Baseball: Minor & Major

Early on in my postings at this, my blog spot, back in April, I mentioned the San Antonio Missions, the local minor league -- AA Texas League -- baseball team. Haven't said much, if anything, since. Here's why:

I actually won tickets to two of the Missions' games during this past season. My upstairs neighbor, Dennis from Detroit, went with me to one of those games. At the other game I got to go up in the pressbox and meet face-to-face with radio announcer Stu Paul, who does the games on radio station KKYX-AM 680. This is the fifth season that I've been privileged to listen to him and Roy Acuff (NOT THE Roy Acuff of the Grand Ole Opry, who's playing the Opry of Heaven; this one's not even named after him) do their play-by-play of Missions' games on KKYX-AM 680.

Both games I attended this year the Missions won.

However, over-all, 2006 was not kind to the hometown "boys of summer". After commencing in April with a successful series against the Corpus Christi Hooks in the Gulf-side city, The Missions slid down into a definite last-place finish in the TL South first half. Then after the TL All-Star Game break, San Antonio started out roaring in the second half! I actually got to thinking (hoping?) that '06 might be a repeat of '02, when the Missions finished dead last the first half, only to turn around and win the second half and go on to the first of back-to-back TL Championships.

But it never happened; the Missions faded away as the second half came to a close. There were some great games, at least to listen to on KKYX. But they still didn't make the playoffs.

So. . . since I've bro't up the subject of pro baseball, how about the Majors? Well, just to let you know, when I was a boy, I was a fervent fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates and all but worshipped Roberto Clemente. When he died in an airplane crash while taking aid to earthquake-devastated Nicaragua, his death hit me hard. I couldn't bear to follow baseball at any level for years. Then I moved to Fort Worth (A.D. 1976), and soon became a fan of the Texas Rangers. I actually attended a couple of Texas Rangers games at their ballpark in Arlington (the old one, before George W. built the present stadium). I'll never forget one of those, in which the Seattle Mariners were at bat, and the Rangers got a triple play against them! A TRIPLE PLAY!!!

When Nolan Ryan starred with the Rangers, I found a new baseball hero, one to almost rival my boyhood adoration of Clemente. Ryan was such a CLASSY man all around! And going strong at an age when most pro baseballers had hung up their gloves! Alas! the last visual image of Ryan as a Ranger was in a fight that broke out at his final game (or near-final), and there he was in the midst of the donnybrook, the head of someone on the opposing team locked in an elbow-grip while Ryan was giving him a noogie. Not an attractive image to go out on!

Since my Metroplex-residence days I've been a fan of the Rangers. I also continue to support the Pirates. And my love for the Seattle Mariners has become strong, due to them being the parent club for the S.A. Missions.

So-o-o, there's baseball and me, for you. . . .