Students all over the nation skipped school today. They didn’t do it to prove a point in front of city hall or because of a religious holiday. They skipped school because they all wanted to be a part of Major League Baseball’s opening day.
Students and workers in our area followed the trend as the Texas Rangers started their season at home against the Boston Red Sox.
The Rangers lost the game 7-3, which began at 1 p.m. The afternoon game was crowded with men and women missing work and their children missing school.
The sell-out crowd of 51, 541 was the most ever at Ameriquest Field in Arlington.
The Red Sox started Curt Schilling, who had previously never lost against the Rangers, and Texas threw their rotations new ace, Kevin Millwood. It was Schilling’s first opening day start in seven years, but that didn’t seem to affect his performance. He only gave up two runs in seven innings, both coming off of Hank Blalock’s sixth-inning home run.
Millwood’s outing was a little more up and down. He retired ten of the first eleven batters he faced before David Ortiz singled in the fourth. Trot Nixon then reached on a two out walk, and Jason Varitek knocked in both runs with his double in the right-center gap.
The Red Sox scored again on a two-out RBI double by Mark Loretta and a two-run home run off the right foul pole by David Ortiz. Mike Lowell, Boston’s new third baseman, also homered in the win.
Despite the losing effort from the home team, many fans were still more than happy about missing school. University of Texas at Arlington students Gian-Marc Cappacioli and Bradley Webb both skipped classes to watch their favorite team play ball.
“You know, today is such a beautiful day, and the Rangers actually have a chance of doing something this year. I just figured why not go to opening day. It only comes once every season. Not everybody gets to be here,” Capaccioli said. He missed both an economics and accounting class to sit in a $5 upper-deck seat.
Webb, who chose to skip an English mid-term review class to go to the game, said, “Opening day at the ballpark is something special. You just get a good feeling just by being in the ballpark. Your team doesn’t have to win; you just feel good being here.”
The 0-1 record doesn’t sway some of the fans’ outlook on the rest of the 162 game season. “One game doesn’t matter. We’re still in good shape. Don’t worry,” Capaccioli said.
Among interesting guests in the record-setting crowd was seven-time Cy Young winner Roger Clemens. Clemens was a guest of Rangers owner Tom Hicks, and they sat in Hick’s field-level box for the first half of the game.
The Rangers will play two more home games against Boston in this series. The first is set to begin Tuesday night at 8:05 p.m., and the final game of the series is at the same time on Wednesday night.
Among interesting game notes: rookie second baseman Ian Kinsler recorded a single in his first major league at bat.
Also, Rangers’ hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo underwent prostate cancer surgery last Tuesday and is recovering in New York. The hitting coach’s No. 8 jersey hung above the entrance to the Rangers’ dugout, and when Jaramillo’s name was introduced with the rest of the team during pre-game, the hanging jersey was shown on the big screen.
