Before I start posting more about the recently-concluded 2008 Austin City Limits Music Festival, I thought I should clear some of our inventory and share some of the other post-worthy things we've done recently.
I am a Red Sox fan. Not one of those recent bandwagon fans who only got interested when the team started winning. My allegiance goes back to my childhood, growing up with a Red Sox-rooting father (and uncle and older cousin). Which means I've been with them through a good amount of painful memories as well as the good ones. '86? Watched game 6 with my evil step-father (who isn't really evil, but although he has come around and now follows the Sox, he's a native New Yorker and was pulling for the Mets at the time). '78? One of my first baseball memories was also one of the first times I heard a naughty word as my dad yelled out, "Who the f--- is Bucky Dent!" after that cursed homer. Still, I stuck with my team through lots of seasons that finished on the stinky end of playoff sweeps and other assorted lean years.
I am a Red Sox fan. Not one of those recent bandwagon fans who only got interested when the team started winning. My allegiance goes back to my childhood, growing up with a Red Sox-rooting father (and uncle and older cousin). Which means I've been with them through a good amount of painful memories as well as the good ones. '86? Watched game 6 with my evil step-father (who isn't really evil, but although he has come around and now follows the Sox, he's a native New Yorker and was pulling for the Mets at the time). '78? One of my first baseball memories was also one of the first times I heard a naughty word as my dad yelled out, "Who the f--- is Bucky Dent!" after that cursed homer. Still, I stuck with my team through lots of seasons that finished on the stinky end of playoff sweeps and other assorted lean years.
Bill, keep your glove DOWN!
Although moving from New England makes it more difficult to follow the Sox, the good thing about baseball markets other than Boston and a select few is that they tend to be a lot less insane about their love for the home town team. That makes it easier to get tickets. Boston plays at least one series every year at the Rangers, so we decided to get some tickets and head up to Arlington for the ballgame. Us and about 15,000 other Red Sox fans. 19,104 or more of the announced 38,208 attendees had to have been Sox fans. We were everywhere! Pretty cool for Boston fans, but a bit sad for the Rangers.
Although moving from New England makes it more difficult to follow the Sox, the good thing about baseball markets other than Boston and a select few is that they tend to be a lot less insane about their love for the home town team. That makes it easier to get tickets. Boston plays at least one series every year at the Rangers, so we decided to get some tickets and head up to Arlington for the ballgame. Us and about 15,000 other Red Sox fans. 19,104 or more of the announced 38,208 attendees had to have been Sox fans. We were everywhere! Pretty cool for Boston fans, but a bit sad for the Rangers.
The Texas Rangers weren't exactly the class of the American League this year. Still, they weren't as bad as they've been in recent seasons. Pitching was pretty nonexistent, but they had the top scoring offense in the league in 2008 (901 runs, 46 more than the next highest scoring team). Unfortunately, we got to see them when the offense was firing on all cylinders. Tim Wakefield pitched for Boston, and it seems like every season, by August he's a 50-50 pitcher: half of the time he'll pitch eight innings of one-run ball, but the other games he just throws batting practice. This was an instance of the latter. Boston took an early lead, but it didn't last very long as the Rangers put up seven runs in the second inning on their way to a 15-8 blowout. Ugh!
Rachel at the ballpark
Sox at bat
Given that Papi, Pedroia, Youk and company weren't going to give us a victory, we had to entertain ourselves in other ways. We walked all the way around the Ballpark at Arlington, one of those nice new "throwback" stadiums that every team wanted after they built Oriole Park at Camden Yard in Baltimore. And it is a very nice stadium. Not Fenway, for better or worse, but still pretty cool. We also got to see the gigantic $1.3 billion stadium being put up nearby for the real pro sports attraction in the Dallas-Fort Worth area (the Cowboys, for all of you dummies and non-sports fans). I think the highlight of our stadium tour, though, was catching a close-up glimpse of Don and Jerry, the Red Sox TV broadcast team, complete with Wally the Green Monster perched on the ledge outside the broadcast booth.
Wally, watching the game from the press box
So the game was a bummer. The weekend, though, was pretty cool. We spent most of our time in Fort Worth, where we had never been. Fort Worth is a great little city. "Cowtown" is not as cosmopolitan as its sister-city, Dallas, but it has a great downtown with lots of pretty old buildings and many good restaurants and bars that get packed on weekend nights. A short walk from central downtown, we checked out the Fort Worth Water Gardens, a quiet park in the midst of the city with some cool pools and fountains. Fort Worth also has an excellent arts district, with several great museums. We checked out a couple of good ones: The Kimbell Art Museum and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, the latter of which was hosting an exhibit featuring the odd and thought-provoking cut-paper silhouette-based art of Kara Walker. We also spent a few hours roaming through the historic Stockyards National Historic District. The Stockyards used to be a major cattle trading base and where you can still see a longhorn or two despite its reinvention as a tourist destination. We were lucky to show up during a classic car show, too, and got to see a bunch of groovy old cars and trucks, plus this guy:
Not-so-easy rider
Overall, a fun weekend getaway, and easy to get to, so I have a feeling we'll go back next baseball season. Here are a few more pics from the weekend:
Me enjoying a beer at the Flying Saucer in downtown Fort Worth
Classic cars at the Stockyards
Them's some long horns!
A couple of shots of the Water Gardens
