A Rangers fan, a Yankees fan & a Red Sox fan are climbing a mountain & arguing about who loves his team more. The Red Sox fan insists he is the most loyal. “This is for the Sox!”, he yells, & jumps off the mountain. Not to be outdone, the Rangers fan is next to profess his love for his team. He yells “This is for Texas!” & pushes the Yankee fan off the mountain. GO RANGERS!!

Something that’s always bugged me is the fact that the pre and post game shows on Fox Sports Southwest are in SD, yet the games themselves are in HD. A week ago or so, I got a press email from someone at FSSW telling me what the upcoming TV schedule was for the season. So I asked them more or less what the deal with this situation was:

I never understood why the cameras out there in that left field “studio” show reports during the game in HD, but as soon as you go to post game, it’s back to SD – from the same cameras.

He responded back with this.

Thanks for your interest in Rangers Live pre/postgame shows. We hope to begin distributing those shows in high-definition sometime this season as we complete conversion on our Dallas studio from standard-def to high-def. The reason shows have been in standard-definition is because they are run through our Dallas studio, which we’re targeting to be fully-functional for high-definition programming later this season. Hope that addresses your concern. Let me know if there’s anything else you need.

It’s been that way for a couple of years now, and the HD switchover happened what, two years ago now? Bit late to the party there. I want my Mark McLemore at the desk in HD, darnit! :)

Well, here we are. Opening Day for the Texas Rangers. In the 50 year history of the franchise, it’s the first time ever we go into a season with “Defending American League Champions” on our necks. It’s a good sign to be wearing. Yeah, all the talk about not sneaking up on people, and they’ll be gunning for you applies, but man. It still feels good to wear that sign.
The 25 man roster was set while I was down in Round Rock the other night, I wanted to say a few words about the roster before today’s game actually happens, as my thoughts might be clouded by an actual game if I write afterwards.
Our pitching staff:

Dave Bush, Neftali Feliz, Colby Lewis, Mark Lowe, Darren O’Day, Alexi Ogando, Pedro Strop, Mason Tobin, Matt Harrison, Darren Oliver, C.J. Wilson, Arthur Rhodes, Derek Holland.

