Those who visit my site know I’m a fan of Gar Ryness, the Batting Stance Guy. I’m particularly fond of his impression of Andre Dawson (he tries to intimidate you even when he strikes out is a particular favorite moment). There’s a ton of others, too. But anyway, he’s got a book out now, and he’s running a commercial for it. I thought I’d plug it to those visiting my site.
I can’t imagine how if you read this site and know baseball you haven’t heard of Gar, but he is a guy who has the ability to mimic baseball players. Started off as a small back yard goof with his friends, and just ended up exploding on Youtube. Gar’s held court for players, been on Letterman, he’s made quite a name for himself doing this shtick.
Two of my favorite collections of his stances are the one I’ve embedded below which is nothing but Texas Rangers stances over the years. That’s on Youtube so I can embed it here. Of particular note are his Hank Blalock, and at the end, Kenny Rogers. :)
The other one I really like was this segment from MLB Network back in January of 2009. Unfortunately, mlb doesn’t allow you to stream their videos (why?), so you have to click over for it. But I guarantee it’s worth your time to watch.

Anyway, Gar’s book is full of his real life background as to why he likes baseball so much, including baseball card fascinations, and how he used to watch games back in the day. It’s some cool reading. His stories about his travels are quite good, too. I urge you to check it out. You can click on the book cover image above to be taken to a page on Amazon.com where you can buy the book. It’s also available on the Kindle too, which is where I got my copy. So Gar, if you’re ever in Arlington, I guess I’ll have to get you to sign my Kindle. :)
Check out the book. It’s a blast.

The 2010 All-Star Ballot is available on mlb.com. You can vote now. I decided to cast my first ballot based on looking at the numbers, instead of my usual batch of homer votes, and a few based on merit. So here’s who I voted for.
For the AL, I listed the Rangers player that’s on the ballot, said a few words about them, and then said who I voted for. The NL, I just said who I voted for. Here goes. Any remarks?
American League:
1B – Chris Davis – Good defense, no real serious hitting threat. Won’t even peak the top. I voted for Miguel Cabrera from the Tigers.
2B – Ian Kinsler – Hasn’t played a game yet this year, shouldn’t be on here. I voted for Dustin Pedroia. His numbers are the best now of any 2B in the league.
SS – Elvis Andrus – Off to an OK start, but “OK” doesn’t get you voted in. As much as it pains me to vote for a Yankee, I voted for Derek Jeter.
3B – Michael Young – Off to a decent start, but not enough to take this. I had to vote for Evan Longoria, his stats are better. Almost voted for Young for the homer vote thing, but went with the MLB 2K10 cover boy.
C – Taylor Teagarden – Oh yeah, right. I have a better chance of charting in this category. Despite the surprising numbers of Jason Kendall in Kansas City so far this year, you have to vote for Joe Mauer. There really isn’t another choice for AL starting catcher.
DH – Vlad Guerrero – He probably has a realistic shot at winning this. His numbers out of the gate were fantastic. But going by pure numbers, Jose Guillen is besting him, and Adam Lind is up there, too. But I had to vote for Guerrero. Homer vote.
OF – Nelson Cruz, Julio Borbon, & Josh Hamilton – Hambone is playing like 2009 again unfortunately, probably is too far removed from the HR derby to coast on that this year. Julio Borbon was dropped to ninth, and nobody outside of DFW really knows him anyway. Nelson Cruz is definitely deserving, I voted for him. Beyond him I voted for Shin-Soo Choo in Cleveland, & Michael Cuddyer in Minnesota. Vernon Wells is also doing well, this year but I picked Cruz over Wells. All three guys I voted for had their last names starting with “C”. :)
National League:
1B – It’s either Ryan Howard or Albert Pujols. Pujols will probably get elected anyway, so I voted for my Phillies guy, Ryan Howard.
2B – As much as I like to vote Phillies, you can’t argue with Chase Utley’s numbers. Utley is way out in front of everyone else, he should win this easily.
SS – This is a tossup for me. I like Troy Tulowitski overall as a player, but his numbers aren’t huge. Rafael Furcal has the highest batting average (with the most at bats), but has no HR/RBI numbers to speak of. Orlando Cabrera in CIN has no average, but the other numbers. I ended up voting for Stephen Drew from Arizona. Had Jimmy Rollins not spent time hurt already, I probably would have voted for him.
3B – I was surprised when I looked at the numbers here. Mark Reynolds is who I thought I’d be voting for, and he has the power numbers, but a bad average. Going on numbers, it’s a tossup between McGehee of MIL, and Placido Polanco from Philly. Polanco has a track record, so I went with him based on his veteran status, not because he’s from Philly.
C – I’m sorry. I’m voting for Pudge. Not going to have a ton of chances to do that much more. He does have good numbers too, so it’s not a total “Rangers homer” vote. :)
OF – Went with Ryan Braun from the Brewers, Matt Kemp from the Dodgers, & Josh Willingham of the Nationals. Look up the numbers. :)
I believe it’s the first time I haven’t voted for a Texas Rangers player in awhile. Granted, I did vote for Pudge, but he’s over in the NL.

