Not much to say about this one. I watched it, but other than the goofy play in the first inning that we got an out on an appeal play, I don’t recall anything particularly noteworthy.
For the record, the Jays hit a line drive that hit off of Colby Lewis and bounced to Hank Blalock for an out. Blalock then threw the ball to first expecting to double off the runner, but it sailed into the stands. Everyone seemed to think that was the end of it, that the Jays runner was awarded third. When play resumed, Buck Showalter appealed the play to second base, and their runner was called out. Apparently, the runner had to return to first base, then be awarded third. Since he didn’t do that, he was called out. Quite a bizarre play.
Arod got another home run. We’re only 3 games behind the Angels from escaping the f’in basement! :)
Game notes are here.

Two games in a row I botched the recording. I messed up watching this one, and given that I had to leave the house before the game was over, I didn’t watch any of it (I was at a Pat Benatar concert that I had to leave around 5PM to get dinner before first).
Game notes are here.

I missed all the fun in this game. I turned on the radio when I was leaving work, and the score was already 5-2. All I got to hear myself was the Delgado HR. I got home and watched the first inning on my TiVo, and after that, it was pretty much pitching, and the Rangers hitting into double plays. :)
This weekend will be odd for me, as my wife and I have a houseguest, so I don’t know much time I’ll have online to update this weekend.
Game notes are here.

No time for a commentary – it’s been a very rough last two days at work. Still, that grand slam did not help us at all. :(
Game notes are here.

I didn’t get to see this game, because I forgot to tell my TiVo to record it. :) Because of that, I only got to see the 9th inning, but I turned it on just as Hank Blalock got a two run single in the top of the 9th to beat Mariano Rivera. A great moment. Not as a great as the Diamondbacks beating him in Game 7 a couple of years ago, but still, a great moment. :)
Cordero also did well in Yankee Stadium against the Yanks in the bottom of the 9th to earn a save. While I can’t comment on specifics due to my not having seen the game, I can say that it was nice to finally come back and win one of these late inning games that we always lost before.
We’re now 4-1 in Yankee Stadium this season. That’s nice to be able to say. Just wish I could say we were 4-1 in Yankee stadium in post season, instead of 1-6 or something like that.
Game notes are here.

I thought this game was going to be good when Hank Blalock jacked a home run to right center to take the lead against the Yankees. But that was about it, really. The Yankees bombed us for 6 runs in 3 innings (1,2,5) – all on home runs. We did get another run in the 8th when Hank Blalock doubled, scoring Mike Young.
Not much else to write – the Bronx Bombers bombed us.
Game notes are here.

Three more home runs in this game brings our total over the last 25 innings in the three Cleveland games to 13! That powered us to a series sweep against Cleveland. Now it would be more impressive if we swept the Yankees (again, I might add) this year, but I’ll take the sweep to go to 5 in a row. After the first inning when R.A. Dickey gave up three runs and pitched 35 odd pitches, I figured he was done. But surprisingly, he got it together and went a total of 7 innings, giving up 4 runs. Not writing much for two reasons – I am still mostly thinking about Johnny Oates again.
Oh wait – Ramon Nivar finally got his first major league hit, a triple. He was on base twice via errors before that, but it was nice to see a clean hit for his first one.
Hey, guess what? We’re only 5.5 games behind Anaheim to get out of the basement. I think that’s a VERY reachable goal, given the way Anaheim has been playing this season. It would be nice to pass them and not end up in the basement this year.
Game notes are here.

This day was one I had been looking forward to since the day Johnny Oates was diagnosed with cancer. Johnny Oates returned to the Ballpark as part of the inaugural Rangers Hall of Fame ceremonies. As I’ve said on this site before, Johnny Oates means a lot to me, because when I was a kid growing up in Philadelphia, Johnny Oates was the catcher for the Phillies for what I believe was my first game I attended. After that, I lost track of him, but I had heard his name from time to time. Then when I moved to Texas and he became the Rangers manager, it was a big deal for me emotionally. I loved him as a Rangers manager, and the illness he got after his time as a manager bothered me a lot, since he was one of the nicest guys you could ever meet, and the personal connection made it worse for me. When he came out on the field, I was in the stands taking pictures (which will get posted Monday). I teared up like I’m sure most people did, but the tears were down my face – I lost it several times during the ceremony. It was nice to see Nolan Ryan, Sunny, & Charlie Hough too – but for me personally, it was all about Johnny Oates.