Of this crew, Bush, Tobin, & Rhodes are new guys. A couple others are making their first opening day roster. A few remarks:
Dave Bush – I’m not sure what to expect here. A middle of the road starter when he was in Milwaukee, he’ll be in our pen. I don’t think we’re getting a spectacular performance out of him here, but he’ll probably be just “OK”.
Feliz: Lots of talk about back and forth between rotation & pen. Late it was decided he was going to remain the closer. I suspect that will stay that way all season unless we fall out so bad, they start looking towards next year. So long as we’re winning or in the race, he’ll stay there, then they’ll move him to the rotation next year, and bring in someone else.
Lewis & Wilson: With Lee gone, these guys will be expected to carry the load. I think Lewis is probably better suited to repeat 2010’s performance, based on his longer time being a starter. A lot is made out of Wilson’s prep work, so that could be a factor, too. Hard to tell what will happen here.
Harrison & Holland: These guys need to grow into their roles as starters. The tag of young starter I think has worn off, and if they don’t deliver, they’ll get passed by with other people going forward. I think at least one of them will rise to the challenge this year. If we get both? Wow, we’ll be in good shape if the guys up top hold up their end of the rotation, too.
Darren O’Day: Ugh. Horrible spring training. Hope he can turn it on now that the bell has rung, but man, I’m not comfortable with him now.
Oliver & Rhodes: I see them as mostly the same thing. Older guys who can still pitch well. Probably should be solid numbers from both, but not spectacular.
Mark Lowe: Not sure what to think here.
Mason Tobin: He’s had a great spring, but as a Rule 5 guy, you wonder at what point do we have to make the decision of “do we let him ride it out”, as he’s not likely to be able to stay if we need to send him down.
Pedro Strop: Fantastic spring. I really hope he keeps going, as the up/down/up/down from last year really devalued him in my eyes, and I suspect messed with him. Be nice to see him stay here for awhile.
Alexi Ogando: Nice that he’s getting a shot to start in place of Tommy Hunter. Bad for Tommy, of course. But if Ogando can grab a hold of that and not let go, man, we’ll be even more better off. We’ll see how it goes in his first start.
Napoli & Torrealba: Yorbit will probably be fine, but I can’t see him being any better than Pudge is at this point in Pudge’s career. Can we have Pudge back, please? Napoli has more power, and probably will I think work out better numbers wise. Behind the plate? Hard to tell, dont’ know enough about either of them as a catcher for that.
Elvis Andrus, Ian Kinsler, Michael Young, Nelson Cruz, Josh Hamilton, & David Murphy: I’m lumping all these guys together as I expect the same thing from all of them. Which is “more of the same”. Not expecting surprises here, assuming they all stay healthy.
Andres Blanco: Good bench guy. Valuable 25th man on the roster for sure.
Adrian Beltre: I suspect he’ll disprove the contract year talk. I’m figuring on a big year by him, assuming he stays on the field.
Julio Borbon: By all accounts, he’s improved his offense, which in the past was his weak point. Now his defense is suspect, which is exactly backwards of how he’s been in the past. Not sure how this will play out. If his defence remains a question mark too long into the season, I see him being moved out of the lineup pretty quickly.
Mitch Moreland: Gut feeling, but I figure on a huge season for him. Can’t tell you why, just a “gut” thing.
I also expect “just missed” guys like Michael Kirkman & Chris Davis to be up here before too long. Davis first, once the 13th pitcher idea is done away with. I’ve got this vibe about Chris Davis. Kind of like when Nelson Cruz was sent out on waivers, and nobody claimed him. He kid of shook the 4A player label that Davis kind of has now. Rakes in the minors, bring him up, not so much. If Davis can shake that, I suspect he’ll get traded for some big chip, as I don’t see him here long term – he’s blocked in too many places (at the moment Beltre & Moreland). Granted, the last time we had a hot first base prospect who was blocked, he was moved, and we ended up probably needing him. This is of course Adrian Gonzalez, who was blocked at the time by Mark Teixeira.
Then there’s also the story of Michael Young’s 10-5 rights. While a lot of happy talk is being made because he’s on the opening day roster, I suspect the trade talk will start up again soon. Not actual “talks” per se, but the fan/sports writer talk once his 10-5 date gets closer (what is that date, actually)?
This is the last thing I’ll write before the game, which starts in about four hours from now. It’ll be fun. While I am still mildly irritated that I’m not going (this is the first home opener I haven’t gone to since the one in 1996), we have some friends coming over from our church to watch. We’ll still have fun, just not the SAME fun.
So thanks be to God for this day, thanks be to God for my life, and the blessings bestowed upon all of us this day. May everyone at the game get there safe, get home safe, and know that they’re loved. Thanks to God for my friends, and thanks for my being able to be in a position in life where I can have a house, and have the means to be able to enjoy these things, despite my continued involuntary unemployment situation.
Amen.
Play Ball!

Some of you may remember my noodling around town in a Chevy Cruze that was dooded up with Rangers stickers and some antlers around the time of the World Series last year. That was a cool thing, and I ended up going to a World Series game for the first time in my life due to that promotion.
Well, the folks behind that promotion are at it again. They’re sending me, along with a couple of other Rangers bloggers down to Round Rock on Wednesday as part of a group roundtable.
The promotion is called “The Chevrolet Line Drive to Round Rock”.
Basically myself and three other guys are going to be headed down to Round Rock on Wednesday, and we’re gonna take in the game. We’ll be in Section 121, Rows 3 & 4. You can come by and say hi during the game. Or, you can meet up with us after the game, where we’ll be doing a round table discussion with other Rangers fans to talk about the upcoming season, how the spring went, how jazzed you are for the new scoreboard, or whatever! It’ll be cool.
Anyway, the guys I’ll be going down there with are:

