I have wonderful news to report. Katherine and I are engaged to be married. Here's how it happened. This past Saturday, after riding my bike with my friend Phil, I mentioned that Katherine and I were going to the game Sunday evening. I had told him during the ride that we were about to become engaged. Phil happens to know one of the owners of the Texas Rangers, Bob Simpson. Phil asked whether I would like to pop the question to Katherine during the game, on the big screen. What was I to say? Of course I would!
Phil and his wife Jean, to my astonishment, pulled it off. I had instructions to stay in our seats during the third inning, when the Kiss Cam would come on the screen. As the time drew near, I became nervous. All of a sudden, a cameraman appeared two rows in front of us. The Kiss Cam started and, within seconds, the cameraman pointed to me. I was on! With 37,000 fans watching! The screen said, "Katherine, will you marry me? Love, Keith." (Click the image in this post to enlarge it.) Katherine nodded in the affirmative (thank goodness!) and I put the beautiful diamond ring on her finger. We kissed, naturally.
I thanked the cameraman and accepted congratulations from fans in our section. One man gave me a high five. Another said, "Good work, dude!" The girl immediately in front of us somehow missed the event, because a few minutes later, she happened to turn around and see us. "Oh my god, was that you?" I wonder what she thought the cameraman was doing right in front of her!
Katherine and I were dying of thirst in the heat (it was 102º Fahrenheit at game time, with a high for the day of 104º), so we left our seats to buy lemonade. While we were on the concourse, several people congratulated us. We felt like celebrities! As we sat at a picnic table talking, Phil called to invite us into the owner's suite. There we found Phil, Jean, and our friends Randy and Darcy. We spent the rest of the game in the suite, which gave us a terrific view of the game.
Speaking of the game, the Texas Rangers fell behind the Cleveland Indians, 3-0, only to rally with five runs late and win, 5-3. That gives Katherine and me a 9-8 record this year, with at least four games to go. Michael Young of the Rangers got his 2,000th career hit. Does it get any better?
Thanks (again) to Phil and Jean for making our engagement so memorable. Thanks to Randy and Darcy for driving up from Granbury to share it with us. Thanks to Bob Simpson and his assistant Anissa of the Rangers for making it all happen. We are truly blessed to have such wonderful friends in our lives.
Addendum: Before each home game, the Rangers send nine kids to the fielding positions to await the arrival of the players. Each kid has a baseball and a pen. When the players arrive, they sign the balls and send the kids back to the dugout. It's a nice touch. Yesterday, a five-year-old kid was designated to play catcher. As he watched the other kids run to their positions, he decided to run with them. He got almost to the rightfield fence before the Rangers' horse mascot caught him. It was hilarious! The mascot put the kid under his arm and carried him back to the plate, then bent over as if having a heat stroke. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time.
