I know this is a Rangers site, but I wanted to pass along that you can pre-order the World Series DVDs / Blu-Ray discs now through Amazon. :) If you don’t see the links, turn off your ad blockers for www.rangerfans.com. I don’t run ads here, so there’s no need to block me. :)
Here is a list of the extras that are going to be on the disc.
There goes Mark Cuban’s chance to buy the Cubs. The Wall Street Journal is saying he was charged with insider trading.
Well, the World Series is over, and my home town Phillies won. It was quite a surreal feeling, my franchise is not used to winning. Yeah, you heard a lot about how we won in 1980, and that was awesome. I was 15 at the time. I thought it was great! Then the years went on, we got teased in 1983 with the Joe Morgan, Pete Rose, & Tony Pena mostly Reds Phillies team. We got teased again in 1993 (Friggin Joe Carter can TOUCH THIS!).. But overall, the Phillies are a historically bad franchise. They lose. A lot. So when I sat there on Wednesday night watching the three and a half inning game, I didn’t know what to feel. I couldn’t go much of anywhere, since I”m confined to a recliner or the bed due to my surgery, but at least I got to experience the World Series in High Definition (save for game 1, which was in a hospital bed). The parade is going on now as I write this. ESPNNEWS is carrying parts of it, but not the whole thing, which disappointed me. Hopefully the eventual DVD of the World Series will have the whole parade on it. To finish up on that, I’ll quote a sign I saw in the stands right after the game was over. “Mitch, we forgive you!” :)
Anyway, now that the World Series is over, the other stuff starts. The off season. As with every Rangers off season, we’ll be looking to shore up pitching. That seems to be the story every season. I’m sure we’ll also hear a lot about how bad the Rays were last year, and they went to the World Series. While of course, anything can happen, I can’t see the Rangers doing that. The Rays seemed to have a better foundation of pitching. We have too many holes to fill. Oh sure, a perfect storm of pitching would be great, but I can’t see it happening.
Yesterday, the first batch of Rangers filed for free agency. I’ll say something about them below. My gut feeling is no big name comes in here, if we do have any inbounds, it will probably be a name like a Joe Blanton that the Phillies got – no name that will set the world on fire, but someone who is “good”. Might be via Blalock, who knows. Here goes, the Rangers who have filed for free agency:
Hank Blalock: I must not understand the technicalities of free agency filing, as the Rangers hold an option on Blalock. I was under the impression that he isn’t a free agent unless we decline his option, which is unlikely to happen. I think everyone in the world expects the Rangers to pick up his option for 2009. After that, who knows – but I think there’s a decent chance he’ll get traded in the offseason for some sort of startng pitching. However, if Bradley doesn’t return, it could make Blalock more attractive to keep – put him at DH, and play Chris Davis at first.
Milton Bradley: Milton has been making a lot of noise about how he will retire unless he gets a multi-year deal. Yes, he had a career year in 2008, and I have to admit, I liked him when he was on the field. But that’s his big question mark. He missed a decent (if not a lot) amount of time on the field, and there was a scramble at the end of the season for him to get qualifying at bats. That is not the mark of a truly healthy player. I would love to have Bradley back, but the only way I see him back here now is if nobody will give him a multi-year deal. I could see us offering him a one year with a team option, but my guess is his ego won’t allow him to accept that. Shame.
Bradley was also declared a Type B Free Agent on Friday. That’s not as good news for the Rangers, as they were hoping for an A I’m sure. The Type B means that the Rangers wouldn’t get a good pick if someone else signed him after we offered arbitration. As a Type B, the Rangers would get a supplemental pick only. Oh well.
Ramon Vazquez: He has been fantastic for us here, and the only way I see him returning would be if they decide to play him as a regular third baseman under the Chris Davis scenario I mentioned above. If his slot would be utility guy, I can’t see that happening – he won’t want to do that again, I’m sure, and he deserves a better spot. Plus we have some other guys who can do the utility thing a lot cheaper (Joaquin Arias, German Duran). I don’t see him back. In memory of the 2008 season, I’ll take one last lift of the finger under my nose in his honor.
Jamey Wright: Jamey has been a decent, if not spectacular reliever for us. However, it’s always been on a minor league deal that he’s made the club on last cut. I don’t have any hard numbers or facts to back this up, but my feeling is that he won’t be back in 2009, they’ll want to take a chance on something or someone different.
Jason Jennings: Well, that didn’t work. Guy was hurt all the time, made just six starts. Hard to judge. The local boy makes good story was a good touchy feely thing, but it didn’t do squat on the field. Major unknown – I could see them offering him a minor league deal pretty easily.
That’s about it for the first wave of moves. I’m going to try and be more forthcoming with my thoughts this season. I said that going into 2008, and I stuck with it for awhile, but kind of fell off. I guess with guys like Adam, Joey, & Jamey out there, I sometimes feel my little opinions aren’t worth much.
