By now, you know that my beloved Rangers lost in Game 5 of the World Series last night. There will be no World Championship for us this year. Fittingly, the fall-ish-perfect baseball weather of the past week, has given way to gray and gloomy skies. The heavens have opened up and are crying down big sloppy-wet tears, which only adds to the dreary anticipation I have for the winter and the 150 days that stand between me and Opening Day 2011. Real life beckons and I must get back to it. There is no big game to get ready for, no lucky shirt to wash, no watch parties to plan...It's over. The end of the season of a lifetime.
It was never supposed to play out the way it did in the first place. If you had asked anyone in town what the big story in local sports would be this year, you would have heard nothing but talk of the Cowboys and the Super Bowl. Pre-season hype had the Cowboys not only hosting the Super Bowl in our brand-new stadium, but also having a very good chance of actually playing in the big game. Cowboy stadium, in all of its shiny, space-age, death-star, state-of-the-art, over-sponsored, over-the-top, trophy-wifeness, loomed in stark contrast to our ballpark. Our ballpark, standing proudly in the new stadium's shadow, remained a stately, respectable, unassuming, stable and reverent home for our Rangers.
Within the tradition-steeped brick walls of Ranger Ballpark, a story slowly unfolded. This story, OUR story, could not have been scripted any better. Even the most creative wordsmiths who frequent the best-seller list, would not have penned our story the way it actually happened for fear that their readers might find it all too far-fetched to be true. Our story included courtroom drama, bankruptcy filings and million-dollar secretive deals. Our story included a hero (a couple of them actually) in the form of a former player and a regular guy from Pittsburgh. There were last minute trades. Unexpected riches came to us in the form of an ace pitcher who, by all accounts, was all but certain to end up with our arch rivals. There was a Walk-Off-Hit-By-Pitch which caused us all to say, "Now I've seen everything," until a few days later when we saw a Walk-Off-Strike-Out which made us say it all over again. Our story included a first-ever division series win in dramatic fashion in a winner-takes-it-all Game 5. The drama increased in a 6 game face-off with the hated New York Yankees and climaxed with a couldn't-have-been-more-perfect strike-out of a player who represented one of the biggest disappoints in our franchise history. This "Casey-at-the-Bat"- like moment secured our place in the World Series, and ensured that there was no joy in Yankee-ville that night, which made it all just a little sweeter. In our story, the good guys were well on their way to the proverbial happy ending.
Unfortunately, our story didn't have a feel-good ending by Hollywoods' standards. There was no world championship, no trophy, no ginger-ale inspired celebration on the pitchers' mound for us this time. Are we sad? Sure. Are we disappointed? Sure. But, we remain forever changed by the experience. Each of us has those special and distinct memories we will cherish and which can never be taken from us. Historically, we have never been a ballpark where everyone showed up in team gear and not everyone you knew owned something with "RANGERS" emblazoned across the front. Well...Now, they do! You can bet when April 1, 2011 rolls around, there will be a full house for Opening Day. The crowd will no doubt be decked-out from head to toe in anything team-related and the stands will be exclusively overflowing with red, white and blue. However, this time our Ranger shirts will no longer look fresh-from-the-store and brand-new. Appropriately, our shirts will be battle-worn, faded and possibly even a little tear-stained from the journey.... from that year we went to the World Series.
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