Today is the first Arkansas Razorback football game of the season.  The Razorbacks are taking on the Missouri State Bears at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.  Go Hogs Go!

Some Exciting Former Hog News:

• Former Hog baseball player Craig Gentry has been called up from AA Frisco to the majors – the Texas Rangers.  Northwest Arkansas has been fortunate enough to keep up with Craig’s progress through the Rangers organization because Frisco plays the Northwest Arkansas Naturals.  Good luck, Craig!

Brad Keselowski has helped Dale Earnhardt Jr make JR Motorsports a weekly contender in the NASCAR Nationwide series.  Brad has 5 wins in the NW series and got his first Cup series win in April at Talladega.  Penske Racing announced Tuesday that Brad will join them beginning in 2010 and will drive the #12 Penske Dodge in the Sprint Cup series.  Congratulations Brad on this great opportunity!  Just remember that Rick Hendrick & Hendrick Motorsports isn’t out of reach!

The Northwest Arkansas Naturals have 3 games left (with only 1 win needed) and they will have clinched a Texas League playoff spot for the 2nd straight season (in only 2 seasons in existence in NWA).  Good luck Naturals against the Tulsa Drillers this weekend!

The Northwest Arkansas Naturals opened their 2009 home season on Thursday evening at Arvest Ballpark in Springdale.

The first home series of the season was against the San Antonio Missions.  The Naturals won the series with 5-4 win on Thursday night and a 5-2 win last night.

Thursday & Friday night I sat in my regular seats, which are located kind of behind home base.  My view is what you see in this picture.

Saturday night me, Shelby, Mom, & Dad got tickets to sit up in a suite.

Both views are great.  I like sitting in my regular seat because of how close it is to the action.  I also like sitting up in the suite because you get a whole different perspective on the action.

Friday night was a special night called “Pink in the Park”.  The Naturals wore pink uniforms.

The uniforms were auctioned off at the end of the night with proceeds going to the Susan G Komen Foundation to help fund breast cancer research.

As I mentioned in a blog entry earlier this afternoon, northwest Arkansas has been fighting the rain off and on all weekend.  Both Friday & Saturday evening games saw rain coming down pretty steadily at times.

We saw a rainbow on Friday night.

Saturday night’s rain required the tarp to be rolled out.  Luckily, the rain quickly passed and, as you can see in the picture above, the Naturals crew got to put the tarp back up and finish the ballgame.

Springdale resident Vance Wilson has joined the NWA Naturals this year.  He has previously caught for the New York Mets & Detroit Tigers.  He has been rehabbing from elbow surgery and is expected to join the play rotation soon.  There were lots of VDub fans in the audience each night.

Check out my photo album from the Naturals-Missions series.

It’s hard to believe it but 2008 is almost over.  While there have been a couple of personal challenges this year, the year as a whole has been a very good one.

2008 was a year of traveling, or so it seemed at times.  (You can read all about my travels this year, if you’d like, by visiting my My Travels page.)  I added 5 new states – Nevada, Arizona, Ohio, Michigan, & Georgia – to my list of states I’ve visited in my lifetime.  My mom, sisters, and I took a great unforgettable trip to North Carolina in June.  It was full of sight seeing, family history, and even a bit of NASCAR.

(more…)

The Northwest Arkansas Naturals, Kansas City Royals AA affiliate and formerly known as the Wichita Wranglers, will officially open Arvest Ballpark this afternoon at 4 pm followed by the first home game in northwest Arkansas at 6 pm.

Some items to look forward to…
-Joe Nichols (Rogers, AR native) will sing the national anthem.
-There will be an F16 flyover following Joe’s performance.
-All players will be introduced. I’m especially looking forward to the introduction and play of catcher Cody Clark (Fayetteville, AR native).
-George Brett (former Kansas City Royal player) will be appearing.
-Professional baseball in Northwest Arkansas! (While I am not the biggest baseball fan, this does excite me very much.)

I’m headed to the ballpark about 4:30. I’ll post photos as soon as I can.