It’s 10:30AM. First pitch is 4:07PM.
I’m heading out to the game in a few minutes. Gonna be some absolute hellacious traffic. I’ve also been invited to hang out at a tailgate, so it’s time to head out there.
Hopefully I’ll be coming home to use the sweep graphic!

Hey, if you’re someone who uses my forums here, I just noticed this morning that the database was crashed that ran them. I fixed that, but decided to upgrade the software to the current version at the same time.
Ran into a problem doing that at the moment, so the forums are down. Waiting on some help from the software makers to resolve the problem. Hopefully I’ll have it working by tomorrow. Just wanted to let you know.
The error message it’s showing is “Database error only visible to forum administrators”. Yes, I know about it. :)

As we get ready to go with the playoffs (less than two hours now), I wanted to post this picture. Saw it this morning on Facebook. Someone posted it on Chuck Greenberg’s Facebook page. Unclear if the person posted it created it, or if it was done somewhere else. Don’t know the true source, but I thought it was cool.

We’ve all seen the official claws and antler shirt, but I wanted to point out a quick note about another shirt that was emailed to me.

“This is Our Year”. Check it by clicking on the image above.

OK, here’s my predictions. Wanted to get them in before any games were played. This is hard for me because I have TWO homer teams, one in each league in play. Granted, one of them is really good (Philly) at the moment, so it’s not a true homer pick to pick them. Anyway..
Round 1:
NLDS:
Philly over Cincinnati in 4
Giants over Braves in 5
ALDS:
Texas over Tampa Bay in 5
New York over Minnesota in 4
The Giants and the Braves I know the least about, but from what little I do know, I say Giants over Braves. No particular reason, and I’m sure there will be a lot of sentiment on TV about it “win it for Bobby Cox”. Gut feeling says Giants.
Texas over Tampa? Well, it’s a homer pick. If I was’t living here, I’m not 100% sure I’d pick them. :)
Philly over Cincinnati. That’s the easiest series to pick a sweep, but I have to figure the Reds are good for one win.
New York over Minnesota. Had you asked me this about three weeks ago, I would have said Minnesota over New York in 4. I’m going the other way now as Minnesota has really limped into the playoffs. They seem weak now.
Round 2: ALCS & NLCS
That brings us back to 96/98/99 – Rangers vs Yankees. Despite the Yankees starting pitching being suspect, I don’t see Texas getting by them. Can’t tell you why, other than “gut feeling”. Yankees in 5. Maybe 6.
Over in the NL, I see the Phillies easily going to the World Series again over the Giants. The Giants have a good team, but they’re not the “dominant everywhere” team that the Phillies are, plus the Phillies are smoking right now. Phillies in 5.
Round 3: World Series
Rematch of last year’s World Series. Yankees vs Phillies. This time I see the Phillies taking it on the strength of the starting pitching. Phillies in 6.
What do I really WANT to happen? Rangers vs Phillies in World Series, with the Rangers in 6. Don’t see it happening, though. :)

Someone sent me an email a couple of days ago with an interesting link to a picture. It’s a shot from a company called “Rico Industries”, who is working on merchandise apparently for the World Series. They have some combinations up there of the various teams and what it would look like.

Anyway, this person sent me the following link, as well as this text (which shows they’ve been reading my site for awhile).. :)

As a long time reader of your site (and the games from your former employer) I know you keep mentioning how your head would explode if your two favorite teams actually met up in the fall classic. Well it seems Rico Industries is testing that possibility with preview designs of potential MLB postseason merchandise. They also have all other potential product designs for every playoff team with different championship titles. I thought perhaps it would be something you would want to share on your site.

It is interesting to consider, that’s for sure. Check out the image below, and click on it for a larger sheet. :)
Dare I live that dream? hahahaha.

