Tonight, I was looking around my own site, and saw a few pages that needed updating now that the 2012 season has been completed. They are the “Broadcaster History” page, as well as the “Attendance History” page. Given the Rangers announced late last week what the broadcast teams will be for 2013, I figured this would be a good time to update these pages, as they’re pretty static. The attendance one gets updated just once a year, and the broadcaster one as well, unless there’s a midseason change (which has happened a few times recently). After updating the pages, I have a few notes and observations. [Read more…]
This whole story is written around the concept that the numbers being reported this morning are accurate. If they’re not, well, sod this story. :)
A report this morning says that Josh Hamilton wants a 7 year contract and $175 Million. My initial reaction to that? UH, NO WAY. I mean, seriously – does he honestly think someone is giving him that? While I like Josh – I have always liked him since he came here. The way the 2012 season ended was disappointing yes – but I’m not about to pitchfork him out of town based on the slump at the end. He did great for us during his time here, and I loved the way he put Jesus out there in front, something that was refreshing for this Christian. But dude.. 7 years? Are you serious? [Read more…]
Remarks: Well, Feliz & Miller were procedural. Miller lost all of the 2012 season due to Tommy John surgery, so those were just to get those guys back on the 40 man roster. The others are moves that were expected. Declining the options of Feldman & Tateyama are both ones that I think every Rangers fan saw coming. Tateyama wasn’t exactly bad, but he never did much here, and we can probably find something better.
Feldman, however, was pretty darned awful in 2012, except for a stretch for a few weeks in the middle where he looked like the good Feldman again. But overall, pretty bad. Dug his own hole with that crappy performance. In the article on the Rangers site, Scott was quoted as saying “I just want to go someplace where I can start regularly”. Well, to be honest, Scott – that could have been here. Had you not pitched so awful, you would have pitched regularly here. In fact, he was given a regular starter’s role this year after he had that couple of week good stretch. Then he blew it by pitching awful again. So I don’t have a lot of tears for that stance of his.
This is the start of a few moves this week – I expect to see more in the next few days, when the decisions on qualifying offers come down.
I felt energized by Jeff’s offer to help out with the writing here on this site. I decided not to wait for Spring Training 2013 or some big off season move to write something. I decided to break out the keyboard and plow through an article that takes a look at the 2012 Rangers roster. Basically, it’s a few remarks about each player, both in what happened in 2012, and perceptions for said player in 2013. I’ve gone through and listed all 39 players that played for the big club in the 2012 season, and some thoughts on each of them. Let me know what you think – if you agree or disagree in the comments (or if I’ve made some egregious error). :)
As I posted a little bit ago, I had doubts that I wanted to continue on into the new season in the format this site has had for awhile. I found it hard to stay focused when I have no TV to watch, and I couldn’t timeshift the radio broadcasts. Fortunately, a friend of mine decided to step in and offer to write about some of the games on this site, too. He’s a good friend of mine, the two of us attend church together, and he’s been a long time Ranger fan. He lives in the Arlington area, and his name is Jeff. We attended the one game together in the 2010 World Series that the Rangers won, so that was cool. Here’s a picture of us from the MLB Gigapan photo. I think Jeff knew when it was being taken, as he covered my face with his camcorder. :)
I’m appreciative to Jeff for helping out going forward. In fact, he wrote two commentaries already towards the end of the 2012 season. The ones for Games 160 & 161, so you can check them out. That will probably lighten the load on me going forward. Plus, this site is called “Rangerfans” – as in plural, so it probably will be cool to get a second voice on here. I also restored the byline credit on the site. Because I was the only one writing, it seemed kind of silly to have “by Joe” under the title of each article. But with two of us, I felt it was time to put that back.
Jeff posts in the Texas Rangers fan group on Facebook as well as me, so you might recognize him from there. Not sure what the plans for off season writing is, probably a remark here and there when the mood strikes. But I’m grateful to a friend for stepping up and helping out. Back in the earliest days of this site I had a second author for part of the start of the 1999 season, but that guy didn’t last long – and disappeared off the face of the Earth too. I would think Jeff wouldn’t.
My remarks on Game 162 of the Rangers 2012 Season. Nothing more needs to be said…
I’ve discovered as we head into the last game of the season today that my lack of ability to watch the Rangers games on TV has seriously impacted my desire to maintain this site with regular daily updates. I’ve gone three times this season where I haven’t updated for 2+ weeks, and when I do, I have to do like 20 games at once.
I still follow the team, but a lot of times it’s just on my iPhone app or something. As I’ve said before, the time the games are on in the evening is prime family time, and given you can’t timeshift radio, I either have to forego family time to listen, or just not listen to the game. It doesn’t make me want to do an update too much when I can’t listen or watch the games at all.
If this situation continues into next season, I might have to have a rethink about the site, and how I run it. As I sit here today on Oct 3rd before Game 162 is played, I can say there’s about 50 games this season I haven’t written about. Not sure I WANT to go back and write about them, to be honest.
I’ll probably do the playoffs properly, and then have a think about catching up the games I didn’t do in the season. Although I suspect I probably won’t want to go back and do that. We’ll see.
Anyone really care? :)
It’s a new day, and a new game, with a veteran on the mound for Texas. But even as Harrison performed admirably, it wasn’t meant to be. In our previous encounters with Travis Blackley this year, the Rangers went 1-2 with a no decision against him, so it seemed like today would be the day we would get the job done. Unfortunately, our bats felt differently.
In front of just over 30,000 people in Oakland, the Texas offense remained stoic. Sure, by Texas standards, things have been quieter than normal lately, but today was something especially unsettling. 5 hits, and only 2 of those for extra bases. Even then, our Rangers usually find a way to get it done, but Blackley’s ability to draw ground-balls was astounding. Young, Hamilton, and Napoli all grounded in to double plays, effectively ending any chance the Rangers had of creating offensive momentum. Sure, Blackley issued a couple walks, but he cleaned things up nicely throughout his 6 innings of work.
But even then, given the struggling offense, our pitching staff remained solid, holding Oakland to only 3 runs. Although Harrison allowed 6 hits, it’s hard to push any blame his way on a night when our offense was silent. Stats typically don’t matter, but his ERA was decent, and 5 strikeouts speak for themselves. It wasn’t a dominant outing, but he got the job done in many ways.
After this game, with some emotion and frustration, here’s what I wrote:
Winning 1 out of 3 seemed to be a sure thing. Winning 1 out of 2 appeared entirely possible. But now we’re forced to win 1 out of 1, and I’m downright worried.
And a short while later, as the frustration and disappointment began to set in, and the gravity of the situation began to ferment, that the first place Rangers were no longer alone in their ranking, I wrote this:
I know it shouldn’t matter, but they play on a football field for goodness sake. Their attendance was less than half of ours for the year. We probably had more sellouts than they had home wins. And yet, here we stand, on the verge of losing a title 3 years in the making.
Maybe we take baseball to seriously. Maybe we are too invested in “our” teams’ wins and losses. Maybe that’s why days like today are so hard to swallow. Surely we aren’t the Red Sox from last year, right? Here’s to just hoping tomorrow doesn’t make me feel like this all over again.