"Post Number 400!"

Wow, has it been 400 posts already?? Seems like just yesterday I started putting this thing together. And now, seven and a half years later, we finally reach the magic 4-0-0. When I hit post 200 I featured some of my favourite posts from the past. I may do that now, haven't decided yet. What I do know is that I finally...finally...got to see one of Emmy's softball games! Everytime there was one scheduled on a Saturday the coach went and re-scheduled it! Maybe there was a good reason, maybe not. But this one was at 7:30 so I was able to see it. man I hate working until 7 every night...every day...something's gotta change. But, enough about me. A few pix:


Man, that's a good shot. Emmy's all "You wanna pitch to me? I'll make you pay!" and the pitcher's all "Oh yeah? You can't handle what I'm throwing ya punk!" and Emmy's all "Oh you'll pay for that. I'm puttin' the ball into the parking lot NOW!". At least...that's how I imagine what a conversation would be like between Emmy and the pitcher.


Just a little blurry, but that had more to to with the dark cloudy sky and bright overhead lights and less to do with my skills as a photographer. Just so we're clear on that. Emmy got two hits, but those may have had something to do with the other team's defense not being very good. Man, if they had Ron Washington as a coach, they'd do all the little fundamental things very well.


Playing third base!! Zach seems to be a really good third baseman and maybe Emmy will be too. We'll work on the fielding part of things. Not always the most fun thing to do, but sometimes ya gotta.

Last Saturday we went and saw our nephew Ethan's baseball game. Two of his teammates got plunked by the other team! You could have sworn it was intentional the way the two of them winced in pain and one of them got hit in the funny bone and couldn't stop crying. His dad was in the stands going "Walk it off son..." but you can't do anything about that. I took two really good shots of him:


Why do pitchers always make thatface? It's like they're Rubberman or something.


I like the way his cleat was just off the ground. Maybe I should quit this lousy insurance company and start being an on-call photographer, ya know?

Oh, um, tonight? What are we doing tonight? Oh, not much...only going to the BIGGEST Ranger game of the year is all!! Yes, our old # 1 pitcher CJ Wilson is coming back as a defector to our biggest nemesis Anaheim Angels to face his old team. I don't think the city of Arlington ever really liked CJ a whole lot. Most of it was due to his complete lack of pitching in the post season the last two years, but there was also this snippet off his Wikipedia page:

Wilson, who has requested a chance to make the starting rotation since 2006, spoke about the upcoming season and his frustrations with the organization not giving him a chance to start prior to 2010.

“ "It's no secret I don't think I should be limited to the set-up role. I have too many weapons. Here is the reality. It is real simple. There are not very many guys that have the stuff that I do that would be willing to sign here if they were free agents. There is no experienced pitcher that has my stuff that would sign here, historically." ” — CJ Wilson, Fort Worth Star Telegram: February 18, 2010.[56]

Wilson’s comments were not well received by media or fans of the team.[57] Team president Nolan Ryan stated CJ is a guy "who likes to communicate" and Ron Washington said the team would not address the situation.[58]

This was not the first time comments made by Wilson caused problems for the talented left-hander. Wilson was a regular poster on the website lonestarball.com under the handle blueglovelefty and in 2005 he stated the average ballplayer is a douchebag. Wilson was later talked to by several team leaders on the Rangers, including Michael Young and Kevin Millwood. After the incident Wilson deleted his user ID and removed all posts from the web site.

Now does that sound like someone we need hanging around the Rangers clubhouse? I think not. So we went out and spent $107 million on THIS:



Yes, Yu Darvish, the man, the myth, the legend, was persuaded to sign with Texas and has done nothing short of dominating the American League with his assortment of EIGHT pitches that hitters don't know what do to with. Hopefully tonight won't get rained out like we thought might happen. The chnace of rain went down from 80% to 40%. We haven't been to a game in almost a year so we are due. This is our year. Make no mistake. So, to do a little Ranger-style reminiscing, here are some cool pix of our family's time together at the BIA:


This wasn't Emmy's first Ranger game, but it sure was her first Ranger shirt! Now Zach wears it...a lot...the collar is a little frayed but it's still going strong!


Speak of the devil, there's that Rangers shirt on Zach! Which he promptly got mustard on before the game in 2009. That's my boy. Great shot of all three of them. We took 'Grandma Mary' to the game for her birthday!


This was the game we went to last summer. So hot and humid, but it was worth it. And yes, Zach has that Ranger shirt on yet again. Hey, some things are classics, yes?