I had been thinking about my parents, and then I spent the last couple of days reading stories on twitter from Rangers fans who were thinking of their parents and the gift of a lifelong love of baseball. I decided last night that I would take it on the chin to create a memory for my 7-year old, so he and I made the trek this morning.
We got there about 10A, and the line was a bout 4-5 people deep where we set up. By 1PM, it was 25-30 people deep
behind us. Just absolutely bonkers. I talked to a guy on the front when he passed us to head to the bathroom, and he said his crew camped out all night. Another said they got there at 5:45AM.
I was not prepared for the shear number of people drinking tequila, shouting f-bombs, and passing weed back and forth. Especially since we were set up close to where the cops and EMS were situated. Of course, the police and EMS had to relocate once the crowd got that thick, which was funny. Of course while I was hyper fixated on all of this, my son missed it all and had a blast, so mission accomplished.
A couple of comments about the parade itself:
- They should have thrown the players on flatbed box trucks they were trucking the barriers around on. If they didn't want to do that and give each player a tundra, fine, but they should have staggered them better. We were close to the end so we could dip out ASAP, and man the gapping was something else. Nobody at all for 5-10 minutes, then three trucks of dudes, then another 10 minutes, then one truck, another 5 mins, three trucks, etc etc. For a parade that was supposed to start at 12:15 and last an hour, we had to check out about 2:10P when the kid had finally worn out and caught fractions of Heim and Semien. Missed Seager and Bochy entirely.
- For all the people and the profanity and the drinking, everyone was in a really good mood. It never felt unsafe, despite a staggering number of face tattoos. It was the same vibe I had watching the mavs parade. Just a mass of humanity there to have a good time. People were courteous, weren't shoving or trying to snipe spots, and the folks around me enjoyed my kiddo leading chants of "Let's go, Rangers!"
Was it a beating? Absolutely.
Did my kid enjoy it? Absolutely.
Am I glad I went? Absolutely.
Would I got to the next one? Absolutely not.