Opening day recap

I know it's been a couple of days since the Rangers home opener and my post about Opening Day, but it's taken me a while to get back to writing. I anticipated something spectacular for the Rangers home opener and while not spectacular in some people's minds - it was amazing in mine.

These are 40,000 of my closest friends.

First off, let's get the score out of the way. Yeah the Rangers lost 8-1but they have won two of their first three series, including the first home series with the Orioles.

I think that this year the getting to the game was more adventurous than actually being at the game.

Luckily I was able to ask for Tuesday off so I was able to get myself stoked for the home opener. My best friend and roommate (Kris) Gates wasn't so lucky. Although his boss said he could go to the game, he was super intent on being at work and actually knocking out a huge chunk of the paperwork on his desk because of an impending deadline.

About noon I drove to downtown Dallas to pick him up from work and I waited outside his office in my car in a fire lane no less with a police car nearby.

And I waited.

And waited.

Finally he came out the front doors and hopped in, quickly swapping his work shirt for a Rangers t-shirt he found at some sporting goods store.

Driving down I-30 towards Arlington wasn't a big deal until Norm Hitzges on 1310 The Ticket started talking about the Rangers and their bad spending habits earlier this decade. This got Gates and I into a conversation about Alex Rodriguez which turned into an argument over whether the $250 million was justified to actually get him to come to Dallas.

In the middle of our conversation I notice some traffic barrels quickly coming up ahead. There was no sign. No warning. No "left lane closed ahead." We drove over a small hill and 'BOOM!' traffic barrels.

I did my best to merge into the lane to the right of me, but just my luck - an 18-wheeler was boxing me in. I hit my brakes and was trying to avoid hitting the barrels but more importantly avoid having the semi sideswipe me.

My supreme driving skills kept us from crashing but we didn't get away unscathed as I hit one of the traffic barrels with my driver's side mirror. Luckily nothing was damaged.

After that close call we decided to grab some fast food since ballpark food is just way too expensive. We settled on Whataburger.

Unfortunately, I followed Gates' directions and went north on Loop 360 until we hit Whataburger about 10 miles down. Nevertheless, a quick bite to eat and we were back on the road towards the ballpark with half an hour to go before game time.

A quick note for those planning on attending a Rangers game: if it's a big game (opening day or against the Red Sox or Yankees) get there really early - especially if it's a day game.

Our usual parking lot, which we used many, many times last year, was occupied with the vehicles of actual employees of the business so we had to take our precious hunk of metal to a different lot. Much to my dismay, it took another half hour to find a lot about a good couple of blocks from the ballpark.

We have begun our annual pilgrimage to the Mecca for Ranger fans.

So we parked and made it through the gates halfway through the first inning.

I bought my customary program, but with the game having already started my tradition would have to be put on hold. We had decent seats on the third deck, in fact I had the aisle seat and Gates had to squeeze next to some guy who looked offended that we actually had seats next to him.

That's one of the big things that really bugs me about Ranger games. When there's a big game (see above) you always have idiots show up who aren't really Ranger fans but are there because a.) they want out of work or b.) they have nothing better to do.

"See, there's a baseball game going on. OVER THERE!"

You can spot posers anywhere at a big game and I found an abundance of them.

I even came up with some determining factors about poser fans. Let me channel my inner Jeff Foxworthy:

Rule #1: You might be a poser baseball fan if you have on clothes from a team not actually playing in the game you're attending.

Rule #2: You might be a poser baseball fan if you have on clothes from a sport other than baseball.

Rule #3: You might be a poser baseball fan if you have on an MLB team hat that's got colors that don't accurately represent the team.

Rule #4: You might be a poser baseball fan if you stay quiet the whole game.

Shhh. My hair's growing in.

Rule #5: You might be a poser baseball fan if you leave in the middle of a close ballgame to grab some snacks.

Rule #6: You might be a poser baseball fan if you were clothing that represents players no longer with the team. The only notable exceptions are Hall-of-Famers and team legends. (example: Nolan Ryan and Rusty Greer, respectively).

