Saw this little blurb today up on the Boston Globe website.

According to a friend of Palmeiro, the former Cubs, Orioles, and Rangers star wants to return to baseball even after the embarrassing events of 2005. Palmeiro, the highest-profile player ever to test positive for steroids, feels he’s done the time and should be able to return. On Aug. 1, 2005, Palmeiro was suspended 10 games. He returned to the Orioles after the suspension but was out of baseball all of last year. The Cuban-born Palmeiro, 42, feels he can still hit.

Apparently Rafael Palmeiro doesn’t feel like he’s finished, and wants to make a comeback. I wonder who would have him? I’m sure the Rangers wouldn’t. I’m not up on the Orioles situation, but I’m not sure they’d want that headache, either. Guilty or not, there’s a stigma around him now too. It’s still a sad way for him to end his career. I wish that hadn’t happened. Oh well.
I envision him like he was in this old Rangers TV commercial, knocking on the clubhouse door saying “Let me in!”

What do you think? Do you think Raffy should come back, and if he did, who do you think would be interested? My gut feeling is that he will probably try, but I have no idea who would want to take a shot on him.

46 days to go until Ranger pitchers and catchers are to report (Sat Feb 17th).

Saw a cool post today with all the remaining free agents out there as of today. Now I know some of these are in the process of signing (JD Drew, Bonds), and a couple (Radke, Kapler) have retired. I wonder what kind of team I can put together with this list. This will be an interesting mish-mash, I’m sure. This also assumes the guys would be healthy, as I know at least one of my choices has some health questions going into 2007 (assuming they get a job).
C – Sandy Alomar, Jr
1B – Shea Hillenbrand
2B – Ronnie Belliard
3B – Aubrey Huff
SS – Tomas Perez
LF – Barry Bonds
CF – Darin Erstad
RF – Shannon Stewart
DH – Phil Nevin
Bench: Miguel Cairo (IF), Doug Mientkiewicz (1B), Todd Greene (C), Mark Loretta (IF), Ricky Ledee (OF)
SP – Barry Zito
SP – Roger Clemens
SP – Tony Armas Jr
SP – Steve Trachsel
SP – Jeff Weaver
RP – Eddie Guardardo
RP – Matt Herges
RP – Danny Kolb
RP – Mike DeJean
RP – Arthur Rhodes
CL – Keith Foulke
Hey, Fernando Tatis is still out there! :)

I just noticed the other day that the site layout here looks kind of odd if you’re using Internet Explorer 7. If you use IE6 or Firefox (like you should), then you don’t see the problem, but IE7 has issues with the css work that comprises this site’s layout. I took the css work from a contest the software’s manufacturer had for people to design free layouts. I’ve already contacted the person who made the css about this issue, and she’s agreed to look into it and let me know.
So in the meantime, if you’re using IE7, and the site looks like this, please be aware it should be looking like this, and it’s being looked into. Sorry about that.
UPDATED: This appears to be fixed. I got a css change from the original design author this morning, and all appears to be well again. If you view the site via IE7, can you please confirm? It works for my IE7, but I wanted to make sure some other people are seeing the same thing. Thanks a ton to Carrie for sending the fix; much appreciated.

I know a lot of small fiddly stuff has happened in the last few days. I’ve meant to write about it, but my mind has been elsewhere. Had a root canal surgery this morning, so my mind is not completely with it due to the happy pills they gave me. :)
When my head clears, and my teeth aren’t aching, I’ll play catch up – I do have a lot of thoughts on what’s going on, buit haven’t found the time to get them out of my head and into the keyboard.

This week is filled with stories about Barry Zito, Mike Piazza, Vicente Padilla, and other names from the Winter Meetings. I want to take a minute to talk about former Ranger pitcher Don Carman. If you don’t remember Don as a Ranger, that’s not surprising. He had even less than a cup of coffee with the Rangers in 1992. His entire Ranger career was two games in 1992 for a total of 2.1 innings pitched. His name is not up there in Rangers lore with Nolan Ryan.
But that’s not why I bring him up. Visitors to my site know I’m also a Phillies fan, and have been since I was a kid. I knew Carman fairly well in the 80’s with the Phillies. A friend of mine sent me a link this afternoon to a story on slate.com about Don Carman and fan mail. It’s a really nice story which shows players aren’t all about what Scott Boras can get for them in negotiations.
It’s the story of a kid (now an adult) who wrote to Don Carman back in the 80’s and never got a reply back. Until now. 15 years later Mr Carman found a box of letters in his garage, and decided to write back to them. Some of the things told in this story are a nice thing to hear in this week of meetings that are so awash in cash, one wonders if Lucifer himself is behind all the evil that that much money does.
Anyway, check it out. It’s a pretty darned nice story to read. It’s written by a Bryan Curtis; I wonder if that’s the same Bryan Curtis who is a news reporter for NBC5 news here in Dallas.
I have a few of these outstanding letters myself from many a year gone by – I wonder if I’ll ver get some of them back – problem is the address I would have sent them from has been out of my family for a decade now. Oh well. :)

You know, having been here watching the Rangers as so many big name free agents come through here, the skeptical side of me wonders how much of Barry Zito’s eventual contract will be driven up by the free agent’s token appearance in Texas today.
But then the kid that is still left in me (after contracts, steroids, ticket prices, quarter billion dollar contracts) wakes up and goes “BARRY ZITO IS HERE!“. That pitcher that takes a teddy bear on the road with him is here! Yay!
For some reason, this visit seems promising. Even if we don’t get him, I won’t come away from this one feeling used like I usually feel (Clemens, Johnson) when one of these visitors signs elsewhere.
Most Ranger fans I talk to don’t say Ron Washington was their first choice to be manager in the recent sweepstakes (I certainly didn’t think that – always liked him from afar, but never considered him my manager material). But if it pays off with Zito, then I bet you you’ll see a lot of revised opinions in that regard (mine’s already changed after listening to the man).

Wow. $51.1 million. Just for a cup of coffee. Baseball money is so out of whack. It’s a good thing I really love the game, or I would have bailed ages ago. I did enjoy the remark that DMZ had over at USS Mariner…

This is, by the way, approximately 1/4th the value of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays franchise.

ESPN’s site has a link which shows that if you combine the salaries of all these players, it still doesn’t even add up to the posting fee the Red Sox paid. Johan Santana, Brandon Webb, Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt, Cris Carpenter, Scott Shields, Joel Zumaya, Aaron Heilman, Scott Linebrick, Juan Rincon, & Francisco Rodriguez. And you’d have about $2.5 Million LEFT OVER. Yeesh. And that’s not even the contract!
My own remark… If ever there’s a time for this bible scripture to be used..
…I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Matthew 19:24.

Hey, anyone who is reading this in the Dallas area and has HD, I have a question for you. What has the Rangers local game coverage in HD been?
Given we see the bulk of the games on Ch 27 & FSNSW, that’s what I’ll talk about. I’m not talking about national ESPN coverage, for Fox Saturday games, but the local stuff.
I can only remember seeing a handful of games that said “HD” and those were on FSN towards the end of the season. Can someone elaborate on this if you have any knowledge? Hoping to get some feedback on this.