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Where’d the new uniform go?

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At some point last season, I heard/read that there was going to be another Rangers uniform. There was going to be a road version of the sleeveless jersey the Rangers wear at home. Obviously it would be road colors, but would match stylewise that new, and fairly popular uniform.

However, we’ve not seen it. Nor can I find any mention of it either – a quick google search didn’t turn up anything on it. Now I can’t remember right now on May 11th if I read it online or heard it on a radio or TV broadcast. But I know I heard it (and someone from my forums backed me up on that).

Has anyone heard anything about it? Have plans been shelved for it? Curious to know what happened. Assuming it exists, I believe this would be the uniform “lineup”:

Home White/Blue “regular”
Home sleeveless
Road Grey “regular”
Road sleeveless
Blue Alternate (aka the “Kenny Rogers” uniform)

Then there’s the spring training/BP one, but that doesn’t really “count”. I’ve also lost track of what’s home/road/alternate in terms of caps. Not sure what’s official and what isn’t as there’s about 50 or 60 different kinds of caps I see in the Ballpark gift shop. :)

Rafael Palmeiro’s 500th Home Run

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Just a reminder – two years ago on Mother’s Day, Rafael Palmeiro hit his 500th home run at The Ballpark in Arlington. I was there with my wife, it was quite the cool moment. We had gotten free tickets and were sitting in Section 26, a spectacular view of what happened.
I mention this to commemorate the event, and also that I took a lot of pictures that day, if you want to see my gallery of photos from Raffy’s historic day, you can do so at this location:
https://www.rangerfans.com/gallery/raffy500.

G34: Rangers win 5-4 against Tigers on Tuesday

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I’m scared. It’s May, and Chan Ho Park hasn’t pitched himself out of a job yet. His line wasn’t spectacular last night, and he didn’t get the win, but he’s looking at least servicable this season, which frightens me. If we manage to get to the playoffs, and he’s still in tow? Yikes – that makes my hair stand on end. Doug Brocail is looking like the Doug Brocail pre-2004 so far this year. His stats aren’t terrible (2-0, 4.91, 10K, 10BB), but they won’t win any Cy Young awards. He also doesn’t have that feeling he had last year. I’m not advocating dumping him, but I worry when he comes out of the bullpen now. Park had a really cool play during the game, a ball pinballed straight up in the air after kicking off his ankle, or leg or something like that. Park barehanded it coming down and tossed out the runner by half a step – was a very nice play. I actually wanted him to stay in the game when he was pulled, and THAT is the scariest thought of all. :)
Offensively, I thought we had the game wrapped up early. It certainly felt like it when we went up 3-0 after 1, and 4-0 after three. Park was pitching well (!) and we seemed to be hitting the ball well. Park got in a minor jam, and Brocail let several inherited runners score to tie the game, but Matthews came through in the 7th with his first home run of the season; a game winning home run.
Both us and the Angels seem to be putting some distance between ourselves and the A’s/Mariners. The division was all knotted up within a half game of each other awhile ago, and after last night’s play, we’re 1.5 behind Anaheim. Oakland is 5GB, and Seattle is 6GB.
You can view my full update for this game here, or you can leave a comment about this game below.

Carlos Almanzar out for the season

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Wow – what a bad season for Carlos. First he has the personal problems in his life, then he comes back, is ineffective, goes on the DL, and now we find he needs Tommy John surgery. He goes under the knife on Friday, and will be out obviously for the rest of the season.
If the usual recovery times for TJ surgery apply, he’ll start the next season on the DL, as well. We now have lost two of the major players from last year’s bullpen success. Both Frank Francisco & Carlos Almanzar are out for the year. Our bullpen this season so far as been a liability. If we’re going to make a move for the playoffs, I think we’re going to have to do a lot better than what we have going now.
There’s more in this news story on the Rangers site.

Rangers blanked Monday night, 2-0 by Tigers

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Dammit! That’s about all I can think of to say about this game right now, other than Chris Young probably should have gone out for the ninth.
At least our entire division lost tonight, so the standings remain unchanged.

