There is a very cool article from Jayson Stark on The Athletic now. It’s very cool, very detailed, and talks about the coming major changes to MLB. We’re not talking small stuff like pitch clock or mound visits. But radical, larger changes like the implementation of the DH across all baseball, expansion to 32 teams, radical realignment, and the possible elimination of the AL & NL leagues into one single large league.

Now he just doesn’t throw out ideas without backup. That’s what social media & Facebook groups are for (haha). He has well thought out remarks on all of this. Unfortunately, it’s behind the paywall, so you can’t read all of it, but I do want to take a moment and say a subscription to the Athletic is spectacular. I got in there because I had signed up for Levi Weaver’s own local service, and when he started with the Athletic, my subscription carried over.  If you use my link, you can get 25% off a subscription, and if you sign up, I get $10 from them, so go – check it out.

Anyway, I’m gonna touch base on all of what he said with my own thoughts on it. [Read more…]

Well, OK, by “drinks” I don’t mean booze.  I mean a soft drink, like a Coke or a lemonade or something…

Don’t know who knows about this one, but I thought I’d pass it on. The Rangers for awhile now have had this booth on the concourse behind home plate and the “Guest Services” area. See the pic in the post.

Anyway, if you fill out the coupon there, you pledge to be a “Good Sport”, which basically means you don’t drink anything (alcoholic) while you’re there.

For the last few years, it’s been really good.  However in 2019, they changed the terms, and made it far more restrictive, and to be honest, to the point where I don’t know if I want to bother with it anymore.

You still go there and sign up, and you do get a coupon.  Despite the coupon physically being the same from last year (and saying fountain drink), they no longer give you a cup which you could use to get a soft drink.  All they give you is one 12oz CAN of soda.  Either Coke, Diet Coke, or Dr Pepper.  That’s it.  No other options.

On top of that restriction, where you get them is now far more restrictive.  You used to be able to turn them in at any stand anywhere.  NOW there are only THREE STANDS IN THE ENTIRE BALLPARK that take the coupons.  Two of them are right behind home plate near the place you fill out the form for the card.  The other one is in the 300 level.  There’s NOTHING in the 200 level.  I took a picture of the sign they had at the table showing where you can redeem the cards now.  It’s below.

The program is STUPID restrictive now.  I haven’t drunk fizzy drinks in years now, so I’m pretty much out.  I would always get lemonade or Powerade.  I got a Diet Coke on opening day, and took three sips of it, and then threw the rest out – I can’t drink fizzy drinks anymore, just tastes awful.  ALL of them.

So if you’re not into Coke, Diet Coke, or Dr Pepper, then they’ve changed this so much it’s not worth it.  Which sucks, as this used to be a great way to save money.  I don’t know whether this was Budweiser doing this, or the Rangers offices, or the food service company – but someone decided too many freebies were being given out apparently, and restricted the hell out of the program.  That is sad.  :(

These were the original terms I had on this post when it was good for the last several years.
THESE ARE NOT CURRENT TERMS ANYMORE AS OF 2019…

They give you a voucher for a free soft drink in the park. I use it every time I’m there to get a free lemonade.

On Dollar Hot dog nights, it’s even better – last one I had a drink and three hot dogs for just $3 at the ballpark.

Now it’s an honor system thing for sure.  There’s nothing stopping you from signing up for that, and then walking straight to buy a beer.   But that’s uncool.   If you don’t drink at the park, you might as well do it.  Free medium soft drink at ballpark prices is nothing to sneeze at.  :)

About eleven years ago I wrote an article for my Rangers site on Ballpark names and corporate sponsorships.  At the time, I thought about how many stadiums were left that don’t have corporate names.  Things have changed since I wrote that article, including at the Rangers home in Arlington.  So I’ve decided to revisit that article and update it for all the changes since the original piece.   Some info is harder to find – the primary source I used back then doesn’t exist anymore, and I’ve inquired with a few people with the Rangers about where to find that info publicly, and haven’t found a good updated source of info.  So I’ll do my best to find the info – but a few below will say “N/A”, because I couldn’t find the info, not because I didn’t try.

NOTE: I published v2 of this article in July of 2016, and v3 in August of 2017.  The only change between v2 & v3 is that I moved SunTrust Field to “current” vs “future”, and I updated some text and used the name of the new Rangers Park in 2020, as that was announced on Aug 24, 2017.  The only difference between v3 & v4 is the addition of the new Rays park announced in July 2018.  I also added a name change Seattle Mariners on Dec 19, 2018 and a name change for the San Francisco Giants on Jan 10, 2019. [Read more…]

Here’s a Rangers starting lineup with uniform numbers all under 10.  No repeat numbers, either.  :)

C – Pudge (7)
1B – Mike Napoli (5)
2B – Scott Sheldon (4)
3B – Wayne Tolleson (3)
SS – Elvis Andrus (1)
LF – Al Oliver (0)
CF – Leonys Martin (2)
RF – Larry Parrish (9)
DH – Dick Billings (8)
SP – Rob Bell (6)

DH made it easy to stick anyone there.  I didn’t want to use another catcher there (Lord knows there’s enough “8” catchers), but you rarely see catchers as DH’s.  Dick Billings got on there because I wanted an early Ranger on the list.  Plus the DH came into being the second of his third years with the Rangers.

I may have over thought this a bit.  :)

So the new Rangers Ballpark for 2020 is breaking ground next week.  They announced the seating capacity being between 41 & 42,000.  I’ve seen a lot of fans get mad about that given the capacity of the current park is about 49,500.   I want to examine that irritation and what the reality of ballpark seating capacity has been since our place opened in 1994.

[Read more…]

If you remember some time ago when Tom Hicks owned the Texas Rangers, then commissioner Bud Selig had promised to do something about the fact that the Rangers were stuck in a division with all West Coast teams.  While there was no solid info as to what was going to happen, there was much talk that Selig would “fix the problem”.   Then came Interleague play. [Read more…]

Was having a chat on Facebook about bringing up Willie Calhoun, and I made a comment about him not being on the 40 man roster.  The comment was made “I only counted 32 up here at the moment”.  I tried to explain it, but when I didn’t think I was getting the message through, I decided to go and write my own article explaining the 25 man and 40 man rosters.  It’s not as confusing as the infield fly rule, but I’ll try and sort it out.

UPDATE Nov 2019: Starting in 2020, the 25 man roster will be a 26 man roster, and things are changing relative to “September Callups”.  I will revisit this closer to the rest of the season, but for now, this mostly all still applies.

Here goes: [Read more…]

Earlier today on the Texas Rangers Facebook group I’m on, a discussion popped up on our catching situation.   I postulated that since Pudge left as a regular player after the 2002 season, we haven’t had that ONE GUY we could count on to be the #1 catcher, the one guy you KNEW would be there year after year.   There just hasn’t been that guy.   I decided to dig into the numbers (and I dug deep), looking for all of the guys who have caught for the Rangers from 2002 onwards because I wanted to prove my point.

Some Thoughts

The closest we’ve come to that was Rod Barajas, who caught 105, 119, & 94 games in 2004, 2005, & 2006.   He’s the only guy with three consecutive years being “the guy”. [Read more…]