I will have a delay of a few days updating the site.   Yesterday I accidentally stabbed myself in the left hand with a steak knife, and caused a pretty deep wound.  As such, I have my hand in a bandage, and I’m not supposed to be doing much of anything with the hand for a little bit.  So long posts are out, since I have to type with one hand for the most part.  Will catch up when my hand is feeling better.

My Yahoo Fantasy Baseball Leagues are up and running again.  League 2 is full already with people returning from last year, and League 1 has two open slots.  If you’re interested in joining, here’s the info you’ll need.

If there’s enough interest, I’ll open a third, but last year I had a hard time filling three, so if you’re intersted and the league is full, plezse let me know, otherwise I’ll have no idea there’s interest in a third.

Linkage:

Signup URL: http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/register/joinprivateleague_league_select
League #1 ID: 37209
Password: nomoreyuyoujokes
Live Online Draft: Sat Mar 24 @ 8PM CST

On another note, I will say what I always say. PLEASE DO NOT SIGN UP IF YOU DO NOT INTEND ON PLAYING THE ENTIRE YEAR OUT! If there’s one thing I hate, it’s people who sign up and then never play. I just care about having people that don’t quit.

I have a quick favor to ask. If you see this message, please leave me a comment. I want to test out some functionality of the new site and I need some other people besides myself to do it. Thank you.

Well, I’ve finally gone and gotten rid of the old Rangers site.  I’ve been doing the site since December 1998, and over that time I’ve had a few looks.  The 2012 season will be the 14th season since I started this site, and perhaps one of the more radical changes.  I’m going to cover some of the changes that have occurred on the site since the last iteration and this one.

Overall, most of the content is the same as before.  Given all of the site was in Movable Type before, I was able to import the entire site (save for two bits, photo gallery & forums), and then it became a matter of how to massage the data.   So most everything is still here, it’s just a fresh coat of paint, and a new interface.   Most things are still here, only a few are gone (but several have moved around).

Let’s delve into the changes, and also a big look back on the history of the site (which goes back over 13 years now)…

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Tonight I was looking at the Rangers official site, and noticed some Japanese lettering in the far upper left hand corner I don’t recall being there before.  I went to the page, even though I knew I couldn’t read any of it.   The picture on that page shouldn’t have surprised me, I guess.  :)

mlb.com has become the destination for online baseball. I remember years ago when it started, mlb.com was originally owned by someone else, and the “Major League Baseball” site was at majorleaguebaseball.com. It was not very good. But that changed when MLBam came onboard, and they’ve been doing it for a few years now. it’s been refined into a video powerhouse. While the blackout rules still stink like my baby’s diaper genie, it is a great place to watch baseball video.

As the years have gone by, their archive of old video and clips and whatnot is huge. But they had one epic level fail. You couldn’t embed the video on other sites. It was like that for years and years. Today I happened to notice an “embed” option on video clips there. I was quite stunned. I tried it, and it worked great. It’s not just new video either – they’ve apparently allowed you to embed video from the past.

My test is of an old video segment that Gar Ryness, the Batting Stance Guy did at MLB Network HQ back in 2009 when Victor Rojas was still there. His impression of Andre Dawson gets me every time. While I’ve seen Gar do Hawk a few times, the one from this clip is still my favorite version of it. The interaction between Gar and the three MLB guys (Mitch Williams, Victor Rojas, & Harold Reynolds) was brilliant. So I present this clip below. Watch it, it’s funny! To MLB? What took you so long?

Apparently not all video works.  While that video I mentioned has an embed code, you can’t actually embed it.  This one below however, does work, and it’s Bud Selig talking about the game.  Apparently older videos aren’t working.  Whether that’s temporary or permanent, I don’t know.

I’ve finally started working on the new site in earnest. I’m hoping to be ready by spring training. I haven’t been ignoring the team. Far from it. Been reading a ton. My wife and I watched the Yu Darvish stuff tonight. One thought. “Yeah RIGHT, you didn’t know what was on your T-Shirt you were wearing”.

Anyway, most of my spare time was spent on finishing up my other big fan site, the site for the band Black Sabbath. That’s up and running, so I’m turning my attention to this site now.

I’m not going to be posting here much anymore, I’m just going to be transferring over data and building pages on the site site. Will post when there’s something to check out.

One big thing though – I’m likely going to be dropping the forums here in favor of discussions via the comments field. I’m moving to WordPress, and that will allow me to open comments to the world again. Also, the old UBB.Threads in place has become a security risk, and I want to get rid of it. I also personally have so rarely look in on them myself, I think it’s just time to go. I’m looking to streamline the operation, and hope that those of you who do make use of it will find use of the new system I will put in place.

Anyway, hope to have some more going shortly. Thanks for visiting!

Took me quite a while to come down from the sting (to put it mildly) of the World Series loss.  I just hope we don’t turn into the Buffalo Bills of the MLB.

