Category: Texas Rangers (Page 25 of 33)

Optimism springs eternal on Opening Day. Yes, it does, even for Rangers fans. We’re four hours away from C. J.’s first pitch in today’s opener at the Ballpark against the Red Sox. The sun is shining, the skies are blue, and it’s already 71-degrees. Perfect. Absolutely perfect.

Coming off the American League pennant and first ever World Series appearance, the normal Rangers Opening Day optimism is running deeper and stronger than ever. Today is a very important day.

Texas’ pitching is a concern, but no more so than it was last April. Michael Young’s not going anywhere. Beltre is healthy. Kinsler and Elvis and Murphy are a year older with more experience — playoff experience at that! Napoli brings added pop against lefties like Lester today. And Hamilton’s even in an early groove. There’s no reason to believe these Rangers can’t repeat as division champs and make another legitimate run to the title.

In recognition of just how far things have come for the Rangers and their fans, I direct your attention back to 1973. It was the Rangers’ second season in Texas. The soon-to-be legendary Whitey Herzog was the Rangers skipper. And he was managing arguably the worst team in Major League Baseball history.

On the first day of spring training, Herzog summed up their chances this way: “This team is two players away from being a contender — Sandy Koufax and Babe Ruth.”

He wasn’t kidding.

Rico Carty, the washed up Braves slugger, was the big offseason signing for the Rangers. After Carty’s first spring workout, Herzog said he’d “seen better knees on a camel.” For the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Herzog added, “When Rico runs from home plate to first, you can time him with a sundial.”

It was bad. Even before the start of spring training, Herzog had said, “If Rich Billings is the starting catcher again, we’re in deep trouble.” When that evaluation was passed along to Billings, he simply nodded and said, “Obviously, Whitey has seen me play.”

During spring training in Pompano Beach, Herzog told reporters, “Defensively, these guys are really substandard. But with our pitching, it doesn’t really matter.”

Early that season Jim Palmer took a perfect game into the eighth inning against the Rangers in Baltimore. But Ken Suarez spoiled it with a grounder up the middle with two outs in that eighth. After the game, Herzog was quoted as saying, “If anybody throws a perfect game against this lineup, they oughtta slap an asterisk on it.”

That Rangers team finished 1973 with 105 losses. Herzog was fired with about a month to go and replaced by Billy Martin the very next day. Whitey wound up in K. C. with the Royals. The Rangers fired Martin almost exactly a year later. And he wound up managing the Yankees in ’75.

Yeah, it used to be bad around here. Really bad.

I was six-years-old during that 1973 season. My uncle Gary was there the night David Clyde made his debut in Arlington. My dad and my grandmother started taking me to Rangers games when I was ten or eleven. Sundberg. Harrah. Hargrove. Bell. I started taking my little brother, Keith, to Rangers games when he was eight or nine. Sierra. McDowell. Krueter. And they never won anything until the fall of ’96, after I’d been married for seven years and we were expecting our first daughter.

It’s not bad anymore. In fact, it’s great to be a Rangers fan today. The Stars are going to miss the playoffs. The Mavs got killed by another Western Conferece contender last night. And the Cowboys are making more news off the field this off-season than they will on the field this fall.

That first daughter and I can’t wait for today’s first pitch.

Play ball!

Allan

In 1994, the Chicago Bulls and New York Knicks were tied at 103-103 in Game Three of the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals. There were 1.8-seconds left. Bulls coach Phil Jackson called time out and drew up his team’s last play, designed to get Toni Kukoc the final shot. Chicago forward Scottie Pippen didn’t like it. He wanted to be the focus of the play. He wanted to take the last shot. He barked at Jackson. The coach barked back. And then Pippen slammed himself into a seat on the bench, refusing to take part in a play that didn’t center on him. The team needed Pippen out on the floor. It was critical that Pippen draw the attention of New York’s defenders so Kukoc could get a good look. But Pippen refused. He sat on the bench and pouted as Kukoc made the game-winning shot.

In July 1999, the Detroit Lions were counting on league MVP Barry Sanders to remain the center piece of their franchise while they built around him and new quarterback Charlie Batch. The Lions had made it to the playoffs four of the past six seasons, including a conference championship game appearance in ’91. And Sanders, regarded by most as the game’s best rusher, was in his prime. But one day before Lions training camp was to begin for the ’99 season, Sanders quit. He quit. He faxed a retirement announcement to his hometown newspaper in Wichita. He was done. One day before training camp. No reason given. No explanation.

February 2011. Eight days before Texas Rangers pitchers and catchers report to Surprise for spring training. Four days after General Manager Jon Daniels and team president Nolan Ryan tell the newspapers they’re set for the season. Third baseman Michael Young has been moved to the full time DH spot to make room for Adrian Beltre, a clear upgrade at the crucial corner. The plan is for the aging Young to DH and play a “super utility” role. He’ll hit every day and fill in at each infield position when they need him. Young’s versatility is invaluable. His clubhouse leadership is critical. The Rangers are coming off their first ever appearance in the World Series and they believe they have the team now to take that next step and win a championship. But now Young has demanded a trade. He’s forcing a trade. He’s publicly characterizing Daniels and Ryan as less-than-honest. He’s telling the media he’s been cheated and lied to and he’s not going to play here anymore.

Eight days before spring training.

I love Michael Young. But this is high treason. This is selfishness of the highest order. This is quitting on your team. This is demanding your way and your will over what’s best for the group.

