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Arrrgh! What a game to have seen on TV. However, all we got was an Internet box score. Was kind of fun “watching” the game with a few people over at the Newberg Site forums. :)
Anyway, a lot of power early in this one, accounting for a lot of the runs. Three run hoe runs each by Galarraga, Caminiti, & ARod in the first four innings gave us more than we needed to win this one, having only given up two runs of our own. Kapler, Velarde & Ruben Mateo also got in on the RBI train today. Interesting in that the three home runs were all by players who weren’t on the team last year. It will certainly be a different look when we all head out to the Temple in April, won’t it?
Darren Oliver’s ERA so far is 4.5, I believe – and is 1-0! :) He gave up only one hit, and it was the solo home run – from reading about the game, he didn’t seem to pitch so bad. I really want Oliver to do good – I was a fan of his coming back here, and 2000 was a mess. I’m hoping he can turn it around, but I’ll be first on the bandwagon if he shows signs of being like last year’s pitcher again. Crabtree was perfect in the ninth, which is a good sign. Our pitching was one again really good, giving up only 2 runs over 9 innings – I can live with that, even if we didn’t have the offense that we have this season. The other run we gave up was given up by Kevin Foster, a pitcher not really expected to make the club.
The thing that’s sad about this is that the reported attendance at the stadium was only 2,051. Damn. A doubleheader and only 2,000 people show up? Oh well, guess that’s why we’re moving to Arizona.

This is the part of Spring Training I don’t like. Games are being played, yet we don’t get to see or hear them. What we usually get during these non broadcast games are at most about 10 seconds of clips on the local news (which of course would rather talk about Troy Aikman’s choice of playing next year as opposed to something GOOD like the Rangers in spring training), and a box score online. Sigh.
Speaking of the box score, Kelly Dransfeldt was the star of this game, going 2 for 3 with 2 RBI’s. The remaining 6 hits we had were spread out over the other players. Pat Mahomes was perfect, not giving up anything for his two innings (nice to see), and Mark Petkovsek gave up the only Pittsburgh run. Overall, 6 hits for 7 innings and one run. Not too shabby.
This was a short 7 inning early morning game to make up for rainouts in both the Pirates’ and Rangers’ schedules yesterday. When I got up this morning, four innings had already been played! :)

Sat down to listen to Game 2 of Spring Training – instead I listened to one inning of baseball. The game was rained out (as was about 5 or 6 other Florida ST games, too). Because of this, the Rangers will play a doubleheader tomorrow – one was the originally scheduled game against the Pirates, and the makeup a 7 inning early morning game against the Pirates too – as they were rained out.
Not much to say about this one – the Rangers played one inning, and we gave up an unearned run due to a Kenny Rogers throwing error on a pickoff move. That allowed a run to score on a single shortly afterwards. That was it. The Rangers did nothing at all in their one at bat – 3 up 3 down.
Was nice to see the regular 9 for 2001 all in the starting lineup – although a lot of doubt remains as to what order they’ll actually bat once the season opens.

“…Ranger Baseball is on the air!”
With those words, we started the 2001 Ranger campaign. Right around noon, we heard that familiar Ranger radio intro, culminating with the words “Ranger Baseball is on the air!”. Shortly after that, we heard the familar voice of Eric Nadel introducing the team, the news of Rusty’s 3 year extension, as well as just the general great feel of Ranger baseball!
The last couple of years, the first Spring Training game on the radio has been during the week, and during those years, my wife would bring me a special lunch to the office (here’s a picture from 2000) – this time, since I was already home, we had the baseball lunch at home. Hot Dogs, sauerkraut, and French Fries. Having some Coke in a Ranger mug (you know, the ones they sell beer in at the Ballpark) made it pretty cool. Enjoyed the game immensely!
Of course, the main attraction for a lot of people, I’m sure was Arod and how he’d perform. Well, during the time he was in the game, he had two singles (although he got thrown out trying to stretch one into a double), as well as a walk, and one really spectacular sounding defensive play. After one game – I pronounce him a success. :) Seriously, it sounded like a great game for the Rangers – the only negative I could find was Zimmerman’s gopher ball. Way too early to be concerned, but Zim did have a habit of giving up gopher balls right away when he came into games last year. Some power by Raffy in the first with a 3 run jimmy jack on the way to a 5 run spot that inning. We also had a home run by Frank Catalanotto later in the game – since to see some power from the get go.
There was a good mix of players who will be on the club this year, as well as minor leaguers we won’t see. Pudge was back in action, which was nice to hear, as well as guys like Bo Porter, Trafis Hafner, & Mike Hubbard.
Great to hear the Rangers – and we get another game tomorrow. Unfortunately, that will be it until next weekend.
“…Ranger Baseball is on the air!”