The Texas Rangers pulled out a victory over the Los Angeles Angels in their final game of the season on Sunday to force a one-game playoff against the Tampa Bay Rays. The one-game playoff on Monday night will determine which team gets to participate in the other one-game playoff that is now the wild card round.
With the coming down to game No. 162, you would think the game would have been sold out and then some. Instead, there were roughly 9,000 seats left empty in Arlington. Ian Kinsler was not proud of that.
“We’ve been to the postseason three years in a row,” Kinsler said, via ESPNDallas.com. “We’re fighting for our playoff lives. I’m just a little disappointed this place wasn’t sold out and rocking. You can’t say it’s the Cowboys because they were on the road. The fans were chanting ‘baseball town’ and stuff like that, and we can’t sell out.”
Perhaps the most ironic part about the absence of a sellout was that the 40,000-plus Rangers fans who were in attendance could be heard chanting “baseball town” at Josh Hamilton at one point, which is a reference to some comments the former Ranger made after leaving the team in free agency.
“The fans that were here were amazing,” Kinsler added. “They were allowed to chant ‘baseball town’ because they were here supporting us. It was a little disappointing to see the place wasn’t sold out today.”
Fortunately for the fans who chose to stay home and watch football all Sunday afternoon, the Rangers closed out the regular season with their seventh-straight victory. If any fans regret not heading to the stadium to support their team, they have another opportunity to do so on Monday. Something tells me that one will be a sellout.
H/T Hardball Talk
