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The Texas Rangers drive to end the season early, congrats TOR fans
thenavarro
Posts: 7,497 ✭✭✭
in Sports Talk
It's time. After taking time off from following the Rangers last year so I could adjust to life in law school coupled with my full time job, me and Maven are back in 2015 to share some daddy/daughter time at the Ballpark. I'm sure one of these days she will eventually tire of going to games with her old dad, but while she still wants to,I'm going to take advantage of it. She asked if we could get a ticket package this year so I sprung for a 1/4 season. The team will probably suck, but we are going to enjoy it nonetheless.
Go Rangers!!!!!
Go Rangers!!!!!
Buying US Presidential autographs
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Most , who know you , know full well that you live and die ( sort of ) from your Rangers . As any team fan would .
The long and short of it is , my hope is that the Baseball gods ( or at least the imaginary ones ) will have mercy on your hopes .---- Sonny
<< <i>Whoopsie on game one. >>
I guess that old saying that was used to describe some bad Cleveland Indians teams applies to Texas here: for them, pennant fever must be a 24-hour virus.
<< <i>Any thoughts on the "Prince" this year? Healed from his neck surgery? >>
I haven't followed any of the "talk" this offseason as I haven't had time. According to his interviews, he's in the best shape he's been in for years, but I wouldn't put a whole lot of stock into what a player personally says. One thing about him though, he appears to enjoy the game and is fun to watch. I hope for his and the Rangers sake, that he is at least a reasonable percentage of his old self. If so, I might get me a Prince homerun ball this year as I sit in the Upper Home Run Porch 6 rows up. Might have a couple head my way, especially on low crowd nights where you can be a bit mobile if you see one coming in the general direction
Prince has a couple RBI's so far tonight and Colby Lewis has looked pretty good so far. Much better than last night as they were already done by this time of the game, the only drama last night was whether they would even get a hit or not.
<< <i>
<< <i>Any thoughts on the "Prince" this year? Healed from his neck surgery? >>
I haven't followed any of the "talk" this offseason as I haven't had time. According to his interviews, he's in the best shape he's been in for years, but I wouldn't put a whole lot of stock into what a player personally says. One thing about him though, he appears to enjoy the game and is fun to watch. I hope for his and the Rangers sake, that he is at least a reasonable percentage of his old self. If so, I might get me a Prince homerun ball this year as I sit in the Upper Home Run Porch 6 rows up. Might have a couple head my way, especially on low crowd nights where you can be a bit mobile if you see one coming in the general direction
Prince has a couple RBI's so far tonight and Colby Lewis has looked pretty good so far. Much better than last night as they were already done by this time of the game, the only drama last night was whether they would even get a hit or not. >>
Thanks for the info. We made a trip to Dallas(from out of state) some years ago to take in a Rangers game. We bought our tickets in advance. Upon arrival at the stadium we realized the height factor of our seats was too much. Went down to the office where they sympathetically relocated us to behind first base, field level 20 or so rows from the rail. A gesture very much appreciated that we never forgot.Who said Texans don't offer hospitality. Took in the Dallas Zoo,Kennedy Dealey Plaza museum, and saw the new Cowboy stadium, took the tour.All in all a great visit. Good luck on your HR catches.
One of my favorite things about my annual Rangers threads is to document our fun at the ballpark so here's a few pics from earlier tonight.
I had given Maven a "Daddy's Girl" jersey two years ago when we used to go to the games all the time, but she has outgrown it this year. I was ecstatic when she asked for another one this year, so we had this one made for her tonight at the ballpark. With Nellie gone now, she has decided to have Beltre be her new favorite Ranger (as he was nice to her a couple seasons ago and she likes how he "dances" at the plate with his crazy feet movements) so we got her #29.
Written by Jamey Newberg.
"From today's Jamey Newberg's report. Very well said and stated: Dear Josh:
Apologize.
Wear it.
Come clean.
This is the perfect fit for you, even though you may not be the perfect fit for them. This is the one place that might — might — work for you in baseball, and this is happening only because they were open to it. They had plenty of reason not to be.
Hey, man, yeah, you probably need a hug, but you’re not the only one. Your baseball career became a baseball career here, after it had been nothing but a tragedy, and you ushered your way out badly, both on the field and off, and you can bet one of those is less easily forgiven.
This is your last shot. The organization that has shown you the most professional and human support is embracing you again, but you understand the accountability is a multi-faceted thing.
Step up, and apologize. Apologize when the microphones are turned on for the first time, but before that apologize when the clubhouse doors are closed. Make it right.
The Angels couldn’t wait to get rid of you.