A small rant about sponsorships

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Nowadways, everything is “The Ameriquest this”, or “The Fox Sports that”, to the “Verizon Wireless call to the Bullpen” or some such crap like that, I managed to find a sponsorship that really surprised me and made me roll my eyes driving home.

As some of you may know, I have XM Radio. I bought it because they now have the MLB Package where you can listen to every game (although not every broadcast, you only get the home feeds). My usual drive home from work is during 6PM to 630, depending on when I actually leave work. For Ranger games that start at 7, I can’t hear that, so I flip through the east coast games which have started.

So I’m listening to a Yankees game for a few minutes – they have a female radio announcer, so that kind of stops me, as it’s not something you usually hear. They’re doing the bit where “This game is copyrighted to the New York Yankees, and any rebroadcast.. bla, bla, bla”. Well, guess what?

THAT ANNOUNCEMENT WAS SPONSORED!

Right after the announcement, some New York Law Firm’s ad blurb was read by the woman. I couldn’t believe it. The “This game is copyrighted” speech had a corporate sponsor. I wonder when we’ll see corporate sponsors for those wrist guards players wear like battle armor, or sponsors for the belt buckles on their uniforms!

Alfonso Soriano named AL Player of the Week

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In a move that isn’t terribly surprising to Ranger fans who follow the team regularly, Alfonso Soriano was named AL Player of the Week. From the press notes on it..
In six games last week, Soriano batted .458 (11-24), leading the league with five home runs, 13 RBI, and nine runs scored. The second baseman also led the A.L. in total bases with 28, while finishing third in slugging percentage at 1.167 and fifth in on-base percentage at .500. Soriano became the first Rangers’ player in three years with back to back multi-homer games on May 6th and May 7th against Cleveland. The three-time All-Star finished the week with a five-game hitting streak to help the Rangers go 5-1 and jump into second place in the A.L. West. This is the fourth career Player of the Week Award for Soriano and his first as a member of the Texas Rangers.
Alfonso se ardía la semana pasada! That’s for sure. Good for him, I wonder if it will get him over his sulking on having to bat fifth in the lineup.

G32: Rogers extends scoreless streak to 21 innings; Rangers win 7-2

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Kenny Rogers shut down the Indians during his 7 innings on the mound. He gave up no runs (extending his scoreless streak to 21), six hits along with four strikeouts, and four walks. Speaking of streaks, Mark Teixeira now has a 12 game hitting streak, too. Soriano didn’t have any more home runs, but Mike Young did in the first inning to put us up 2-0 after the second batter of the game. This game felt more in control than last night’s game.
There really isn’t much to write about here. Rogers gave up nothing, we got a bunch of timely hits, but no one player dominated offensively.
Pudge and the surprisingly good Tigers come into town Monday night. Let’s see how we fare. I don’t expect it will be easy at all.
One other remark. With Rogers pitching this well, Scott Boras has to be salivating at the chance for another contract, eh?
You can view my full update for this game here, or you can leave a comment about this game below.

G31: Rangers win behind Drese complete game, 6-1

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I was at this game, and before the game started, I was talking to a few of the other season ticket holders in my area, and we pretty much all agreed that Drese had become a question mark. No one really knew what to expect from him tonight, as he had gotten not destroyed like Astacio did last night, but pretty much hit around well. Much to our surprise, Drese pitched like Drese from last year. His line was extremely impressive.. 9IP, 6H, 1ER, 1BB, 1K, 100PT. It also was his first complete game win of his career, despite having a few complete games under his belt already.
Offensively, we were lead by Alfonso Soriano, who for the second night in a row had two home runs, with 3 RBI’s, and three runs scored. The other two RBI’s came from Mike Young and Rod Barajas (the last run scored on a throwing error). We actually only had 9 hits, but they were placed together well. Young and Teixeira had two each, as well as Soriano’s 3. Nix & Barajas chipped in with one each.
Was a nice game to be at – we won. Always good, but the game felt “in control” since the bottom of the second. Nice to not have to sit in the stands going “Oh God, we need 4 runs in the last 2 innings to just tie it”.
You can view my full update for this game here, or you can leave a comment about this game below.