Back in the Saddle

A couple of days off in the oppressive heat of Dallas makes one appreciate the Midwest even more. Damn that was hot. Some recaps:

The Rangers Game
Friday night I went to Ameriquest Field and watched the opening game of the Rangers/Astros series. Got to see 2 Astros thrown out at the plate in the first inning. Memo to the league: do not run on Nix or Delucci. Wow those were great plays! We left in the bottom of the seventh as my parents had had enough of the 90 degree heat (it was still 91 at 8:30pm). I had my streak of never leaving a ballgame early snapped, but I understood. Ameriquest Field is very beautiful on the outside and the concourses are very wide. However, I am not a big fan of the park. The main jumbotron is over the right field bleachers, so about 1/4 of the stadium cannot see it. Also, there are obstructed view seats, steel beams supporting the upper decks. This is a newer stadium and frankly was not done right on the inside. Dear heavens, this place needs a retractable roof. You put one on this and sellouts on a regular basis will occur. The place was about 1/2 full, even with the heat, so you make it 75 in there, you got 35k every game. I was going to post pictures, but having some issues there, so sorry for those looking for them.

Bragging time
My niece (who is also my goddaughter) Brittney is 14 and an outstanding volleyball player. Just being a proud uncle you ask? Yes. Also add into this that her club team (common practice for volleyball across the country) is the #2 ranked team in the state of Texas and will be in a national tourney in Salt Lake City in June with the top 25 teams in the country. But that is just her team you say, doesn't mean she is individually good. Well, throw into this that she qualified, along with 89 other 14 year old girls (out of over 2000 who tried out) to participate in the USA Olympic Team training facility in Colorado Springs. There are 4 tiers for these 90 girls and she is in tier 3, with 12-15 players in each of the top 2 tiers and approx 20 in her tier. So, it's pretty safe to say that she is one of the top 40 players in the country in the 14 year old class. Just hoping she doesn't get burned out in high school as she all but has an athletic scholarship sewn up.

Westwood Softball Club
The Westwoodians improved their record to 2-1 with an 18-2 thrashing of the dastardly Bunny's Black team. The game was mercifully called after the top of the 5th inning by the 15 run rule. The top 4 of the order carried the Westwood club by scoring 14 times. Cheesehead Craig once again showed his Albert Pujols-like versitility by moving into right field. With one player suffering from hamstring problems and another rather slow of foot, CC answered the call to insure that RF was safe by giving up 1B. Given that only 1 ball was hit in his direction, once again the play was dominated by CC forcing the opposing team to only use 1/2 the field for hitting the ball. This made victory assured for the heroic Westwoodians.

Tonight I'll be off to the new Star Wars movie, that way Shane cannot ruin it for me any more. Grog will be giving his latest report from the Brewers road trip tomorrow for those in eager anticipation.