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For the first time in a couple of years, I did not attend opening day. When tickets went on sale, the only ones that were available were mostly crap seats anyway, and since I’m going two other times during opening week, I decided to blow it off this year. I’m still happy with that, as I avoided a lot of crowds, but I did miss it.
I listened at work, and I have to say, this was the most into it I was listening at work for awhile. So much so that when the Rangers turned that double play in the bottom of the ninth, I jumped out of my chair screaming with my fists in the air! Fortunately, I have my own office, so no one saw that. :)
Our eight hits were pretty evenly spread – the only ofers were Rusty and Raffy. Pudge, Cat, & Curtis scored our three runs. Not a whole lot of offense here, but there was just enough to win – because our pitching was pretty damn good. Kenny Rogers went 7+ innings, giving up just two earned runs. Zim came in and was in 99 form, shutting down the threat in the 8th, giving up donut.
And Tim Crabtree. He took Wetteland’s number, he also took his “give them a heart attack before getting the job done” mentality. :) The defense really bailed him out in the 9th – it was a cool inning. Glad he got the save.
My first game of the season is Wed night. Can’t wait!

And so it begins. I have to say, I was far more worked up this season for the first game than I was the last couple of years. I can’t pin it down to any one reason. Sure, I’m excited about the new players, the game in Puerto Rico was a lot of fun to watch, but I just can’t pin it down to one thing. I went out to the Ballpark early and checked out the scene there – had my picture taken, picked up a magnetic schedule, and some other cool free stuff they were doing. However, I did not stay and watch the game there. I was recording everything on my TiVo at home, so I could watch it at my leisure, in a more comfortable environment. I love the Ballpark, but watching an entire game on the Jumbotron is hard on my eyes. Anyway, I came back home, and it was cool, because when I left the Ballpark, the radio pre-game came on, so I was listening to that on the drive back to Garland.
I got home, watched the pre-game stuff, and then when my wife got home from work, we proceeded to watch the game. I have to say, I truly loved the lineup intros. The crowd’s reaction to Pudge was just awesome – was a “chill down the spine” moment. Really great stuff there.
We got off to a pretty good start I thought – ARod singled in his first two Ranger at bats, scoring a run. However, a problem I didn’t like last year cropped it’s head again. We went 0-10 with runners in scoring position today. This is not good. The ballpark itself played all kinds of havoc with the game (and yesterday’s, too). Rusty Greer got screwed out of a popout that was blown way out of his reach, Pudge got jipped of a home run by the wind, and the Blue Jays got a home run that probably should not have been a home run, but because of the tiny power alleys in this place, it was a home run.
Anyway, you can’t totally blame it on that – we didn’t execute with men on base – we certainly had enough runners early to have a 6-1 lead, but we were tied 1-1 most of the way through the game. Rick Helling didn’t pitch all that bad, but got burnt by his usual nemesis, the home run ball; a bigger problem here than anywhere else. Our bullpen was totally ineffective in the 7th inning, giving up 4 runs on a gob of hits – Mark Petkovsek faced four batters; all four got hits. Jeff Brantley looked good in the 8th, though.
ARod had a bit of an inauspicious start as a Ranger. He went 2 for 4 with an RBI and a run scored, he also committed an error, and a couple of other plays that should have been errors. The one error looked like a true error, but the other two looked like turf issues – he slipped on the turf once (which happened to Caminiti, too), and tripped over his own shoelaces once. I blame the first one on first game jitters, and the others on crappy turf. Either way, ARod has already made more money than I’ll make in a couple of years salary. :(
Lookin’ forward to Tuesday afternoon for some real home Ranger baseball. :)

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No coverage from me due to my server downtime.

No coverage from me due to my server downtime.