Back when I was first married, it was 1996. Ranger fans know that year well. Right after that season, Eric Nadel published a book about the Rangers. While it was mostly focused on the 1996 season, it also spent time talking about the rest of the franchise, going back to DC. My wife bought me this book as a present in 1997, in our first year of marriage.
Here’s what I wrote about the book back in 2001 for my site:

I loved this book. My wife gave it to me as a a present in 1997, and it was wonderful! I can’t recommend this book enough.
I’ve only been a Texas Rangers fan since 1994, and my wife gave me this book as a present in 1997. I knew the Texas Rangers existed before I came to live in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Texas area, but I never thought much of them. I didn’t realize the characters and history of the team. If you’re a casual Rangers fan, or a die hard Rangers fan, then you should have this book. It’s filled with all kinds of informational pieces about the team’s history, going back to the early 70’s when they were the Washington Senators. Focuses heavily on the 1996 season in which they finally made it to the playoffs after about 25 years.
As the Texas Rangers now move into the Alex Rodriguez era, the book probably could stand an update, as a lot has happened since the book was published during the 1997 season, but it’s a great read if you’re into team history

I still have the book – at some event years ago, I got Eric to sign it. More than once over the years, I asked Eric when he planned to do an update to it. As it’s 2010, we now have 14 years of stuff (once this year is over) to do an update on. Anyway, Eric told me on more than one occasion that he wouldn’t update the book again until the Rangers got back to the playoffs.
Well, we’re back Eric. Should we expect an update to the book next year? :)
UPDATE: I got an email from Eric Nadel after the game tonight with an update on this. After asking his permission to do so, I’m posting his reply to me below:

Eric: No, I am not planning to do an update to the book. What I said back then was I would do an update when the Rangers made it to the World Series. If that happens, then someone else can do the book. At this point, I am not willing to give up an off-season to write a book.

There we go. I’d still like to see a sequel from him, but I cannot argue with not wanting to give up one’s free time for that. :)

Getting more adjusted to my new gig. I also ran into a personal project as well, both of which are taking up my time I used to use to write about Rangers games. I’ve had to mostly stop watching the games on TV and listen on the radio just to have them on. However, I’m not missing much here given the way they’ve played in the last week.
My ticket for “Game 1” of the ALDS arrived in the mail today. That’s cool.
At least we can say this, despite the poor play lately.:

• The Rangers have 19 games left in the season. They have to go 12-7 to get to Nolan Ryan’s 92 win spring training prediction.
• The Rangers are 8.5 games up on Oakland, who is at 71-71 at the moment.
• The Magic Number to win the division is currently at 12. It could be 11 after tonight, as Oakland is playing KC
• Michael Young needs 33 hits to get to 200 (with 19 to play). Not impossible, but he can’t afford hardly any ofers – or even just one hitters from this point forward.
• I’ve always said my head would explode if the World Series was Phillies vs Rangers. While I’m not making a claim that’s who will get there, one has to say there’s a chance of it happening now that there’s a very realistic chance that both will make the playoffs. I still don’t know what I’ll do if it ends up being those two.

Also, two random pictures. A PR woman sent me these. They were taken Friday night at the Rangers game during the first pitch celebration. For some reason they had the Captain Morgan Rum character there. Oooh, hold me back. I’m even MORE excited about the game now!
Seriously, they had their celebration with Johnny Narron. This is amusing that they’d put Johnny Narron with him, because the whole reason Narron is on the team is to act as Josh Hamilton’s personal “don’t fall off the wagon” guy. What with Josh being an alcoholic, it was a mild eyebrow raiser that they’d put Hamilton’s “don’t get drunk” guy with a character who is there to promote a company whose most famous product is Rum.

As those of you who have followed my site for awhile know, I’ve been out of work for some 15 months. This past week, I started up working again. Not full time, but a part time gig. Thing is, the first two weeks of the gig are going to be way busier than any other time, so I haven’t had much time for Rangers stuff.
This will probably extend into next week, so I’m taking a short sabbatical from doing updates while I deal with work stuff.
I will be back, I want to be around for the tail end of the season. :)