Spanny's Sports Talk

 While doing this blog the last six weeks, I've noticed that I have written about my personal life a lot more than I imagined I would have when we first started. One of those things is about my mom and my dad. So, for my interview for class this week I decided to interview my mom on some of the things she experienced as a widowed mother when raising my brother (Sam) and I. 

 Angel Hernandez is back at it again. A couple nights ago he umpired a game between the Brewers and the Phillies. He was terrible all night, and in the ninth inning after being rung up on a pitch outside of the zone, Kyle Schwarber of the Phillies had enough. After the call Schwarber proceeded to throw his bat and helmet and in a rage, and he yelled at Hernandez on behalf of both teams, telling Hernandez that it was “f*cking horsesh*t,” and that he was terrible for both sides during that game. Schwarber had every right to argue the call considering that the call on him was Hernandez’s NINETEENTH MISSED CALL OF THE GAME.  Hernandez is a historically bad umpire, at this point it’s what he’s known for. Even last night at a Louisville Baseball game I heard a fan shout sarcastically “nice call Angel Hernandez” after a missed call from the third base umpire. In his career, he has thousands of missed calls over the span of his career, and almost anyone that watches or plays Major League Baseb

 I’ve been a real big sports fan ever since I was about 7 years old. Even though I’m a baseball player, my love for sports started with football. The first ever football game that I watched was Super Bowl XLIV in 2010 between Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints. Ever since that game I’ve been all about sports all the time.  When trying to come up with an idea for a top five list for my class that would be able to fit my sports theme for the blog, I decided to go back to where my love for sports all started. So without further ado, here are the top five Super Bowls that I have witnessed in my life.  5: Super Bowl LII- Philadelphia Eagles vs. New England Patriots   This game is added to the list because all in all it was a fantastic game, and it was won by someone no one expected to win. The Philadelphia Eagles, led by backup quarterback, Nick Foles, came into this game as huge underdogs to the Tom Brady led New England Patriots. They ended up playing a heck of a game that ende

 Being a Cincinnati Reds fan is literally the worst experience ever. Baseball season isn’t even that fun to me anymore from a fan standpoint because I cannot stand being a fan of this organization that doesn’t care about winning or about the fans. Every time we have a good player they’re gone within the next two years because “lining up the payroll” is more important than winning to the ownership of this organization.  The most recent example of this occurring was this past offseason. Cincinnati fans were excited for the lockout to finally end because we felt like we had so much to look for. We still have Joey Votto, we have reigning NL Rookie of the Year, Johnathan India, MVP hopeful Jesse Winker, hopes of resigning fan favorite Nick Castellanos, top pitching prospects, Hunter Greene and Nick Lodolo, and returning talent on the pitching staff in Luis Castillo and Sonny Gray. Welp all that hope went down the drain in very quick fashion. A couple weeks after the lockout ended, we failed

 Five years ago on the first day of April, I was on the beach in Florida with my high school baseball team for our spring break baseball trip. My first night down there I got the call from my mom that changed my life forever. It was a call that I had honestly expected, but it still hurt just the same. On that call she informed me and my brother that our dad had passed away. After that call, my head was spinning. I was confused, angry, sad, pretty much any emotion you could think of. Why had this happened to my family? Why did it have to be my Dad? I just couldn’t wrap my head around what had happened, and it all just didn’t feel real, I truly couldn’t believe it.  As time went on, like anyone that goes through something traumatic does, you learn to accept that what had happened is reality. And through those tough times, you begin to really appreciate the good times you had with that person, and appreciate the fun memories you had with them. A lot of my memories with him were baseball r

 I'll admit, I am a big momma's boy. But I would say I have every reason in the world to be one. I literally have the greatest mom on the planet. She is my number one fan and my biggest supporter, and she is a very admirable person. This post is honestly kind of hard to write because I am struggling to find the words to describe just how much she means to me, but I will try my best.  First off, she is the most resilient person that I know. After my dad passed away my freshmen year of high school, I learned a lot from her in those troubling times. She is the one that taught me that it is okay to grieve and have those sad feelings about the whole situation, but to not let it control your entire life. Like sure, I can be sad about it and have feelings about it, but I can't let those feelings drown me and not let me accomplish the things I want to accomplish. And after my dad passed, she made sure my brother and I had everything we needed to be successful in whatever endeavor w

 Earlier this week, after leaving my final class of the day, I drove up to my university's baseball field because we had a game that day. I was not expecting my drive up there to turn out the way that it did, and I really wish it didn't because it was just all around not a good time.  Reason number one that the drive to the field was terrible, is because it was raining that day. It wasn't so bad at first, then I got on the expressway, and it was a whole different ballgame. I was blinded for most of my drive because of the pouring rain that was dropping on me, and because of the water that was splashing up at my windshield from the other cars on the expressway driving in front of me. If you think me not being able to see was the scariest part of the drive, then you are sadly mistaken. There were countless times when I felt my car start to slide on the road and when I felt like I was on the brink of losing control of my car and spinning out. As you could probably imagine, eac

 If you're a Louisville Basketball fan, it's no secret that the last couple of years have been disappointing to say the least. We still have an ongoing investigation from the Bryan Bowen pay to play situation, the 2020 tournament got cancelled when we had a real shot of winning the whole thing, then we missed out on the tournament the next season after a disappointing season, then this past year happened, where we had flashes of excitement, but in the end, it was one of the worst seasons in the program's history. And as a result, in all of that, Chris Mack and Louisville mutually parted ways, thus ending the disappointing Mack era of the programs history. All of that sounds really horrible, and trust me it wasn't fun to experience, but I believe there is hope on the horizon. And that hope's name is Kenny Payne.  (Kenny Payne, Picture courtesy of BigRedLouie ) Kenny Payne was hired by the University on March 18, 2022. Payne is a very popular hire with Louisville fan

(This hilarious picture is courtesy of a twitter account named @MaddenNeedsHelp ) Electronic Arts has gotten more and more backlash for their Madden series in the last couple years than I think they ever have before, and it is 100% warranted. Playing this game has become more and more frustrating year in and year out, and as someone who loves the game of football and wants to play a football video game that they can enjoy, I can't stand it anymore. I've been able to tolerate it in past years, but this year was the final straw. Literally after a month of owning the game, I uninstalled it as I raged to my friends in our Xbox party about it. Whether it's the franchise mode that they put no effort into, the face of the franchise mode that everyone agrees is a horrible experience, or the actual gameplay itself... I am tired of this game and tired of giving my money to EA every year. This game is going to continue to go downhill, and there are many reasons why.  Franchise Mode As