My Baseball Fandom Renaissance

Baseball has been part of my life forever. My connection to the game is part of what defines me. Yet, until now I never really had a favorite team. That's no longer the case. The Texas Rangers are my team. It's been an inexplicably long and winding road to get to this point.

I randomly became a Yankees fan at a very early age. My memory starts at age seven in 1985. The Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, Cardinals and Royals were relevant to me and my friends back then. The Red Sox and Mets were already claimed by my friends. My uncle tried very hard to make me a Cardinals fan. Why it didn't work is beyond me. That left the Yankees and Royals. Even for a seven year old this wasn't a tough choice. Don Mattingly became my favorite player.

But over the course of a lifetime the Yankees went from historic but mediocre to Evil Empire. I just couldn't root for a team that bought championships and now they are probably my least favorite team, Red Sox excepted.

All the while I was playing baseball. I played through high school. This fact, coupled with those feelings of invincibility and superiority that mark adolescence, kept me disinterested from Major League Baseball. For some reason the further I progressed in the game, the less impressed I was with the players at even higher levels. This made no sense. The opposite should have been true. I know I appreciated their skills and talents. I now realize I was probably jealous and resentful.

I've now settled comfortably into middle age. The idea that one naturally gravitates towards teams in their own backyard makes perfect sense. I consider myself a die-hard (and lifetime) Oklahoma Sooners fan. Ditto the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Why did I never latch on to the Rangers? They are, after all, the closest team to Oklahoma City. Their Triple-A affilliate is based here. I know their roster because half of the players came through OKC on their way to The Show. It's all right there but I've been fighting it. Why?

I was raised to hate anything from Texas. I particularly loathe the Texas Longhorns and the Dallas Cowboys. It didn't help matters that people from Dallas, in general, seem to have a particular air about them that is both obnoxious and repellent.

I also blame the steroid era. As a former player I appreciate the more subtle aspects of the game. I love the hit and run, defense, triples, a play at the plate, an outfield assist, a pitcher's duel, a stolen base. I hated seeing fences being moved in and teams sitting on their hands waiting for someone to go yard.

Things have started falling into place the last couple of years. At the beginning of each season I've made the resolution to watch more games. ESPN became the Yankees-Red Sox network. This made me hate both these teams and forced me to look elsewhere on the dial. The Rangers, Astros, Cardinals and Royals are all on somewhat regularly. Non has more games on television than the Rangers. I began to enjoy Rangers broadcaster Josh Lewin. Then HD came to my house which makes any sporting event more fun to watch. So the Rangers can now be watched nightly in HD.

More than anything, the post-steroids era Texas Rangers are fun to watch. Jon Daniels, the GM, has revamped the minor league pipeline. Players like Michael Young, Ian Kinsler, Nelson Cruz, Elvis Andrus, Julio Borbon, Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Taylor Teagarden are all home grown. They play great defense, they hustle, they run bases and they manufacture runs. It's pure baseball. To a baseball purist it's hard not to like.

I've found myself watching nearly every game this season. I'm keeping up with the standings, the Wild Card and who's turn it is in the rotation. I'm checking to make sure I know when the games are on. And so it dawned on me a couple of weeks ago that I'd found my team. That I'd rediscovered my love for baseball and for the first time I have a team I genuinely care about and root for.