Last Friday night I was able to persuade my wonderful wife to attend the Texas Rangers game. It was last minute (thanks Barry for the tickets) and it was HOT. My wife HATES the Texas heat so for her to be willing to drop everything, sit in the 100 plus heat so that I could watch my Rangers play is a testimony of a GREAT wife. Now she did bring her tiny battery-operated fan but did a great job of not embarrassing me.
We couldn't have picked a better game. It was the first game of a 3 game home stand against the Red Sox. It went into the 11th inning with the Rangers winning with a Nellie Cruz home run making it 10-9. The Rangers were losing at one point in the game 8-2.
Couple of things that stood out to me:
1. Winning brings fans to the ballpark. The Rangers are at the top of their division and unless there is a complete meltdown, they will be in the playoffs for the first time since 1999. Also they are the only MLB team that has yet to win a postseason series; their three playoff appearances (1996, 1998, and 1999) all resulted in losses to the New York Yankees. It was a near sold out game and people love winners.
2. There were way too many Red Sox fans in the crowd. Where is this Texas pride everyone talks about? Just goes to show that when a team has that many losing seasons, fans tend to waiver in their allegiance. When they stood and cheered, it actually made me a bit tense. How dare they do that at a Rangers home game! Who let them in anyway? But then, when my team made a great play, I was standing, cheering and actually looking around to see the pitiful look on the Sox fan's face. I guess I deep down inside wanted them to suffer (at least for a few seconds).
3. Josh Hamilton is that good. He made a catch at the top of the center field fence that saved at least one run and, if not successful, probably would have set the Rangers back enough that they wouldn't be able to overcome. If you want to read more about Josh's great story of how he got to where he is today visit this link.
4. My wife is a hoot! Now don't tell her I am writing this but just as we sat down in our seats she was spying out the vendor for some water. She sees him, takes a $20 bill and comes back with what could have been perceived as a bottle of gold. Remember she gets hot easily and being in this summer heat is not her favorite thing. But she is a trooper for me and satisfied with her bottle of water. Now here is the fun part.
As she is drinking her water she sees another vendor who has a badge on his shirt saying water is $3.50. She looks at me and says "That can't be. I just paid the other guy $4.50 for my water." Several water vendors pass by and sure enough they are selling water for $3.50. She can't believe she was taken advantage of like that. As the evening goes on I start thinking about it and I get frustrated. "How dare he rip us off $1." I'm even conjuring up thoughts of mentioning this to management on the way out.
Then all of a sudden it hit me. I gave her a $20 bill, she kept 50 cents and gave me $16 in change. I pull it out of my pocket, count it in front of her and we both laugh and once again acknowledge that she is not and probably never will be good at math!
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