Chalk One in the Loss Column

Next stop, Houston. But first, we decided to catch a stadium tour of Rangers Ballpark, which came free with the price of admission into the Legends Museum. We reported to the ballpark at 9:00 A.M. sharp and were greeted by a friendly gentleman named Ed, who gave us a behind-the-scenes tour of the stadium. If you ever have a chance to take this tour, jump on it. Although we didn’t get to enter the clubhouse (because the team is home right now), we saw just about everything else. The best part of the tour (and of our day) by far was sitting in the Texas Rangers dugout. That’s right, folks. These cheeks touched the same bench that Josh Hamilton sat on just hours before. We sat on the bench. We stood on the steps. We leaned on the railing. We called the bullpen. We fantasized about all manner of things. Ed even took our picture, so we have proof. It was friggin’ awesome.

We set off for Houston and made it to Minute Maid Park with 30 minutes to spare before the game started. It would have been difficult to top our experience in Arlington, and Houston didn’t even come close. For starters, Minute Maid is an indoor stadium with a retractable roof. There’s something not quite right about watching baseball in a covered ballpark. We were able to walk right up to the ticket window and purchase fairly good seats in the right field mezzanine, directly below the scoreboard. And we did meet a friendly usher on the lower level who let us sit in her section for the end of the game. The view from the Crawford boxes in left field was definitely closer, and we could see more of the outfield from our new seats. Shout out to Candace for the upgrade. And although the Astros hit a grand slam and won the game, we didn’t find ourselves rooting for them with the same enthusiasm we had for the Rangers. After the game, we stayed to watch the roof open, which takes about 12 minutes. (It’s really slow.) The stadium did look pretty at night, but it just didn’t have the same feel to it as Rangers Ballpark. We agree with our friends Kevin and Josh, who have been to Houston and commented that the Houston fans seem apathetic about their team. Unfortunately they reminded us of Angels fans circa 1999. The highlight of our trip to Minute Maid Park in Houston had to be the introduction of the players on the Jumbotron….We think the picture speaks for itself.

(picture forthcoming)

Final Score - Houston Astros 6, Cincinnati Reds 2

Next we have a travel day, spending the night in New Orleans, and then we’re off to Atlanta for the Braves game on Thursday night. After reading about Turner Field in our road-trip book, we can’t wait to see all it has to offer!