The Texas Two-Stop; Ready to see one daughter and two Texas MLB teams

April 10, 2016
(Randy's perspective)

When Penny and I married, we each had two children - all kids were in their twenties. For the record, we are plenty proud of all four. They're all on the early stretches of what we hope will be long, happy and adventurous lives.
In their young adulthood, they have fanned out across the country. This is in chronological birth order: Kati lives in Pittsburgh; Rachel is in Davenport, Iowa; Kelli is in Dallas; Derek resides in San Diego.
This being a baseball blog and all - and with Penny and I on a journey to visit all Major League stadiums - I will point out the obvious: Three of our four kids have had been deferential enough to live in Major League cities. Rachel lives in a Minor League city, which is also good. Davenport is home of the Quad Cities River Bandits.
We have been to several games with our kids. We have been to two Pirates games with Kati, a Cardinals game with Rachel, and Derek went with us on a jaunt to Baltimore to see the Orioles.
We've also attended Minor League games with the kids. Until recently, Rachel and her fiance, Marc, lived in Evansville, Indiana. When Penny and I visited them, we also took in an Evansville Otters game, which was played in the third-oldest active baseball stadium in the country. That stadium in Evansville is where "A League of Their Own" was filmed.

That information about kids was a platter-setter for this coming weekend. The only child that hasn't yet joined us on a baseball adventure is Kelli, and we're going to see her in Dallas this week. We're looking forward to Kelli joining us for games in Arlington and Houston. We've got the Orioles and Rangers on Thursday and the Astros hosting the Twins on Friday.
These games will be numbers 18 and 19 on our quest to visit all 30 MLB venues.

It should be a great weekend. In addition to baseball, we're looking forward to seeing and hearing Kelli - who for a living plays stand-up bass, electric bass, guitar, trombone and/or whatever others she'd playing with need - during a gig on Saturday afternoon.

I don't have a great deal of preconceived notions about this Texas adventure. Here, however, are a few random pre-game thoughts I have:

• The Texas Rangers were once the Washington Senators. I'm old enough to remember the Washington Senators, who in 1971 became the Texas Rangers.
• That's not to be confused with a previous team named the Washington Senators. That team became the Minnesota Twins.
• We'll be visiting the favorite teams of the Presidents Bush. George W. owned the Rangers and George H.W.'s favorite team is the Astros.
• Daughter Kelli first went to Texas 11 years ago. She was a music performance graduate of the University of North Texas in Denton, which is not far from Dallas. Shortly after she got there, she said, "Dad, don't be surprised if you go somewhere and hear Deep In The Heart of Texas. Texans seem to love that song." ... Sure enough, it's a regular 7th-inning stretch feature in Houston.
• I've been to Texas enough times to know Penny and I won't take a vegetarian meal for granted. 
• A 7th-inning stretch feature for the Rangers is Cotton Eyed Joe, which is tamer traditional, country folk song that was later turned into Cotton Eye Joe by the Swedish folk group Rednex. I've heard the Swedish version in Pittsburgh at a Penguins game, at West Virginia University's Mountaineer Field and (from a telecast) at Yankee Stadium. Truth be told, the deejay at Penny's and my wedding reception party played it.
• Although the place hasn't been the Astros' home for a long time, every time I think of baseball in Houston, I still think of the Astrodome, which is still standing. I understand that only maintenance crews and certain certified people are allowed inside. In fact, it is still standing only because demolition would likely create serious environmental issues. But ... I'd kind of like to go by and see it.

Time to quit. Looking forward to the Lone Star State.