Unlike Monday, Tuesday's excitment was more expected! Can I just tell you that the Ranger's organization is so fan-friendly! Their Spring Training setup is GREAT! You literally walk around WITH the players as they are doing batting practice (BP). And the players and coaches are very willing to interact with the fans by signing autographs, talking pictures, chatting it up. It was like everywhere you turned there was another player engaging with the fans and once you got his autograph, you'd barely have time to get through your cards to find the next guy because he was already right in front of you it seemed.
We got to the Ranger's BP at 10 AM, just as the gates opened for fans to come in. My friend and I didn't leave till 2 hours later, as we couldn't get enough it seemed! During that time we each got approximately 20 autographs. Below is a good portion of the ones I got...
The players are just so generous with their time. And they continue to be that way at their games in their home Spring Training stadium, as that stadium has been designed so the players can only leave the field/dugout through a door in the right field foul grounds area. So as they are leaving the game (which most the "big names" leave after about the 6th inning) they depart down the 1st base line and some of them will stop and sign down the line of fans. It's also a great time for close-up pictures of the players as they are literally right there. 
This is Omar Vizquel, who was warming up before going in towards the end of the game to relieve Ian Kinsler at 2nd base. He was warming up right in front of us. Omar is such a cute little guy...he's only 5'9", but quite the player!The game turned out GREAT, as the Rangers won 11-5! Once again, we got a lot of sun, but of course had a lot of sunscreen on too, so we didn't burn.
I would also like to make it known that we had our directions for getting to the park and had no problems finding it via the directions. After the game we even picked up our tickets for the Ranger's games on Wed. and Thurs. of this week already, so we are pumped for that! We plan to hit up the Rangers' BP again both days as well, and get a few more autographs.
Well, today's post is a little shorter because I spent earlier this evening writing a piece for the Rangers Blog on the Dallas Morning News site (and watching The Biggest Loser...HA!), so now it's late and I'm ready to get to sleep as these days do sorta wear us out, as they are draining from being in the sun all day. I actually got my piece for the DMN emailed off to the publisher pretty late tonight anyways (especially considering Dallas time), so who knows if he'll even run it, as it's in reference of Tuesdays day, and it'll be Wed. when he'd get it. HA! Oh well. Because of that, I'm going to end this post with a couple more pictures for y'all to see, and then I'm going to copy and paste the DMN piece here for y'all.
Here it the DMN piece:
Over the past few months I have learned that the Rangers’ organization and their players are one of the most fan-friendly clubs in the major leagues. Throughout the month of January multiple Rangers players, coaches, and media personnel participated in the free-of-charge Texas Rangers Round Up Question & Answer sessions with autograph signings. Then there was the Fan Fest at the Ballpark in Arlington on January 24th – which included autographs and team information sessions. But even once the players get back to work with Spring Training, they still allow their fans the opportunities to get close to the action and interact with the players.
The Ranger’s Spring Training campus is fan-friendly when considering the practice fields as well as the main stadium! I arrived at the practice fields when the gates opened at 10 AM this morning and was walking among the players between fields/cages for the next two hours before they had all made their way over to the main stadium for the 1 PM game start.
I had heard you can be right up against the backstops and watch the practices, but I was not in the understanding that the players walk among the fans in-between fields. The players and coaches stop and sign card after card, ball after ball, picture after picture. They laugh and joke with one another – I look to the right and here comes Kinsler off one field with Davis following him and Davis says, “Hey, give me a piggy-back ride” and Kinsler says “Okay.” And Davis jumps on Kinsler’s back and takes him to the next cage – and they even kid around with the fans – a gentleman asked C.J. Wilson if he’d sign a card for his wife. Wilson looks down at the card and says, “Um, that’s not me. He’s a real big guy about 6’5”, has a lot of hair, he catches...” “Oh, I’m so sorry,” the guy replies and then walks off. Wilson then comments, “I guess I could have signed it anyways, but people would have wondered why he had a C.J Wilson autograph on a Jarrod Saltalamacchia card!”
The players are so generous to interact with the fans during Spring Training events! During batting practice today I got nearly 20 autographs, but the interaction did not stop there, because the players and coaches continue the generosity of their time after they finish playing in the game. With the layout of the stadium requiring the players to exit the field through a door in the right field foul grounds – players stop along their way out to sign for the fans along the first base line. It’s a great opportunity for not only autographs, but pictures, as you’re so close, as they go between the dugout, the bullpen, and the clubhouse.
Today’s game versus the Cleveland Indians was an offensive outing for our Rangers! The bats lit up against none-other-than the Indians ace – Cliff Lee – in the first inning and the Rangers never looked back! It took the Rangers only 3 innings to put ten runs on the board, while Feldman held the Indians scoreless with only four hits in his first four innings of work. It was nice to see runs being scored from solid hitting and running – no homeruns were even needed today for the 11-5 win. Happy 23rd Birthday, Chris Davis – there’s a Ranger’s win for you!
The Ranger’s Spring Training campus is fan-friendly when considering the practice fields as well as the main stadium! I arrived at the practice fields when the gates opened at 10 AM this morning and was walking among the players between fields/cages for the next two hours before they had all made their way over to the main stadium for the 1 PM game start.
I had heard you can be right up against the backstops and watch the practices, but I was not in the understanding that the players walk among the fans in-between fields. The players and coaches stop and sign card after card, ball after ball, picture after picture. They laugh and joke with one another – I look to the right and here comes Kinsler off one field with Davis following him and Davis says, “Hey, give me a piggy-back ride” and Kinsler says “Okay.” And Davis jumps on Kinsler’s back and takes him to the next cage – and they even kid around with the fans – a gentleman asked C.J. Wilson if he’d sign a card for his wife. Wilson looks down at the card and says, “Um, that’s not me. He’s a real big guy about 6’5”, has a lot of hair, he catches...” “Oh, I’m so sorry,” the guy replies and then walks off. Wilson then comments, “I guess I could have signed it anyways, but people would have wondered why he had a C.J Wilson autograph on a Jarrod Saltalamacchia card!”
The players are so generous to interact with the fans during Spring Training events! During batting practice today I got nearly 20 autographs, but the interaction did not stop there, because the players and coaches continue the generosity of their time after they finish playing in the game. With the layout of the stadium requiring the players to exit the field through a door in the right field foul grounds – players stop along their way out to sign for the fans along the first base line. It’s a great opportunity for not only autographs, but pictures, as you’re so close, as they go between the dugout, the bullpen, and the clubhouse.
Today’s game versus the Cleveland Indians was an offensive outing for our Rangers! The bats lit up against none-other-than the Indians ace – Cliff Lee – in the first inning and the Rangers never looked back! It took the Rangers only 3 innings to put ten runs on the board, while Feldman held the Indians scoreless with only four hits in his first four innings of work. It was nice to see runs being scored from solid hitting and running – no homeruns were even needed today for the 11-5 win. Happy 23rd Birthday, Chris Davis – there’s a Ranger’s win for you!
No comments:
Post a Comment