I meant to post this a few days ago when I first saw it, but I forgot about it. It’s still relevant. Railing against the wave is always relevant. Chuck posted this over on Jamey Newberg’s forums over the past weekend, and I wanted to copy it here for more people to see.

First off, let me add I cannot stand the wave. I think it is the stupidest thing ever created in sports. I cannot stand it, and it just shows me that people who do it have no interest in the game. In my opinion, if you do the wave, you deserve to be ejected from the stadium and never allowed to return. Unless you’re a kid (like under 10) That I don’t so much care about, but adults? No way. Get out. Now. Never return.

Anyway, here’s what Chuck had to say, and I have to say it was QUITE refreshing.

Subject: Thank You and Stop The Wave
As we get ready to start the season, thank you for all of your support of the Texas Rangers during the off season. Lets all hope this turns out to be magical season for all Rangers fans.

Those can attend Opening Day, I hope you have a great time. Anytime you are at the ballpark, remember its a day at a ballgame, try to forget the bills, the traffic, work, etc., just have a good time, again, no worries, its a day at the ballpark. And as always, if you have a problem at the ballpark, shoot me an email and I will get you to the right people that can take care of your problem.

On another note, those of you that were at the exhibition game Friday probably saw a “wave” break out while we were hitting. This came up at Jamey’s Dallas gathering, somebody asked Chuck Greenberg if he could stop the wave. This goes against my old school baseball thinking “that if you pay to get in, you can do whatever you want as long as it is in the confines of good behavior”…but I would like our fans to get into the games like they do in Boston, New York, St. Louis and save the wave for another time. So, I have enlisted the help of Drew Sheppard to build me a graphic that will ask fans to wave at another time other than when the Rangers are hitting. Most of you are familiar with Drew’s work. There will be those that will be unhappy that we asked them to wave at another time…its okay to wave, just don’t do it when we have men on and a rally going.

We will see how it goes. Again, have a great time at the ballpark when you come to the games and if you have any questions any time, send me an email to cmorgan@texasrangers.com

Thanks
Chuck M

What we really need to keep an eye on are people like this. I found this picture I took on a game I went to August 1, 2009. This Ballpark vendor was trying to start the wave. Uh, NO, doofus. I hope you’re not still around.

Just a quick note. I haven’t updated since last Monday, due to the fact that I’m out of town. I went home to visit my family in Philadelphia due to having a couple of really ill grandparents, and I wanted to see them.
Thing is I drove from Dallas to Philadelphia, and wanted to surprise them, so to make sure my cover wasn’t blown, I didn’t post here ahead of time why I was going to be away from the site for a week. :)

And it begins today. Rangers on the radio at 2PM.
Speaking of Radio.. I see Victor Rojas has left MLB Network to be the play by play guy for the Angels? Oh Vic. If you were just going back to play by play, you should have stayed here. Oh, you just don’t love Texas. I see how it goes. :) j/k.
Hope it goes well for you personally, just not your new employer as such.

