Rangers make most of flight delay because of storms

Published May. 16, 2013 5:26 p.m. ET

foxsports

ARLINGTON, Texas – The Texas Rangers aren’t fans of Albuquerque.

That’s where the team had to spend a couple of unscheduled hours Wednesday after their flight from California to Texas had to be diverted because of the storms in the Metroplex.

The plane had to turn around and head back to New Mexico because of the weather and the team didn’t get to Love Field until about 1:30 Thursday morning, three hours later than scheduled.

“We really didn’t know,” second baseman Ian Kinsler said of the weather in the Metroplex. “It would have been nice to be home at 11 instead of 3 but those are the breaks. We’d rather be safe than try to land in the weather that going one here last night. We got our kangaroo court in. That was nice.”

Players passed the time by playing cards, watching movies and visiting the airport terminal. Kangaroo court was also an important player. There were even fines added because of the weather.

First baseman Mitch Moreland was watching a movie and not paying attention to the weather happenings. When the plane landed in New Mexico, he texted his wife and told her that he was home.

Moreland’s wife Susannah knew better because the players were tweeting about the delay on Twitter and because it was about 30 minutes before the flight was originally scheduled to land. Moreland had no idea until he took his headphones off and asked his teammates.

“I was a little confused,” Moreland said. “I got caught up in the movie I guess. I knocked that one out (in kangaroo court). It wasn’t a complete disaster. That was a little bit of fun. It brought the team together a little bit.”

So did picking on each other, with the favorite targets being Elvis Andrus and Derek Holland.

“We basically ragged on our own teammates the whole time,” outfielder David Murphy said.