Rule #7, and quite possibly the most important: You ARE a poser baseball fan if you can't take the time to stop and appreciate the beauty of actually being at a game.

The most appalling aspect of the game to me was the clothing, as you could probably have deduced from my rules.

Ok, so the Texas Rangers played the Baltimore Orioles...

• I saw a multitude of Boston Red Sox and New York Yankee hats. I saw a Detroit Tigers hat.

There were two men dressed with Pittsburgh Pirates jerseys and hats. One can be an exception because he was wearing Roberto Clemente's #21.

A small boy wore a long sleeve red Under Armour shirt with a Dwayne Wade Miami Heat jersey.

One guy walked by the concession stands in a Marion Barber Dallas Cowboys jersey. (Possible exception since it is Dallas and the ballpark is near the site of the new Cowboys stadium).

Rangers are playing second fiddle again...

Hundreds of people were still wearing Mark Teixeira jerseys. If they were true Rangers fans they would've burned them because a Ranger who decides he doesn't want to be a Ranger anymore so he stops playing, should have his jersey burned. Ditto for the people wearing Alex Rodriguez Ranger jerseys.

The one Ivan Rodriguez jersey was awesome. He's not a Ranger anymore but he never wore out his welcome. The guy is a Ranger legend.

The second weirdest attire we saw was a guy who was wearing a David Justice Atlanta Braves jersey.

Finally, the weirdest thing we saw was an older guy wearing a Chan Ho Park Texas Ranger jersey shirt complete with a Chan Ho Park #61 baseball cap.

Aside from all of that, I had a great time.

Gates and I continued our tradition of screaming "Deep in the Heart of Texas" in the fifth inning and then doing a jig when they played "Cotton-eyed Joe" afterwards.

We also had our first beverages of the season.

I wanna go where everybody knows my name...

Tastes good on a humid afternoon.

My blue dot won the dot race after it pushed that show-boat red dot out of the way.

The ballpark dogs were delicious so was the soda in the souvenir cup.

Gates bought his first Ranger jersey, albeit a Bat Boy #05 jersey. He was enamored with the thing. It's a road jersey with 'BAT BOY' on the back. He bought the #05 because his favorite team the Chicago White Sox won their last World Series in 2005 and Gates still follows Journey's lyrics and hasn't stopped believin'.

He can now attend Rangers games in proper Ranger attire.

He was actually a bat boy last summer. At least that's the line he's using to pick up the ladies.

But by far the one thing I'll remember most were all of the families at the game.

While waiting for Gates to buy his jersey, I stood in the centerfield plaza and just watched people walk by, take pictures with Nolan Ryan's statue or just play games.

But one man impressed me the most.

He looked around to make sure he wasn't in anyone's way then he tossed a baseball to his toddler son who caught it. I couldn't help but smile because that's exactly what I picture the perfect game to be like. Maybe I watched Field of Dreams too many times but there can't be a better feeling than playing catch with your dad, even if you aren't young enough to fully comprehend it.

The kid then launched the ball back at his dad who nearly missed it. He looked at his son with the "holy cow you can throw pretty hard!" look. Then they continued to toss the ball back and forth to each other as Nolan Ryan's statue looked on from above.

I guess I was watching for too long because finally the dad looked up at me with a smile on my face. I could see in his eyes that he too understood because his face softened, he smiled a bit and kept playing catch with his son.

As we walked back to the car I couldn't get that image out of my head - the perfect way to spend the home opener: playing catch with your dad.

About that time we walked past the Dr. Pepper Little League ballpark and I saw another pleasing site. A man had his son up on his shoulders as they walked back to the car. Both of them had on Ranger jerseys: the dad had Brandon McCarthy and the little boy had Michael Young.

That's what it's all about.

Despite that horrendous way to get the home opener started with the near wreck and the missing of the first half inning, the day finished out strong because I saw what I wanted to see: families enjoying the game as a way to develop their relationships.

It definitely overshadowed the Chan Ho Park fanatic.

Dude, Chan Ho Park sucked!