Rooting for the Rangers - with a small caveat

Make no mistake about it. Barb and I are rooting for the Texas Rangers in the World Series. In fact, I think the whole family is cheering on the Rangers - with the possible exception of Rob, who was somehow seduced by the pin-striped dark side years ago.

But there is a small caveat. Barb's family has cheered for the Cardinals for many, many years. She was a staunch Cardinal fan when I married her, her dad was a life-long St. Louis fan, and his father before him. The only pro baseball game that I have seen in person was between the Cards and the Astros; this was back in the Astrodome days, with the exploding scoreboard. We saw the scoreboard light up three times that evening - three Astro single-run homers. The Cardinals won 4 - 3.

While we were waiting around for the imminent birth of our 2nd child, we watched the Cardinals and the Tigers play game 7 of the 1968 World Series (at that point in time the Rangers were still the Washington Senators). Barb had been having labor pains all afternoon, but this was game 7! This was important! Bob Gibson was pitching but the Tigers were ahead 4 - 0 in the bottom of the 9th. Mike Shannon hit a two-out solo home run to provide a glimmer of hope, but Tim McCarver - currently announcing this series with Joe Buck - popped out with a foul ball and that was that. We grabbed our bags and headed for the hospital, Julie was delivered almost immediately and I was home by supper!

I asked Barb if she was conflicted about who to support in this series. She said the Rangers, but she could live with any outcome.

Let’s Go Rangers! (clap, clap, clap, clap, clap)
Let’s Go Rangers! (clap, clap, clap, clap, clap)