Let me rephrase.
The Angels’ owner, who couldn’t wait to exact sweet revenge on the Rangers (Napoli, Beltre) and who didn’t listen to the baseball people he’d hired to make baseball decisions and instead promised you a massively backloaded eighth of a billion dollars with eyes wide open to all the obvious risks given your history, couldn’t wait to get rid of you.
The Angels’ owner will have paid you $42 million to play, and $68 million for you to leave.
Think about that, Josh.
Over this year and the next two, Texas will reportedly pay you less than $7 million, which is about eight cents on the dollar that the Angels, pawning the ring that they put on it, will pay you to play for a division rival.
You have a thousand reasons to be motivated by this gift. That ought to be one of them.
The Union doesn’t have a history of blessing deals in which a player gives up guaranteed money (or in this case, essentially, waives the windfall that coming to a state without income tax would have triggered), here, in exchange for an opt-out that will never be exercised. The Union is apparently blessing this deal. That ought to tell you something.
The Angels could have simply released you, but to them it was worth saving $15 million or so of the $125 million deal to send him to Texas — the one place where the decision could turn into a public relations disaster for their owner — and get nothing in return but that 12 percent write-off. (Not even something like AAA first baseman Trever Adams, a Creighton product whom Angels Assistant GM Scott Servais would probably have liked to bring aboard.)
“Unless the Angels are absolutely convinced Josh Hamilton cannot be an effective hitter,” writes Buster Olney (ESPN), “this deal makes very little sense for them.”
And yet they embraced it, and jumped at this chance to make you a Ranger again.
Your Los Angeles teammates, from Mike Trout to Albert Pujols to C.J. Wilson to David Freese, have all said in the last week or so that they believed in you and believed you were ready to come back and contribute, and would be disappointed to see their club turn you loose.
Your manager was less supportive and less optimistic, at least publicly, and we all know what management thinks.
Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times: “My reaction to [the] Angels paying Josh Hamilton to play for [the] Rangers is [the] same as Halos team [president John Carpino’s reaction] to MLB’s exoneration of Josh: It defies logic. . . . I did not see the harm in sending Josh Hamilton to AAA for 20 games just to see what he had to offer. [The] Angels think differently.”
Pedro Moura of the Orange County Register: “Arte Moreno was the only one who wanted to bring Josh Hamilton to the Angels. Now he’s the only one who wants to get rid of him. Fitting, isn’t it?
“Chances are, Texas will benefit from Moreno’s arrogance. It must be more difficult for the rational, conscientious fan to cheer for this team now than it was in the winter.”
Moura was referring to the rational, conscientious Angels fan, of course, but there’s going to be a faction of Rangers fans who will be less supportive of this move than you might think. It’s a minority, if you go by the media polls (and for what it’s worth, my email inbox is running about the same ratio of yea to nay), but it’s there. You have something to prove to this fan base, who embraced you more than any fans in baseball ever have, given the way you vocally turned on them when you left for Disneyland.
You’re going to need to address that, today or whenever your very first chance to do that comes.
And here’s the thing: We can talk all day about the ways the Angels have demonstrated how badly they wanted to toss you out, and how much risk they’ve voluntarily swallowed, paying what amounts to around $110 million for two years of playing baseball in their uniform — the flip side is how little risk Texas is taking on. It will be very easy for the Rangers to move on from this experiment, for any reason.
This isn’t a publicity stunt. (Just as Manny Ramirez wasn’t.)
But it’s not a slam dunk for you, either. (Just as it wasn’t for Manny Ramirez.)
Just as it’s on you to make things right with your teammates here, and your fans, it’s on you to rehab your way onto the roster, and play your way into the lineup. You have to produce, or the Rangers will let you go, too, far more painlessly, and at that point baseball is probably a permanently closed chapter for you.
This is going to cost Ryan Rua at-bats when he returns — which could be as soon as the organization feels you’re ready yourself — and maybe Jake Smolinski and Carlos Peguero, but down the road it’s not going to cost Nomar Mazara and Joey Gallo. And even if you’re moderately productive, if the Rangers think they’re better off not having you in the clubhouse and the weight room when Mazara and Gallo arrive, well, you probably have an opportunity now to make sure that’s not a factor.
Which is not to say you were ever a bad teammate. This is more about being an example to young baseball players. About 100 percent, every single day.
The Rangers wouldn’t do this if they didn’t think you have the chance to prove something to the Angels and to baseball and to Nomar Mazara.
Clint Hurdle was huge for you when he was hitting coach here in 2010, maybe more so mentally than mechanically. Jeff Banister isn’t Clint Hurdle, but you’re going to see some similarities.
