Random Ranger Ramblings by Joe Siegler
Well, this can be summed up quickly. Yu Darvish was good. Not much else was.
Darvish went two innings, throwing perfect ball. Struck out two, throwing just 28 pitches.
By contrast, Cody Buckel had a bizarre line. 0.1 IP, 0H, 5BB, 6R, 4ER. Evan Meek also gave up five earned runs in his fraction of an inning.
Olt had a home run, but that’s the most exciting thing to talk about offensively.
Next, please.
The Rangers are still winless this spring with a record of 0-3-1 after a big loss to the Rockies on Monday. In other news, the Cleveland Indians are 5-0. Guess those big signings of Nick Swisher & Michael Bourn are paying off. Or it’s Tito. But I digress. I’m also tired and pumped full of decongestant, so my head is a bit weird tonight. :) Back to the Rangers. When you have a loss like 9-1, you have to go digging for the positives usually. Which means trawling the box score and the beat writers’ coverage as again this was a no broadcast game. [Read more...]
Well, I had forgotten this was on, and I was starting work. When I realized I missed the start of the game, I put on the MLB Gameday app, as this was one of those “no broadcast” games during the spring. Well, it was being broadcast by the Kansas City broadcasters, and after having listened to them a few times in the past couple of years, I decided to go no audio and have the game on MLB Gameday only. I thought I would have missed a lot more than I did, but then I saw what happened early… [Read more...]
Tried to pay attention to this game, but I’ve come down with some sickness since yesterday, and it sapped my energy. Given I had to watch my kids, I didn’t have enough going on upstairs to watch them, and focus on the game. Heck, I fell asleep twice when the game was on! This will be a box score recap, since I barely saw just a few minutes of the game on my iPad… [Read more...]
Spring training started back up on Friday afternoon (seems to be Fridays a lot), and with it brought the sound of Eric Nadel coming out of my radio (although for this game it was my computer speakers). I’m not going to try and describe that. If you’re reading this post, then you know what I’m talking about. [Read more...]
My site has been going for awhile now, and during that time I’ve seen several broadcasters come and go. However, one of the more polarizing ones was Josh Lewin, who was the television play by play guy from 2002 through 2010. I say polarizing, because there’s a lot of fans who really disliked him. There’s a lot of fans who really did like him. For the most part I liked him – although I did think there were too many forays into movies and food, but whether you liked his work or not, you can’t deny the man was a pro, and a hard worker. He was ready for the games he broadcast. I wish he was here for more of them (never liked the weekends away), but that’s all in the past now. Today I’m here to talk about his book, “Ballgame!: A Decade Covering the Texas Rangers from the Best Seat in the House”. Or as I call it, “Ballgame!”. [Read more...]
Have three open slots in one of my two Yahoo leagues. Here’s the details for it.
URL: http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/league/rangerfans2
League ID: 49630
pw: onestriketogo
Draft: Sat Mar 16 @ 8PM Central
I do have one open slot, maybe two in the other league, but I need to confirm two people before I’m sure there. Will post about that one when I am.
It’s free, and if you want to play, please. Join. But, please join only if you intend on playing the whole season out. Nothing worse than a person who bails out in April.
As we move on with the earliest stages of spring training, I’m updating some parts of my site, getting them ready for the upcoming season. One of which is a photo page that shows all (well, a lot, I’d be a liar to say it’s all) the pocket schedule images from 1972-2013. From the mid 90′s onwards, I’ve gotten them myself at the games, earlier than that I’ve acquired via finding them on the net, or having someone send in pictures for me. Today, I have someone to thank. His name is Bob – he never sent me his last name.
While I have at least one schedule for every season the club has been in texas, I’m pretty sure I don’t have all the variants produced. Bob sent me five images of alternate versions I did not have, so I put them up on my site. Check out these historical remnants from the past..
It looks like Robbie Ross has been to “Round Rock Donuts” in Round Rock TX. It looks like a giant glazed donut!
