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| It's Baseball Time in Texas! |
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| Ready for baseball! |
So I am a girl who loves baseball. I grew up in Northern Indiana as a Chicago Cubs fan. My first baseball game was at Wrigley Field. When we moved to Texas I was 10. I quickly came to love my Texas Rangers. (That doesn't mean I completely turned my back on the Cubs, I am cheering them in the post season too but head to head I bleed Rangers Red!)
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| Twitter Tailgates are the best! |
We managed to score tickets to the first home game of the playoffs. It helps when you are some sort of season ticket holder because you get options on post season play. So we met up with a bunch of our Rangers friends from Twitter. I am lucky enough to call a lot of Rangers fans, friends in real life and a lot of them showed up for the game! These are some of my favorite people and I was lucky enough to spend the pregame with my friends Janice and her new man, Ronnie, Monica, and Julie and see some of my favorite friends who I don't see much anymore like Eric! Plus I got to hang with so many of our Twitter friends who we only tend to see, basically during the season. I have to give a shout out to Darren for organizing the whole tailgate and bringing the ice for my drink. :)
Going into this game, I have been feeling icky for over two weeks. Last week I was so sick Sunday-Wednesday that I was running a fever, in bed, and barely alive. I always seem to get sick during the playoffs so when I finally saw my doctor, she said "You aren't feeling good. Of course you are sick, the Rangers are in the playoffs!" She knows me so well. Usually I get bronchitis but this year I was lucky enough to get some killer stomach virus that will not end. (Yes, I am still suffering though not as bad as last week.) On the bright side, I have lost about 10 pounds thanks to not being able to eat much of anything and my wedding set is so lose it is driving me crazy twirling on my finger. I will take the weigh loss, thank you very much! I could live without the stomach bug but at least it has its perks.
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| So many good fans! |
Rangers fans and Cubs fans have a lot in common. Namely, a lot of years for fruitless baseball. That doesn't hurt the fan base it just makes us loyal. The game started at 7 pm and the Cowboys were playing next door and yet, the parking lot was packed at 3 o'clock on game day. Rangers fans, true Rangers fans, are some of the best in baseball. Yes, there are bandwagon fans. There were a lot of Cowboys fans at the ballpark too, dressed head to toe in Cowboys stuff. (No really, the girl in front of me had Dallas Cowboys boots! I thought I was bad with my Rangers Toms). I don't mind them. I wish they would have at least bothered to bring a Rangers hat too so they didn't look so stupid sitting there in their Cowboys crap but.... they pay for seats, hats, and shirts (theoretically) and they give the club more money to spend on good players. I wish they were better fans and cheered for the club and didn't just sit there like bumps on a log because I know a ton of real fans who would have paid for those seats and happily been ROWDY but DFW is a strange sports place. People like to say it is a football town but I don't believe that. It is a winners town. Whichever team is winning, that is the team people show up for even if they show up in stupid Dallas Cowboys jerseys, hats, boots, and sit there looking bored. Someone remind me to tell you the story of the ALDS playoff shirt controversy. Only in DFW could a shirt with the Dallas skyline (the recognizable DALLAS skyline) cause fans to cry like little, spoiled babies over a T-shirt! That's the metroplex but it is home like it or not and sometimes, I don't.
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| My honey's first playoff! |
But, I digress....
So hubs and I ended up at the Ballpark for his first ever playoff game. I was nervous. Really nervous. I always get a bad case of the "Oh my GAWD please let them wins" during the playoffs. I have been known to spend 2 hours at the gym watching from the top of a workout machine of some variety. That was back when I was single though and had time for that! Hubs was excited. Baseball madness was about to swoop down on Arlington. I walked into the Ballpark expecting Toronto to be on their game. It was do or die for them. The Rangers have to win 1 game to move on. It was an elimination game. The hardest game to close out. Toronto didn't disappoint, sadly the Rangers just didn't have their offense going last night. Disappointing but I expected it. Today we win! Today we move on.
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| My handsome nephew was at the game so I got a hug! |
I ran into my sweet nephew who was there with his mother and grandma. He is such a sweet boy and didn't even mind giving his Aunt Lala a hug. The last time I saw him before the game he walked up to me and said "I always love seeing you. You make me smile." What a KID!!
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| New friends |
And I made new friends, even though they wear Kinsler jerseys! :) I didn't hold it against her, she is a Tigers fan first. (Kins was the Rangers 2nd baseman who was traded to Detroit in the Prince Fielder trade. He said some not so nice things about the Rangers organization after the trade. Disappointing for a player who came up through the system and seemed to have nothing but sour grapes. Still, that is who Ian Kinsler is. He never could keep his mouth shut when he should have.)
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| Hubs looking all hot an everything! |
My husband has such style. Our friend Kimberly gave him some new shades and he spent a lot of time goofing off with them.
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| He likes to look grumpy in photos |
Of course when it was time for couples photos, something I make him do...he put his grumpy face on.
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| Such a beautiful day! |
I love him, even though he pretends to be a big grump. He is really just a giant kid and a nut.
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| Goofy Rangers fans! |
With all the great friends at the game, we had a blast and the Ballpark...
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| The Ballpark was all dressed up |
Looked AMAZING all dressed up for the ALDS. Today we win Rangers!
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| Rangers and USA pride! |
The fans started off really excited and hyped up but as the game went on and Toronto took a 5-0 lead, it was hard to keep up this level of excitement. No, I am not even going to blame it on the Cowboys bandwagon fans. All the fans had a tough time keeping positive. The game just felt off. That's okay because Today we WIN Rangers!
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| Rangers Nation getting rowdy! |
Game 4 is today and while I won't be there, I have a lot of good friends and great fans who will so I leave it in their capable hands because TODAY WE WIN RANGERS! Let's move on to the ALCS and bring on whoever wants a piece of this. (Me, I kinda hope it is the Astros because I would love to have home field advantage and I would love to eliminate THEM!)