You’ll be around Adrian and Elvis and Colby and Derek and Mitch and Matty again, but there are a whole lot of new players on this team to prove yourself to.
You’ll be around Michael again, too, and you can bet this doesn’t happen if Michael didn’t throw his strong support behind the idea.
You’re going to be around Roy Silver again, and I guess Shayne Kelley or some other accountability partner, and that’s because the Rangers, as always, will do everything they can to support you and pave your path to productivity.
But the greatest duty of accountability is yours.
You were a big part of the greatest Rangers teams ever, but this is not the same team anymore, and you’re not the same player. Everyone accepts that. When this team is healthy again, there will be 15 guys more important to its chances to return to contention than you are. At least.
Right now, Nick Martinez is 100 times more important to this thing than Josh Hamilton.
So much of what the national media is focused on right now is the Angels’ conduct, rather than the Rangers’ decision to take this chance. And that makes sense. This story is more about loss, and subtraction, than it is about anything that anyone has gained.
But you have the chance to change that.
Olney wrote: “t may be that this deal gone awry became so personal for the Angels’ ownership that Arte Moreno just wants Hamilton out of his sight. Which would be somewhat ridiculous, because Hamilton’s history of addiction was hardly a secret. The real possibility that this would take a turn for the worse was always in play. Other teams evaluated Hamilton as a potential target when he was a free agent and ran in the other direction, based on what they heard about his issues. The fact the Angels bid far more for Hamilton than any other team was their mistake.”
And you can compound that, which would be such a beautiful, schadenfreudy baseball thing.
Are you motivated?
Are you thinking about humility today, and how you will communicate it to the fans you once shared so much with before rejecting them?
I’m on record with my support of the idea of bringing you back to Texas, especially given the incredibly minimal risk the club is taking. But it’s not absent of risk, because playing time is finite. At-bats and defensive innings given to one player are taken away from another.
Pudge and Juan and Sunny and Boo all came back toward the ends of their careers, but this isn’t the same. You have a lot to prove here, and if at any point it’s not working out, Texas will move on. That’s not what anybody wants, but it’s always going to be an option.
The day in December 2012 when you decided to leave Texas and go somewhere that lots of people thought could be close to the worst choice possible, I wrote something short and finished it by saying: “He’s just another Los Angeles Angel now.”
If the news rumored to be teed up today comes to fruition, then, as far as I’m concerned, you’re just another Texas Ranger now.
And that’s OK.
This is probably your final shot to contribute to a big league baseball team, and if that’s going to happen then this is the right team.
Make it happen. And first, make it right.
— A Rangers fan"
Now, if I can just get back my event worn 2010 all star jersey back from PSA/DNA it will go up for sale!
Rangers finally beginning to swing the stick, and starting pitching has been doing okay, they just need some serious bullpen help. Will be interesting to see what happens when Hamilton returns.
Nick Martinez is pitching like an All Star and Prince Fielder is still pounding the ball around the yard. Delino Deshields runs like a gazelle. If the Rangers just had a closer, they might be able to make a run at the West. Right now, it's closer by committee.
Josh Hamilton will be joining the team on Monday and we'll see how that experiment goes. May has been a good month for the team so far, and hopefully something they can build on. It all started when I got my Jim Sundberg game used bat as a good luck charm
Mike
New rookie prospect pitcher was called up Saturday and pitched 5 innings plus of two hit ball. Looked good, and the Rangers finally seem to have a decent closer in Tolleson.
The season is looking a lot brighter as they've turned it around in May.
Still 5 games behind the other Texas team, but hope abounds again.
Mike
No idea how the team stands in the standings as I haven't checked yet to see how Houston has done the last couple of days. 2 games over .500 and looking good recently for the Rangers.
Season high 4 games over .500 Don't know how this year will shake out, but next year is looking GOOD if these guys all come back healthy for a change.
Maven will be delivering the game ball to the pitchers mound on July 4th. Can't wait,
Mike
1.5 games out of first now.
Currently two back against Houston BUT the Rangers still have 7 remaining against them and I'm quite confident in their chances head to head. It's the other games and other teams they seem to have issues with, especially the bad ones, and they have too many left with Seattle, Anaheim, and Oakland. Clinging to a 1.5 game lead over Twins for the last wildcard spot. A couple fun weeks of baseball that counts coming up.
Whoever wins the West, I hope the other Texas team gets the wildcard and that they can both hold off the halos and twins.
Finally broke down and exercised my playoff options last week, so I'm all set if they make it, and if they don't, I'll get a big refund, that's a win/win
As for holding off the halos, don't worry, we're doing that for you! We should just forfeit the rest of the season and not pay the traveling costs.
