Until Tuesday night, we’d never heard of Frisco. It was always just an abbreviation for San Francisco when both words didn’t fit in a headline or sound as cool in a conversation.
On Tuesday, we discovered Frisco is in Texas, and that a young ballplayer named Joey Gallo drove down Highway 121 and went from being a Frisco RoughRider to a Texas Ranger, then promptly destroyed the Chicago White Sox, who enjoy unparallelled popularity in our household.
Joey from Frisco was not popular here.
Up the road in the Dallas suburb, he is popular…maybe as popular as Carnival, the cruise line — you were wondering where this was all going, weren’t you? Carnival has a working agreement with the RoughRiders — the Rangers’ farm team — in what is likely the only example of a minor-league sports team having a major-league cruise line as an official sponsor.
This week, the cruise line threw a party for kids from Big Brothers Big Sisters, Boys & Girls Club and a handful of other organizations that give breaks to kids who need them. During a game between the RoughRiders and the Tulsa Drillers, the kids and the families took part in activities that included hitting softly tossed balls in an inflatable batter’s box, getting pictures taken with the players, making their own baseball cards, having Cracker Jack (and presumably peanuts, too) at the old ball game…even having a chance to win a free cruise.
All of it is part of being a good corporate citizen in Texas, where Carnival is king of the cruise lines. Besides winning the hearts of future cruisers, Carnival benefits by having one of its ship horns blasted every time a Frisco batter hits a home run, by having fireworks launched from a Carnival funnel and by having appropriate signage displayed at Dr. Pepper Ballpark.
It’s the second annual Carnival Kids Day in Frisco and the betting is there will be a third.
And why not?
No matter what the scoreboard says, everybody wins.
Now if Frisco would just take back Joey Gallo…
In the news…
• Complete makeover for both Azamara's ships (USA Today)
• Rudder damage forces Adventure Canada to cancel two cruises (Cruise Critic)
• Tornado caused Chinese cruise ship to capsize
Today at portsandbows.com: Celebrating Cunard's 175th
Carnival Legend
7 nights
September 8, 2015
Seattle (return): Juneau, Skagway, Glacier Bay, Ketchikan, Vancouver
Inside: $679
Cost per day: $97
www.carnival.com