Lots of things happening, one of which is a change in the website here.  I’ll have more to say in the next few weeks.  But I’m still here.  :)

As there’s now a real possibility the Rangers will be celebrating with a champagne/beer shower for the fourth time this post season in a day or so, that means we’ll be breaking out the Ginger Ale again for Josh Hamilton.
This seems like a perfect time to mention some Texas Rangers fan created T-Shirts someone told me about a few days ago. Check out this logo:

The shirts are marketed under the line of “True Fans Know”, and they don’t mention the Rangers or use any trademarked logos or anything like that, so MLB can’t come down on ‘em – smart move. Thought I’d send along the link to the place if you want to check ‘em out. Here goes:

Does make me wonder – what does Josh DO after the Ginger Ale thing is over and the rest of the team boozes it up?

And so am I. New World Series cap in place. Ready to go. Bring on the NL!

The video above was by Next Media Animation. You can check ‘em out here.

I’ve done some promotional things with Chevy before. Last year I drove around a Chevy Cruze with antlers on it to do some rah-rah things. I went down with a few other Ranger bloggers in late March to Round Rock for the final exhibition game of this year’s spring training. (Just discovered there’s a video online of the Day 2 Food tour we took – check that out).
However, a week ago, they contacted me again, and this time wanted me to be involved with a new idea. A “Good Luck in the World Series” greeting card. We all were operating under the assumption that the Rangers would actually MAKE it to the Series – good thing they did. Anyway, I got a bunch of signatures from fans young and old. Including a lot of kids, who doodled on this rather large greeting card (really a long piece of paper, but still), and it was cool to see them all be enthusiastic about the team.
Anyway, last week, a matter of hours before the deciding Game 6 of the ALCS, I was down at the Texas State Fair, at the Chevy Town Square for a presentation of the card to the Chevy folks. While I was down there, we got some more signatures on the card, and interviewed several Rangers fans. Was a lot of fun.
The video from this showing the card, people signing, Rangers fans and all that is now online, and can be viewed here. Check it out:

The Rangers advanced to the World Series again last night. When the game ended and I stopped watching the post game stuff, I was pretty tired. Wasn’t in the mood to write last night.
I will at some point today, just not now, as I’m watching the toddler, and it’s about time to go outside and play with him.
But I didn’t want to not say SOMETHING.
What a series.

The Tigers disposed of the Yankees. In Yankee Stadium. Sent them home. What’s amusing about that is that it was Arod who struck out to end the Yankees 2011 season. He also struck out (against Neftali Feliz) to end the Yankees 2010 season as well. That reminds me of this image:

And this one..

Mentioned this to a friend of mine tonight, and he wrote me back and said, “When the Yankees lose it’s amusing, period.” This is very true. Think it’s time for a happy dance that the Yankees are home.

A check a few minutes ago on Ticketmaster shows you can still buy tickets for the playoff game between the Rangers and the Rays that starts in about six hours. It’s their Home Game 1.
Way to go Rays fans, you don’t deserve a team.

The 2011 Texas Rangers regular season has been a season like no other for me since I started following this team in 1995. For a couple of reasons.
First off, we were the defending American League Champions. That alone was an interesting thing to deal with. The perception that the Rangers were the team that everyone else was chasing was a weird feeling. But a good feeling just the same.
Second, I only attended four games this season. Two were in Arlington (Games 2 & 157), and two were in Philadelphia (Games 45 & 46). That’s a low for me since I’ve been a Rangers fan. For someone who used to go to about 25 games a year, that was a major adjustment.
Thirdly, my drop in updating the site. I took a huge number of breaks this year, and a lot of that has to do with the fact that I dropped cable TV and went to antenna only. I discovered that my being more than a casual fan was really based around the fact that I could watch the games on TV.
Still, it was a great season. The Rangers won the division again for the second year in a row, and the fifth overall. We set a record for wins in a season, as well as a record for home attendance. Both by minimal numbers over the previous records, but still. New records for wins and attendance are great!
CJ Wilson stepped up and pitched like the Number 1 pitcher slot he was put in. He apparently picked up a lot from Cliff Lee when Cliff was here last year. CJ seemed very “Lee-like” in several places this season. I’ll say it again, I was wrong last year in thinking there was no way he’d make the rotation, but he destroyed that.
The Rangers new scoreboard in right is spectacular. Something that should have been done ages ago, but when I saw it for the first time, it actually gave me that “seeing the green in the field as a kid” feeling. I loved the new scoreboard. Shame I only got to go to two games.
The broadcaster stuff is more confusing. We started off the season with John Rhadigan replacing Josh Lewin on TV. He didn’t last too long, and was fired fairly early on in the season. That caused a shuffle of personnel, and we ended up with Dave Barnett replacing Rhadigan on TV, and Steve Busby replacing Barnett on radio. At the time, some noise was made about those moves being temporary for the rest of the season. I certainly hope that’s the case. I never wanted Barnett on TV, he was one of the reasons I stopped listening on radio for the most part. At this point, if things went the way I would like for 2012, I’d bring back Josh Lewin for TV, and have Bryan Dolgin be with Eric on the radio. When Dolgin was on the radio, I liked him. I have nothing against Busby – I like him too. But I’ve read where he’s not interested in doing play by play full time. But Dolgin is younger, and I thought worked well with Nadel.
We’re going to the playoffs starting in a few hours. My Phillies are in too. This will be interesting. Not sure who I’d root for there. :)