The Texas Rangers drive to nowhere again, hasta la vista on 2013 season, good luck A's and Tigers

thenavarro

Here we go! Opening night just two nights away. Maven and I are about to embark on our trip to Houston for opening night filled with our yearly optimism.

We haven't renewed our season tickets due to me starting law school in late August and missing a month of being able to attend games, but I think we are going to go on some road trips between now and then instead Win or lose, should be another fun season of baseball with my daughter.

Mike

Dboneesq

As you know, I ALWAYS look forward to hearing about and seeing the MAVEN and MIKE road trips! Enjoy.

thenavarro

Heres Maven and Sam Houston



Who would of known he is a Rangers fan?

robert67

thenavarro

No time to chat but dang, Yu almost got a perfect game. He just couldn't bend fast enough to catch what could of been the final out back through the box. Fun game to watch. Rangers fixing to be 1 and 1. Still can't believe they lost to Houston Sunday, aarrgghhh

SDSportsFan

Stinkin' Five Hole!!!!!


Great game pitched by Darvish though!


Steve

thenavarro

Woohoo. Just got home from the home opener. A lot of fun today. I personally don't believe that the fans play a big role in games, but we got into Josh's head today and he was awful again. Evidently he took the same bat to california that he had here in Texas towards the end. It was full of holes. Maven and I, along with 48,000+ others, booed him every step of the way. Was especially satisfying for me and Maven after all the times he's snapped and barked at us in the past. We knew the crowd got to him after hearing his postgame comments. He had the usual Josh arrogance of comparing himself to Jesus, LOL, and equivocating his treatment today to the treatment that Jesus received. What a moron. Such prodigious talent, and such a brittle psyche. Watching him flail at pitches, and misplay balls in the field, and failing to throw out the winning run at homeplate in the 8th, all made for a very, very, very satisfying day for a Rangers fan.

Holland pitched a strong game and Nathan got the save.

Hello win column!!

(pics coming later, in a hurry to get to my son's concert now )

Mike

thenavarro

One of the fun things about Opening Day is there is former Rangers all over the place. Upon entering the gate, I spied two Rangers I used to enjoy watching in my youth, the great Dave Hostetler (guy hit some mammoth home runs) and the great Jim Kern (was the 1979 Rolaids Relief Man award winner if I remember correctly). Here's Maven and Hoss, Kern is the other guy in the photo.



Maven's favorite in park billboard



Here's some handsome guy with Maven



Here are the probable top two teams in the AL West



An old school bomber flyover



Big Josh taking the walk of shame back to the dugout after his first strikeout



Here's the Angels trying to hold Gentry close in the bottom of the eighth. However, it was to no avail as Gentry promptly stole 2nd



Ian drove in the winning run on this pitch



Here's Princess Pujols a few seconds before popping up in the 9th



Here's the persecuted Hambone a few seconds before his weak fly ball out in the ninth



Maven can't bear to look with a run one lead and an Angel on first with two outs in the ninth



and here's Nasty Nathan taking care of business for the final out and Hello Win Column

JustinsShoebox

Looks like 'Princess Pujols' took care of business today.

Justin

thenavarro

<< <i>Looks like 'Princess Pujols' took care of business today.

Justin >>



Yeah, he did well. I actually kinda like Pujols, just like to pick at him cause he has made the Rangers his personal whipping boys.

Was fun watching the game again though even with the loss. Big Josh was o fer again, and to add insult to his injury, the Rangers intentionally walked Pujols 3 times in front of Josh and got Hamilton all 3 times. According to the broadcasters, in his 5 years with Texas, opposing teams only intentionally walked the man in front of Josh 4 times. Rangers did it 3 today in a span of a couple hours, LOL.

Supposedly his wife called stadium security yesterday cause she was getting heckled. Looks like he is not the only drama queen in his family. No fans were ejected in the "incident"

JustinsShoebox

<< <i>

<< <i>Looks like 'Princess Pujols' took care of business today.

Justin >>



Yeah, he did well. I actually kinda like Pujols, just like to pick at him cause he has made the Rangers his personal whipping boys.

Was fun watching the game again though even with the loss. Big Josh was o fer again, and to add insult to his injury, the Rangers intentionally walked Pujols 3 times in front of Josh and got Hamilton all 3 times. According to the broadcasters, in his 5 years with Texas, opposing teams only intentionally walked the man in front of Josh 4 times. Rangers did it 3 today in a span of a couple hours, LOL.

