Family Fanatics

Thank you to www.fanatics.com (a comprehensive site for all your sports apparel needs!) for the challenge to delve into our many memories of how sports has brought our family together. It’s been fun to walk down memory lane together as we talked about what I ought to post.

You see, sports has been part of our family’s life since the beginning. It all started way back with a football rivalry. My husband-to-be declared he would not only never become a Dallas Cowboys fan, but he hated the team with a passion. (For the record, it only took a decade or so of living in Dallas to convert him.) He did, however, embrace our Dallas Mavericks and Texas Rangers when he moved to Dallas, and when our kids came along, they shared our love of sports and competition from an early age. When our oldest entered kindergarden, she also joined her first sports team. And the rest, as they say, is history.

We’ve attended more youth soccer, basketball and baseball games than I could possibly count. More middle school and high school football, basketball, volleyball, softball and baseball games as well as our fair share of track meets. We’ve made family memories at college and professional sporting events as well as watched numerous games together on TV. And we’ve even established family traditions of participating in our own fantasy football league each fall and filling out our March Madness brackets each spring.

So yes, we are family fanatics!

When I began to think of a specific instance of sports bringing our family together, my mind sifted through many, many memories and finally landed on a very recent one. In the summer of 2013, my parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. My love of sports–and especially the Texas Rangers–originated in my childhood. Over the years, we have spent many, many wonderful hours together first at Arlington Stadium, then at The Ballpartk at Arlington (now Globe Life Park.) In fact, for the past few summers one of the highlights was gathering all the available family–grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins–and attending a game together.

Thus it seemed natural to include a Rangers game in celebrating our parents’ amazing milestone. Mom and Dad were there, of course, as well as their four children and our spouses and all thirteen grandchildren, ranging in age from 22 to 6. One of the best parts was watching the excitement of my three nephews who live overseas, all under 10, attending their very first game! Even better? It was dollar hot dog night!! (As you can see, most of us wore our Rangers gear. You can find your own here: http://www.fanatics.com/MLB_Texas_Rangers)

I don’t really remember if the Rangers won the game. In the end, it really didn’t matter. The venue provided an opportunity to enjoy the lovely Texas evening, the intricacies and excitement of baseball, and conversation and camaraderie with one another. We came away with memories to last a lifetime.