Saw tonight that FOX posted their national 2013 TV schedule, so I decided to check out ESPN as well, and come up with a list of games the Rangers are scheduled to play. Now, national coverage being what it is means it can change. If the Rangers get super hot, the schedule will get changed around, and we might get a few more later in the season. But for now, here’s the 2013 national coverage schedule for FOX & ESPN. These times are all Central.
Sun Mar 31 @ 7:05 – Rangers @ Astros – ESPN
Sat Apr 06 @ 2:30 – Angels @ Rangers – FOX
Sun Apr 07 @ 7:05 – Angels @ Rangers – ESPN
Sun May 19 @ 7:05 – Tigers @ Rangers – ESPN
Sat Jun 22 @ 6:00 – Rangers @ Cardinals – FOX
Sat Jun 29 @ 6:00 – Reds @ Rangers – FOX
Sat Jul 06 @ 6:00 – Astros @ Rangers – FOX
Sat Jul 13 @ 6:00 – Rangers @ Tigers – FOX
Sat Aug 03 @ 6:30 – Rangers @ A’s – FOX
Sat Sep 14 @ 11:30 – A’s @ Rangers – FOX
Sep 14th is an 11:30AM game? That doesn’t happen here. What else is happening that day? Anyone have any ideas?
I just noticed that 2013 Yahoo Fantasy Baseball is up and running again for the new year. I just saw it, and I’m pretty tired and will be heading to bed soon, so I’ll look into this tomorrow and get the ball rolling again.
I’ve been a Dallas Morning News Subscriber for some time. However, in the last few years, I mostly read the paper on my iPad. As a subscriber, I can read the content there, and frequently do. However…
Yesterday morning in the Sunday paper was Evan Grant’s spring training preview. THAT – for some reason demands to be read in the physical newspaper. Oh sure, I can read it on my iPad, or on my web browser. But for some reason, spring training materials to me need to read in a “real” newspaper, with a cup of coffee preferably.
Now that I’ve done these, I’m ready for spring training to start. :)
I’ve been doing this site for some time now (2013 will be my 15th season for this site), and in all that time, there’s been two things I’ve done on my site that no other Rangers fan site has attempted. Perhaps because I already did them – or nobody wanted to wade through all the info needed to put them together (“Eh, Joe’s already done that – good enough”). One of them is my history of uniform numbers. It starts back in 1961 with the Senators years and runs to current. I’ve been doing this part of the site for the last 5-6 years or so (forget when I started it actually). Because of that, uniform numbers in the most recent years are pretty darned accurate insofar as guys who are up for just 2-3 games, never to be seen again. In years past, I have guys who wore the major numbers, but the small fiddly changes like that aren’t always listed (because that info’s realy hard to find). I’ve taken pride in my uniform number archives, and it’s gotten me a reputation as the uniform number guy. When he was still with the Rangers, I know Victor Rojas mentioned my site as a source of that a few times, and it must have stuck, because last year I got a question from the great Eric Nadel about some fiddly bit in the past with uniform numbers – I was honored. Even Anthony Andro knows me as that, as I’ve asked him a boatloat of times about uniform numbers. :) [Read more...]
Well, that’s something I never thought I’d write. As long time followers of my site know, I’m mostly silent in the offseason. I’ll comment here and there on things that happen in the baseball world, and this was a big “thing”. The Rangers all time leader in a truckload of categories was traded away today. Michael Young is now a Philadelphia Phillie. Now, y’all know I’m also a Phillies fan, having grown up there, so I won’t miss him completely. If I were a Cowboys fan, I imagine this would feel a lot like Emmitt Smith in a Arizona Cardinals Uniform again. [Read more...]
Saw a few stories this morning, and I felt like saying a few words on them. It’s about two bits of the Rangers recent past that are no longer a part of the team. Tom Hicks & Scott Feldman. [Read more...]
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.
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