It was a fun weekend past, as I traded a Saturday college football game for a trip to the World Series.
As my travel many times has me running from time zone to time zone to find my event, the gods looked down and smiled to get me to the right place at the right time.
My NFL game last Sunday, scheduled a couple weeks back, was in Dallas. The Cowboys are a regular stop on the Fox football tour, and we got that game against the Rams for a variety of reasons.
Jump to Monday of last week, and the baseball playoffs.
The Texas Rangers were in the process of upsetting the defending Series champion Houston by winning both Game 6 and 7 in the Astros’ park. That put Texas in the World Series.
Fast forward a day to the even bigger shocker, as Arizona pulled off yet another upset by beating Philadelphia twice, also on the road.
That put the Diamondbacks, in the sixth, and last, seed in the Series for the National League.
Which then meant that Texas, the fifth seed in the American League, was now going to have home-field advantage and be the host of the first two World Series games.
So, after all those random items, I was now going to be in Dallas on the same weekend that the World Series was starting!
Oh, yes, there is more.
I was not able to work at my college game on Saturday night because it was a very late game, and I could not get back to Dallas for the noon start of our NFL game on Sunday.
Had my college game been earlier, or had the pro game been the doubleheader and later, I would have been at that college game on Saturday.
All things fell into place, and then, it seems that Fox Sports broadcasts the World Series and the game I was covering on Sunday, so I was graciously offered a ticket to the Fall Classic.
It was the first World Series game I had been to in a long time. I was lucky enough a long time ago to be in Minneapolis when my Twins won in both ’87 and ’91, and I had lucked into a couple more games in my years with Fox.
So, you see, there was a long string of events that had to happen in just one order, and by golly, it did, so I got to watch the fantastic first game of the Series.
A ninth-inning home run by the Rangers tied the game and sent it into extra innings. Another home run in the bottom of the 11th won the game for the home team, and sent the large crowd into a frenzy. It made me remember why my cousin in Minnesota loves overtime so much.
I did get paid back a little when I ended up waiting for a ride back to the hotel for about two hours, and it was drizzling, so you can feel at least a tinge of sadness for my plight.
The rest of the trip was mostly anticlimactic.
I had an on-time flight to and from Dallas. No dashing to make a connection. I even got an upgrade.
The hotel was very nice, and when I got there early on Friday, instead of making me sit in the lobby for a few hours waiting to check in, they adjusted some rooms and I got right in.
I know, this is all really a great pay-back or a real pay-ahead for events down the road.
But, I’ll take it…
It’s back all over the place this weekend, with no proximity to baseball.
I’m heading to Columbia, South Carolina on Friday for a college football game on Saturday. The production folks who cover the Pacers did me a huge favor by giving me Friday night off, or it would have been an all-night drive after the NBA game.
The Saturday game is at noon, so that means there is enough time to catch a flight in the early evening from Columbia to Philly, where we have NFL duties on Sunday. That game is the double-header, so time won’t be a crunch.
That crunch comes on Monday, when I have an early morning flight back, and will have to go straight to Gainbridge for work at the Monday night Pacers game.
The weather forecasts for all locations looks pretty decent, so even if it is chilly, it is workable.
Fingers crossed. Let’s hope the travel gods aren’t planning on any payback this weekend.
Safe travels.
Jeff Nelson is a frequent contributor to the Journal Review and works professionally for Fox Sports assisting with NFL broadcasts and the Indiana
Pacers.