Supposedly his wife called stadium security yesterday cause she was getting heckled. Looks like he is not the only drama queen in his family. No fans were ejected in the "incident" >>



I heard it was partly due to Angel's management requesting they move Katie and the kids, but who knows!?

I do want to say I've been following Lance Berkman for his whole career and always thought he was undervalued. I was a bit upset when the Rangers signed him. He certainly won't and hasn't disappointed this year! Very feared hitter - the only switch hitter to maintain a higher slugging %age than him is Mickey Mantle.

Justin

thenavarro

Great way to end the series. Darvish picks up his 2nd win and Josh makes the final out. (I'm still bitter that they lost to Houston, LOL)

Not a bad first week to the season. A lot of games to go

thenavarro

Rangers continue to roll along. In what has become habiit over the last few years, they once again dispatched of Felix Hernandez. For some reason, they have his number. Rangers reliever Robbie Ross made a great play and AJ blocked the plate to preserve the victory when the M's tried a squeeze play. A little over 5 percent into the season and Texas is right where it needs to be. Despite Oakland putting up an impressive 8 wins in a row, the Rangers are only one game behind them and should remedy that when they match up. Rangers have already opened up a 4.5 game lead on the hapless Angels of Anaheim. Pretty funny that in a division that includes both Houston and Seattle, that Big Josh and CJ Wilson are in last place. GIves me a warm, fuzzy feeling . I think I dislike those two guys more then I do the Yankees

thenavarro

Darvish getting lit up again by the Mariners. It's kinda like the Felix thing. Rangers have his number and the M's seem to thrash Yu around pretty well.

Piggs

Praise for Iwakuma for the M's winning on his birthday. As a Mariner fan he's been more consistant than Felix since last years All Star break. A very nice surprise for them.

thenavarro

<< <i>Praise for Iwakuma for the M's winning on his birthday. As a Mariner fan he's been more consistant than Felix since last years All Star break. A very nice surprise for them. >>



yeah, he pitched a good game. Props to Iwakuma

thenavarro

Rangers take care of business against division foe Mariners. For the first time this year they broke out the brooms for a 3 game sweep. Rangers have regained first place in the AL West

Time to go out and take a couple more from CJ, Josh, and crew the next few days in Anaheim

Mike

thenavarro

What a fun game to watch! If I'm going to be up past midnight watching a baseball game, it's always nice when it ends with a Rangers W, especially against division foe LAA. Joe Nathan surrendered a lead off hit in the ninth but then got Trout, Pujols, and punched out Trumbo to earn the save. Hamilton was left to ponder "what if?" in the on deck circle. Despite his going 4 for 4, he wasn't enough for the Halos to prevail.

Rangers lead grows to 5.5 over LAA despite the pitching rotation being decimated with injuries this year. With Boston thumping the A's today, the Rangers now have a 1.5 game lead for first

mike

thenavarro

Stay up till 1 AM to watch the bullpen blow it with a meat pitch, aarrgghhh

Nightmares on the way LOL

JustinsShoebox

Definitely turning out to be a great series! Probably one of the more exciting ones in recent Ranger/Angel history.

Justin

lanemyer85

thenavarro

As the image above illustrates, Rangers pitchers this year have had nasty, nasty, nasty stuff. Rangers have the best record in baseball and are currently distancing themselves from Oakland and LAA. The Rangers still have some pop at the plate, but most importantly, and the key to a good strong season and playoff run, is that the pitching has been stellar. Texas leads the AL in ERA by almost HALF A RUN! Texas also has a better ERA then any NL team and that's saying a lot considering that the NL pitchers basically get 3 free outs per game by facing the opposing pitchers when they come up to bat.

23 games in already and it's looking good.

thenavarro

Rangers have had a rough week. Still in first place, but playing some bad baseball. Just finished losing their first series of the season tongiht against the ChiSox. Boston brings it's best record in baseball to Arlington this weekend. That should be the cure for the Rangers ills. For some reason, the Rangers seem to have their number the last few years and Texas usually strums them pretty good. Would be nice to get a series back into the win column and to deal two Boston pitchers their first L's of the year.

thenavarro

As anticipated, the Rangers rocked Boston pitching and thoroughly whipped Boston 7 to 0. 1st L of the year for Doubront (SP?)

