Sports Talk

I love baseball. I love everything about it - watching it on TV, watching tee ball, little league, high school, college, and professional. But more than anything, I love the Texas Rangers. This comes as no surprise to anyone who knows my father. Ever since I was little, he has taken me to games and told me facts about every player, forced me to watch it on TV and told me facts about every player, and forced me to listen to them on the radio and told me facts about every player. Years of this eventually turned me into an actual fan who cares about the team on my own. But baseball in general isn't really what I wanted to talk about today. The Home Run Derby is on my mind.

I have been so excited this year about the All-Star game because my favorite player, Mark Teixiera, has been doing so well and I just knew he would make it. Last year, he got passed up stupidly and was the only Ranger infielder not to get to go, but this year he came back to actually clinch the starting position for the American League. On top of that, he has been hitting so many homeruns that he was actually leading the AL at one point and is currently in 2nd for the AL and tied for 3rd overall, so I was certain he would get into the Home Run Derby. Until I heard about this year's format. All 8 players have to be from different countries to add an international flair to this year's derby. I think this is extremely stupid. They are passing on good homerun hitters for players who admit freely that they are not sluggers. Prime example: Pudge Rodriguez. My former favorite player and I still love him, but he is not a good homerun hitter. But yet, he will be in the HR Derby over someone like Soriano who has 20 homeruns, just because there are no good Puerto Rican hitters and there are 3 Dominicans. So as the news came out of the invites that had been extended and accepted, I got more and more nervous that Teixiera was going to get the shaft for a bigger name like A-Rod or something.

But today, the news I had been waiting for finally came in...USA had extended an invitation for Mark Teixiera to be our representative and he had accepted! Sure, they offered it to another player first who turned it down, but who cares? My favorite player will be in the homerun derby! He has a good chance of winning in my opinion too because this field plays to left-handed hitters and he is a switch hitter who hits his HRs on the left AND he will be against some mediocre hitters. Not all mediocre of course, but not all great either. So next Monday, I will be TIVOing the Home Run Derby to watch after Katie and I take our first cake decorating class and spending my night watching Teixiera knock a few out of the park! Go Tex!

On another note: I don't know what I'll do if I marry a basketball fan someday!