There never is quite anything like opening day, is there? Even if you lose (which we did), there’s something nice about visiting the park again for a game. :)
It was also a special day for me because my brother was visiting in from out of town. I picked him up at the airport at 10:30, and we headed straight to the ballpark. Got there early, took in the sights of the new things at the park. The new scoreboards were gorgeous, much better than before – the mats outside the stadium were a tad gimmicky, but still OK, the banners of players were nice, although I would have liked them not to have the Donruss logo on them. The food stand signage is new and a needed improvement. The concourses seem less cluttered, but the frickin “Sign up for a credit card and get a towel” people REALLY NEED TO GO. I didn’t find the famed garlic fries, so I’ll have to try them the next time I’m out there. I even thought the Rangers mascot was cute. I’m not one of these baseball zealots (like on some web forums) who think that anything that deviates from their perceived “mantra of baseball” is bad. I even thought the Ranger Captain was cool. Overall, a definite improvement – but the best “new” thing about the Ballpark was the return of Chuck Morgan. Games go so much better with him there – it really was painful at times last year without him.
The game? Well, we lost. Ismael Valdes looked pretty decent again, if not spectacular. All our offense came from home runs again (one by Blalock, one by Sierra). Was a nice back and forth game which we lost, but my excitement at being at the Ballpark again really overshadowed the game. Even the sunburn I got was no big deal. Seeing friends again (Hi Tina!) was really nice.