Was fun to see Napoli get a nice ovation from the crowd. Most of us here still respect and admire big Nap, unlike Josh, and it has clearly shown with the reception the two ex Rangers earned in their return

Saturday is a new day. Would be nice to wrap up a series victory tomorrow though. We shall see

pitboss

Lackey hopefully will pitch better than Doubront did. His 3-0 record is not typical of his performances this year. He plain $uck$ and I wish the Red Sox would trade him or just plain give him away.

thenavarro

Texas guaranteed itself a series victory against Boston tonight. Another nice game in all phases. Rangers send Darvish to the hill tomorrow in an attempt to get a sweep. Would be nice to see. Funny thing is they will probably sweep Boston but then get thumped by Houston next weekend (yes, I'm still bitter about Texas losing to them on Opening Night, lol)

thenavarro

Josh, CJ, Albert and friends now 9 games back

JustinsShoebox

<< <i>

Josh, CJ, Albert and friends now 9 games back >>



Yeah, I'm going into hibernation until next year...good luck, Rangers!

Justin

thenavarro

<< <i>

Yeah, I'm going into hibernation until next year...good luck, Rangers!

Justin >>



I got a feeling by the end of the year y'all will be fine. I think your management likes to spend money and will do what it takes to bring in some arms prior to the trade deadline. It's fun right now though

Mike

thenavarro

Watching the game on TV being broadcast from Wrigley was a neat treat for an AL fan, however the novelty quickly wore off as the Cubs thrashed Texas. Just am overall embarrassing game. The beauty of a 162 game schedule is there is almost always tomorrow. Next up is Milwaukee. Hopefully the Rangers make a better showing there.

thenavarro

One thing I especially love about the Rangers organization, is they are exceptionally fan friendly for the most part. While the Rangers are spending the weekend in Houston beatingup on the Astros (unlike Opening Day), Maven and I had an interesting Saturday night at the ballpark.

We started by watching the Rangers/Astros game on this screen:



Here's Maven goofing around



She decided to get a little rest since it was going to be a long night



After the game was over, we went to play around on the field (they didn't want us on infield, only outfield)













We finally pitched camp in left center field





We settled in by watching The Sandlot, Maven giggled and laughed the whole movie, she loved it





Awesome night!

Mike

thenavarro

Evidently, some fans thought they were staying at a 5 star resort instead of on a grass baseball field, and I guess they had some problems. Just to demonstrate what I mean by fan friendly, this was just in my email inbox.

"Dear Fan Sleepover participant and Rangers Fan:

Thank you for your participation in our first Fan Sleepover. Last night was a great night in many ways and we appreciate your attendance and support. In addition to our successes, we fell short of your expectations in other areas and this is not acceptable. The most common criticism(s) came from some of the waits. Whether it was on entrance or food, there is no excuse for some of the lines that you encountered. In an effort to earn back your trust and confidence, the Rangers will be mailing each registered participant a voucher good for a free ticket to an upcoming game at Rangers Ballpark, plus a voucher for a free meal. The game will be one that you select and redeem at the ticket office, for any Sunday-Thursday (non-premier) game (up to Corner Box). The value of the ticket and food/drink voucher will be greater than that of what you paid for your sleepover experience. All of these will hit the mail by the end of the week.

I had the pleasure of meeting many of you at the event last night and was able to hear many great stories. In addition, I also was made aware of many special occasions being celebrated and fans not receiving the level of service and excitement they are accustomed to when visiting Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. For all of our inadequacies, please accept my most sincere apology.

Moving forward, we will continue to have many events at the ballpark and strive to bring a customer service level second to none. Every step is being taken to ensure that these issues will not arise again in the future.

Thank you for your patience and unwavering support. I look forward to seeing you at the ballpark this summer.

Sincerely,"


Yet another class act, from a class organization. GO RANGERS!!!

Dboneesq

Sounded like a great event Mike.