Eight days before spring training.

Two years ago the Rangers, in a gracious act of loyalty and appreciation, signed Young to an incredible five-year, $80-million dollar extension, the second-largest contract in franchise history. The move was universally blasted by experts as unnecessary and foolish. Young was 32-years-old! But the Rangers wanted to show their gratitude to the man who’d been there through thick and thin, who’d sacrificed so much, who’d played so hard, and who’d turned into such a valuable team leader. They wanted to reward him. So against better judgment, they did.

And eight days before spring training, with the roster completely set, Young has quit on the Texas Rangers.

Young was going to play third base when Beltre needed a day off. He was going to fill in at first base when Mitch Moreland goes into one of his inevitable hitting slumps. He was going to play second when Ian Kinsler goes on the DL. He was going to fill in at shortstop when Elvis Andrus gets tired. Michael Young was really the glue that was going to hold everything together all year. The ultimate team player. The ultimate team-first guy. The ultimate sixth-man. The one sure fire guarantee against disaster.

They asked him to play a different role. Not a less important role. A different role. To make the team better. To get all of them to where they all so desperately want to be.

And he quit.

I would expect this kind of attitude from 99-percent of the professional athletes out there. I would have never expected this out of Michael Young. I’m very disappointed. Sad, even.

I don’t know how this is going to turn out for Texas. Nobody’s going to want to trade for a 34-year-old below-average-defensively third baseman. Not at those contract numbers. Young ripped the rug out from under the Rangers. This is a sucker punch. If the Rangers do manage to trade him, they’ll wind up paying a big chunk of his salary. That’ll be bad. If somehow things get patched up and Young remains in Arlington, that’ll be even worse. He’s not your clubhouse leader anymore. He publicly insulted team management.

And he quit.

He quit on everybody.

Eight days before spring training.

Allan

So, Lee signs with the Phillies for less money and years than the Yankees and Rangers were offering. It’s OK. It really is. Texas did not lose the free-agent jewel to the Evil Empire. Today the Rangers are still better than the Yankees. And Lee’s surprise move reminds us that, sometimes, it can be about more than just the dollar signs. Excellent.

Look, we knew in July that Lee was only a rent-a-player. We had no expectations that he would be here in 2011. It was out of the realm of possibility. It wasn’t even worth talking about. The only reason any of us believed he might even possibly consider re-signing in Arlington is because he did help take Texas to the World Series.

The fact that he did that is enough to be thankful for. There’s no whining or crying today over losing Lee. None. Only gratitude. Only thanksgiving. Only appreciation.

Jamey Newberg says it best in his daily column:

Thanks, Cliff.

Thanks for the four greatest sports months of my life.  Thanks for the greatness, the dominant precision, the artistry.  The way you pitched, the way you competed.  The occasional transcendence. Thanks for October 6.  And for October 12, and the Don Draper cool of that march toward Bengie Molina and everything that happened in the three hours that led up to it. Thanks for October 18.  Man, thank you for that. 

Thanks for doing your part to make a playoff team a World Series team.  Maybe more than once.

Sure do appreciate you not signing with New York.  A lot.

I wasn’t surprised when I read last night that you called Jon Daniels yourself to tell him you were signing with Philadelphia.  I was entertained that you had your agent call Brian Cashman to deliver the same message.

I wanted you back in Texas, but the years and dollars that the bidding had gone to scared me.  Still wanted you here, but when the offers got as crazy as they did, I found myself more preoccupied with you not ending up with the Yankees.

Emotionally, it does stink that Texas reportedly offered the most lucrative contract and that, despite every indication that Lee loved his Texas teammates and despite proximity and lifestyle and tax laws and the strength and promise of the team around him and December hunts with Tommy Hunter while everyone else was on the edge of their Winter Meetings seats, it wasn’t enough.

But unemotionally?  (And sorta emotionally?)  I don’t blame Lee at all, and really I’m not all that torn up.  The biggest sports moments in my lifetime have been adrenaline rushes and kicks in the gut.  This one was really different, has an oddly surprising calm to it.  Hearing that Lee chose Philadelphia, that Lee didn’t choose Texas and didn’t choose New York, struck me as good news.  I would have never expected that reaction (and, despite the fear over the financial commitment, would have never had the same reaction if he chose pinstripes).

I’m not trying to rationalize this.  I realized two days ago, as we’ve talked about, that it was starting to feel more important to me to see the Yankees not get Lee than for Texas to sign him to what many of us – and I bet some of the Rangers’ decision-makers – knew deep down was a bad baseball contract.  I’m content with this, until we see what the Rangers do next.

Whoever Plan B is, will he be as good as Lee?  Probably not, but we’ll see.  Some think Greinke, in particular, will produce more over the next five years than Lee.  Far more unknowns with Greinke, though. Will Plan B leave Texas more money to address other needs, now or in July?  Yes. Will Plan B come off the books himself in two years, maybe three?  If so, then we go get the next young ace.

I love Cliff Lee.  There’s never been a pitcher quite like him in Texas, and there’s never been a season in Texas anything like 2010, which without Lee would have ended sooner.  The Rangers’ opportunistic move to get Lee in July, and his part in the four months that followed to give us that season, will stand forever among the greatest rewards I’ve had as a sports fan.  Forever. For that, Cliff, no matter what happens from here on out for you or for Texas, let me just say, once again:

Thank you.

Ditto,

Allan