And, Now, the World Series ...

As I wrote the other day, folks in north Texas have been waiting a long time for a World Series to come here.

Tonight, the long wait comes to an end.

Well, not literally.

I mean, the first World Series game to be played in north Texas is still a few days away.

But tonight, the Texas Rangers will make their first World Series appearance when they take the field in San Francisco.

And a fellow named Darrell Cook — who happens to be a lawyer from Irving — will be there, too.

Cook made a motion to postpone a pretrial conference in a lawsuit in which he is participating so he could attend the game. That conference was supposed to be held this afternoon. But the judge granted the request.

OK, the postponement really isn't a big deal. As Mede Nix writes in the Dallas Morning News, the hearing really is a routine matter.

Still, why did it have to be postponed? The case involves the City of Irving and the Villas of Irving (which, Nix reports, Cook represents). If Cook has a partner, couldn't the partner attend the meeting in his place?

Should a baseball game — even the first game in the World Series — permit the judicial system to be slowed down even more than it already is?

Around here, I guess, some folks would say yes. Certainly, that's what Darrell Cook would say — if you could reach him. But he's probably flying to the West Coast right now — and you know the airlines don't like for folks to use their cell phones during flight.

Tim Cowlishaw writes, in the Dallas Morning News, that the Rangers will win in seven games — which would be quite dramatic. It certainly would set up a storybook ending with the Rangers looking for their first title and the Giants looking for their first since they were the New York Giants.

Over at the Fort Worth Star–Telegram, Ray Buck has learned there is some mileage to be gained from this Cinderella angle.

And Gil LeBreton, in a Star–Telegram column that most Giants fans are not likely to see (unless they surf over to the Star–Telegram's website), urges San Francisco baseball fans — for whom "Giants baseball ... torture" appears to have become a local rallying cry — not to compare their stories of victimization to the Rangers' fans. It's just no contest.

In another year — when the Cowboys weren't 1–5 and the Texas Longhorns weren't 4–3 — even a berth in the World Series for the Rangers might not warrant this much attention.

But sports fans around here are hungry for a winner, damn it!

And a majority of Sports Illustrated's "experts" think they'll get it.