Since sharing old memories. Thought about my uncle and granddad last night. Those old men would watch every single game. I went to several with my granddad over the years. Uncle was almost as old as my grandad (married my dad's sister) and when my grandad spoke at his funeral he mentioned a rangers win streak and how he could rest easy. A couple of years later when I spoke at my granddad's funeral, I made a joke about how he couldn't bear to watch them any more after we started the season terribly (as was often the case). Those guys would have been on cloud 9 last night.
Then I thought about the fact that no doubt a Rangers game at the original ballpark in the late 80's was my first pro sports game. We would drive in from West Texas and do Six Flags + Wet N Wild + Rangers once or twice a summer. Always the highlight of the summer. I remember a special trip in the early 90's just to see Nolan Ryan pitch. I recall we actually had good seats for that one and I was in awe. So I was a Rangers fan first and then I guess the 90's Cowboys run helped solidify my relationship with Dallas despite living 4 hours away. I moved to Austin in HS and stayed through UT and during those 8 years was somehow fully locked into the Stars and Mavs despite only attending 1 game each in the rafters at reunion on a random trip as a kid (my 2nd ever Mavs game was one of the early Dirk playoff games in college in San Antonio which solidified my Spurs hatred).
When deciding on law school, I was choosing between SMU and UH. Like that was even a fucking choice. Fuck Houston. I have now lived here 20 years and raising my kids here. Crazy to think a big part of that path all started with a crappy Rangers team in a crappy stadium in the 1980's that connected me to this area. Made sure to thank my dad last night for taking me to those games all those years ago.