Joe Siegler — Page 487 — Rangerfans.com

Palmeiro named TSN player of the year

Posted by Joe Siegler on October 18, 1999 at 9:45 pm

ST. LOUIS — Rafael Palmeiro, who returned to the Texas Rangers as a free agent after five seasons with the Baltimore Orioles, is The Sporting News Player of the Year.
Palmeiro, mostly a designated hitter, batted .324 with 47 home runs and 148 RBI. He edged last year’s winner, Chicago Cubs outfielder Sammy Sosa, 74 votes to 57Â½ in balloting by nearly 400 major leaguers for the award given annually since 1936.
Boston Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez finished third with 53 votes, followed by Cleveland Indians right fielder Manny Ramirez with 48Â½, and Atlanta Braves third baseman Chipper Jones with 30.
“I’m shocked, really stunned about it,” Palmeiro said. “It’s not something I ever thought I’d win.”
Boston’s Jimmy Williams and Atlanta’s Bobby Cox were selected as American League and National League Manager of the Year by their peers.

Grading the 1999 Rangers

Posted by Joe Siegler on October 11, 1999 at 2:19 pm

Back in October of 1999 after the Rangers were eliminated from the playoffs, I did a piece on grading the players from that season. When I was importing old data from my site into blog format, this page proved to be a bit difficult, and as such, I’m just linking to the old page, which remains on my server.
https://www.rangerfans.com/news/99grades.html
This text was written on Dec 8, 2005, but the article date was placed back to when I originally wrote it.

ALDS Game 2: Rangers eliminated behind 3-0 shutout loss.

Posted by Joe Siegler on October 9, 1999 at 12:01 am

I have one rude remark to say about this series, but Q)(#%)Q#*(%)@#% THE YANKEES!
Once again, the Rangers go 3 and out against New York in the post season. I don’t know what else to say. 9 straight losses to the Yankees in the post season. 5 of the last 6 have been shutouts. Our pitching was again good (the single mistake was the Loaiza home run). We can’t score against the Yankees in the post season. It’s as simple as that.
I’m rather depressed about the end of the season, tell you the truth. We lost 3-0, and we had chances, we couldn’t come through. I don’t really feel like writing about the final game of the season. Especially this one. :(
I’ll be doing some off season remarks, and I’ll be maintaining the site during the off season, so I’m not shutting down till February. Thanks for visiting, and it’s been a great ride the season. I intend on doing it all again in 2000.
Oh yeah, I was at the game, and took my digital camera. Will be posting some pictures of the game shortly.

ALDS Game 2: Rangers score a run! Still lose 3-1

Posted by Joe Siegler on October 7, 1999 at 12:01 am

Well, it’s now third down and long. If we don’t get some yards soon, we’ll be forced to punt again to the Yankees. Oh wait, wrong sport. However, the analogy probably isn’t that far from the truth. :)
Even though we lost, this was a very well played baseball game. The entire game (except maybe the top of the 9th) seemed like a big deal at every moment. It’s great baseball, even if we lost. The curse continues.
I’m really hoping we win at least one, before getting knocked out. My original prediction was the Yanks in 5, but I figured we’d split in NY, split here, and lose game 5 up in the Bronx. We may not make it back to the Bronx. I’m going to the game Saturday night, and I’m also hearing it’s supposed to rain. Oh god, does that bring up bad memories of last year’s playoff game here.
Rick Helling looked good, and surprisingly, didn’t give up any home runs at all. I expected him to give up a few of them in Yankee Stadium. This start was rather indicitave of his entire 99 season. No run support. He pitches an awesome game, but loses the game, because we didn’t score any runs for him. As frustrating as that is to us the fans, it must be worse for him. I feel that Helling should have gotten 20 wins again this season, if only he had run support. Rick was perfect the first time through the lineup, and also a batter or two into the 4th. Was a great start. Too bad it didn’t finish that way.
Andy Pettite always seemed on the verge of giving up a bunch of runs, but never did. He saved himself on several occasions from being pulled. It’s annoying, we were “this close” to busting it open in my eyes, and we didn’t.
Juan Gonzalez got our 1 run for the off-season, we’ll probably get shut out on Saturday again. Going back into the regular season, we now have a 5 game losing streak. I really don’t want our season to end on a 6 game losing streak. Especially to Roger Clemens. :(
One funny moment. In the first inning when Chuck Knoblauch was up to bat, Don Zimmer put on a pith helmet that had the Yankees logo on it. It was damn funny, and I wish I have a picture of that; I don’t. Zim sounds like a really fun guy to be around.