• Patrick McCullough from rangersfanradio.com
• Joshua McMurray from IrishP1
• Jonathan Collander from NolanWritin.com
• Scott Lucas from The Newberg Report

It’ll all be a blast, and we’re all looking forward to it. Hope some of you who are going to be in Round Rock can come by and say hi!
Oh, and this past Thursday night, the four of us appeared on the latest episode of Rangers Fan Radio (02×08 – “To Start or Not to Start”). You can listen to that now by heading over to rangersfanradio.com, or visit the page for the podcast in iTunes, and subscribe there.
Also looking forward to checking out The Salt Lick, a great Austin BBQ joint that opened a new location RIGHT NEXT TO THE DELL DIAMOND!

Am I the only person on the net who doesn’t like this new video going around of some kid crying because Michael Young is being traded? It seems kind of cruel to be honest, and I didn’t find it funny at all.
Not entirely sure what kind of parent would force their children to cry like that, and THEN put it on the Internet for folks to laugh at.
And no, I will NOT be linking to it. Sigh.

I can’t say I’m surprised given how much he’s been pushed around the field lately, now being pushed mostly off of it. It seems inevitable given how much noise about it we’ve heard the last few days.
If he is moved, I’ll write about it a little more then. Just kind of waiting back and seeing what will happen if he is moved.

Rangers fan Josh Rodgers sent me a couple of fun little Rangers videos this morning he made. Check ’em out:

That’s a bit of a surprise. Saw a minute ago where the Rangers are sending Frank Francisco (and cash) to Toronto for catcher Mike Napoli. Saw it on a Twitter post a few minutes ago.
This is interesting, as might signal that Alexi Ogando might have to stay in the bullpen if we lose Frankie.
We also had catching set – with Torrealba & Treanor sharing duties. If Napoli comes in, I suspect it will bump Treanor to AAA – or off the club. Neither of which I’m sure he’ll be thrilled about. Assuming there isn’t another corresponding move to move one of the catchers out (can we trade Torrealba that quickly? Probably Treanor), it’ll be interesting to see how that plays out.
Edit: Should have read the complete Twitter update before I posted this. Rosenthal says it won’t force those two off the roster, it will fulfill that “last bench spot” we tried to fill with Jim Thome. C, 1B, & DH. Other than catcher, that’s what Mike Young was doing. It will be interesting to see how the at bats play out if there’s no injuries along the line.
NOTE: If you’re reading this on an RSS feed, sorry for all the duplicates.

Back in October when I was watching the Rangers in the playoffs, I wrote a little about a scoreboard image that TBS put out. They, like most networks (Fox, mostly) do this thing where they insert their own scoreboards into the stadium – usually during returns from commercials and whatnot. TBS showed the following image, which was a complete fake:

At the end of November, I asked Chuck Greenberg on his Facebook page what was going on with the rumored scoreboard improvements, and he said something was going to be announced shortly, and it was. Little did I know that TBS’ fake image wasn’t too far from what we are going to get in 2011. Look at this:

It was announced on December 2nd (yeah, I’m behind) that several new scoreboards will be installed in the park. The most obvious is the one shown above; the one above Home Run Porch. Here’s some text on the sizes from the official press release:

The current video board on the roof of the Home Run Porch, which is 24 by 36 feet (864 square feet) will be replaced by a new board that measures 42 by 120 feet (5,040 square feet). In addition, a new video board that will be 25 by 29 feet (725 square feet) will replace the Coca-Cola matrix board on top of the office building in centerfield. The old video board used standard definition technology while the new boards will both be high-definition.

