I was stuck behind Spring Air for over two and a half hours heading east on I-80 yesterday afternoon. You don't want to know why.Last evening I watched some of the opening games of the Caribbean Series, taking place this week in Mexicali, Mexico. Four teams, from Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Mexico, are in the six-day series. It's an interesting format: Each team plays the others teams twice; the team that wins the most games wins the series. In the event of a tie, there's a one-game playoff on day seven.
Yesterday the Dominican Republic took on Venezuela and Mexico faced Puerto Rico. Pitching dominated both games. In game one, Brad Knox from the Oakland A's farm system, took a no-hitter into the 7th for Venezuela, which ended up winning 3-2. Luis Maza provided the key offense in the victory. Opening ceremonies delayed game two, scheduled for 10:00 p.m., by half an hour. By then it was already too late for me; I lasted only a couple of innings. This morning I learned that Mexico had won 3-2.
Teams in the league wear ads on their unis, a la Nascar, and it is just as tacky looking. Fine, that's how they pay expenses but it still looks tacky. Otherwise, Mexico and Puerto Rico had some fine-looking uniforms. I always love the red and green of Mexico! The MLBN guys doing the broadcasts so far are pushing how good the players are. Uh, maybe we can see and judge for ourselves? They also keep talking about how raucous and passionate local fans are but so far we have yet to see much of that. How about showing the thousands of fans outside the stadium instead of just talking about them? Tom McCarthy, who does annoying in-the-stands bits for the Phillies, is doing play-by-play in the series. Now is the time I'd like to see him go into the stands.
More than anything, though, it was great to see real baseball in real time being played on green grass. More today!
