By Ray Sanchez 09.20.15
Were the El Paso Chihuahuas something special this season, or what? I mean, that they could win their division with all the comings and goings of players and even changing managers in the middle of the season is totally amazing.
It seems like every week during the season there was some kind of transaction with the parent San Diego Padres, who were having problems. I knew that being so close to the Major Leagues in Triple A baseball our El Paso team would have some turmoil. But this much?
All the kudos in the world to Jamie Quirk. Call him a magician, or a miracle worker, or just plain baseball savvy. He took over the managerial job from Tom Murphy in June and somehow kept the team together and finished with a flourish.
IT ONLY ADDS to the charm of our team. The Chihuahuas have quickly become not just a baseball group but a wonderful part of our city. Southwest University Park is not just a park, it’s a place to go, a place to mingle, a place to sit day or night in our incredibly great weather and watch our “Boys of Summer.” My wife and I have been there, with me not as a sportswriter but just a spectator.
And every time, I’ve felt like breaking out in that baseball anthem, “Take me out to the ball game ….”
SPECIAL PRAISE to Tim Hagerty, broadcast and media relations manager of the Chihuahuas who kept us abreast of the
El Paso Chihuahuas vs. ABQEl Paso, Sunday, July 12, 2015. Photo by Jorge Salgado/El Paso Chihuahuas
team’s happenings through radio and press releases. His broadcasts of the games were outstanding and his reports of the games on line were to the point, full of facts
and a delight to read.
And did you know the Chihuahuas averaged 8154 fans per game this season? That’s third in the 16-city league and the only two teams that finished ahead of them were Sacramento, California, with 9338 fans and Round Rock Texas, with 8623.
There’s a big “but” to that. El Paso is isolated but Sacramento had a metropolitan population of 1.44 million from which to draw fans while Round Rock is part of the Austin metropolitan area and had more than two million fans to attract.
El Pasoans love their Chihuahuas.
TRIVIA QUESTION: Babe Ruth was a great hitter and pitcher but did he ever steal bases? If so, can you say how many? Answer at end.
HOW ‘BOUT them Cowboys? It was so sweet watching Dallas scoring in the final seconds to beat the New York Giants, 27-26 last Sunday night. If nothing else, it showed the Cowboys have character. That hasn’t always been true in recent years.
ON THE OTHER hand, poor Miners. UTEP getting clobbered at Texas Tech last week was bad enough but having their star player, running back Aaron Jones, hurt adds injury to insult.
LAST WEEK’S column about former UTEP quarterback Billy Stevens elicited quite a few responses from readers. Following are a couple:
Mike Walker – “Billy Sevens was coaching qbs when I first went to UTEP in 1971. He wanted to test my hands and threw me some passes. Wow! What an arm! He about broke my fingers. He still had a great arm.
| Randy Sanders – “I believe Stevens threw six TD passes in his junior season (1966) in one game and then Brooks Dawson threw six the next week. Or something like that. Memory not so good after all these years.”
I checked. Stevens and Dawson did, indeed, throw six touchdown passes in different games. Dawson’s were against New Mexico State in 1967. Dawson, by the way, holds the school record for most pass attempts in one game (65) without an interception. He completed 29 passes against UC Santa Barbara in 1968 and finished his career (1966 through 1968) with 219 completions for 3348 yards and 34 touchdowns. |
ANSWER to trivia question: Yes. Ruth stole a total of 123 bases. His top year was in 1923 when he stole 17.