The Rangers also seem to be very fan friendly (just like the Mets and Yankees

thenavarro

Texas put the smack down on Verlander tonight. They raised his season ERA from 1.93 to 3.17, LOL. Was a fun game to watch. Darvish picks up another W. Despite running a sick (disabled list) ward for some of their best pitchers this year, the Rangers have their franchise best record ever after 41 games, 27 and 14. The lead in the AL West now stands at 7.0 games.

just keep winning series, avoid losing streaks longer than two games, and sail into the playoffs (the REAL playoffs, not that one game fraud like last year) Nice season so far

mike

thenavarro

Another nice weekend for the hometown crew. Rangers just too much for Detroit and they take 3 of 4 and the series. Seems that no matter who the Rangers plug into the rotation or the lineup, they just keep winning. Franchise record best ever after 44 games and still have the best record in the majors. Other than Cabrera, Detroit doesn't look so hot Bunch of mental and physical mistakes I only follow other teams when they play Texas, but the Tigers didn't look too good this weekend. May have just been an off trip for them, who knows?

I do know I saw enough to know that Cabrera is a freaking offensive beast. Very impressive. One of those players where the ball just shoots off his bat. Reminded me a lot of Juan Gonzalez in his Rangers glory years. Glad to see Cabrera leaving after tonight. Not many visiting players get props from me, but Miguel gets props. Good stuff!!

Mike

thenavarro

I missed most of tonight's game as I was watching Maven perform in Annie, but it appears the A's are making the Rangers their whipping boy tonight. Y'all pray for us tomorrow down here please, supposed to be another day of tornadoes and we are right in the moderate risk zone tomorrow. There was a scary night last week as tornados tore up a town about 45 miles West of us and one about 15 miles East. I guess everyone has something in their area whether it be earthquakes, tornados, psunamis, hurricanes, or high crime, but it seems like we've gotten more then our fair share lately (I also live about 50 miles North of West where the big explosion was a few weeks back. It's getting tiring seeing good people in the area getting hit with devastation. Oh well, sorry for the narrative, just ranting

CNote

Hold on. They had something as cool as letting people hang out on the field and watch a movie, but people managed to complain? Lame. Very awesome their response to the complaints too. Man...if we could only be so lucky here.

stown

<< <i>"Dear Fan Sleepover participant and Rangers Fan:

Thank you for your participation in our first Fan Sleepover. Last night was a great night in many ways and we appreciate your attendance and support. In addition to our successes, we fell short of your expectations in other areas and this is not acceptable. The most common criticism(s) came from some of the waits. Whether it was on entrance or food, there is no excuse for some of the lines that you encountered. In an effort to earn back your trust and confidence, the Rangers will be mailing each registered participant a voucher good for a free ticket to an upcoming game at Rangers Ballpark, plus a voucher for a free meal. The game will be one that you select and redeem at the ticket office, for any Sunday-Thursday (non-premier) game (up to Corner Box). The value of the ticket and food/drink voucher will be greater than that of what you paid for your sleepover experience. All of these will hit the mail by the end of the week.

I had the pleasure of meeting many of you at the event last night and was able to hear many great stories. In addition, I also was made aware of many special occasions being celebrated and fans not receiving the level of service and excitement they are accustomed to when visiting Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. For all of our inadequacies, please accept my most sincere apology.

Moving forward, we will continue to have many events at the ballpark and strive to bring a customer service level second to none. Every step is being taken to ensure that these issues will not arise again in the future.

Thank you for your patience and unwavering support. I look forward to seeing you at the ballpark this summer.

Sincerely," >>



Rarely will you ever see me give props to an Arlington team but will gladly make an exception in this case.

thenavarro

Absolutely PATHETIC performance. A 1 to 0 loss at home for the first time in 9 years. A tip of the cap to the A's. The A's have a chance tomorrow to do what few teams have been able to do the last few years, a 3 game sweep of the Rangers. Hopefully the Rangers will show up to play tomorrow

thenavarro

I've seen a LOT of baseball in my days but have never seen a play like I saw tonight. Rangers were trying to turn a double play and the throw from Andrus to Moreland (1B) was intercepted before it got to first base by Grimm (P) and the ump thought that Moreland caught it and called the runner out. What made it even weirder was that Seattle complained about the call but it appeared they were arguing about whether the runner made it the bag before Moreland supposedly caught it. I don't think they realized the ball never even made it to first or they would have pitched a fit

Surely it will be on sports center. Check it out later

digicat

link to video

What in the heck was the pitcher thinking?

