ARLINGTON, Texas – With the opening day clock winding down, Globe Life Park in Arlington is all set and so are fans.
The feature game is a good old-fashioned Texas shootout, the returning World Series champion Houston Astros taking on the Texas Rangers on the first day of the season.
"It's Texas. Everybody's friendly here even though they're your opponent. It's also friendly and it's going to be a great atmosphere," Roy Strange, an Astros fan, said.
We spoke to Astros fans who made the trip for the big game and wouldn't have missed it for anything, while others already living in Dallas don't mind rooting for the 'Stros.
"Especially with friends, you have die-hard Rangers fans and I'm the one showing up to the party wearing Astros stuff," Hayden Hester, an Astros fan who lives in Dallas, said.
And it's not only the fans who have high hopes for back-to-back World Series titles -- the players, who say they've got the pieces they need for a repeat, want it just as bad.
"We just have to think about our game and do the same thing we did last year and play one game at a time, and I think we're going to be fine," said Astros second baseman Jose Altuve.