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.

What an interesting day. First there’s the story about Alex being frustrated with losing (who wouldn’t be?), and then there’s the trade of Doug Glanville to the Cubs, allowing phenom Ramon Nivar to make his major league debut (Nivar did not get Pudge’s vacant uniform number 7, he got 2 instead).
We then go out and show that our youth is probably the way to go, because three of them slammed home runs into the upper deck at the Ballpark. Was a night driven by the home run. Of the 11 runs in the game, a total of 8 of them came on the longball. Fortunately, we got more than they did. Robert Ellis pitched well, going 7 innings, and giving up just two runs. I don’t think he’s a pitcher of the future, but it’s nice to see this from our staff. Ron Mahay pitched well, as did Francisco Cordero (although Cordero did allow a couple of baserunners).
Overall, a good win, and an odd feeling for me seeing the comments from Arod.
Game notes are here and here – the second with more on Arod’s comments.

I did not write about the games from July 24th through July 29th as I was out of town most of the weekend, and didn’t get to see or hear hardly any of the Ranger stuff. I did see Monday night’s game, but I spent all of Tuesday catching up at work, and had no time at all for an update.
Well, I wasn’t planning on writing about this game because of my rule about not writing about games we lose when the opponent scores over 10 runs, and I’m mostly sticking to that. However, I can’t ignore Bill Mueller. He hit two grand slams (plus a solo third HR), for a total of 9 RBI’s. He’s the first player in major league history to hit two grand slams in the same game, one from each side of the plate. A masterful performance by him. Kudos to anyone who has him active on their fantasy leagues last night. :)
Game notes are here.

A wild game. A great game to win (Glanville’s turned it around bigtime), but I really don’t have time to write the commentary this game deserves today – got a meeting in an hour.
Game notes are here – including Juando to the DL. Sigh.

The only thing worth writing about was Hank Blalock’s home run out onto Eutaw Street behind Camden Yards. I’ve been there, it’s a gorgeous place, and even more impressive when a home run is hit out there. I’m tired of writing about games where we give up over 10 runs and lose.
Game notes are here.

It’s always nice to see Camden Yards on my television. It’s one of the best ballparks that exists today. My wife and I were there a couple of years ago, and it was positively awesome. Unfortunately, the Texas Ranger teams we’ve been sending there the last couple of years haven’t been as spectacular (neither have the Oriole teams, either).
Overall, I can’t say it was a bad game, as it was generally well pitched, had some great defense – things that generally contribute to a quick, fresh game. However, we came out on the bottom side of this game after it seemed we’d win early on. The best moment was probably the crash between Doug Glanville and Laynce Nix in right center. It looked bad when they crashed into each other, but neither seemed affected by it.
There isn’t one moment that I can pin it to (other than the run the Orioles scored to take the lead) that says “Aha! That’s where we lost”. It just struck me as very “even” game. It’s a shame we lost, as I thought our pitching was pretty good.
Game notes are here.