ARLINGTON, Texas - Hate to say this, but Josh Hamilton was not so wrong.
That's not true - I don't hate to say this because I never thought Hamilton was incorrect when he said Arlington was not a "baseball town".
It's a football town with a great baseball team and plenty of good baseball fans. There just aren't enough of them.
These two pictures were taken in the second inning of the highly anticipated game between the Texas Rangers and Detroit Tigers on Thursday night at Rangers Ballpark. More to the point, it featured two first-place teams and the two best starting pitchers in the American League, Yu Darvish and Justin Verlander.
If you can't sell this out, or fill it up, you can't be a Baseball Town.
It can't be "Fireworks Night" every game.
You can't blame the weather - it was mild with a slight breeze and limited humidity. School night? OK, that one always works. Maybe it should have been Free Beer Night.
You can't blame the Rangers. The team is good, the park is wonderful, the guys are pros.
The last time the Rangers hosted a regular season game featuring a pitching matchup this big was April 30, 1989 when Nolan Ryan faced Boston's Roger Clemens.
That was Ryan's first year with the Rangers, and the game matched the hyped. Ryan pitched eight innings and allowed three hits, one run and whiffed 11. Clemens pitched eight innings, allowed six hits and two runs and struckout six but took the loss.
Rafael Palmeiro hit a two-run home run off Clemens in the bottom of the eighth for a 2-1 win in front of an announced crowd of 40,429 at Arlington Stadium.
On Thursday night, the announced crowd was 39,778.
Neither Verlander nor Yu were dominant. Verlander was awful, allowing eight runs on six hits in 2.2 innings. This is how bad Verlander was - he gave up a three-run home run to catcher Geovany Soto, who was hitting about .167 at the time of his at bat.
Yu was better, pitching into the seventh for another win.
Still a great night at the Ballpark, even in a non-baseball town.
@MacEngelProf
tengel@star-telegram.com
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