The scoreboard that is being replaced now had been there since the place opened in 1994. A few years ago (five or six now – I can’t recall) the video board was replaced from it’s 1994 original to a newer one. But that upgrade was essentially “the same thing”. Meaning, it didn’t go from SD to HD. It was a drop in replacement. It did look nicer than the original board, but it wasn’t a sonic upgrade in quality. It still had the tiny square video board up there, which was microscopic compared to other things around. So while that was nice for a couple of years, it was time for an upgrade. So that fake TBS image got me thinking – why can’t we do that?
I know the physical structure up there keeps us from having a scoreboard the size of Jerry Jones’ behemoth. But given that restriction, I think what’s proposed is the best we can do short of replacing the Home Run Porch, which I think nobody is in favor of. From the two press shots I have above, it looks like the entire board is capable of video, it’ll be one giant video board up there. It will get broken up into “pieces” showing stats, ads, and whatnot. What I’m HOPING is that for video replays we get a full board reply of it, and not just a “square” or “rectangle” portion. I want the entire area to be a video display, like shown in the second one. I also hope these video boards get in on the party for the “Ring of Fire” bit that Chuck introduced a couple of years ago. :) However it’s used, it will be a definite improvement.
There’s also a replacement for the “Coke Bottle” dot matrix board in center field. Originally it was a lower tech dot matrix screen, and around the same time of the home run porch upgrade, it was a much higher quality dot matrix board. Now it’s going to be a video board similar to the one in home run porch, according to the press release. That will be quite cool, although given I believe it’s being dropped into the existing Coke bottle frame, it will be a square and not a widescreen board, so I wonder if there will be horizontal bars on it like there are with older TV’s and widescreen footage. :)
Finally the video board in left field, which replaced the old manual scoreboard just two seasons ago will also be replaced with an HD video board. This is good too, because the same “small square” problem that plagued the home run porch video board plagued the video board on the left field wall. On top of it, the screen that protects the board from balls and players running into it gets in the way of being able to see it clearly. I wonder if there will be some other way to protect the screen, or the HD upgrade will help. Either way, that too will be an improvement. Having said that, the 2009-2010 left field board was great for non video information. The way Chuck used the board to display in game stuff, and other information was quite good. Just couldn’t read any text shown on the “video square” due to it being too small, and the screen in front of the videoboard getting in the way. Will have to do a report once the boards are in and I can attend a game and see ’em in action.

The new stuff doesn’t stop with the seating bowl. All the TVs and displays around the stadium concourses and food stands will be replaced. In the press release, Chuck Greenberg called them (I’m paraphrasing) a testament to 1994 TV technology. I have to agree with that. There were MANY of them which were old, broken down, or worse, would display the entire screen in a yellow tint. They needed to go. The new system will be similar to what’s in Cowboys stadium where all the video boards will be linked together, so their prices and displays can be controlled from a central location. The idea being when there’s one of Chuck’s new “Blue Light Specials”, the prices will be updated everywhere at the same time. It should look and work out pretty cool. But just the mere replacement of the old shabby tube SD TV’s around the park will help.
One thing though – there have been for a few years now advertising boards in the concourse that show nothing but advertisements. These giant video boards cause hell with anyone who is using a portable radio. I know they broadcast the radio signal in the stadium, but if you have all these video boards that cause incredibly LOUD interference when you get anywhere near them, it renders radios useless. I’ve had to stop walking anywhere near them, because the interference in my headphones is so loud it literally hurts.
Finally, they’re upgrading the audio system too. Has this text from the press release:

The Rangers Ballpark in Arlington audio system is receiving a total overhaul with the old speakers being replaced and the additional of technology upgrades and production equipment to compliment the enhanced video product.

