Ever have a subject so big that it seems daunting to tackle it? So you put it off and procrastinate? Maybe it will just go away. But the Texas Rangers baseball club screams good things. And granted you may not be a sports’ person but maybe this will relate to you. Think about maybe 5 things, or 3… that bring out the strongest memories for you. Think about it. I think from my perspective, from my family…. Bruce Springsteen, Baseball (mainly the Texas Rangers), a farm in West Texas, 2-3 weeks packed in a car across America with 6 people… maybe John Steinbeck all come to mind. It isn’t about a sports team, really, it’s about the times around the people you dearly love. It’s about the shared experience and the things you talked about…. and the things you didn’t. The silence between you as you sat in the sun, the light of day, just being…. as a game played before you and the earth went on spinning.
(21 years)
(25 Years)
(1 year +??)
That took some time to research the parks of Arlington and the Texas Rangers and I’m pretty sure with the exception of 2020, the Texas Swinney’s immediate fam & offspring have attended at least one game each season since 1972. Been to each of the post season-series…. sure there hasn’t been too many. But the subject is daunting… and time ticks on, so I’m going to not try to tackle the love for the Rangers ball club all in one post. Let’s just to this… a random list of why I love this team. Some pictures and call it good shall we??
Okay…. here goes. It isn’t so much about the team and the sport but those I loved and love & the times spent with that team, that place, baseball, the Texas Rangers.
– Attending the first season when I was 4 years old in 1972. Ma & Pa swore this happened.
– Chili dogs packed in a cooler for fam dinner in the outfield bleachers. Not sure how much out of pocket it was for us In those years…. can’t imagine it was much over $20 total. If that.
– Father’s Days taking Jim out when home from College. Sometimes we’d run out of things to say but in our family, you could always talk about the Rangers.
– Bat Night where big Jim had to escape all the noise, noise, noise.
– Seeing The Beach Boys perform after the game
– Buying World Series 2010 tickets from Disneyland with D, C, Z, and Me
– Seeing an epic Rangers – Yankees Match-up with the immediate fam that went into extra innings and having to leave to drive to San Angelo and listening to the rest of the game on the radio old school. Rangers won… and C loves him the Yankees just to get back at good old Dad for trying to force my team on him ;0)
– Trying to impress upon the boys the meaning of attending a WS game…. 2 actually back-to-back years, something I thought I’d never do
Being excited every time Nolan pitched because you thought you’d be ringside to history as he racked up another no-hitter
The agonizing pain and month long depression after the 2011 WS loss to the Cardinals. I’m not kidding.
The healing and grieving beginning after Mom, Ben, Kerri, & I attended a Rangers game maybe a day or two after my father Jim passed. July 2015.
Really, it has nothing and everything to do with baseball. Really, it’s all about family, family, family… & love. That’s what this is about really.
All that is lost and all that is gained. And the memories in the mind. And love, and love…
… and love.
The Texas Rangers, a good thing.
ZandMe's 999 Good Things 
Some of my favorite memories were taking our boys to Arlington Stadium to see the Rangers play. I think I have permanent hearing loss from ‘bat night’. Nothing quite like the sound of wooden bats hitting those metal bleachers! 🙂 Robin
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Rocking Robin…. so cool you have Memories of those times as well. We have parallel lives.
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