Texas Rangers can’t defeat Toronto but ‘beat’ COVID in worst Opening Day ever | Opinion

Sorry, Texas Rangers, you had it coming.

Your fans, and the Arlington taxpayers, did not.

From the moment they pushed Nolan Ryan out the door, to their leveraging Arlington taxpayers for another new venue when a perfectly good one existed, no new stadium in the history of sports has ever “opened” as badly as our Globe Life Hay Barn.

(FWIW: The Rangers and Arlington again combined to build a nice stadium, and once you get over the second mortgage required to pay for parking, tickets, beer and a hot dogs you will worship the air conditioning.)

When the president of the United States makes it a point to condemn your home opener over the team’s laughable COVID protocols for this one game, you got problems.

Don’t worry, Joe Biden is probably a Blue Jays fan, which after watching Toronto trash Texas 6-2 on Monday, who can blame him?

When the governor of Texas makes it a point to boycott his scheduled invitation to throw out the first pitch on the day of the game, because he wants to keep politics in sports, you got mo’ problems.

Gov. Greg Abbott told the Rangers on Monday morning he would not be throwing out the first pitch, as a shot at MLB’s decision to move its All-Star Game out of Atlanta over Georgia’s new voting laws.

He also said Texas will not host any MLB special events, either. The Texas Rangers have our governor’s back as they won’t be making the playoffs in 2021.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick should have been on a hyper jet to replace Greg Abbott on the mound for the first pitch. No one lobbied for this type of event any harder than our Lieutenant Dan, and he should have been toeing the rubber to show America how it’s done down here in Texas.

Preferably without a mask, and his No. 1 foam (middle) finger pointed at the CNN cameras.

The traditional home opener, which was already delayed a full year because of COVID, was a disaster before the ceremonial first pitch, and then came the Rangers pitchers.

It’s one thing to say the Texas Rangers have a bad pitching staff, and another thing to experience it in full, three dimension and surround sound complete with deafening groans from 40,000 fans.

The highlight of the game was watching Rangers pitcher Kyle Cody drill three Blue Jays batters, and a fan who won a contest that yielded him free Whataburger for a year.

To not have any sympathy for the Texas Rangers fans, and the Arlington taxpayers, would require a heart blacker than any Disney villain.

When a sports team plans to move into a new venue, one of the primary goals is to have a good team for the unveiling. Or pretty good.

Preferably not the worst team ever.

The Rangers had years to prepare for this, and this may be one of the worst teams in franchise history.

The 2021 version of the Texas Rangers may actually be worse than the 2020 version.

Last year’s team finished with a .367 winning percentage in the shortened 60-game season. That was the third-worst in the history of the Texas Rangers.

When the Rangers and the city of Arlington proposed to build this new stadium in May of 2016, one of the selling points was they needed a shiny new toy to remain competitive in Major League Baseball.

The Arlington taxpayers forked over $450 million ... for this. Owner Ray Davis owes every voter a hand written note of apology, with a co-signature from team president Jon Daniels.

Only the Rangers would move into a new $1.2 billion stadium, stuck in a team rebuild that has no visible end.

Nothing about Monday’s game felt like the unveiling of a new stadium, or a typical home Opening Day.

Because it wasn’t.

And while the Texas Rangers and Arlington taxpayers deserved better, the Texas Rangers did not.