Low Fastball Launches Baseball’s Interleague Era

At 7:11 p.m. Thursday, in the gathering dusk of a cloudless June day, Darren Oliver fired a fastball to Darryl Hamilton. The pitch was low, and Hamilton took it for a ball.

This was no ordinary fastball, and this was no ordinary baseball game. Oliver had thrown the first pitch of the first regular-season game between the National League and the American League. Baseball history had been made, right here at The Ballpark in Arlington, and a thousand flashbulbs twinkled.

The 62nd game of the Texas Rangers’ season and the 3,975th game in their 26-year history was under way, and this was a game like no other. Because of a quirk in the schedule that included three other interleague games on the West Coast, the Rangers and San Francisco Giants became the first teams to play an interleague regular-season game.

And the Giants became the first winner of an interleague game by beating the Rangers 4-3. A sellout crowd of 46,507 packed the park to see the game, buy some souvenirs and say to their friends that they were there.

Some of them even asked Rangers’ manager Johnny Oates to sign their ticket stubs.

“I tried to talk them out of it,” Oates said after the game. “I told them, ‘You don’t know what this ticket is going to be worth - without my name on it.”’ Even before Oliver’s pitch, Thursday was a day to remember. It is not every day that Willie Mays comes to town, after all.

Mays, who once played center field for the Giants, is now the team’s special assistant to the president, which means he shows up on special days like this. He and Nolan Ryan, the Rangers’ special assistant to the president, showed up for a noon luncheon at the ballpark.

Ryan and Mays, 66, delighted a sellout crowd at the Diamond Club by telling a lot of old stories about their careers. Ryan got a big laugh when he said he would love to pitch to the Rangers’ pitchers who will be hitting for the first time when the Rangers play in Colorado next week.

Then it was Mays’ turn. He told the crowd that he liked the idea of interleague play.

“Don’t judge it by just one game,” Mays said. “If you don’t like it, write the commissioner.”

Currently there is no commissioner, but the audience got the point.

The crowd got to the ballpark early - much earlier than usual. Clayton Lougee, 13, of Dallas was there when the gates opened at 4 p.m.

He and his mother, Beth, quickly staked out seats near the Giants’ dugout and were waiting for Hamilton to stop.

“I’m a good mom,” Beth Lougee said, smiling.

Clayton had an old black bat that Hamilton had used when he played for the Rangers, and this was his only chance to get it signed. Hamilton ran past.

“Hey, Darryl!” Clayton hollered.

Hamilton kept running. Lougee shrugged.

“It’s fun to be out here watching them take batting practice,” he said.

Because he is a former Ranger and because he was the first batter in an interleague game, Hamilton was busy. He ran from interview to interview before the Giants took batting practice.

All around him, newspaper and TV photographers crowded the field, looking for a special shot. There were not many. When Rangers’ first baseman Will Clark, a former Giant, gave Giants’ broadcaster Mike Krukow a hug before batting practice, there were 10 minicams recording the moment.

“Probably after the fact I’ll be able to appreciate this a lot more,” Hamilton said. “But this is pretty much up there. I’ll be the first hitter, and it’s obviously a thrill to be the first one to be able to do that.”

Out in the concourse, there were lines at the concession stands where there are usually not lines. The special interleague merchandise was selling briskly. So were the special commemorative programs.

Tracy Quiring stood behind a podium near the first-base entrance, selling scorecards. There was still more than an hour left before Oliver’s first pitch, and she said she had sold more than 15 cases of programs, 16 to a case.

She was asked how many she usually sells.

“On a Thursday? Maybe two cases,” she said.

“This is wonderful,” she said. “The All-Star Game (at Arlington in 1994) and the playoffs (last year) were like this. This is a little different. The fans are different. You can feel the electricity in the air. They’re all up for it.”