It's Time !

Sportswriter Jim Reeves of ESPN Dallas and the Fort Worth Star Telegram writes that "Rangers fans must savor every last drop" of the American League Championship Series, noting that the "added drama only enchances incredible flavor, intoxicating aroma of what's at stake":

Fred Koenig, the one-time Rangers first base coach who now hits his fungoes in the highest league of all, taught me how to drink beer. Well, what he really taught me was how to appreciate good beer. To Fred, beer drinking, done right, was an art form.

Now I know that some of you believe that makes you at least a Picasso, if not a Michelangelo, and you have the beer belly to prove it. But quality, not quantity, is what Fred had on his mind that long ago night in Milwaukee.

I think it was his German roots talking. Fred believed that a good draft beer should arrive, cold and fresh, at the table with a full head bubbling at the top, maybe even spilling over the sides. If it didn't, he might well roll up a napkin and stir it around in his beer until the foam arose two, three inches thick. As Fred explained, that foam meant a full release of the flavors and the heady aromas of a good beer.

[...]

Koenig would have long ago warned the Rangers and all of us that this wouldn't be easy, that the clinching game is the toughest game to play in all of sports, but especially baseball. This is the Rangers' first time there, remember. All of this is uncharted territory.

It won't be easy Friday night to put the Yankees away, either. They have talent, they have history and even more, they have pinstriped pride. That all counts for something. The Yankees rarely give anything away. If you want their title, if you want that ticket to the World Series, you have to earn it; you have to take it. They're not likely to hand it to you on an engraved silver platter.

[...]

As for the rest of us, this is what Fred would say: Enjoy the moment. Savor it. Remember it.

Somebody stuck a rolled up napkin in this cold beer of a playoff series, stirred it up, and now we're getting the full taste sensation, the anticipation, the tension, the drama, the amazing high of something we've never felt before with this baseball team.

Sip it slowly. Savor the moment. Let it go to your head and open up all your senses.

Rangers fans, this one's for you.

Yes, savor it, Texas Rangers fans. Win or lose, tonight at the Ballpark, (and, if necessary, Saturday at the Ballpark) savor the atmosphere, savor the excitement, savor what it all means for the Rangers to be playing to go to the World Series.

Think about that for a moment. The World Frickin' Series !!! The Rangers !!! The Texas Frickin' Rangers playing for the opportunity to play in the World Frickin' Series !!! That's awesome. Savor that !!!

I know I will be. But I I wish I could be down there in Texas for it. If not at the Ballpark itself, at least in some bar with some of my oldest friends. Drinking Shiner beer, eating nachos, and watching the Rangers.

Watching the Texas Frickin' Rangers play for the opportunity to play in the World Frickin' Series.

Win or lose, I'm going to savor it.