Johnny looked better than I thought he would look. I’d seem some pictures of him from time to time where he didn’t look very good, but he did here, given the circumstances. When the inductees came out of their cars, Johnny had to be helped out of the car, but it appeared he wanted to walk to his seat himself. He needed a cane, but he could do it, albeit slowly. There were several times he broke down when folks were talking about him, and an already humble man seemed very humbled by the induction. It was both sad and awesome to see him there being held up by Tom Hicks (much like Tony Gwynn did for Ted Williams in the 99 All Star Game). Tom Grieve said on TV that it seemed great that Johnny’s speech was all from his head, there were no notes, and he didn’t have a bunch of pauses and “Uh… Uh…” in there. I hadn’t thought of that at the time. I loved how he talked about the current Rangers, and spoke highly of Buck Showalter. While I think Buck Showalter is doing a wonderful job as our manager, there’s still a part of me that misses hearing Chuck Morgan announce Johnny Oates’ name as the manager at the start of the game. I really truly will miss Johnny when he passes. In fact, he had some levity about that in his speech saying that he agreed with Tom Hicks’ sentiment that it’s only a matter of time until a World Series game is played at the Ballpark, adding “And Buck, hurry up, because I want to see it!” A nice “funny” moment in his speech. He got numerous standing ovations, and for me was the singular attraction of the night. I would have paid my two bits just to see him, and would had been quite content had there been no game afterwards. One thing I was kind of disappointed in, and I admit up front it’s because I had worked myself up thinking about it is this. I really wish they would have retired Johnny Oates’ uniform number of 26. Since he’s left, no one has gotten it (save for one guy a season ago during spring training). Someone (I forget who) said that they weren’t giving out Johnny Oates’ number during the regular season to anyone. If they don’t intend on retiring it, I don’t know why they are holding it back. Given that I can’t see Johnny’s condition getting BETTER, I don’t see why they did not retire it last night while he was there. It would have been great for him to have been there for a uniform number retirement ceremony. I really don’t want them to retire it after he passes and he wouldn’t be able to see it. If they’re not retiring the number, then give it out to someone else (and I don’t really want that to happen, either). In closing, I really enjoyed the ceremony – I was glad I was there to see it, because I’d be surprised if I ever will see Johnny Oates in person again.

This image here means a lot to me, though.

I covered the reasons why these cards mean a lot to me in the first paragraph here, but for some reason I felt kind of silly like I was a 6 year old clutching his baseball cards while his hero was “in the house”. And then I took a picture of myself holding the cards. But still, these two cards in the picture meant a lot to me. It was to be the last time that I ever saw Johnny Oates, as he died about 15 months after this (this paragraph was added in Jun 2007).

Oh yeah, the Rangers won. It was a back and forth game, but I almost didn’t care about the game – I was a bit too emotional from the pre-game ceremonies. Highlights of the game were 6 more home runs from both teams after 9 the night before. One from Arod, Layne Nix, & a 3 run from Raffy.

Today was a day when I came down to the ballpark for the sole purpose of getting the giveaway. My wife and I collect pins, and they gave out a set of Rangers HOF induction pins for each of the four 2003 inductees (Ryan, Sundberg, Hough, Oates). I ended up getting quite a show between the lines.
The Rangers belted seven home runs (6 in the first 3 innings), tying a club record for HR in a game – and the first time they did it at home. Mike Young led off the game with a home run, and we never looked back, jumping out to a 4 run lead in the first inning. In fact, all 10 of our runs came on the longball. While we’re at it, 2 of the 3 runs that Cleveland scored were on the longball as well. :)
John Thomson looked great – going 8 innings, giving up 3 runs on 5 hits – a great outing, and one we need a lot more of if Arod is going to be happy here. ;)
Game notes are here and here.

When this game started, I figured we didn’t have a hope. Pedro Martinez was pitching against us, and that’s usually enough reason to lose hope. He’s got an ERA at the Ballpark under 2! However, Colby Lewis hung with Pedro, matching him almost in every category along the way which was a nice surprise.
It was a great battle up until the 6th when we got a two run hit from Shane Spencer to put us up, 3-2. It stayed that way until the 9th inning when Cordero came on for the save, and gave up a solo home run to Trot Nixon to tie it. We couldn’t push anything across in the 9th and 10th, but in the 11th, we managed to load the bases against Boston reliever Todd Jones. That set the stage for Arod to come up – and given his frustrations, I was expecting a strikeout, but he got us the first walk off win of the 2003 season – and in style too, with a grand slam over the bullpen in right field. Was a great moment, and a great ending to a great game. Isn’t that great? Can I say Great anymore? Great.
As much as I liked winning, I can’t say I truly enjoyed taking 2 of 3 from Boston, as it helped the Yankees. Helping the Yankees is almost a crime, IMHO.
I do find it odd though that Arod came off the field after getting the traditional gang pile at home plate, and ran up the tunnel – he disappeared almost immediately, while the rest of the team was celebrating on the field. I wonder why he ran out so quickly? That just seemed odd.
Game notes are available here and here.