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Diary, September 14, 2003
The free ticket at Will Call was even better than I expected. Mr. Lopez got me a good seat behind home plate but even better, he sat next to me the WHOLE game. It was so cool to watch the game through the eyes of a scout.
He taught me a lot about the little things. He showed me how A-Rod makes his turn at second and I realized that my own footwork can benefit from watching this guy. He kind of gets a bad rap as a fielder but Mr. Lopez showed me how hard he works.
I watched another pitcher get shelled, this time unfortunately it was Brad Radke. He gave up seven runs in two innings and the Rangers lost 12-4. Marshall McDougall, who apparently got called up for the 40 man expansion, started at third today instead of Texiera and he looked terrible. He went 0-4 and made a terrible throwing error, bad for him but maybe good for me.
Texiera is going to finish the year hitting less than .230 while McDougall has been pretty bad since being called up. My agent tells me that the worse these guys do, the better my future looks. Of course, for this to matter, I've got to get back to playing third base.
Mr. Lopez offers to take me down to the clubhouse and maybe introduce me to a couple players, so I jump at the opportunity. I can't believe the way the clubhouse looks. I've seen better high school locker rooms than we have at Stockton but this place is like heaven. A huge food spread, nice new carpet, beautiful lockers, televisions everywhere, it just makes me long to play here even more.
I meet a couple of the players, most notably Rafeal Palmiero who was really nice. I wasn't sure what to expect since he does the Viagra commercials and all but he actually asked me about my season and talked hitting with me. I now have a sudden desire to hit the batting cages to try out some of the things he taught me!
Anyway, its time to leave for home to spend the winter. I told my Dad he better have the Dish ready because I want to watch as many Ranger games as possible while I'm relaxing. Too bad I won't be watching them in the playoffs.
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