In a bit of news that nobody seemed surprised at, Rusty Greer officially retired this weekend. I think it was a longshot for anyone to actually offer him a position where he could make it onto the field, although I would like to have seen him do it.
He says he wants to spend more time with his family, which I full well understand. What surprises me about this is he also turned down the front office thing, saying he wants to be “just retired” for the time being.
I’m sure there will be a “Rusty Greer Day” at some point this season where he’s honored. Would also be nice if they retire #29, but I doubt they’ll do that. :)

In a story I’ve been following for awhile, it appears that former Ranger closer Ugueth Urbina’s mother has been found alive. Late last season, the current Tiger reliever’s mother was kidnapped and held for ransom. This happened early last September, and has been ongoing till now. Ugueth understandibly had to leave the Tigers to deal with this, and I really had thought a few times she was dead. Fortunately, the story says she’s alive, which is very good news. I’m glad for all of them that there was a good resolution to this story.
What bothers me most about this is the fact that it probably could quite easily happen again to others in countries that are so poor, kidnap the rich guy’s family and demand money. Think about it.
Here’s the full story regarding Urbina’s mom being found:

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Jose Canseco is trying to get some attention, now that he’s totally out of baseball. Several reports this morning say that some claims from his upcoming book “Juiced” say that former Rangers were introduced to steroids by him. Some of the claims he makes were that he introduced Pudge, Raffy, & Juan Gonzalez to steroids when they were all teammates on the Rangers in 1994. He also claims that George W Bush (who was owner of the team at the time) “must have known” about the steroid usage. He also claims to have personally injected Mark McGwire with steroids, and that he, McGwire, & Jason Giambi all did that together while they were all with the A’s.
Rangers management over the weekend seemed to make a point that the current administration of the team wasn’t around when all this was alledged to happen (they weren’t), and the GM at the time (current TV broadcaster Tom Grieve) said on Monday morning that Jose’s comments were a joke, and that he’s at a new level of embarrassment, also calling the use of George W’s name a complete cheap shot. Even Rusty Greer came out and said he never saw anyone use them in his 11 years as a Ranger.
Now I haven’t read the book yet (it isn’t scheduled to come out till Feb 21st), but it seems to me at this point that he’s trying to go “Uh, I did it – everyone else did, so I’m not such a bad guy”. Jose hasn’t exactly been the model citizen the last few years, and my religion dictates that I should believe people and be nice to them, but it really seems like an attempt to make a few bucks by raising allegations in a book that aren’t exactly true. However, I can’t disprove them either – I wasn’t there, nor I suspect is anyone else who might read these words of mine. It just all seems a bit “out there”, even given the current bruhaha in the last 12 months over steroids in baseball. Don’t also forget Canseco’s old spousal abuse charges from the past – just go to Google and search for ‘Canseco “spousal abuse”‘ – you’ll see it.
Here’s a few links about this steroid stuff from the various local newspapers this morning:
DMN Article 1 | DMN Article 2 | Ft Worth Star Telegram

2004 Ranger reliever Jeff Nelson returned to the Seattle Mariners today on a minor league deal. This is Nelson’s third go around with Seattle, having previously pitched for them from 1992-1995 and again in 2001-2003.
I remember when we signed him, I thought it was going to be a good move. It didn’t turn out that way. For the Rangers in 2004, he only pitched 23.1 innings the entire season. He was 1-2 with an ERA of 5.32. Some of his other stats…
H – 17
R – 16
ER – 14
HR – 3
BB – 19
K – 22
WHIP – 1.52
Bottom line – not good. Won’t be missed from a baseball standpoint. Would be nice if he does make Seattle’s club and then we can bat against those stats. :)

Sad that I have to write about Rusty Greer in the “Former Rangers News” category.. There was a short blurb about Rusty over on the ESPN website this afternoon. It said this:
The Twins have been trying to lure long-time Rangers dynamo Rusty Greer to a spring-training invite. But it appears Greer is leaning toward retirement.
I really wish two things here:
1) We would have extended a spring training invite to Rusty, even if it was only for show. Would have been nice to see him in the Spring Training footage on the news.
2) Rusty really does retire. I’d hate to see him in anyone else’s uniform.

