the purpose of going was to get arod’s autograph. he was signing at 10 and we got there to get in line at 8 thinking we were getting there early to be safe. turns out people had been camping out and we weren’t early enough. ended up settling for raffy who was signing at noon. got teixeira later in the day when he was still not widely known.

Of all of things that I have been involved in over the years with the Rangers, the Winter Carnival/Fan Fest is one that I am very proud of.
We were the second club to start a winter type event, way back in 1987. I attended some baseball business meetings in Phoenix in late 1986 and heard about this event the Cubs had, called the Cubs Fans Convention. The had held it in hotel, autographs, q & a sessions and it sound like a great event. That same winter I went to Mickey’s Christmas Party at Disney World. There was a charge, but after that free cookies and hot chocolate, free gift for everyone in the family and then a family photo with Mickey and Minnie.
Taking everything that I heard about the Cubs Convention, taking some of the ideas at Mickey’s Christmas Party, the Rangers Winter Carnival was born in February 1988.
I also convinced our ticket people to put individual tickets on sale for one day. We had players signing autographs, we had some sponsor booths, you could run the bases at old Arlington Stadium, we had a photo booth, best part it was free. We expected around 2,000, we ended up with 6,000.
Over the years it has grown, was stopped for a couple of years. We went to a 2-day event for several years, added the convention center next door with a huge collector’s show…..we had a wiffle ball park inside in the convention center…..our best year was February 1994, 16,000 fans for the 2 days….the event alone was never designed to make money for itself, but to create some interest and sell either individual tickets or season tickets on a weekend when there was much else happening.
This year, there will much of the same….pop ups on the field, run the bases, player autographs and some clinics, we are even working on some fans taking some ground balls on the field….Cubs, Cardinals and some other clubs charge a lot more than we do and in the Cardinals case, they auction off spots for autographs…..$10 for us and kids get in free…….it is a nice day of baseball between the NFL Championship games and the Super Bowl…..It is still a pretty good event and we tie it into the same weekend of our awards dinner, so most of the players will be here to sign and do q & a sessions…….
If you have any questions about the Rangers Fan Fest, please email me at cmorgan@texasrangers.com or call me at 817 273-5006.
Thanks
Chuck