The title of this blog was certainly appropriate on the previous Monday, July 26, 2010. I apologize to the 1960s Rock Group, The Cowsills because this was the title of one of their biggest Top 40 hits in late 1967.
However, the reason why I am using this title is because of what I experienced on that late July day. The Nashville Sounds were scheduled to play at 12:05PM game (Albuquerque time) at Isotopes Park and it was the final game they would play this season against the Isotopes.
The Sounds had lost a rain shortened game the night before and it was the same game when the Isotopes belted three 3-run homers. The Sounds took two of the first three games and of course, we were all looking forward to getting home after the game. It was nice to know that instead of waking up early the next day to leave at 4AM for an early morning flight, we would be taking a 6PM flight back to Nashville (with a connection through Dallas) that night.
While I was getting ready to leave my luggage bag in one of the conference rooms at the hotel where we were staying, I ran into Sounds’ reliever David Johnson and I said, “Nice to have a day game and a flight home this evening”. He replied, “Yep, let’s hope it is a quick game and that things will work out!”. Little did we know!
I took the shuttle to the ballpark and saw it was cloudy, but it didn’t appear to be any rain at first. I was doing my usual pre-game preparation until it was noon and the game would get underway. Chase Wright was starting for us and I know how badly he wanted to face the Isotopes again, especially after he gave up 4 home runs in an inning against them during his previous start at Greer Stadium. If you can also believe this, the noon game was the eighth consecutive game against the Istopes after the first 4 games were played in Nashville and then the scene shifted to Albuquerque.
The game started off on a blazing and positive note as the Sounds promising center fielder, Lorenzo Cain smacked two triple in the same inning with him driving in three runs during the first inning as the Sounds took a 7-0 lead against the Isotopes. Then the ‘Topes struck back against Chase Wright with a run in the bottom of the first. I prayed that not very much would happen after that. I was wrong.
When the Sounds came to bat in the top of the 2nd inning, the rains came down and came down hard. It would be a 50-minute rain delay before play would resume. I’m thinking, “Oh boy, this will be interesting!”. The rain delay finally stopped but the offensive barrage continued on both sides. The Sounds would have another big inning in the top of the third when they scored at least three times, but the Isotopes responded with three runs of their own in the bottom of the inning. Somehow, I kept saying to myself to “stay calm and relaxed and not worry about anything I can’t control”. By the time the 6th inning ended, there were a combied 18 runs and the game kept dragging. I said to myself, “there is no way I can do the post-game radio show”. The game was on the internet that day and I had total control on what I decided to do. I never like to diss a post-game show, but I got a text message from one of my colleagues in the Sounds office, telling me that our General Manager, George King, had warned me to hurry up quick since no one will wait around since we had to go to the airport immediately afterwards.’ Then I got another text message from the Sounds’ Trainer, Dave Yaeger, telling me, “No post-game radio, we are going to dash out to the airport!”. I responded by telling him that I was way ahead of him.
Well, LaTroy Hawkins came on to relieve Chase Wright after the sixth and pitched well for a couple of innings. Still, the game was moving along slowly when I saw the clock was at 4PM. It was going into the 9th and I said to myself, “please let’s get this game going!”. Then, it happened again! The rains came down once more! I said, “OH NO!” since I thought for sure we would miss our flight. Only thing I could hope for was this rain to be longer than the first. Well, it kept pouring and pouring down and I’m just thinking, “LET’S BANG THIS SINCE WE NEED TO BE AT THE AIRPORT SOON!”. I started packing whatever I could to be ready. Then suddenly, the game was finally called. I breathe out a huge sigh of relief. The game was official and we won. I was almost packed when the game was banged. I said goodbye to my fellow broadcaster, Istopes’ voice Robert Portnoy and we wished each other the best. I got everything packed in my equipment bag and chose to WALK DOWN the stairs instead of taking the elevator. Even though the elevator worked properly, I was not going to risk getting stuck in the elevator and missing the bus and the flight.
I dropped off my equipment bag with the rest of our equipment as the Albquerque clubbies were loading it on the truck for the trip to the airport. I saw the bus and got on it. Whew, I made it! The rain was still coming down, but it was letting up. The bus finally took off and we made our way to the airport.
We made it through security and there was still one hour to spare. It was nice to finally relax. We travelled from Albuquerque to Dallas for a one hour layover. Then we connected on our flight to Nashville. The weather was not the greatest as I was flying home, I noticed that lightning was crackling through the clouds below. We were thankful to be away from those clouds. The weather was still not all that great when it was really cloudy when we flew through the clouds. The next thing I knew was the pilots were asking for the flight attendants to prepare for landing. I knew we were just about home. We finally touched down at midnight, but now I can see what can happen in Triple-A with us not having a bus to take the leisurely stroll back or a charter plane (like they have in the major leagues) to have a leisurely stroll as well. Since AAA teams flight on commercial flights, it’s like you hope you have no rain delays, missed connections, etc., or otherwise you are stuck. You can be late or the equipment gets late. Luckily, things have worked out well on every road trip we’ve had so far.
I have continued to enjoy my first year in Triple-A and in the Pacific Coast League. Hopefully, we won’t have too many days like this to sweat out, but this sure made a great story. As they say, “things tend to work out well for the best” and they do. Not always smoothly, but they do.
Side Note: Tonight is Game 2 of a 4-game set between the Nashville Sounds and the Round Rock Express (Astros’ AAA affiliate) and the game will be broadcast on 104.5 The Zone and on nashvillesounds.com. Sounds look to end a four-game losing streak. Hope you tune in. Otherwise, enjoy the rest of your Sunday and have a great week!
- Posted on August 1, 2010 at 1:39 pm
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