I was at the exhibition finale today in Arlington, and of course, I couldn’t resist taking a bunch of pictures of the new scoreboard stuff. Given this is a long article with a lot of pictures, I’m breaking most of the content off onto a secondary page, so if you’re reading this on a feed reader or something, you will have to click through to the main website to see everything.
UPDATE: That is seriously funny timing. Two hours after I posted this, the HD schedule was released today. Here it is..
As I now have an HDTV, and this will be my first full season with one of those, I’m most interested in the HDTV plans for the Rangers. If you go to their website, this text appears on the “TV Broadcasts Page“…
FSSW High-Definition For the second consecutive season, the majority of Rangers games will be presented in high-definition on FOX Sports Southwest HD, KDFI My27 HD and KDFW FOX 4 HD where available. A complete Rangers HD schedule will be announced once it is finalized.
The actual broadcast schedule page has nothing about HD, just whether it’s Ch 27 or FSSW.
So my question is this. Where is the HD schedule? It’s now six days from the home opener, and five days from the overall season opening game on Sunday night. I find it hard to believe this schedule doesn’t exist. My TiVo has guide information til about April 15th or so right now, and so far, every game the Rangers are playing is on a HD channel.
Has anyone seen the actual HD schedule published anywhere? If so, where? Please tell me.
I’ve talked about MLB Network a few times before, but I just got done telling my wife one of the reasons I enjoy watching the MLB Tonight show.
I’m watching the Seattle Mariners version of “30 Teams in 30 Days”, and the topic on the table was Ken Griffey Jr and how he would impact the 2009 edition of the Mariners. The guys talking at the table were Matt Vasgergian (sp!), Harold Reynolds, Sean Casey, & John Hart. As I’m sure you know, Reynolds played on the Mariners when Griffey came up.
The bit I really enjoyed was when Harold Reynolds was talking about Griffey, and the graphic that came up was one from Ken Griffey’s debut with the Mariners. Leading off that game was Reynolds, who the graphic said went 0-4 with a strikeout. That graphic came up, and Reynolds stopped mid sentence and said “What is this?”, which prompted Matt V to say “And Griffey batted behind a guy who went 0-4”. The other guys started laughing. It’s that kind of sense of humor between the show and it’s on screen talent makes this work for me. I laughed out loud when Reynolds said “What is this?” Hahahahaha.
The other thing I wanted to say was about the Rangers’ John Hart. Like most Rangers fans we were overjoyed when Hart was removed from the Texas GM job and booted upstairs. Since that happened, you almost never heard about or from him (the latter being the same behaviour as when he WAS the GM). Anyway, he’s usually the guy who comments on what team management’s perspective is on whatever the story at hand is. I have to say, I’ve rather enjoyed him as a commentator on MLB Network. There was some talk that he might be a candidate for the vacant GM job in Washington DC. If that happens, he’s off MLBN for sure, which would I feel be a loss for the commentating crew.
What would NOT be a loss is the departure of Sean Casey. He’s the first guy they’ve put on the network that I wished would not come back. I’d rather Al Leiter stay there all the time. I’ve enjoyed the heck out of Al for the “former player” perspective.
If you’re not regularly watching MLB Network, you should be. I don’t think I’ve watched more than 10 minutes of ESPN’s Baseball Tonight since BBTN has come back on the air early in spring training. Watch it.
The gods don’t want us to have local beat coverage, do they?
First this offseason we lost our DMN beat writers. In a cost cutting move, it was decided to do away with the DMN guys, and go with just the Ft Worth Star Telegram guys. Which is fine, so long as someone is doing it.
Then tonight came the news that the Ft Worth Star Telegram may not survive the current recession! That has all kinds of larger implications, but the amusing part about it to a Rangers fan is that those guys just picked up the banner of local coverage.
Fortunately, we have D Magazine to thank for picking up Evan Grant for beat coverage, but one would think if the Telegram goes away, the DMN beat guys would get rehired. I would imagine if the FTST goes away, the DMN might expand to be a metroplex wide newspaper, I can’t imagine Ft Worth without a newspaper at all.
Saw this amusing post on a Reds Blog.
Did anyone else notice that our starting rotation,
H arang
A rroyo
V olquez
O wings
C ueto
Spells HAVOC!
Tried that with our guys. It doesn’t spell anything. First off, there’s no vowels. :)
Millwood
Padilla
McCarthy
Harrison
Feldman
MPMHF
To everyone else, this is text meant for Anthony Andro of the Ft Worth Star Telegram.
Anthony, here’s a properly formatted text box score. It can be done with MT/Typepad. You just have to use the tags I sent you in email. Let me know if you need any help with this.
