About five hours before game one of the American Division Series started Thursday morning, fans started tailgating outside Globe Life Park.

“Things didn’t go so well last year, but I think they’ll make it to the World Series,” one fan told me.

Another fan would explain, “They’re not only a better team this year, I think they learned a lot from that disastrous ride last year.”

The Rangers would lose game one 10-1, so I should also add that the first guy who said they’re going to win the Series would add that he was happy to be “getting drunk.”

The Toronto Blue Jays fans have been much bolder this year. Last year, one fan told me everyone in Texas was so nice, not like people in Boston or New York.

This year, one fan said, “We’re a rowdy, rowdy crowd, and we get under everybody’s skin.”

In his defense, he would then politen up, saying how much he’s enjoying his visit to Arlington because Toronto’s too crowded. At this point, I worried he was a plant by the “Vote Yes” crowd.

On the Vote Yes front, the campaign started handing out yard signs before the playoffs. They got some former players, current Bench Coach Steve Buechelle and the media to skulk through neighborhoods like a gang of toughs to give Vote Yes signs to homeowners.

Now, I’m a journalist, so it was my RESPONSIBILITY to try the new ballpark food. Delaware North uses the playoffs to test new dishes for the following season. Last year, as many will recall, I tried the cotton candy dog. That was well received by fans and returned for this year.

Part of the year. It was replaced mid-season.

Delaware North explained that development of new dishes is a year-long process that starts with, I swear, whittling down several dozen ideas.

Among the ideas that made the cut for the playoffs was the Never Ever Quit Sandwich, which is a Philly cheesesteak topped with fried cheese, french fries and onion rings to make sure you’re getting your essential batters for the day.

I would sample the TamArlington Dog. The TamArlington Dog is only sold at one concession stand, so I made the trip from the press box.

In the line was a guy wearing a Blue Jays shirt who asked what “TamArlington Dog” was.

The TamArlington Dog, you see, is a tamale with a whole hot dog inside, lovingly topped with chili. The same guy at Delaware North said that was part of the allure: it’s not hot dog slices, it’s a hot dog.

I’m sorry to say I don’t keep my recorder going when I’m in line for food. Otherwise, I could upload Blue Jays Shirt’s response to SoundCloud. The guy from Toronto would declare his hope for the line to move quickly because he was afraid Donald Trump would build a wall around the concession stand.

Is it strange that people from Canada know our political system so well, but if I asked you the Canadian prime minister, you’d probably have to google it? (Here are the google search results that I looked up because I didn’t know the Canadian prime minister. I then furrowed my brow when I remembered, “Oh, the young fella!”)

In conclusion, the hot dog was good. The tamale was good. But I don’t think they go well together. I wound up eating bits of hot dog with some cheese on it, then bits of tamale with chili on it separately (“So now you’re saying you built a wall around your tamale!” is the hilarious line you’re all thinking).

Oh dear, if my grandmother heard me praise a hot dog and a tamale, I don’t know what she’d do. Back in the day, she would cook several pounds of the most delicious veal cutlets, tell you as she served them that they were the worst veal cutlets ever and she needs to get a new butcher, then tell you to eat more veal cutlets because you’re skin and bones. But a hot dog in her house probably would have (and imagine Carmela Corleone here) caused her to put her hand up to her head and stumble back a couple of steps. We’ve come a long way from Connecticut, Scaias. Now, we eat tamales with hot dogs in them.

It was a rough day, Rangers fans, but perhaps this link to French language play-by-play of Upton’s home run can serve as a pick-me-up. When Montreal gets a new team, that’s exactly how we’ll all feel all the time.