While I'm not the official family blogger, I have been asked to write about the guys trip to see the Texas Rangers vs. the Baltimore Orioles at the Ballpark at Arlington on July 9th. Will has been a big Texas Rangers fan, nurtured along by watching with his Papaw, for the past few years. Earlier in the year we decided that a guys trip with Will, Papaw, and myself would be in order. While the Orioles were not our first choice of teams to see the Rangers play, that just worked out to be the best weekend for everyone's schedules. We headed out the Friday morning and made the trip west on I-40, arriving in The Big D (Dallas not Dubach) about 3:00 PM. We got settled in to the hotel, took a quick nap, and woke up to an nice thunderstorm. It was pouring down rain. We checked the radar an hoped it was a passing shower, but the weather channel showed lots more rain on the way. Never to be called fair weather fans, we hopped on the trolley outside the hotel that took us directly to the ball park. We got there early in hopes of catching batting practice. It was still raining steadily, but not as heavy as before. We scouted out our seats, but found them to be just below the overhang of the upperdeck. Instead of sitting in the rain, we decided to scout out the ballpark. Will really enjoyed all the sights and sounds. We stopped in at the official Rangers gift shop, and Papaw got Will a helmet that he'd been asking for since watching the Rangers at bat on TV. He also got Will a #32 Josh Hamilton t-shirt, a Rangers ball and bat, and a cap! Papaw also got a cap for me and a pink Ian Kinsler shirt for Ainsley. After circling back around to our seats we decided to squat on the very back row that was under the upper deck so we could stay dry. There were not a lot of people in the park due to the weather, so we figured we'd be safe there for a while. The announcement of an official rain delay came as the 7:05 PM start time was approaching. It would be at least an hour, so we took turns getting a bite to eat while saving our prime location seats. We were enjoying seeing all the activity, even if it wasn't an actual game.
Around 8:30 the rain had slowed to a drizzle and they began to take the cover off the infield...now we were getting somewhere. Pretty soon the players began to take the field to warm up. Due to the rain delay they didn't take batting practice, but just the usual field warm up.
Will was excited to see some of his favorites in person: Josh Hamilton, Ian Kinsler, Vlad Guerrero, Nellie Cruz to name a few.
At about 9:30 the game finally got underway. It never really stopped totally raining, so we kept our unofficial but dry seats since no one else ever showed up to claim them. It was a fun time, and I think that Papaw and I had as much fun watching Will enjoy his first MLB game as we did watching the game ourselves.
We made it through the 4th inning, but it had been a very long day and at 11:30, it was way past Will's usual bedtime. We caught the trolley again back to our hotel and got a good night's rest. Will got up the next morning and put on his Rangers helmet and demanded we throw him a few pitches in the hotel room. He was still very excited to be there.
We drove around the park to take a few pictures for Will's scrapbook.
In keeping with tradition from when dad and I went to games in the past, we had a fine breakfast at the Cracker Barrel. Before heading back to Arkansas we stopped in for a couple of hours at the new Bass Pro Shop in Rockwall. It's on our way back right off of I-40 instead of backtracking to the one in Grapevine. Although the Rockwall store seemed a bit smaller, it had plenty to see and a beautiful view of the lake.
Will napped on the way home and we got back to El Dorado around 5:00 PM. All the ladies were happy to see us, and Will was excited to show them all his new Rangers gear.
He continues to talk about going to see the Rangers, and how he wants to go back. I do believe this may become an annual trip. While the guys weekend was fun, I have a suspicion that little sister might enjoy a trip to see the Rangers play next year too. -MC
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