Does anyone know a place left that still publishes current text only box scores? Everyone wants to “fancy up” the box scores with their own version of “let’s put graphics in the box score”. Does anyone know of a site that publishes pure text based box scores like this? Thnanks.

Well, as with most everyone else in Rangers fan land, I was surprised last night when I read that Juan Dominguez was traded. I think most fans tended to agree that Juan fit the mode of a player with an awful lot of promise, but one that has generally left it unfulfilled. He’s shown incredible starts (that one in Yankee Stadium was probably his high point), and some really horrendous ones. And then there’s his well documented off field problems, which I won’t go into here.
Even having said all that, I think most fans kept feeling that he’d “get it”, and become the great pitcher we all wanted to see come up through the system and become dominant. So when he wasn’t picked to be the fifth starter earlier this week, my guess is that most people figured it would be another setback, as he hasn’t shown that he can deal with these “setbacks” well. The word came down that he was late for another team meeting that day, which probably didn’t help the team’s mood about him. Then Adam Eaton got hurt, and pitchers 3-5 in the rotation got moved up, and Juan Dominguez was widely accepted to have been given the fifth starter’s spot by default, than actual merit.
Then comes last night, we get the word that he was traded. And to the Oakland A’s as well. It’s at this point where we start hearing things about we hope he does well, as you want to feel good for him. But as a Rangers fan, I have to say I hope he falls on his face in Oakland, because I don’t want his skill to blossom there and come back and bite us in the ass. I know most people won’t come out and say they want the guy to fail, but I refer simply to the sport. As a human being I hope he matures and becomes a great pitcher, but simply on the sport of it, I don’t want him to do well at all. I hate trades inside the division just for that reason.
I’m not the greatest at breaking down big detail on players I don’t know the most about – but Jamey Newberg is good at that. Go check out his report this morning for some detail on the inbound players in this move. I don’t know much about the inbound guys (or the transient player we had briefly in the three team trade), except I remember the name John Koronka from when he was a Rule 5 draft player by us a couple of years ago.
The only thinking I have now is this.. Is John Kronoka really that much better than the other #5 options we had at this point (minus Dominguez)? My gut feeling is that we might have been better off giving #5 to Dominguez, or some of the other guys we had in the competition than Koronka. That might not be fair to Koronka, but that’s probably our good old friend “fear of the unknown” creeping in there.
Either way, I hope whoever pitches for us gets wins, and those who pitch against us do not. If this all sounds like rambling, it might be. I don’t write my best essays in the morning, as the brain isn’t in gear yet. :)

I got this submitted via a comment a few days back. One of my site visitors submitted this graphic he made. It was pretty cool, so I wanted to make sure y’all saw it. It’s been the background image on my laptop for the last few days. Click on the thumbnail below to see a larger image in another window.
Thanks to “Chaz” for submitting it. It’s good work!

There’s players flying all over the place right now. :) The next 24 hours will be quite chaotic for the roster. I have decided that until it’s all sorted out who is where when the final roster is put toether tomorrow night, I’ll wait and see what’s going to happen. I’m going to be at the game on Saturday, so I plan to pick up a media guide which I’ll use to update roster pages for players that don’t have them now. My roster page/transactions page has some of the changes, but not all – I’ll catch up when the 25 man is announced.

First Philly gives the Dallas area Terrell Owens. Today they gave us Vicente Padilla, as Philly released Ricardo Rodriguez, so that leaves them with nothing from the trade for Padilla. Thanks guys. :)

Just noticed today that the Ballpark in Arlington was whored out a little more. The 200 level of seats is now going to be called the “Lexus Club Level”. More names in the ballpark where one wasn’t before. I seem to recall last season that Hicks said the club was making money. I guess it wasn’t enough. Yeah yeah yeah, I know – “we need more income to sustain and grow the club”. Yeah, Pbbbbbt. Find it elsewhere. Stop whoring Ameriquest Field The Ballpark in Arlington, please. Sigh.
This just adds another product that I will never give any money to or buy anything from. That’s all these deals do, make the “No way” list get larger. There’s a real happy sounding press release about this over at the Rangers site here.
And as long as I’m complaining, what’s with that stupid name for the Hall of Fame Ballot that was announced today? I mean come on…
The Verizon Yellow Pages and SuperPages.com Hall of Fame Hall of Fame Ballot
Excuse me? What’s that nonsense? Does anyone even care that it’s called that besides Hicks, who gets a few more bucks for it? Must need new floor mats for his Lexus. Sigh.

As the season opener is now a single digit away, the mass media coverage is warming up.
Today’s game is actually a night game, and it’s on KRLD @ 8:05PM. Saturday’s game is not on radio, but Sunday’s game is – @ 2:05PM. However, Sunday’s game is also on Rangers TV. If you have the out of town sports package on DirecTV, you’ve been able to see a handful of games (mostly Chicago games with their coverage). However, Sunday’s game at 2:05 will have Josh Lewin & Tom Grieve back on the air.
However, Monday night is the big one. Monday night’s game (8:05) is on TV, but it’s not just the game. There will be a half hour 2006 Season Preview, followed by the usual half hour pregame show, and then the game itself. It all starts at 7PM on Monday the 27th, so make sure and check that out.
After that, starting on March 31st, every Ranger game for the rest of the year is on KRLD. TV coverage kicks in again with the home opener. My TiVo at home has found another 2006 Season preview, when I get home and can check it, I’ll update with that info.

T.O.: ‘I am a star among stars now’ - Buahahahahahaha. Oh man. I can't wait. Oh sure, he might do good at first, but you know it's just a matter of time till he goes SF/Philly on the Cowboys. The thing I like the best about this signing is that we'll get to see him standing on the star all over again a million times. :) Buahahahahaha.

This little tidbit from Jamey Newberg’s latest newsletter piqued my interest:

The Rangers are evidently talking casually to Boston about David Wells.

While I personally wouldn’t mind that, my wife can’t stand him. I find him rather amusing, and he is still servicable, if not spectacular. My guess is he’s a fallback in case Clemens goes somewhere else. As long as we’re talking about Boomer, his book is pretty darned amusing. If you’ve never read it, you should. Here’s what I wrote about his book on my blog awhile back.

I never liked David Wells, mostly because I only knew him as a Yankee player. That alone is generally enough to get me not to like someone. :) I wanted to check this out solely because of the “hype” surrounding the book. And after having read the book, I have to wonder if the negative press surrounding the book and some of it’s “expositions” weren’t self inflicted. Read the book. It’s a wonderfully entertaining read. He talks about all the problems he had in his life early on, from his time in the minors, to the boredom in the bullpen (although his story about getting women in the stands to flash them is awesome) to his battles with team management, and lots on the Yankees. I also got a charge out of his comments on former Reds owner Marge Schott, and her dog.
I have to admit that this book goes on my recommend list. It was a funny read, and for a baseball fan like myself, gives me some insight into the mind of a baseball player. I really enjoyed it. The link here is for the hardback edition of the book. There is a paperback version scheduled for release, but it’s not currently slated until Mar 1, 2004. The hardback is available now.
Oh, BTW, if you’re someone who isn’t into the liberal use of foul language, you might want to stay away from the book. It’s not like every third word is f this or f that, but there is definitely more than a smattering of f-bombs and the like in the book.

I wrote that back in 2003 when I first read the book. Since then, the paperback version has come out, and is linked above. The hardback version has no discount on Amazon right now, but there are some used copies available through the picture link for as cheap as twenty cents. The paperback link has a facility where you can read a few pages inside the book online. I recommend this book, it was a good read.