Like many Texas Rangers fans, I am new to cheering for a durable, competitive team that finds ways to win. Usually by this point in baseball season I am scouring the Internet for the latest football news to finalize my fantasy player list. Yet, I am still enthralled by what the Rangers are able to do right now, finding ways to win ballgames and stay in a wildcard (and pennant) race.
Playing the Yankees is a tough thing, especially in New York. When coaches and analysts talk about a home field advantage with the fans being that deciding factor for a game, Yankee and Red Sox fans are exactly what they mean. It is awful going into their cities to play series or even a single game. The same can be said for the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles.
With that said, a lot of Ranger fans would be happy to win one game in the current series with the Yankees, who are playing lights out right now. I will admit, I teeter on being a realist and believing that winning one game in Yankee Stadium would be a momentous event for this team as it continues its battle to hang with the Angels, Red Sox and Rays, but I’d like to also be the eternal optimist and think that a sweep is possible.
Well, last night’s win was that momentous event fans were hoping for, and boy was it a nail biter. With a Ranger lead of 10-5, many Yankee fans had left the stadium for the night expecting a quiet end to the game. Boy, were they probably kicking themselves when they got home and watched SportsCenter.
It looked like Frank Francisco was going to give the Yankees a nice win they certainly didn’t need since they had about a seven game lead on the Red Sox. There were no outs and the boys in the pinstripes had crawled back into the game being down by one. With runners on first and second, it seemed hopeless.
Adding an additional mountain to climb for the Rangers was that half-gone Yankee fan base. The booming thunder they generated to lift their team up was deafening and could be heard over the play-by-play from Josh Lewin. I sat on my couch repeating, “I can’t believe they are going to lose this.”
But everything came together for the Rangers within a two-minute timespan. Michael Young caught a popped-up bunt and then Elvis Andrus pulled off an unassisted double play to end the game. Amazing.
This Rangers team has shown multiple times that they aren’t going to give up and neither should the fans. As I type this, Andrus made a great play to throw A-Rod out at home with a sliding groundball grab behind second base.
To bring this around to movies since that is the new focus of this blog, does anyone find it frightening that Frog from Smokey and the Bandit is the new face of osteoporosis commercials? I don’t want to think of the charming Sally Field, able to get Smokey to find a reason for taking his hat off, pushing Boniva on senior citizens to help with their bone loss. It just makes me feel old.
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