(CNN) -- To be a Texas Rangers baseball fan doesn't compare to the prestige of growing up in the shadows of Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park or Wrigley Field. The pinstriped jerseys, classic uniforms and ball caps of those Major League Baseball teams are timeless and have become iconic touchstones in pop culture.





It's easy to be a baseball fan if you root for teams with rich history like the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and both Chicago teams, the Cubs and White Sox.





Baseball purists must have cringed back in 1972 when the Rangers unveiled the team logo of a baseball wearing a 10-gallon cowboy hat.





Calling the Rangers your team meant you truly loved baseball.





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The Yankees spent decades playing in the "House that Babe Ruth Built" while the Rangers spent most of my childhood playing in an uninspired location. The "stadium" was a converted minor-league field that looked like an open-air county arena better suited for rodeos than baseball games. But it was our Ebbets Field.





Just hours before Opening Day in 1975, a helicopter was brought in to hover over the wet field to dry out two days worth of rain. The result? The chopper crashed and gashed the field just beyond third base.





It would take another 20 years for the Texas Rangers to taste the playoffs. But the "Curse of the Rotor Blade" doesn't have the same mystique as the Red Sox's "Curse of the Bambino" or the Cubs' "Curse of the Billy Goat."





The Rangers team was a collection of misfit has-beens and never-would-bes who made every kid think, "If these guys can be ballplayers, surely I can be one, too."





April 12, 1991, was my chance to impress the Rangers scouts. Before the game, I was invited to play in a fly-ball catching contest. After hearing the stadium announcer call my name, I trotted out onto the hallowed grass of Arlington Stadium. A pitching machine launched the first two fly balls toward me, and with thousands of people watching, I snagged both balls.





One more catch and the entire stadium would be rewarded with a free medium soft drink from Wendy's. This is where I learned never to underestimate America's love for winning free stuff no matter how trivial it might be. The crowd came to its feet and erupted into the loudest cheers I think I've ever heard.





The machine launched a major league pop fly that seemed to take forever to come down. As I started to fall over I put my glove up and felt the ball smack the leather webbing. I got up, looked into the glove and it was still there. That was the first time I was able to scream, "Free drinks for everyone!" I ran off the field in glory. I still have that ball. I had all my buddies with me that day autograph it, just like real ball players do.





Chicago has its "Lovable Losers" in the Cubs. Rangers fans needed Lone Star beer to love its losers. Even the most fanatic baseball fan is hard-pressed to name the players who we called our own. Pete O'Brien, Larry Parrish, Oddibe McDowell, Jeff Russell, Gary Ward. Who? We watched a guy named Charlie Hough throw 50 mph knuckleballs and then puff on cigarettes in the dugout between innings.





We went to the stadium and bought $4 outfield seats. All for the privilege of watching terrible baseball in the scorching Texas heat, suffering third-degree burns from sitting on the metal bleacher seats.





In those early years, the season of hope was usually short-lived. You could count on the Rangers to be out of playoff contention by the end of May, which was fine. We had bigger things to focus on, like the Dallas Cowboys packing their bags for training camp. The losing kept the bleacher seats cheap, which was fine for most fans.





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