CNote

Yeah, Wedge didn't know who caught the ball. From his vantage point, he was arguing the 1B pulled his foot off the bag.

"It would have been a much bigger argument if I had known that at the time," Wedge said.

thenavarro

Texas just drubbed Felix Hernandez again. They handed him his 18th career loss against Texas which gives him the distinction of being the losingest pitcher in Rangers foes history.

Wow, happened to see that LAA won it's 7th game in a row tonight. Now Josh and CJ are only 10 games back.

thenavarro

if the Rangers lose by one game this year they can blame it on Nathan's nonsense today. He blew the save and the Rangers blew the game 13 innings of nonsense


Oh well, the great thing about baseball is there is two games tomorrow, not a whole lot of time to dwell on their failures today

thenavarro

Wow, the Rangers have been shell shocked the last 3 games. Two of them should have been easily won, but once reliable pitchers have started throwing batting practice. Joining Nathan in choking it up was Darvish tonight. Had a 2 run lead with one out in the ninth and failed to get it done. Awful performance today as the Rangers got swept by Arizona. Oakland sneaking back to within 3 games I think (wish we played them next to build some distance again). I believe this is the Rangers loping of the year. A 3 game losing streak. They need to right the ship before they get used to losing and make it a habit

thenavarro

The season is now 1/3rd of the way through. Despite a difficult last week, where they lost 3 games in a row, I grade the Rangers an A so far.

34 and 20 record which ties the mark for the franchise best through 54 games. Sole possession of first place in the AL West for 41 straight days. Despite bringing in what seems to be fans from the stands to pitch, the pitching has been stellar with an AL leading ERS of 3.44. hitting has been no slouch either with a .273 average good for 3rd in baseball, and a .446 slugging pct good for 2nd in MLB.

Hopefully the 2nd and 3rd thirds will be comparable.

Had a Houston Astros ticket rep call me yesterday (although I live 30 minutes away from the Rangers but about 4 hours away from the Astros) wanting to know what they could do in order to get me to buy more tickets. I simply told him to play the Rangers more . Not missing a beat he said he'd be more then happy to hook me up for the rest of the Rangers visits to Houston this year.

on a side note, the Stros gave the Angels the business last night, LOL. fun to see

thenavarro

Oh well, the Rangers split the final two games with KC to win the series. All they had to do was get a hit from Profar in the ninth yesterday in order to get the sweep, but alas, it was not to be.

Rangers off to Boston next. The boys from Beantown are usually the Rangers personal whipping boys, but we'll have to just wait and see how it goes ill be happy if the Rangers at least win the series, no sweep necessary.

GO Astros, hand the Halos a four game sweep on their own field tomorrow, LOL

PSASAP

Hey Mike, I think the Rangers have some white shoes creeping up behind them!

thenavarro

<< <i>Hey Mike, I think the Rangers have some white shoes creeping up behind them! >>



Yep, the A's are on one of their runs where it seems no one can beat them. Actually fun to watch. I pull them up on my phone every night to see their score and to curse them, LOL. No shame in the A's catching up. The Rangers have gone 6 and 4 in the past 10 games which is at least respectable and they've lost 3 games in that span in the standings to Oakland.

I THINK they make a visit to Arlington next week if my memory serves me. A chance for either team to swing it a few games. With the Rangers playing mighty Boston and the A's playing the Brewers, it might be the A's looking in their rear view mirror next week instead of the Rangers.

(as long as the Halos are planted way back there, I'm happy , can you believe they got swept by Houston???? in a 4 game series, AT HOME, LOL, LOL, LOL,LOL)

I personally think the A's are fun to watch and remind me a LOT of the Rangers a few years ago. A bunch of no name guys that seem to be too green to realize they are not supposed to be THAT good!! Good times.

PSASAP

On a side note, the A's had a promotion last Saturday, a Coco Crisp cereal bowl for the first 5,000 kids. I checked eBay, and the bowls are selling for north of $60!

thenavarro

<< <i>On a side note, the A's had a promotion last Saturday, a Coco Crisp cereal bowl for the first 5,000 kids. I checked eBay, and the bowls are selling for north of $60! >>



That's neat. My daughter thinks his name is so funny. Whenever he comes to town and we go, she ALWAYS mentions him.

Mike