Enter Mr. Lee . . . and Emi

Thursday night was the first time that Emilio sat down with me to pay close attention to a sports event for an extended amount of time, as we watched innings 6 through 9 of the Rangers game against the Angels. Surprisingly, the Rangers actually rewarded us for our troubles.

Coming in to this, the opening game of a four-game series, the Rangers were in the unusual position of leading the division--and the second-place Angels--in late July. Not only that, we were leading the division by a league-leading five games. Newly acquired pitcher Cliff Lee got his third start--which was great for Emilio because this guy must work as fast as anybody in MLB history. It's all strikes, and no more than ten pitches in the 7th, the 8th, or the 9th. Emilio pointed out that his name is like that of Clifford, the Big Red Dog, and after that, we started calling him "Clifford."

Emilio already sort of knew the name of 3B Michael Young, whose image is preserved in nesting doll form at Aunt Carolyn's house, and I've been trying to get him used to hearing "Vladi-Dadi," the nickname of first-year Ranger, Vladimir Guerrero. When Vladi came to bat, I'd say "C'mon, Vladi; show us your Dadi." I pointed out the last name of our best player, outfielder Josh Hamilton, is the same as the middle name of Emilio's grandfather and his uncle Brian. When Hamilton came to bat, I'd call out "Josh-U-A: Show us the way!" and sing "Joshua fi't the battle of Jericho . . . " (Emi didn't reach the point of joining me in these rituals, but I think he'll eventually come around.) I pointed out that OF Nelson Cruz has the same name as Aunt Judy and cousins Gary, Amy, Noah, and Daniel (the family Nelsons Emi remembers meeting). And we talked about how SS Elvis Andrus has the same name as the Beatles' friend, Elvis Presley. I didn't manage to generate a hook for the remaining starters: C Bengie Molina, 1B Chris Davis, 2B Ian Kinsler (though, I noted his tall red socks), or CF Julio Borbon. It was easy to work with RP Neftali Feliz, whose last name is easily readable. "Hazme feliz!" was the call.

In the bottom of the sixth, Josh-U-A broke a 1 to 1 tie, by doubling in Vladi-Dadi (see image at right). Later, C Bengie Molina sac-flied Josh-U-A in for a third run. We missed Angel Mike Napoli's homer in the top of the seventh because we were in the kitchen eating the remnants of a Blueberry Muffin experiment gone wrong (it was actually kinda tasty). Over the course of the remaining innings, I showed Emi who the ump was and how he signals good pitches and bad pitches. I am looking forward to future experiences like this one in the days, weeks, months, and years ahead of us.

Final score: Rangers 3, Angels 2. And the Rangers lead in the AL West increases to 6 games.

Click here for highlights (of the game, not the spectator work).