ALDS Game 1: Rangers shut out 8-0

Posted by Joe Siegler on October 5, 1999 at 12:01 am

I’m still sick, and honestly, I wished last night’s game wasn’t on. I felt like complete crap during the game, and almost fell asleep a few times (because of my condition, not because of the Rangers’ performance). Thank god game one wasn’t in Arlington, I don’t know how bad I would have felt if I was at the game!
Anyway, the Yankee curse is still in effect. Despite every piece of evidence pointing to the Rangers being better, we were shut down completely. In fact, it was even worse than last year’s shutdown in the playoffs. This time, we had two hits all night, and both of them were by Pudge. Pudge was our best thing going last night. He also stole a base, and generally seemed to be the most “with it” player we had. The entire rest of the Rangers went 0-25 for the night. El Duque was pretty much the star of the show. Not a whole lot more needs to be said here.
However, on the other side, Bernie Williams was the story for the Yankees. He alone had 6 RBI’s – if you take him out, that makes the game 2-0, which is far more reasonable. However, that’s no excuse, we should have scored SOMETHING. ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!
I didn’t feel the Rangers pitching staff pitched as bad as an 8-0 score indicated. We seemed to be doing fairly well, until Sele seemed to lose it in the 6th. He was a bit shaky in the fifth, but a 3-0 lead isn’t all that bad. I am having a hard time pointing to any one bad play pitching wise that caused this.
Again, I hope we can bounce back. This is now a four game losing streak going into the regular season. I felt bad for Don Zimmer, the ex Ranger manager who got wailed on the head by a Mr. Twinkie foul ball. Was nice to see him back up and on the bench quickly.

G162: Rangers shut out 1-0 in the regular season finale

Posted by Joe Siegler on October 3, 1999 at 12:01 am

I’m sorry, but I won’t be writing any commentary for the Angels series. As I write this on Monday, I’ve come down with what feels like the flu, and my head is rather woozy. I can’t think straight for more than a few minutes at a time. I just wanted to get the site updated before the games against the Yankees tomorrow.
I did notice that of the six division winners, the Rangers had the fewest wins. We SHOULD have had the best, since the Indians and the Yankees also fell apart in the final weekend, plus all the game we played against bottom feeders in September that we lost, cost us a serious shot at the best record in baseball (which was owned by Atlanta with a 103-59 record; we had 95-67).

