The Invasion - Opening Day Memories

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not a maze of paperwork from a third party.

Every day, America's hospitals and health system show up for you.

Navigating healthcare can fuel overwhelming,

but you can count on real doctors, real nurses,

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Hi, I'm Adam Devine, Chief Fundraiser for Children's Miracle Network.

No, no, no, no, I said more fun!

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But it is opening day for the Rangers 305 First Pitch, they're in Philadelphia.

It'll be Valdi, your favorite Ranger on the hill.

One of my favorite Rangers of all time, I know.

You really is.

Top five for you.

Yes, no doubt.

And of course, Christopher Sanchez, who finished second in NL Say Young voting, going for the

Phillies today, but opening day, I heard the hard line talking about this.

Now, of course, opening day, maybe some people were like, hey, let's go to Philadelphia

for Rangers opening day.

I've never gone to opening day on the road, but opening day for home is going to be next

Friday.

And the hard line last week was having a conversation with this, I think Bob was out.

But it was Davey and Corby were there in Lando, and none of them had ever been to Rangers

opening day, which blows my mind for guys that are from the area because, man, this is,

I'm going next Friday, after I show them driving out and going to opening day next Friday.

And I've been to opening day more than 10 times.

That's great, man.

I wish I could say the same thing.

I've only been once.

And I went when a guy, when I was working at KLIF, man, I wish I could remember his name,

and I'm really sorry if he's listening and say, yeah, I was the one that gave you the

ticket and he really did.

He was like, hey, man, I have a ticket for opening day.

If you wanted to go, I was like, man, I've never, ever been.

So went when it was at the ballpark in Lando, and it was fantastic.

And we were talking about this on the way here as we were paying for the show, man, man,

I wish my dad would have been one of the ones that said, I will get us tickets.

We are going to the baseball game.

Hey, he never ever just thought about it.

And B, I don't know if they would have said, hey, man, I will take you out of school because

it's a one o'clock first pitch who cares, and we'll have this experience that just wasn't

going to be in this playbook.

And I say, if I had kids, I no doubt would at least once, or maybe try and make it a yearly

thing to say, man, I don't care about when's the elementary school, our middle school,

we are going for this experience because you're going to remember this forever.

And I applaud the dads and the moms that would get their kids out and go with this experience

man because it's so important because Travis and I talked about this when you were out.

It feels like baseball is the sport that you fall in love with first as a kid.

Yeah, I don't know why, but that was me, I was a baseball guy first.

And just to even think about having that experience of going to any game would have been magical

for me, but opening day to take me out of school for this is that important dude that would

have made my whole entire year.

And yeah, if it weren't for the guy that said, hey, man, let's do this, let's go, I have

a new extra ticket, I would be right there with Lando and Corby and Davey.

And it is weird to say that dude, 54 years old and grew up loving his baseball team and

just never went to open in day.

We did a couple of times in high school where we didn't go to school and went to opening

day, did it in college, my freshman year for sure.

And then as an adult, I've been multiple times just throughout the years.

I mean, I was at the first home game at the old stadium, the what was then called the

ballpark in Arlington.

I was at the first home game ever for that stage, the giants, right?

That was the brewers, if I remember right.

Okay.

Went to look it up.

I thought it was the brewers, but it's one of those things where, you know, my brother,

he texted me a couple of weeks ago, he was like, hey, you want to go to opening day?

John's was the first inner, inner league game yet.

That's what I was thinking.

And I was like, yeah, man, yeah, let's go.

So next Friday, I'll be out there.

I know the sweet spots broadcasting live, they'll be out there getting everybody ready

to go next Friday.

But it's exciting.

Usually one of the coolest things about opening day in this region is normally the weather

is like what we're going to have today, maybe a little bit cooler.

So you actually get an opportunity used to be this way.

I mean, now it doesn't matter because of the stadium that they're in, but it used to

be at the old ball parks, even going back to Arlington Stadium before the ballpark

in Arlington, being outdoors, it was miserable going to games in June, July, August,

and most of September, but opening day was gorgeous.

And you could sit there, even if you're in the sun, you felt fine.

Yeah, the weather was great.

And again, you got to remember up until the mid 90s, this franchise sucked and was horrible,

but you could go and believe for one day.

All right, man, this is the year that this is year.

And of course, it never was until three years.

It's a go, but you know, you had that belief and there's something to the magic.

I still believe this and it goes back to kind of your point as a kid.

There's something to the magic of walking over the concourse.

And when you walk through whatever section you're going into and you see that baseball field

there, and I think it's different when it's open, I'm with, I think you're right.

But I think it starts even before that, man, I think it starts when you park and you're

walking towards the ballpark.

There's some of that.

Yes, there's some of that.

And you see that.

And I remember the first time that we went, I ever went to the O'oletson Stadium.

And it was, I believe, 78, and my grandfather is a, he was a bartender.

And he got tickets from a party that he bartended and he took the grandkids.

And he had to implore us to slow down.

Like, we're going to get there, slow down as we're trying to make our way, my cousin,

my sister trying to run to the ballpark and it's something about parking and just walking

to the, this huge ass stadium that as a kid looks 20 times bigger than it does as an adult.

And then you walk in and see that grass.

Is it experienced that you'll just never, ever think and forget it?

And I'm all about those experiences, man, and just sharing that with those youngsters

because they will remember that forever.

They don't care about going to school on April, whatever it is, to whatever happened

in math class, an English class.

But I am taking you out of school and we are going to this baseball game on opening day

so you can share and talk about that with your friends, you know.

And I, to be honest, I don't even remember a lot of my friends saying they did that exact

same thing.

