The Rainmaker
There’ s a new Texas Miracle these days and it has nothing to do with Rick Perry. The greatest gift anyone could give this state is rain, rain and more rain. Perry tried with the aid of the man upstairs back in April but evidently that relationship has soured. Not only did we not get any response from Perry’s prayer fest but we incurred the worst heat and dry spell of any state in our history, even during the Oklahoma Dust Bowl days.
No, the new acknowledged messiah is the pitching phenom from Detroit, Justin Verlander. Considered the best pitcher in the league currently he was greeted for a second time by rain in this post season play. This time in the first ALCS game with the Texas Ranger last night he was able to pitch 4 full innings before the skies opened up, but not before the Rangers got 3 runs off of Verlander, which was enough to win the game.
Verlander himself has begun to notice he has a special talent and perhaps a connection with Bill Starbuck, the Burt Lancaster character in the 1956 film “The Rainmaker”. “If any part of the country has a drought, bring me in and I’ll fix it,” Verlander said. But unlike Starbuck who relied on fancy gadgets and widgets to give his schmaltzy con to the local rubes some credibility, Verlander merely needs to be in the vicinity to bring manna from heaven, or so many of us in drought-stricken Texas see it.
Texans worshipping their new messiah
The storm that delayed the game for nearly 2 hours stretched from San Antonio up to the Red River with enough rainfall that by today a new record of 5.83 inches was set in Waco, just 75 miles south of the Ranger’s Stadium at Arlington. This busted the old record of 3.36 inches set in 2003. Average rainfalls were 3-5 inches along the storm line.
Should Texas go on to win the ALCS and make their second trip to the World Series in as many years, Verlander will have a special place in the hearts of Texans for doing something that the man with all of the authority vested in him by the Constitution and Statutes of the State of Texas from Paint Creek Texas couldn’t even come close to.
I can’t believe the Phillies aren’t there Donna. I hate to see a team with a great record get knocked out in the first round but we’ve been there with our Dallas Mavericks back in 2007. I feel your pain.
All I can say to this Larry is BOOOOOOO! My Phillies aren’t there so I am being one, big, fat, sore loser! Love the post though and of course, the storm! The storm is nice. I will give you that.