If you’re reading this on a Kindle, hopefully it isn’t too messed up. :)
Line Score ML FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E - - - - - - - - - - - - TEXAS 1 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 1 6 9 0 HOUSTON 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 5 3 (FINAL) BATTERIES: TEX - DARREN OLIVER, PAT MAHOMES (7TH), MARK PETKOVSEK (8TH), JEFF ZIMMERMAN (9TH) AND IVAN RODRIGUEZ HOU - SCOTT ELARTON, JAY POWELL (8TH), JOE SLUSARSKI (9TH) AND BRAD AUSMUS WP - DARREN OLIVER (6-2) LP - SCOTT ELARTON (4-7) SAVE - NONE HOME RUNS: TEX - ALEX RODRIGUEZ (20) OFF ELARTON IN THE 5TH, 2 ON HOU - CRAIG BIGGIO (8) OFF D OLIVER IN THE 1ST, 0 ON CRAIG BIGGIO (9) OFF D OLIVER IN THE 3RD, 0 ON TIME: 2:51 ATT: 43,277 PROBABLES: ANA - SCOTT SCHOENEWEIS (6-4, 3.71) TEX - ROB BELL (NR) COL - PEDRO ASTACIO (5-7, 5.28) HOU - SHANE REYNOLDS (6-5, 4.94) Box Score TEXAS (6) VS HOUSTON (2) - FINAL TEXAS ab r h rbi bb so lob avg Catalanotto 2b 4 1 1 0 1 0 1 .306 I Rodriguez c 5 2 2 1 0 1 2 .286 A Rodriguez ss 4 1 3 3 0 0 0 .327 R Palmeiro 1b 3 0 0 0 1 1 1 .257 Sierra rf 3 0 0 1 0 1 2 .319 Petkovsek p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 Je Zimmerman p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 Kapler cf 4 0 0 0 0 0 3 .276 Lamb 3b 4 1 1 0 0 0 0 .250 Ledee lf 4 1 1 0 0 2 1 .167 D Oliver p 2 0 1 0 0 1 0 .400 Mahomes p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.000 Porter rf 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 .293 Totals 33 6 9 6 2 6 10 BATTING: HR - A Rodriguez (20, 5th inning off Elarton 2 on, 1 out). S - D Oliver. SF - Sierra, Porter. RBI - Sierra (24), I Rodriguez (33), A Rodriguez 3 (60), Porter (3). Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - Kapler 2. GIDP - I Rodriguez, R Palmeiro. Team LOB - 5. FIELDING: DP: 1 (A Rodriguez-R Palmeiro). HOUSTON ab r h rbi bb so lob avg Biggio 2b 4 2 2 2 0 0 1 .307 Lugo ss 4 0 1 0 0 2 0 .263 Bagwell 1b 3 0 0 0 1 2 1 .277 L Berkman lf 3 0 2 0 1 1 0 .330 Alou rf 4 0 0 0 0 0 4 .355 Hidalgo cf 4 0 0 0 0 1 0 .276 Castilla 3b 3 0 0 0 0 1 0 .238 b-Vizcaino ph 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 .277 Ausmus c 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 .210 Elarton p 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 .083 a-C Hayes ph 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 .189 Ja Powell p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 Slusarski p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 Totals 31 2 5 2 3 8 6 a-walked for Elarton in the 7th; b-struck out for Castilla in the 9th. BATTING: HR - Biggio 2 (9, 1st inning off D Oliver 0 on, 0 out, 3rd inning off D Oliver 0 on, 1 out). RBI - Biggio 2 (30). Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - Alou 1, Bagwell 1. GIDP - Alou. Team LOB - 5. FIELDING: E - Lugo 2 (13, ground ball, throw); Ja Powell (1, throw). DP: 2 (Lugo-Biggio-Bagwell, Bagwell-Lugo-Ja Powell). -------------------------------------------------- Texas - 100 040 001 -- 6 Houston - 101 000 000 -- 2 -------------------------------------------------- TEXAS ip h r er bb so hr era D Oliver (W, 6-2) 6 2/3 5 2 2 3 5 2 5.96 Mahomes (H, 3) 1/3 0 0 0 0 0 0 7.30 Petkovsek (H, 4) 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 6.17 Je Zimmerman 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 3.58 HOUSTON ip h r er bb so hr era Elarton (L, 4-7) 7 7 5 5 2 5 1 6.52 Ja Powell 1 2 1 0 0 0 0 3.93 Slusarski 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 8.40 Ja Powell pitched to 2 batters in the 9th. WP - D Oliver. Pitches-strikes: Elarton 124-82; Ja Powell 19-14; Slusarski 12-8; D Oliver 102-68; Mahomes 4-2; Petkovsek 19-12; Je Zimmerman 9-7. Ground balls-fly balls: Elarton 14-2; Ja Powell 3-0; Slusarski 1-1; D Oliver 7-8; Mahomes 0-1; Petkovsek 0-1; Je Zimmerman 1-1. Batters faced: Elarton 29; Ja Powell 6; Slusarski 3; D Oliver 27; Mahomes 1; Petkovsek 3; Je Zimmerman 3. UMPIRES: HP--Chuck Meriwether. 1B--Brian Onora. 2B--Mike Fichter. 3B--John Hirschbeck. T--2:51. Att--43,277. Indoors. ML TEXAS AT HOUSTON NOTE: THE HOME RUN BY HOUSTON'S CRAIG BIGGIO LED OFF THE BOTTOM OF THE FIRST INNING. THE HOME RUN EXTENDED BIGGIO'S HITTING STREAK TO 17 GAMES.
