Friday, October 7

My beloved childhood baseball team, the Detroit Tigers won last night, beating the New York Yankees and so will get to play my beloved adopted Texas Rangers for the American League Pennant.  My wife asked me who I would be rooting for? 

I lived 25 years in the Detroit area and remember the 1968 and 1984 teams that won the World Series.  I collected Tigers’ baseball cards.  My first baseball game was at the old Tiger Stadium with my Boy Scout troop?  I listened to Ernie Harwell on the radio.  My oldest and best friend and I were at one of Detroit Hall of Famer Al Kaline’s last games for Al Kaline Day the year he was retiring.  Can it get more nostalgic than that?  Plus, I have a dear friend who works for the Tigers’ organization.

I have now lived 25 years in the Dallas area (there were two years living in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts between graduating from the University of Michigan and attending SMU School of Law).  I watched the Rangers finally win a division and get into the playoffs in the late nineties.  I watched as they finally won a playoff game and series and get to the World Series last year.  I know their team much better than the current Tigers.  My wife (a native Texan, more of a football fan, she does like the Big Kahuna ice cream sandwich they sell at games) and I were at the old stadium for the last game when they ceremoniously removed home plate and drove it to the construction site of the new Ballpark in Arlington.  I caught a foul ball at a game there.  I have taken my children to Rangers’ games.  My oldest and best friend and I celebrated our 40^th birthdays by staying at the team hotel across the street from the Ballpark in Arlington and catching the Boston Red Sox play the Rangers, then watching them leave and watching the New York Yankees check in for the game we were going to the next night.

Writing this reminds me of other contrasts, like having grown up Catholic but now attending a Methodist church.  Detroit and Dallas provide contrasts, as Detroit is seen nationally as the unemployment capital while the Dallas area is seen as part of the new south, all growth and development.

So maybe it is not just about who am I rooting for, but also who am I now?