Opening Day

Okay, some tickets landed in my lap and I'm part of the 50,000 people who attended the home opener for the woeful Texas Rangers. I still stand by my earlier blog that I will NOT pay for tickets to major league baseball this year, but, like I said, somebody else forked over the cash...so in a way I was sticking it to corporate America (who did pay for the tickets) and the Rangers (who did get my $10 for parking, though). I couldn't really pass it up.

And, yesterday was everything good about the bigs. Batting practice gave my kid a chance at chasing down some free souvenirs (close, but no cigar). 75 degrees and sunny. A 40' tall Texas state flag which was later covered by a 40' U.S. flag. The band Cross Canadian Ragweed sang the national anthem. The regiment that arrested Saddam Hussein was honored as the traditional "opening day Texas Hero" and their commander got to throw out the first pitch (which he must've forgotten that the first pitch is ceremonial in nature and he brought the heat) after they marched in to thundering applause. (I don't care what your political thoughts on the current war are, baseball fans support the troops...interrupting the announcer several times with cheers). A B-1 bomber buzzed the stadium right after the anthem...and that is one impressive sensory experience, too. And all that was before the game.

The game itself. The home team won 12-4 by pounding out 18 hits, 3 homers and getting an impressive pitching performance. Our suspect center fielder caught 2 balls that would've been home runs. Our young team outhustled the other team and showed lots of promise.

I know that over the marathon this team will get brutal pitching and the defense will make errors and the youth will learn from all the ups and downs. We'll be better in 2006. I also know that MLB will disgust me at several points during the season. But for one day, it was about as good a MLB experience that one could've had.