Lunch With A Ranger

Well, former Ranger.

But first, an apology. I'm currently in the process of building the pages for my Ranger Team Set project.  I thought that I had scheduled everything to publish at midnight tonight so that it wouldn't clog up everyone's blog feeds, but apparently I messed up a few of them. I apologize for filling your feeds with things that you probably don't care about. Hopefully, it won't be an issue anymore.

However, the real story for today is that I was fortunate enough to have lunch with a former Ranger today. I went to lunch with my boss to a local pizza joint, where we were joined by my boss's friend (a successful businessman and golf course owner). He brought Geno Petralli, who played catcher (along with just about every other position) for the Rangers from 1985-1993. Petralli suffered a back injury in 1991 which landed him on the DL. To replace him, the Rangers called up Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez, who would never relinquish the starting spot until he left the Rangers in 2002. The first two home runs of Petralli's career were memorable: the first came off of now-Hall of Famer Phil Niekro, the second off of Roger Clemens (which tied the game).

I was like a little fangirl at a Justin Beaver concert, I'm sure. I tried to play it cool, but Petralli was one of my favorite players when I was a kid. Mostly because he had a bushy mustache and an awesome mullet, but he was still one of my favorites nonetheless. Naturally, I didn't have any cards with me, so I didn't get him to sign anything, nor did I ask for a picture - I didn't want to bother him while he was trying to eat. Regardless, it was still an awesome experience for me.

I've inserted a couple of cards so you can see the awesome flavor savor and lion's mane that Geno was rocking back in the day.  He's clean-cut now with no mustache. It was a little disappointing.