Aaron Sele:
Aaron Sele signed a 1 year minor league contract with the Mariners yesterday. He was most recently with the Angels where he spent his time either being hurt, or not pitching very well. So of course, Sele was someone the Rangers were looking at picking up. Seriously, he wasn’t as bad as all that, but like Esteban Loaiza, I didn’t think picking up one of your former pitching guys was a really great idea. Hey, I hear John Burkett’s not doing anything now. ;)
Brian Jordan:
The 2004 version of a Rangers right fielder (Brian Jordan) returned to the Atlanta Braves today on a 1 year deal. I liked Brian a lot as a person. He seemed to be someone good for this team. Unfortunately, he was hurt almost the entire season, and produced next to nothing for us.
Dean Palmer:
Saw today where the Detroit Tigers have invited former Ranger Dean Palmer to spring training. Yikes – if the Tigers are inviting Palmer, who was easily a non factor on the field the last few years of his career to spring training, they must be hurting. Add to the fact that he’s retired, and it’s a bit of a puzzler to me.

Former Ranger Ken Caminiti has died of a heart attack at the age of 41.
While I personally feel bad when people die, I can’t help but feel his was of his own doing. He was consumed by his drug addiction, and it killed him.

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Our old friend Mike Lamb was traded from the Yankees to the Astros this afternoon.

• 
  Jamey Newberg’s Rangers
  Report recently had a great paragraph on the trade of Alex Rodriguez to
  the Yankees.  I liked it, and he gave me permission to quote it, so here
  it is.  It pretty much sums up what I feel about him.
• I gained a lot by watching the clips from
  Alex Rodriguez’s Tuesday press conference in New York. It helped me to see him
  in pinstripes, smiling with Joe Torre, taking photos alongside Derek Jeter,
  talking about his good fortune to be part of the Yankee Machine. There was no
  point in getting angry at the player. He said nothing to make me feel bad
  about my team. He said nothing that any baseball player or anyone who ever
  wanted to be a baseball player wouldn’t have said about what it means to join
  the Yankees. He was, as he usually is, appropriate.   I had closure.

• It’s done – it was announced by
  Tom Hicks on the Ticket a few minutes ago that the trade was approved by Selig. 
   Alex Rodriguez is a Yankee, and
  Alfonso Soriano is a Ranger.

• In another move announced today,
  Hank Blalock was signed to a 5 year contract
  with the Rangers.  Details (like $) haven’t been laid out yet – when they
  will, I’ll update.

• If you check out
  my roster page for Arod, it has the
  revised terms of his contract spelled out – there’s only one issue I’m unsure
  about in it, so I’m fairly confident the revised terms are correct.

• You know, it’s funny.  I said
  that if Arod wanted to not be here, then I didn’t want him here.  That’s
  obviously what’s happening, but the thing that frosts me most about this
  entire fiasco – the absolute worst thing is this.   We’re giving
  money TO THE YANKEES.  That’s unheard of.  It’s bad
  enough that we’re sending the best player in the game to the Evil Empire. 
  That’s bad.   But to give the Yankees money?  WHY?  They
  should be giving US money for the privilege of having the
  best player in the game.  Good riddance to a player who didn’t want to be
  here.  Best player or not, if you don’t want to be here, I don’t want
  you.  And that’s sad, because I really liked what he did ON THE
  FIELD for us the last three years.  Off the field he did next to
  zero, but on the field, you couldn’t ask for any better.

• Fortunately, my season ticket
  package has the game of Friday, May 21st which is the first game the Yankees
  play here this season.  I normally don’t like going to Yankee games, as
  it brings out a hell of a lot of obnoxious fans to the Ballpark (aka Yankee
  fans).  However, you can bet your ass I’ll be there for this one.

• All I ask out of this is that we
  put Soriano in center field, and leave Mike Young at second.   Oh,
  and use some of the money we saved on the Arod trade to tie up Blalock & Young
  for awhile.

• The funny thing is that at the
  Mini Plan Season Ticket Holder function on Feb 7th, I got Arod to sign my 2001
  All-Star Game unused baseball.  It’s still cool, but it seems a bit
  tarnished today.