Twenty years ago next week my friend Nick and I were in San Antonio, Texas exploring the Alamo when we learned that retiring baseball legend Nolan Ryan was pitching his last home opener that night in Arlington. With a sense of urgency we gassed up our rental car, bought some beef jerky, spicy fried pork rinds, and a Big Red soda, and high-tailed it up Interstate 35 for 250 miles to the last home opener ever at Arlington Stadium.
We arrived at the stadium with the game already in the second inning, a complete sellout, and no ticket scalpers anywhere. Our opening night excitement was quickly fading as we loitered around the outside of the stadium hearing occasional cheers from the crowd and wondering why we had just driven four hours for nothing. Then, we noticed fans coming out of the stadium to smoke in a designated area. As they left the stadium, their tickets were initialed on the back by the usher watching the gate. Ah, a crack in the armor we thought!
When some fans started to leave the game for good a few innings later, we asked them if we could have their used ticket. After a few rejections and quizzical looks, we were given two used tickets. We went over to the smoking area and with our best Texas drawl said, “How y’all doin’?” After establishing some rapport with the smoking Texans, we were able to borrow a ballpoint pen from a deep-voiced, big-haired, diva sucking on a Virginia Slims. While we chatted about the ATF-Branch Davidians stand-off in Waco that was in progress, she showed us the initials that were written on the back of her ticket. We tried to recreate the initials as best we could. With a forged ticket in hand, and nestled-in amongst a strolling group of smoking friends, we walked right past the unquestioning gate usher. Just that fast, we were into the opener for free!
We found some open seats down the left field line and we celebrated messing with Texas with a Lone Star draft beer. The grass seemed greener, the smell of freshly popped popcorn filled the air, and the crack of the bat and the roar of the crowd sounded sharper than ever before. There just seems to be a heightened sense of enjoyment when you feel like you‘re getting away with something.
We got to see Nolan Ryan pitch a couple of innings and as the game grew older and more fans left we kept improving our seat location. By the time Palermo and Canseco hit back-to-back homeruns in the 6th inning, we were sitting behind the Rangers dugout, not too far from future President George W. Bush, who at the time was just the principal owner of the Texas Rangers.
“See A Game At Every Major League Ballpark” is one of my ‘in-progress’ bucket list goals. So far, I’ve seen baseball games in 33 different major league baseball stadiums – paying for most of them!
