Just minutes after clinching the American League pennant on Friday night, Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler made quite the proclamation.
With a sea of red engulfing the diamond at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Kinsler told a television reporter how the dynamic of Dallas-Fort Worth was about to change — possibly forever.
"It's not a football town anymore. I'll tell you that," Kinsler said with a confident smile. "We're going to make this a baseball town."
Sure, the Rangers postseason run has been a blast, but come on, this is Texas. Home of Friday Night Lights. Home of America's Team.
Fast-forward to Monday night, just across Pennant Drive, at Cowboys Stadium, aka the Death Star, just before Lando and Admiral Ackbar & Co. blew it up for good.
During the Cowboys' 41-35 loss to the New York Giants, a large group of fans began chanting:
"Let's go Rangers (clap, clap, clap, clap, clap), Let's go Rangers (clap, clap, clap, clap, clap)."
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And it didn't stop there. In the ESPN postgame coverage, analyst Steve Young was pronouncing the Cowboys dead but was being drowned out by the same chant — live, and for all the nation to see and hear.
Now, all Dallas fans have to look forward to until a possible Mavs or Stars playoff run is the Rangers in the World Series, and this city has caught a serious case of pennant fever.
The Rangers face a different Giants team, on the opposite coast of those New York blues, and a win in the Fall Classic, America's Pastime, could change the landscape of this city for years to come. Could DFW become a baseball first city with a good football team like New York or Boston?
Not to get ahead of ourselves, but regardless of what happens, this season has been a resounding success for the Rangers, and the future appears very bright with no significant free agents to re-sign except for that Lee fella, and a looming blockbuster television deal that has been labeled a "game changer".
Could our friend Ian have been right? Who knows. Making one of the nation's football hotbeds a baseball town is quite a task, but if there's one thing the 2010 Rangers have shown it's that they do a lot of things folks don't expect them to. Why should this be any different?
