Sunday, September 12, 2010

It's Time

I've restrained myself so far this baseball season. In fact, I don't think there's been a single baseball entry here  all summer long. A summer of extraordinary excitement for all fans of the usually hapless Texas Rangers. Of course, these are the Rangers, and something dreadful can always happen, but at this point in the season and barring a catastrophe, the Rangers are going to win their division title, which means they will get into the post-season playoffs. Which in turn after a couple of playoff rounds leads to the World Series for the winners in both leagues up to that point.

I have been an ardent fan of this team since 1983; it's now 2010. In that period of time, the Rangers made it to the first round of the playoffs exactly three times. Each time they played the damned Yankees in the first round of the playoffs, which are a best of five series. The Rangers are 1-9 in playoff games. Which means they never got past the first round, and they were swept twice.

As they have been saying since the beginning of the season down there in Arlington, Texas, "It's Time."

Follow-Up I: For over a year Susan and I have been planning a trip to Europe to a couple of countries we did not see when we lived there some 20 years ago. We leave for that trip, 16 days, on September 28; we return on October 12. The playoffs, best of five series, begin on October 6, and if they go the full five games, the last game will be on October 12. There are two ways of looking at this. First, DAMN! Who would have thunk to plan a major vacation trip around the possibility of the Texas Rangers making the playoffs? Answer: nobody in their right mind . . . still. Second: The only way there can be a game on October 12 is if the American League series in knotted at two wins apiece. Which means that the Rangers are still in it, and I will get to see the deciding game of the first round. I like both answers.

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