) and they make plans to adopt Bridget but then the voice tells Guffy that, when it comes to the Pennant, he’s going to have to win that one on his own.  Can Guffy lead his team to victory without the help of the angels?

For many baseball fans, Angels in the Outfield is all about wish fulfilment.   That’s especially true if you’re a fan of a team that lost two World Series in a row and who hasn’t had a winning season in a while.  There’s been a lot of times when I’ve watched the Rangers and wished for some heavenly intervention!  Maybe if our coaches would stop cursing or yelling, the Rangers would actually finish somewhere other than in last place.  It’s worth a shot, guys!

Angels in the Outfield is a sweet movie.  I especially liked the scenes where Guffy used Shakespearean language to argue with the umpires so that he could avoid having to curse at them.  Angels in the Outfield captures the excitement of watching your team win.  I actually got jealous of the fans in the movie because it’s been a long time since I’ve seen anyone get that excited over baseball.  When Angels in the Outfield calls baseball “America’s pastime,” you believe it.  I also liked that the angels themselves were never seen.  Instead, all that is seen are the fantastic catches and the home runs that come about as a result of their help.

I’d love some angels to come down right now and talk to the players and the owners for all of us.  Get it worked out, people.  Don’t take away our opening day!

I Watched Boys’ Ranch (1946, dir. by Roy Rowland)

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

I watched Boys’ Ranch because it was described as being a baseball movie. And it is for the first few minutes.

Dan Walker (James Craig) is a baseball player who learns that he’s going to be benched for the rest of the season. He used to be great but his time has passed and there are younger players who deserve a shot so, with no hard feelings, Dan announces his retirement. His two biggest fans — teenage delinquents Knuckles (Skip Homeier) and Hank (Darryl Hickman) — give him a knife so that he will always remember them when he returns to his ranch in Texas. Just before Dan is going to leave, he learns that the knife was stolen! Knuckles and Hank have been arrested and they’re going to end up in juvenile hall! Dan wins their freedom by offering to take them to Texas with him.

That’s where the baseball stuff ends. The rest of the movie is about Dan and his wife, Susan (Dorothy Patrick), running a ranch where they reform juvenile delinquents by teaching them how to take care of horses and how to be responsible. At first, the locals aren’t happy about having a bunch of bad city kid in town but Dan wins them over. His toughest challenge though is trying to reform Butch (Jackie “Butch” Jenkins), who is tough and a bad influence on the other boys.

Obviously, I was disappointed when Boys’ Ranch turned out to have very little baseball action. That’s the whole reason I was watching the movie! It could have used some more baseball action because the ranch action wasn’t that interesting. When the movie was made, I bet the idea of sending out of control teens to a ranch was a new one but today, it’s not that unique and everyone’s heard all the horror stories about what really goes on at those ranches. Of course, the bad boys in Boys’ Ranch didn’t really seem that bad either. They all just needed someone to tell them to drop the attitude and clean the stalls. Those boys may have had problems but at least they never tried to throw the World Series!

I miss baseball.