A Life of Words

On a beautiful, cool Sunday night with the roof open at Globe Life Field in Arlington, I joined some dear friends (lifelong Houston Astros fans like me) to cheer on our team against the defending World Series champion Texas Rangers.

First, I drove from SW Arlington to the TCU area of Fort Worth to pick up long-ago (late 1990s) Fort Worth Star-Telegram colleague Roger Pinckney and his adult son Andy (the lone Rangers fan in the bunch). But my main reason for going out of my way to give the guys a ride was because it gave me a chance to also see Roger’s wife Diane, with whom I also worked my last two-plus years at the S-T in our Northeast Tarrant County newsroom in Bedford.

We weren’t positive, but I’m fairly certain I hadn’t seen Diane since I left the S-T for The Dallas Morning News in early 2000. Like me, Roger and Diane have left the newspaper business in recent years, and Diane and I work in the health care industry – she’s at Texas Health Resources and I’m at UT Southwestern Medical Center. We stay in touch – Roger and I mostly to talk Astros baseball daily with several other fans on a group text, and Diane and I mostly to find out what Korean dramas (aka k-dramas, an obsession Kay and I have indulged in since early 2023) each of us has been watching.

Roger, Andy and I got to the ballpark about two hours early, which gave us a chance to hang out at the Texas Live! complex, drink a beer and watch the fourth quarter of the Dallas Mavericks-Houston Rockets basketball game (which went into an OT we didn’t see, but the Mavs prevailed).

Then we met up with Bobby Nagel, one of my two best friends from Texas A&M (and senior year dorm roommate), and his wonderful wife Annette, who moved to Frisco from Houston almost three years ago to be close to their kids and grandkids. I hadn’t seen Bobby and Annette in almost two years – the last time we went to an Astros-Rangers game in Arlington. Wish them a happy anniversary – they recently celebrated their 40th!

The Astros are off to one of baseball’s worst starts and the Rangers one of its best. But on this night, the Houston bunch prevailed 3-1 on the strength of powerful DH Yordan Alvarez’s 3-run homer and six innings of 1-hit pitching by unknown (not for long) Ronel Blanco, one of the young baseball season’s most captivating stories.

On the last day of the exhibition schedule, Blanco and his wife had their second child and he learned he’d made the Astros’ rotation as the No. 5 starter, due to injuries suffered by several front-liners including 41-year-old ace Justin Verlander. Blanco grabbed that opportunity and promptly went out and threw a no-hitter against Toronto in his first start of the season – only the eighth of his career.

In Sunday’s second start, Blanco held the Rangers hitless through five innings before right fielder Adolis Garcia hit a clean single up the middle with two outs in the sixth. Because of a high pitch count and the fact that Blanco had thrown 105 pitches in his previous start, rookie manager Joe Espada decided not to press him any further and turned to his struggling bullpen to hold off the Rangers for three innings. So far in 15 innings, Blanco has allowed just one hit. One!!

Three Astros relievers managed to hang on, but not without closer Josh Hader – on his 30th birthday – finding trouble in the bottom of the ninth, when the Rangers scored once and had the tying run at the plate before Hader got pinch-hitter Ezequiel Duran to hit into a double play.

The win put the Astros – who started the season in an 0-4 hole after getting swept by the Yankees at home – at a faltering 3-7 and tied for last with the A’s in the AL West, while the Rangers sit first at 6-3.

Here’s hoping the Astros can put a few wins together to build some momentum. As they say, it’s early – but you don’t want to dig too deep a hole too early. It *should* be a competitive division race all season among the Rangers, Astros, Mariners and possibly even Angels, coached by beloved former Rangers skipper Ron “Wash” Washington. Only the A’s don’t stand a chance.

All I can say is that for 162 games, it should be very, very interesting. 😊