Batting Stance guy (Gar Ryness) is awesome. By far my favorite one of his is Andre Dawson. A ton of Gar’s stuff is great, but for some reason his version of Hawk is spectacular. Watch this clip from Gar’s appearance on the Letterman show last July. He doesn’t do Dawson, but it’s a great clip, as most of them are shticked up due to being on Letterman. :)

Finally, click this link to head over to mlb.com. It’s a video from Gar’s appearance on the MLBN “Hot Stove” program from last off season. At the 1:00 minute mark, he does Andre Dawson – this is my favorite single impression Gar’s done by anyone.
Silly MLBam not allowing streaming of their MLBN video. That would be rather cool.

A bit early I know, but watch this video. It’s really funny. Lots of visual gags, too.

The picture above is what a lot of people consider the best coaching staff the Rangers have had, because it’s (for the most part) the one that led us to the playoffs in the 90’s. The last direct link to that era is now gone. As you have to have known already before you read this, Rudy Jaramillo is out as the hitting coach of the Rangers. A lot has been made about the offensive problems this team has had in 2009. I can’t blame that on Rudy.

A few times in the last two years I’ve wondered if a change in voice is necessary. I don’t think anyone doubts that Rudy is one of the best hitting coaches around. But too much of a good thing isn’t always the best. Yeah, it’s a weak argument I make – I know that. But as much as I didn’t want to see him go, I wonder what a change in voice will bring.

Which brings us to the obvious next question. Who will replace him? I can think of nobody better. The Red Baron himself, Rusty Greer. He’s a Jaramillio pupil, so the overall message won’t be that radically different. He’s enormously well respected with the players, he’s a fan favorite – still. I think he’d be a great coach. Of course, we had Ted Willams as a manager early on, and those teams couldn’t hit either. But you have to replace Jaramillo with someone, and I think Thurman Clyde Greer III would go over well. Julio Borbon would have to give up his number, but I think they should have retired 29, anyway.

From what I can gather, it appears the Rangers offered Rudy a one year contract, I expect he thinks (probably so) that he’s worth more than that, and declined. I’m sure the places that have been mentioned as needing a new hitting coach will splurge to pick him up.

If hitting gets worse in 2010, expect there to be a lot of noise about this move at that time.

EDIT: Evan Grant mentions Will Clark, too. That’s a great idea, I didn’t even consider him.

It’s pretty bad when this picture below is the SINGLE OFFENSIVE HIGHLIGHT over the last four games. It’s David Murphy rounding the bases on his HR trot from Wednesday night. It’s the only run we’ve scored in the last four games.

Sunday: Lose 5-0 (Game 2 of DH)
Monday: Lose 9-0
Tuesday: Lose 6-1
Wednesday: Lose 4-0

That’s just bad. Even the Pittsburgh Pirates aren’t that bad.

One of my good friends lives in Seattle, and is a Red Sox fan. One of those ones who, if he could afford it, give up his job and follow them on the road like they were the Grateful Dead. ;) Anyway, he sent me this comment about the Rangers broadcasts. I wanted to pass it along, to let people know that others appreciate our guys here, locally.

The games notwithstanding, I had the occasion to listen to your radio team over the course of this series as XM only plays the home team radio broadcast. I liked the work those two guys do. I think they do a good job and were easy to listen to. Thumbs up.

UPDATE: After I posted this, I IM’ed the guy and told him I posted it. He then went on and had a few more kind things to say. From the words he used, he seemed to be mostly describing stuff Eric Nadel has done for years.

They really are (great) though, Joe. They paint a picture of the game, instead of talking about nonsense all the way through, with occasional game updates. I like guys that immerse me in the game, that’s what I want, to have a description that lets me paint a mental picture. He described stances, swing types, weather, eveything. So, so good at his craft. And I mean that, craft. He is one of two guys that have ever told me that the team is wearing red tops today,as they do every Saturday at home. Only two guys in the league pick that stuff up.