The October Surprise: Baseball in Texas

As a lifelong Rangers fan, I’ve mostly cured myself of the habit over the past decade. Cubs fans may lament their team’s waltz with disappointment, but Wrigley Field ain’t the old Arlington Stadium. The Cubbies struggles at least has a patina of ennui that had the feel of epic poetry. The Rangers’ woes had none of that. Much of the team’s history reads more like outtakes from a Bill Murray movie that never got made. Jim Kern notwithstanding, there wasn’t a lot to laugh about.

So after a couple of abbreviated trips to the playoffs in the late 1990s and the trainwreck known as the A-Rod Era, the beginning of football marked the end of baseball season for me. Was it possible to be mathematically eliminated from playoff contention in July? The Rangers seemed content to explore the possibility. I didn’t need to watch. I’d been experiencing the futility since 1975.

So here we are in October and suddenly we have an unusual thing to behold – a Rangers team with pitching and power. And I’ve been having a great time watching them. We also have two teams searching for their first-ever World Series championship – the Rangers and the San Francisco Baseball Giants. So what about the Giants?

I’ve always kind of liked them. My wife went to school in the Bay Area and she was in the big earthquake there back in ’89 when the Giants played the A’s. That’s almost a family connection, right? Besides, anywhere you can hit a home run into an ocean seems to be a bit of alright. That’s part of the reason I picked up that Tony Bennett album I’ve included above. The man is just class, and the Giants cap adds a nice touch. I figured I’d pop it in the mail to my man in San Francisco, PeteG, but I’ve been lazy and never got around to it. So, here it is Pete. Come and get it. (BTW, enjoy while it lasts. It may be the last nice thing I say about the Giants for the next two weeks.)

Pete’s actually one of the great baseball fans I know. He’s passionate about his team. We should all care about something that much. And when you love a team that much – through good times and bad – you can learn a little bit about what it means to believe. It’s like the good book says, faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Who knows how this October surprise will turn out? Let’s just enjoy the ride while it lasts.