I originally posted this video back in July of 2008, but I wanted to bump it up again as I was showing a friend of mine some BSG stuff, so I thought I’d bump it back up and add on.
Thanks to my site visitor Baldwin Smith for pointing out the embedded video above. It’s a rather amusing video of the “Batting Stance Guy” doing his take on various Texas Rangers players both current and past. His rendition of Hank Blalock made me laugh out loud. Same thing for his Kenny Rogers one at the end of the video. :)
Thought y’all would want to see this.
UPDATE Feb 2009: Batting Stance Guy’s website can be reached at well.. http://www.battingstanceguy.com. He has several team specific videos besides this one. However, one video I urge you to watch is the one linked here. BSG made an appearance on the Hot Stove program on MLB Network back in January where he talks about how he does all of this. He also runs through a bunch of players called out by the three MLBN guys (Victor Rojas, Harold Reynolds, & Mitch Williams). His take on Andre Dawson is quite hysterical, and to see him do Harold Reynolds right in front of him is great. Of course, he does Joe Carter in front of Mitch Williams as well. Definitely check out this video (and go watch MLB Network).
UPDATE #2: BSG was on again Feb 25th, and did all Reds in front of Barry Larkin & Sean Casey. Check this one out, too.
I am sick of talking about steroids. I have declared my Rangers website to be a steroid free zone going forward. I’ve also tweaked my header graphic to take note of this. I’m not writing about steroids again.
So. Alex came out today and admitted he did steroids for all three years he was in Texas. He claims he hasn’t done any since then. There’s no positive tests to combat that since then. However, given he lied about doing them here in Texas, who knows what the real truth is?
I actually kind of buy into his logic that he felt he needed to live up to the contract. I remember there being an awful lot of talk in that direction when he first signed here. How he chose to try and live up to it.. Ever since he left Texas (09 will now be his sixth season since he wore a Texas uniform), I’ve always personally thought he held up his end of the bargain by delivering on the field. I’m not sure what I think now.
However, I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. In looking around for a pic of A-Roid to use in this story, look what I found in the archives. I had forgotten about this – it should have been so obvious!
One of the lesser used pages on my site is my archive of Texas Rangers pocket schedules. I’ve been collecting them since just before I started this site (Dec of 1998), and a few years ago I decided to fill in the holes and get every one ever made. The problem with that is that my research has turned up a lot of alternates. There’s Spanish versions, multiple English ones, spring training schedules, etc… So a list of what the complete archive comprises is not available. Still, I’ve been trying to at least get all the years represented. Today I’ve done that.
Before I get to that, I wanted to draw attention to the first 2009 edition that I’ve seen myself. Features Josh Hamilton inside the ballpark. It shows off some of the more prominent tattoos on his arm, and given how great of a season he had in 2008, he probably deserves to be on the pocket schedule for 2009. That image is shown here. Based on what I’ve seen, there will be other 2009 variants, too. If any of you reading this are going to spring training in Surprise, can you pick me up a pocket schedule for spring training? They’ve had them in the past, and if they have one this year, I’d like to get one. Thanks.
As for the archives, I was fortunate to be sent an email from a Claude Jacques recently which completed the task of getting all the years on my archive. Claude runs a website dedicated to collecting pocket schedules. He’s got just about every team in every sport, in every level of majors and minors you can think of. It’s QUITE extensive. He was kind enough to send over everything he had relating to the Texas Rangers. After I went through and weeded out the duplicates of things I already had, he gave me 28 pocket schedule images I did not have before. I now have every year from 1972 through 2009 represented, and that’s pretty cool. Of the 28 new ones, below are a few highlights of ones he sent over that I liked the look of.
Make sure to check out my archive of schedules where you can see everything I have. As usual, if you have a variant I do not, or you have a larger/better quality version of something I do have, please drop me a line. Thanks.
Pocket schedule design has come a long way from this one in 1972, eh?
