Ah yes. Opening day. With it brings kids and gloves, hot dogs and beer, balloons & jet plane flyovers, big deal first pitches & lots of goodwill, shivering fans and 25-30 mph winds?!?! That’s right – it was a rather cold opening day in Arlington. The place was packed, the lineups were introduced, and former president George Bush threw out the first pitch (high and outside to Pudge). Everything seemed set, but unfortunately, the wind was insanely bad today. The game was really cold, the temperature said it was 59, but it felt more like 40. By the end of the game, my wife was sitting with her jacket all buttoned up, and her legs and hands underneath a towel we happened to have in the trunk of the car for extra warmth.
However, it was a wonderful game. During the player introductions, virtually every player (except possibly Tom Evans – who is a virtual unknown to the average D/FW baseball fan) got a huge ovation – the largest seemed to go to Johnny Oates, Pudge, Raffy, & Gabe Kapler. And that was before Kapler even did anything! Kenny Rogers took the hill at the Ballpark, and pitched an excellent game. He went 8 innings, allowing 6 hits, 2 walks, & one earned run (for an era of 1.12). He never seemed totally dominating, but Kenny was Kenny, making two or three great fielding plays, getting four inning ending double plays, and generally making the fans feel good about the pitcher. Our pitching in the ninth inning wasn’t so great, though. Tim Crabtree came in, and gave up three hits, loading the bases. All three of those guys scored in the inning (although Munoz & Zimmerman followed him) – all three were earned. However, that seemed lost in an otherwise great pitching day.
The other side of the coin.. Wow.. Not much happened through the first inning, and the first two batters of the second. However, Gabe Kapler stepped up to the plate, and just whacked the first pitch he saw over the fence for a solo home run, giving us a 1-0 lead. When the inning was over, the fans out in right field gave him a rather nice ovation, to which Gabe waved back at. We gave the lead back in the top of the 3rd, but in the bottom of the third, Luis Alicea singled, followed by an error allowing Clayton to get on. Rusty struck out, but Pudge followed and smacked a three run shot off the left field foul pole giving us a 4-1 lead, which we never surrendered. Gabe Kapler came up again in the 4th to much applause, and again hit the first pitch he saw out over the left field wall for his second home run – the first Ranger ever to hit two home runs in his first two Ranger at bats. This second home run prompted many calls of “Juan Who?” from Section 332 (most of which were coming from me, followed by laughter from others). Gabe got an even louder ovation from the right field porch after this inning, and when he came up again in the 5th, he got a stadium wide standing O, to which he followed with an RBI single. He came around to score in a very Pete Rose fashion in the inning, plowing through the catcher, making him drop the ball, and having to run back to the plate to score. Couple this with two really awesome (and I mean AWESOME) throws from right field to keep runners from advancing really made this feel like Gabe Kapler’s day, even though Pudge had 5 RBI’s, and two homers, this day just felt like Gabe’s in Section 332 – or at least for me.
Of course, one game does not a season make, but damn.. If this is any indication of what is possible from these guys, this season ought to be fun. Might debunk just about every national sports coverage who picks the Rangers third or last!
My wife’s nickname for Gabe Kapler – “Gabe the Babe”.

Man, Enron was gorgeous! Can’t wait for my trip down there in September to see an Astros / Pirates game. I initially did not like the choice of color for the new Astros logo & uniforms, but seeing it live in action coupled with their new park – it’s an excellent choice. Their uniforms really match the look of the new park – especially the dirt, which my wife commented looked more like clay than dirt. I’m headed down there in September for a game, and I have to say, I’m looking forward to it even more so now than I was before – Enron looked awesome on TV, and I bet it’s a hell of a lot better in person. One thing doesn’t look good – that’s Jeff Bagwell’s ZZ Top impression. Just looks BAD. Although I’m sure they’ll get some promotions out of it.
Esteban Loaiza started off the game, and looked good through the first two innings, not allowing a whole lot of activity. However, the third, he didn’t do as well, allowing three runs to tie the game, but that was it. He came back and pitched and excellent fourth and fifth. The final four innings were taken up by Venafro, Crabtree, Munoz, & Zimmerman, all who needed one last look see before the season started. Overall, and excellently pitched game by Texas, which is supposed to be our forte this year.
Offensively, it was the long ball. Royce Clayton hit two home runs, one down each side of the park – the first one out to left, almost cleared the train tracks and hit the big window over left field. His second went over the right field wall, and between the two, that was 5 RBI’s. The other jack was from David Segui, a three run blast, accounting for 3 more of the runs. Only one run was not from a long ball in Houston.
Overall, another great game by us – long balls providing the offense, good to great pitching, and a beautiful ballpark. About the only thing I would have liked more was for the game the actually count – that comes on Monday. :)