I don't know if it was a guy.

I can't remember one of my friends saying, yeah, man, my dad took me to opening day and

you know, oh my gosh, that's so cool.

What happened?

Anything like that.

I guess it just wasn't top of my mind in my, in my school or in my hood or anything

like that.

But man, I would, I would totally share that if I had kids.

It would have been a no-brainer, a son or daughter, no-brainer.

We are going in this game because I want you to share that experience and I think everyone

tries to make a huge deal out of their season opening.

And I think football does a better job at it than basketball or maybe even hockey, you

know, it's not that big of a deal.

And you're opening it up for basketball, basketball it is, but there's not a sport that does

it better than baseball.

It's impossible.

Not a sport.

And it just makes it out of growth and experience like going to six flags or going to this or

going to that, you are going to check out this and maybe it's not even the overall thought

of maybe we can win the World Series.

This has nothing to do with it.

It's just, it's the beginning of this sport that I love.

And we're going to check it out in person.

That's just something that you just can't beat.

And I think it's a big thing where it's the beginning of spring and you know, summer is

right around the corner as a kid.

You're about to be out of school soon.

Right.

And it's the sport of summer.

And the other ones don't have that.

I mean, it's, you know, you may look at it, which I kind of do with football, especially

college football, I think does a really good job now where they have the entire Labor Day

weekend.

And by the time you get to that point, like, okay, this is the end of summer.

But as a kid, you're like, well, that means I got to go back to school and I'm going to

be in school.

All right.

As I've gotten older, I look at it as, okay, well, this is a back part of the year.

We're going into fall.

It's going to cool off and you kind of get, all right, Halloween's coming up and then

the holiday season and all this, which is a lot of fun.

But there's nothing like, and I don't even think it's remotely close.

The opening day for baseball is one of those things, even if you're not a big baseball

fan, it feels like a lot of people will try and at least catch the game, going to make

plans to figure out, of course, it's not as easy it used to be to try and figure out

how do I watch the Rangers today?

Oh, that's right.

Yeah.

If you didn't buy the victory plus package, you got to figure out what it's streaming on and

you got to do that whole thing and I saw something, because now I stream and I use fubo when

college football season is not going on, so I can watch the maps because the maps are

not on YouTube TV.

I mean, it's all these different things.

You kind of bounce around a little bit and it's not as easy as it used to be.

It was on whatever everybody had and it was all always on and you had it.

It was just a part of you.

If you bought cable at all, you could watch the Rangers on your basic cable.

Well, it's not that way anymore, but man, going to the ballpark still, there's something

to it.

Like, I'm excited about next Friday.

It's a day game.

It's going to be awesome.

Jacob DeGrom on the hill and wearing Rangers gear and it's a communal experience.

And it doesn't even take away from it that it's not the season opener.

No, not at all.

Not to me.

It still feels like it's going to be opening day and it's a little different because it

is on a Friday.

So I'm positive.

There are going to be some kids and some parents that will take their kids out of school

to go and check out because it starts at was first pitch.

Three or five.

Yeah, three or five.

You can, we'll go school half a day and then we'll come get you at lunch and then we

can go to the ballpark and then go to the game.

So maybe you can technically get credit for being at school, but it's going to be a half

a day and then we'll go check it out.

Man, that's.

That's.

I don't like that.

There's nothing like it really isn't and the baseball does it so right to have such

a long season and so many of those games that you can attend.

They make this one feel this one feels so special to go to and check out and this is the

one you want to be a part of because it didn't even matter when you were at the ballpark

or even old audience and stayed in the summer.

It was hot, but who cares?

I'm at a baseball game.

This is the best ever.

And especially if your kids are just just digs to sport like I did.

I mean, I love baseball, man.

Yeah, it was back then, even in the hot days of the summer when you're at high school,

you still care.

No.

And once we could drive and it got to a point where my parents are cool to us driving

all the way to Arlington, me and my buddy Nick, man, we who knows how many we used to

go to because we'd be in the summer.

We go to day games and you could back then at the old ballpark, they sold tickets, crazy

cheap to sit in the bleachers because the sun just beat on you the whole game and we

just sit out there and get fried and it was, I mean, we might have got tickets for

eight bucks.

It seems like.

And about his dad getting them in after the fifth inning because it may have been free

or $5 or something like that.

Yeah, super easy.

It was free.

Yeah, out there, five innings or something and they just everyone waits until the fifth

inning and you go and you go to the baseball game like that's, that's great.

Yeah, we didn't, we didn't intend many, but my grandfather loved baseball.

He would listen.

He didn't even want to watch it on TV.

He listened on the radio every night as he lie in bed.

So now he knew that, you know, we fell in love with it also, especially me and my, my

older cousin, Kevin, we would go out there and play baseball and throw the baseball around

and so he took my older sister with us, man, and that was the first experience.

It wasn't open in day, but it was against the Yankees and that's the late 70s Yankees

when they were really good.

So, you know, white remember, I remember going and I remember being tired because we

had to walk a ton to get back to the car.

Like, are we there yet?

Yeah.

Are we there yet?

But other than that, man, it's just those experiences that you don't forget ever in

your life and that revolves around this sport that's open in today, man.

I think a lot of kids are going to get that and Philly and then when the first opening opening

a home opener when it happens here in Texas, next Friday, it's always pretty cool.

I'm Adam Devine, Chief Fundraiser for Children's Miracle Network.

We'll fund it up.

It'd better be fun.

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funds for 170 children's hospitals across the United States and Canada.

Hospitals that provide life-changing care for all kids.

Visit us online at cmm.org.

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