Friday night I was invited by my friend Jeremy to the Round Rock Express baseball game. The Express is the local AAA baseball team affiliated with the Houston Astros and they are part of the Pacific Coast League (even though the Pacific Ocean is almost 2000 miles away).
I had a pretty good time despite all the annoying rain and then the inevitable rain delay the umpires declared after the game stopped at the end of the ninth inning with a 5-5 tie. Our persistence was rewarded. The game was resumed after 30 minutes, fireworks and rock music on the PA. Since most people went home, we all took the vacant seats behind home plate to watch a nail-biting victory for the Express, putting them ahead in the series 2-1 over the Nashville Sounds (the AAA team for the Milwaukee Brewers who happen to be few hundred more miles away from the Paficic Ocean than we are.
The Express won the entire best-of-five series today after losing Saturday’s game. Now they take on the Tuscon Sidewinders.
Oh, the name? The Express. The team is named after a train theme and an active rail line near the diamond. I recall two trains went by during the game Friday; an Amtrak and a freight one. Ten years ago, I was part of the Austin vote of “no” that won by a ratio of 2-1 against the city putting up a bond to build a stadium for the AA team the MLB was going to move here called The Swing (in honor of Bob Wills & the Texas Playboys, not the very visible gay culture). Trust me, The Express is a much better name. Now if they could do something about calling their ballpark the Dell Diamond. See, in order to stay consistent with Dell’s notorious tax-dodging strategies, they move the name to a nearby parking lot when there aren’t any games so the corporation doesn’t have to pay any taxes on it. Just like how they “hide” their inventory of manufacturing parts and unsold computers.