Got to the Ballpark early as most everyone did last night to see Big Mac take a few swings. He was in the third group of Cardinals that took BP. When he stood in, he got an ovation, which I’m sure he’s used to by now. Anyway, I don’t know if it was intentional or not, but he bunted his first pitch, which was amusing. :) Mac didn’t play in the game, which I’m sure annoyed several people. I’d seen him before, but not since the big 70 HR season. Would have been nice, but oh well… The game itself was nice from the aspect of seeing the Texas Rangers live again. The fact that I was sick probably forced me to not enjoy it as much. Was blowing my nose the whole night, it seemed. However, I did take notice of a lot of things at the Ballpark itself…
It was a cold night at the Ballpark. I was (am) still sick with a cold, so that didn’t help, but it was awesome being back at the park again after almost 6 months (for a game, anyway). It felt kind of weird, as I was rusty at watching live baseball, several times I had to get my bearings – that coupled with a move to a different section for season tickets (Sec 326 Row 7 from Sec 39 Row 43), my usual “places I looked for things during a game” were all different. They didn’t have the whole thing going yet, as some of the usual things they do during a game weren’t active (several scoreboard animations come to mind). The Ballpark itself is largely unchanged from last season in terms of signs and whatnot. The KXTX 39 is now a KDFI 27 sign. There is a new AT&T sponsored front to the triangle down in the right field corner. Nolan Ryan’s retired number is moved. It used to be at the base of the second level of the Home run porch. Now it’s (along with Jackie Robinson’s number) is above the Diamond Club windows above left field. Replacing the old location for Nolan’s number is a huge string of advertising running the length of the home run porch. It’s not that large, but it’s very visible when you look that way. I know that sounds confusing, but when you see it, you’ll see what I mean. A Southwest Airlines “billboard” on the right field wall is different. The foul poles themselves look much yellower – they were probably painted. Also, the grass itself seems VERY green, but it hasn’t had time to be burnt out by the Texas heat yet. Furthermore, the dirt is not that “dark dirt” they had last season – it looks more like the conventional bright dirt. I wonder if that’s a permanent change, or if the dark dirt won’t come in till later.
Also, the Jumbotron had a bunch of problems – there’s several display issues, like a bunch of bulbs were burnt out or malfunctioning, and some of them were inthe spot that the player pictures were, so it looked like they had a big white bandage on their noses. :) It also went to color bars for about two minutes at one point during the game. Some more work needed there for the boys in the control room. Also, those new membership cards they have for the Rangers & Stars had their machines there you could swipe. Some might not like that stuff, but I rather did. Got a free coke out of it that would have cost me $3.75, so I can’t complain about that at all. The new Commissioner’s box section at the end of the Rangers’ dugout appeared to have simply folding chairs in there. I hope that’s not permanent – I’d be pissed off paying $100 bucks and getting a folding chair! Give me those seats in the 200 level. Since I can’t get in there, I can’t comment on the new club behind home plate – although I’m sure the air conditioning will be nice come July & August. The kids stuff out in Vandergriff plaza looked pretty cool. The wiffle ball park was like an even smaller version of the Ballpark (than is in the Dr. Pepper kids park across the street). Most of this stuff seemed to be geared towards kids, but that will make for some really nice memories for those who use ’em, I’m sure.
I picked up a Media Guide and a Yearbook – I’ll be updating the roster probably on Sunday to bring everyone up to speed now that the 25 man roster is all but 1 player decided. We play the Astros in Enron this afternoon, and then it’s on to the regular season on Monday!

I personally never understand the point of playing your own minor league club. You’re supposed to shellac them. If you lose, it’s an embarrassment. I didn’t get to catch this game at all because of it’s non coverage on the radio or TV. Probably the one game of the season I didn’t care about. :)

The Rangers’ final Florida Spring Training game was today – a win over perennial spring opponents the Minnesota Twins.
John Wetteland got yet another start, and pitched one inning, giving up just a hit. Also on the positive side was 5 innings of no run, 3 hit baseball from Kenny Rogers (whose next game should be Monday – the opener), and an inning of no hit no run ball from Mike Munoz. Matt Perisho didn’t fare as well, all the runs we gave up came from him (all earned, too). Without a game log, it’s hard to tell how they scored, but overall, it didn’t seem like that bad of a pitching performance based on the box score.
On the offensive side, our eight hits were scattered over eight different players. Scott Sheldon made the most of his one at bat, getting a three run home run in the seventh to give us the lead in the game, and the win.
Now that we’re breaking camp, we should start to see the final roster cuts made. Once the final 25 are announced, I’ll be updating my roster page with that info. I’m also hoping they’ll have the Media Guide for sale – a ton of my roster info comes from there. :)
Can’t wait! I’m headed out to Arlington to see the Cardinals game. It’s so close, I can smell it!