Their shot.


Watching the first three weeks of exhibition games is what it must be like being a Baltimore Orioles fans. What you’re watching resembles major league baseball but it’s not major league baseball.

But the beauty of spring training games is it might be the only time most of these players ever gets to put on a Texas Rangers uniform.

Let them savor that moment. 

Every kid who ever plays tee-ball dreams of being a major league baseball player. Most don’t make it past high school baseball, if they even make it that far.

The really good ones get drafted and signed. 

Most of those never see a moment of big league daylight. So, spring training is as close as they will come to the dream.

Ryan Dorow got an at-bat in Friday’s exhibition opener. He was a thirtieth-round pick in the 2017 draft. He’s so far off the depth chart they’d have to send a submarine to find him. 

Will catcher Matt Whatley ever play in a regular season major league game? This might be the closest he gets. 

Henry Ramos is a twenty-seven-year-old infielder who has kicked around the minor leagues for ten seasons. He’s gotten into all four games. Is this as far as his dream goes?

So, while these games are just long, slow water torture until the regular season begins, for so many players it’s a shot. Maybe it’s their only one. Maybe their last one. But it’s a shot every single one of them dreamed of their entire lives. 

Those are the guys these games are played for. And, really, the only reason these games matter.

*****
TODAY’S GAME:

Game time: 2:10