G161: Rangers bombed out by Angels, 15-3

Posted by Joe Siegler on October 2, 1999 at 12:01 am

G160: Rangers lose to the Angels, 7-6

Posted by Joe Siegler on October 1, 1999 at 12:01 am

Hicks signs TV deal with Fox Sports Southwest

Posted by Joe Siegler on September 30, 1999 at 9:36 pm

Tom Hicks’ vision of starting his own regional sports network is apparently dead.
After months of talks, Mr. Hicks’ Southwest Sports Group and Fox Sports Net agreed Wednesday to a 15-year broadcast partnership that keeps half of the Texas Rangers telecasts on Fox Sports Southwest. Fox Sports also keeps the Dallas Stars and adds the Mesquite Championship Rodeo to its lineup.
Financial terms were not disclosed, but the deal “is worth hundreds of millions of dollars,” Mr. Hicks said.
With the leverage of owning the Stars and the Rangers, Mr. Hicks was able to make the cable rights valuable enough to push forward despite sometimes bitter negotiations. Since Fox Sports is an established network, it guaranteed delivery of the Rangers and Stars games right away.
That finally helped forge an agreement, putting an end to the idea of Mr. Hicks’ regional sports network, said Mike Cramer, Southwest Sports Group’s chief operating officer.
“We would not create one now,” Mr. Cramer said. “Essentially, we’re throwing ourselves in with Fox for a regional sports network. The primary concern was to maximize our assets. Fox brings distribution, they’re already out there. If we had done it on our own, we would have competed with them directly.”
Under the agreement, Fox Sports Net will televise 80 of the Rangers’ 162 regular-season games, a 13 percent increase from this season’s telecasts. Wednesday night’s broadcast was the 58th of 59 Rangers games on Fox Sports Southwest this year.
Fox Sports also will broadcast 40 of 82 Stars games and 24 one-hour programs from the Mesquite Championship Rodeo, both controlled by Southwest Sports Group.
When Mr. Hicks purchased the Rangers for $250 million in January 1998, the Stars owner revealed plans to combine his sports and broadcast interests. He envisioned packaging his two sports teams with other sports programming, possibly including the Dallas Mavericks, into one entity that would broadcast them in the local market.
The Arlington-D/FW area was one of the so-called big media markets, but Mr. Hicks said the Stars and Rangers weren’t bringing in enough revenue in cable rights. The New York Yankees make $50 million alone from their cable contract with the Madison Square Garden Network, a joint venture between Cablevision Systems Corp. and Fox.
Mr. Hicks identified potential partners as Fox Sports Net, ESPN and NBC.
In August, Mr. Hicks said he was close to a deal to forge a partnership for a regional sports network with Fox Sports. Earlier this month, though, both sides acknowledged that negotiations between Mr. Hicks and Fox Sports were on the rocks.
But a deal appeared inevitable.
Mr. Hicks had the teams to provide summer and winter programming, giving his company a strong bargaining position, Mr. Cramer said.
“It would have been weak without the Stars and Rangers,” Mr. Cramer said. “Fox clearly had a vested interest in keeping us.”
Fox Sports also had leverage: It reaches 6.3 million cable and satellite television homes in the Southwest’s five-state region, which includes Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and parts of New Mexico.
It would have taken two or more years for Southwest Sports Group to line up cable systems with comparable customers, Mr. Cramer said.
To duplicate the reach of Fox Sports Net Southwest, for example, Mr. Hicks’ company would have the costly and time-consuming task of signing deals with 1,300 cable systems.
“It would have been an inconvenience for the fans,” Mr. Cramer said.

G159: Rangers shut out Seattle, 7-0 in game of records

Posted by Joe Siegler on September 30, 1999 at 12:01 am

Listened to this game at work today as it was a day game. I listened over the Internet as opposed to the radio that’s sitting on my desk. Somehow it just seems “cooler” that way. :)
Anyway… This was very much a game of records. Check these things out:

This was shutout #9 for Rangers pitching this season.
We set a franchise record for wins with 95.
Juan hit a home run, giving him 39. He needs one more for 4 straight years of 40 HR’s.
We now have 936 runs scored as a team, which is 4 shy of our own record.
The team ERA is just a shade under 5 now.
John Burkett had his first winning season since 1993, when he went 22-7 with the Giants with a 9-8 record this year.

John Burkett sounded dominating, as did the three relievers (Crabtree, Zimmerman, & Venafro). Between the four, they only allowed 4 hits (3 by Burkett, one by Venafro) over 9 innings, and 8 strikeouts and 3 walks. It was an extraordinarily well pitched game. The radio guys were spooging over Zimmerman saying his slider looked like the best he’d thrown all season. Burkett managed to pitch out a jam later in his appearance where the Mariners were threatening to tie up the game (it was 2-0 then). He looked really good, and again, he pitched well in the end of the year, and I suspect we’ll probably pick up his option for 2000 and invite him to spring training. Of course, that’s depending on what happens in the off-season, I’m sure.
This is the end of the home season at the Ballpark in Arlington. We finished up with 51 wins at home for the season (out of 81 home dates, I believe). We went 7-5 for the final homestand, shutting out Seattle twice in the last three games.
We got out early with a Lee Stevens solo home run in the bottom of the second, and that was the game winning hit – we didn’t need anything more. Juan Gonzalez followed up with another solo home run in the bottom of the third. We got three in the 6th, and two in the 7th to close out the scoring. Was a nice spread, with Lee Stevens getting another RBI, and Tom Goodwin getting a couple, while Pudge chimed in again as usual.
We head to Anaheim for the final three games of the season. Given the way Anaheim has been playing, I wonder if we can’t get to 98 wins out there. :)