Justin
Retired - Eddie Mathews Master Registry Set (96.36%) Rank 1
A walk off win over the Astros to put the Rangers in 1st place (at least temporarily) for the first time since 2013 (this late in the season, they were tied for first very early in the season at 3-3)
The hunters have now become the hunted.
So far so good this week against Houston, however they face Keuchel (sp?) tomorrow.
More importantly, they now have a 1.5 game lead (2 in the loss column) on Houston. Hopefully Texas sweeps tomorrow and breaks a little of Houston's will and morale in the process as Houston could very well turn the tables on Texas next weekend in Houston.
Sure would be nice to hold a big enough lead that the season ending series against LAA means nothing but a chance to adjust the playoff pitching rotation. I strongly prefer to not go into that series with LAA in striking distance. Still have bad memories of the Rangers flubbing it up a couple years ago when all they had to do was beat the A's one game and they couldnt do it.
Justin
Retired - Eddie Mathews Master Registry Set (96.36%) Rank 1
Hamels was subpar but good enough. Tigers made 4 errors. That would disgust me to no end if I was a Halos or Stros fan.
What a turnaround they made since early August. Very pleasing to see. I'll be at the game tomorrow night hoping to see them clinch and partying. Hopefully they get it done tomorrow as I'm going Saturday to College Station to see A&M/Miss. St. and won't get to go the Rangers Saturday. If they don't do it either tomorrow or Saturday, I'll go Sunday too to see the party.
Got a message from the Rangers today that they've shipped my playoff tix as well, so all those absences that I've been holding in reserve at law school will start coming in handy once the playoffs start. I hope I have to exhaust the majority of them as that will mean the squad made the World Series again.
Hopefully the Rangers win the division and hopefully the other Texas team, Houston, can hold off the Angels and Twins. So satisfying to see them knock Freese out from a potential division title, would be much sweeter to see them eliminate him totally from the playoffs.
Bowman Baseball -1948-1955
Fleer Baseball-1923, 1959-2007
Al
<< <i>Memory lane..... >>
Bishop,
I literally had tears of pure unadulterated joy beginning to stream down my 41 year old cheeks at that time, and then BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, David Freese came through that TV set and pounded me directly in the cajones. One of the most disappointing moments in my long history of watching sports, and what made it even worse, it was mine and my daughter's favorite player, Nellie, that absolutely butchered what I still believe was a routine fly ball that high school kids all over the country could have caught.
I have long forgiven Nellie, as the Rangers wouldn't have sniffed the World Series that year if it hadn't been for him, plus he's been a model professional athlete every time my daughter has met him, but as far as Freese is concerned, he can sit and spin on the fat end of his bat for all that I care LOL
Mike
Bowman Baseball -1948-1955
Fleer Baseball-1923, 1959-2007
Al
At least 4 (2 more regular season, a tiebreaker Monday if necessary, and a wildcard if they lose them all and Houston wins out) more chances to get one win and to get the job done to advance to an ALDS so still a lot of time.
Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
<< <i>Hide Navarro's shoelaces....this is crazy and this is coming from a Cardinals fan!
Watching from a bar in college atation texas. Go DIAMONDBACKS. These LOSERS need someone else to help them out
The good news is that a lot still has to go wrong for them not to be crowned D-Champs. But if you're a baseball aficionado, aren't you pulling for an Astros dubya tonight so we can have high drama tomorrow?
<< <i> But if you're a baseball aficionado, aren't you pulling for an Astros dubya tonight so we can have high drama tomorrow? >>
Hell no, LOL. Will have to pass on homework and go to game tomorrow though if they still haven't clinched.
<< <i>
<< <i> But if you're a baseball aficionado, aren't you pulling for an Astros dubya tonight so we can have high drama tomorrow? >>
Hell no, LOL. Will have to pass on homework and go to game tomorrow though if they still haven't clinched.
The Stros scored 21 last night, have an 18-game winner on the mound tonight, are going up against a dude with an almost 5 ERA, and are facing a team that is already booking tee times. Which in this bizarro world probably means the Rangers backdoor it tonight, right? lol
"Worst" case scenario for you: a trip to the ballpark tomorrow, a little added excitement..........and eschewing homework!
Bowman Baseball -1948-1955
Fleer Baseball-1923, 1959-2007
Al
<< <i>Too bad Choo didn't tag up on the fly ball to right, would be a 2-2 game. >>
Exactly, some time I don't understand these guys. Halos pitcher threw over 30 pitches the first inning and Rangers scored a mere run.