Opening Day 2016: Seattle @ Texas (4/4/16)
One of the few things in baseball that I had not had the fortune of attending still was an Opening Day. I was able to plan a whole weekend full of not only baseball but also wrestling. WrestleMania XXXII was set to take place the day before Opening Day right down the road at AT&T Stadium. After witnessing the biggest spectacle in sports entertainment the night before it was time to attend my first ever Opening Day.
Game time was set for 3:05 CT so the gates opened up three hours early for batting practice. This is always a big help in getting to see the Rangers take Batting Practice too and two of my three baseballs on the day would come from Rangers BP. With it being in the 80’s and the Texas heat beating down I elected to play right field exclusively.
The first group of Rangers came and went without me catching a ball. I had a chance early on in BP as a ball came flying to my right but unluckily for me it went to a guy in the row right in front of me. It wouldn’t take long though for me to get on the board for 2016 when Rougned Odor hit one almost right to me. That would be ball number 35 for me in my career and would be the first of two from Odor. Odor would hit another ball to me that needed only minimal effort on moving to my left to catch on the fly as well.
As for my third ball on the day it would come from an unknown Mariner who connected for a BP homer that went about ten rows up into the seats in right. A guy near me tried catching it but whiffed and it hit a seat and landed right at my feet for Ball #37 of my career.
As for the game it would be a rather quick game and a win for the Rangers. The Rangers mustered only one hit during the game but managed to still win 3–2 thanks in part to collecting six walks against King Felix.
Seattle Mariners 2 @ Texas Rangers 3
W — Cole Hamels (1–0)
L — Felix Hernandez (0–1)
S — Shawn Tolleson (1)
HR — SEA: Robinson Cano (1); Kyle Seager (1)