Some years ago the audio system was supposedly upgraded too (around the time Chuck Morgan came back from Kansas City if I remember right), and to be honest, it didn’t make a whole lot of difference. Hopefully this upgrade is more successful.
So I’m definitely interested in all these upgrades. Somewhere when this happened, these upgrades were referred to as just one of the ongoing ballpark upgrades to come. There was some talk about replacing all the static boards above the center field offices with one giant video board that ran that entire space. I’m hoping that’s part of the following off season’s video upgrades. Chuck also said something about ballpark changes not changing the overall design of the park, that he’d complement, not change. This would explain why the oft told story of replacing Sections 301-306 with a giant video board out there won’t be happening, either.
I also hope they can remove the Cuervo Club and restore the natural wind balance to the ballpark, but that’s probably just a dream, sadly.
The Rangers have a four and a half minute long video on their site showing these changes via a “virtual flythrough”. Click here to check that out (if MLBAM ever gets off their butts and allows video streaming, I’d have it here).
Sorry for the delay in getting this online. I know it happened about 7 weeks ago, but I kept getting distracted by other stuff, and I wanted to give this the writeup it deserved, not just say “Hey, read the press release”. :)

This week was the Hall of Fame 2011 class induction announcement. I think to nobody’s surprise, there were two player inductees to go with the previously announced Pat Gillick. Bert Blyleven & Robbie Alomar.

Blyleven finally gets in after a zillion years of not getting enough votes. Given the general lack of huge names this time around, it seemed like a lock after he got so close last year. If you’re reading this site, you’ve read the big ticket sites and know his numbers. There was no way I thought he’d go in as a Ranger, I figured he’d go in as a Twin, and I read tonight that this was the case.

Bert was here for the 1976 & 1977 seasons, although 77 was his only full year here, having come over mid season in 76 from the Twins. He compiled a 23-23 record here, with ERA’s of 2.72 & 3.03. While his playing career says he played when I was old enough to remember him, he spent the majority of his time in AL teams. He was only in the NL from 78-80 when he was in Pittsburgh. I don’t remember him much at all, but his numbers are great. Felt he should have been in for awhile.

Robbie Alomar got in, and after getting 90% this year, and I forget what last year on his first year, one thinks it was some sort of penalty for the spitting incident. Still, he was an awesome second baseman, and deserved to be in as well.

I’m a bit surprised that Jeff Bagwell didn’t place higher, and some of the “almosts” (Barry Larkin, Jack Morris, Lee Smith), might have a shot next year when the class is even weaker than this year in general. Could be next year it’s just Barry Larkin. We’ll see.

And then there’s the other Ranger players on the ballot this year. The biggest name of them is Rafael Palmeiro. While his finger wagging didn’t help, I believe that he was telling the truth when he did that. Getting in front of Congress and lying is just dumb. Granted, there’s Barry Bonds, but that’s another story completely. Still, if you look at the point where Palmeiro was drawn into all this, he was at the back end of his career at that point. If he started cheating around that time, it didn’t make any sense to me. Why start cheating when you already have the numbers, and are at the tail end of your career? Not to say it’s impossible, but my gut feeling says he didn’t do it. If I had a vote, I would have voted for him. Apparently not a lot of others did, as he just got 11% of the votes (64 of them). Unless some new conclusive evidence shows up, I can’t see that going up at all.

Juan Gonzalez was on the ballot too, and got less coverage than Raffy. Juan was “fingered” by Canseco in his book, and while he denied it, Juan’s general grump attitude will never help him. A lot of noise has been made about various players getting hurt by the press when it comes time to vote, because they didn’t talk to the press, etc… He got 5.2% and 30 votes. Wonder who those guys are, as none of the local DFW guys voted for him that I’m aware of.
The only other former Rangers on there were Harold Baines (4.8% – 28 votes) & Kevin Brown (2.1% – 21 votes). Both Baines and Brown will be dropped after this year, because they’re below 5%. Juando will stay on – barely, but I can’t imagine him going anywhere, he’ll probably get dropped after 2012.

Back to the guys who DID get in. Blyleven joins a crew of players and managers who have suited up for the Rangers, but aren’t in the hall with a Rangers cap. Only Nolan Ryan is in there with a Rangers cap.