Longtime Rangers fans spare no expense for Game 5 Toronto trip

Randy Lyne is not your average Texas Rangers fan. He’s hard-core and he has the financial means to take his fandom to the extreme. That includes flying up Wednesday morning with friends John Folmar and Steve Herndon for Game 5 at the Rogers Centre.

Lyne owns Preferred Pump, a water drilling and pump products company in Fort Worth, and hadn’t missed a Rangers playoff game home or road since 2010. That is until he missed the first two games in Toronto because of a business trip in Phoenix.

Lyne, 67, of Westover Hills, wasn’t going to miss the deciding Game 5. The season ticket holder who has 24 seats in Section 32 at Globe Life Park has been a die-hard Rangers fan since 1975, when he was a ripe 27 years old. Folmar, 69, a water well contractor from Sulphur Springs, didn’t hesitate to come along when Lyne pitched the idea.

“It’s the only way I get friends,” joked Lyne about his season tickets. They bought sixth-row tickets on StubHub for $650 each. Herndon got his for $350, but he was all the way back on the 16th row. How will he manage?

Say what?

This week’s Sports Illustrated has the Toronto Blue Jays on the cover and included in the magazine is an advertisement from Dickies, a Fort Worth-based company called Williamson-Dickie Manufacturing Co., to be precise. Something caught our eye about the ad. It reads: “He turns grass, dirt and chalk into diamonds,” referring to Blue Jays groundskeeper Ben Jamieson.

I’m sure he’s an excellent groundskeeper. Just one thing: Rogers Centre uses artificial turf. No grass. Sure, there is dirt around the bases, and he’s got chalk lines to draw, but grass? That’s a swing and a miss. We’re happy he’s proudly wearing Dickies, though.

Nod to the past

Former Blue Jays slugger George Bell, who was part of Toronto’s first good teams in the 1980s, threw out the first pitch before Game 5. He follows former Jays manager Cito Gaston and pitcher Pat Hentgen, who had the honors in Games 1 and 2.

Big Jays fan

Former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford was in attendance for Game 5.

This story was originally published October 14, 2015 at 5:25 PM with the headline "Longtime Rangers fans spare no expense for Game 5 Toronto trip."