It's Time!

I’m sitting here, still wiping the tears from my eyes. We did it! My team, the Texas Rangers, have beat the Yankees to be crowned American League Champions! That means we’re going to the World Series! There’s no other way to describe how I feel than this…WWWWOOOOOOOHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOO!!! This is the singular defining moment of my year to this point. Last year the singular defining moment was the birth of my goddaughter/niece. I was there in the beginning. I, my brother, and my two best friends, Fern and Jon, went to Opening Day this year as we have for several years now. We witnessed the beginning of what will ultimately be defined as the greatest year in Rangers history. My brother and I bought a mini-plan of tickets this year. I must have made it to almost twenty games this year and watched the vast majority of the rest on television. I bought a new jersey at the beginning of the season to add to the ten I already own. I bought five more t-shirts as well. A couple of stickers, several beers, two big bags of sunflower seeds, three new caps, and a sweatshirt round out all the Rangers gear I purchased throughout the season. This is about the norm for me. I am a die-hard, no holds barred, never say die, never leave early, never quit, always stand and sing during “Deep in the Heart of Texas”, eleven bobble head having Rangers fan. And when things are good, life is good. And when things are bad, life is still good, because it’s the Rangers. I love ‘em!

How much of a fan am I? Well, besides hardly missing a game and buying enough merchandise for an entire family, I am versed in Rangers history. I know about the great players in our history. I know about the good times in our history. I know that the franchise was originally the Washington Senators who moved to Texas at the urging of the Mayor of Arlington and local businessman Tom Vandergriff, founder of the Vandergriff auto sales empire. I know that Arlington Stadium was originally called Turnpike Stadium and was home to the minor league Fort Worth Cats and Dallas-Fort Worth Spurs. That’s right, the Rangers played in a converted minor league stadium for the first 22 years. Did you know that Ted Williams managed the Rangers back in those days? Do you know how many numbers the franchise has retired? I do…only three: 26, Johnny Oates; 34, Nolan Ryan; 42, Jackie Robinson (by MLB). This is a point of contention for me and my brother because we can name so many former Rangers who deserve their numbers to be retired. That is a whole other blog in itself. Do you know how many players are in the Texas Rangers Baseball Hall of Fame? I do…13, including recognizable names like Jim Sundberg, Fergie Jenkins, and Rusty Greer. Speaking of Rusty Greer, who was a hero of mine as a kid, he is currently working at Texas Wesleyan University as an assistant baseball coach under former Ranger Mike Jeffcoat. I could go on and on, but I think you get the point.

My love for the Rangers spawned from hot summer afternoons and evenings sitting in the metal bleachers at Arlington Stadium. This was back in the day when they gave out full size bats to the first 5,000 kids under 13 in attendance. And we would take those bats and bang them on the metal seats to make as much noise as possible. The Bobby Valentine days…when it was literally a 50-50 bet whether we would win or not because we were just an average team. I remember my Dad explaining things to us as they happened. I remember the clunk of batting practice homeruns on the seats around us. Those were the days when baseball in the Dallas-Fort Worth area was just a secondary attraction. Back when if you lived in Dallas, you had to pass by the monument of Dallas’ true love, Texas Stadium, on your way to Arlington to watch baseball. My more vivid memories come from the Ballpark. The Rangers moved into their new stadium in 1994 and we went to one of the first games there. It was like a castle, a cathedral, compared to Arlington Stadium. Everything had the look and feel of a stadium from the 40s and 50s, except it was brand new. We used to sit out under the homerun porch in right field and yell at Rusty Greer to try to get his autograph. This team, these stadiums, the memories…all of them feed my continuing love and respect for Rangers baseball.

Sure, the relationship soured during the Tom Hicks era. I was old enough to understand that we were good enough to make it to the post season, but not good enough to make it to the World Series. I was young enough that not making it to the World Series killed me. I was old enough to realize we overpaid for A-Rod. I was young enough to let stupid management decisions like that jade my love of the team as a whole. I started climbing back on board after I graduated college. A-Rod was gone, Michael Young was emerging as a leader on the team and things seemed great. Except that they couldn’t make it back to the postseason. But my love for them grew back more and more. When I met my best friends along the line of my life, their love for Rangers baseball just boosted mine. Pretty soon we were making trips to Opening Day every year, buying jerseys for each other, and going to games together. We talk baseball all the time now. In fact, the one person that called me to celebrate the Rangers win tonight was my buddy Fernando, who is my Rangers accountability partner. He lives in Atlanta, but still loves the Rangers so much that he came back the past few years for Opening Day.

So, all of you out there who read my blog and like to know what’s going on in the world of me, here it is…I am completely stoked about the World Series! I am sitting here in my Claw and Antler shirt and Rangers shorts looking at $400 standing room only tickets on StubHub and seriously considering buying some! I just order two more Rangers t-shirts (an AL Champions one like they were wearing on the field and in the locker room after the game and a “Hambino” Josh Hamilton shirt). I am drinking an ice cold, Texas brewed, Shiner Bock, listening to the post game roundtable radio show, and thinking about how to clear my schedule and skip classes next week so that I can see the World Series games (which start Wednesday). The Rangers, they are my heart. And you know what else I realized as I was looking online for AL Champs shirts? I need to find a woman who already has the Texas Rangers “T” logo thong or panty, because the woman who is Rangers fan enough to have that underwear is Rangers fan enough for me.