But the reason I’m giving it a try is the folks who wrote me during my surgery and said they liked my site, and had been reading for awhile, enjoying what I do. Thanks to all who wrote in during my recovery, and a big thanks to all who prayed for me. I’m a big believer in the power of prayer, so to have random folks I don’t really know that well pray for my recovery… it’s a great blessing. Thank you.
Here is an email my wife wrote to several of our`church friends on Wed evening. I’m home now and am pretty much confined to bed.
Hello everyone,
What a long long day. First off, if you feel lead to forward this message on to others, please do so. I’m so tired at this point, I know there are others that I wanted to send this to.
Joe’s surgery went well. We were at the hospital at 7 am for admitting into day surgery. They took him back quickly, then it was “hurry up and wait” time. Fr. Lawrence and Fr. Jeff from our church came out and blessed us both, which was great, and a huge emotional help to us. They took Joe upstairs at 9am, and I thought, okay, this is it, but the nurse came and got me again. More hurry up and wait time in a bigger room with more questions. Finally, around 10:15 (an hour 15 late) Joe was taken into surgery.
The doctor came out and talked to me, and said that the actual surgery lasted about an hour. Joe had a huge 4 inch cyst that was eating into the tibia bone. A sample was sent to pathology, but the Doctor felt that it was benign. He explained that he used bone chips and “bone marrow asperate” taken from Joe’s hip to fill up the hole. The bone marrow asperate is suppose to encourage new bone growth. He basically described cutting into Joe’s bone a little trap door, filling it up, and shutting it closed like a casket (his words NOT mine). This was a rare surgery.
Anyways, Joe is now in a full leg brace to keep his leg stable, and to keep his knee from bending. He will be in this brace for several weeks, this part is unclear, it depends on how his recovery is going. Joe got back into his room around 1pm, very groggy. He was feeling nausous, so they gave him more drugs for that along with good ol’ morphine. He was out for a few hours, during which I went home to get him some things, and to check on Samantha.
He was up a few times, but he needs to use a walker for awhile. They will be sending him home tomorrow with one, along with some more drugs for pain. After dinner, he did take a nap before his Phillies were on tv in the world series.
I have to say, we had some of THE NICEST nurses ever at this hospital. Not only were they caring of Joe, but they were beyond kind to me. This hospital was an icecube, and one nurse brought me a blanket. When Joe’s dinner came, they brought ME a dinner too. I didn’t ask for one, but they said, “Oh, this one’s for you too”. I teased Joe that this was our anniversary dinner as our 12th wedding anniversary is this weekend, but we cannot celebrate this year. What a way to get a day to ourselves. :)
I stayed until 8:30, and then had to get home. I plan on going back early tomorrow as it is unclear when Joe will be dischared.
Samantha had a wonderful day with her Grandma, and Grandma took care of her the entire day. They played “Doctor Who” toys for several hours, and didn’t even have to pull out all the art supply stuff that I had gotten as a distraction. Thanks be to God that Ellen came down, I don’t know what I would have done, as Joe really needed me with him.
Thanks to all of you who called today, either on my cell or at the house. Thanks also to all of you who were praying for us during the surgery. It truly helped to know that so many of you were keeping us all in prayer. Please continue to lift us up in prayer, as recovery is going to be hard.
Good night, and blessings to all of you,
Lynn
Hey gang. Just a reminder I won’t be around tomorrow, or much the next week or so. I’m having surgery to remove a bone cyst from my left leg (the tibia right below the knee). I’ll be in a hospital bed watching Game 1 of the World Series.
I’ve been ordered off my feet, and off a chair in front of a computer for awhile, so I have no idea what my update capability will be like. Hope to have some new posts sooner than later. :)
Some general info about the problem:
I have a cyst inside the bone just under my left knee. It’s what has been causing me so much pain lately. They were unable to 100% confirm that it was due to the fall I had a year ago, but he said it’s possible. The reason they don’t know for sure is because they would have had to have had a reference Xray from right before the fall. I saw the Xray myself – there’s no mistaking it, it’s quite noticeable in there. They’re essentially going to be clearing out the cyst stuff, and then effectively “filling it with cement”. That’s obviously not what they’re actually doing, but I’m a little unclear as I sit here right now what the material they’re going to actually be putting in there is, but they did use the phrase “bone graft”, which has an ugly sound to it. I was told they “don’t take stuff from your hip and put it in there anymore like we used to”, I believe it’s some sort of synthetic something, but again, I’m not sure. There’s some pictures and details about the condition and operation here:
http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=A00081
UPDATE 9/17 @ 8:15AM: The elimination number is now just three! Come on, let’s bury the Yankees!
I took a look at the standings tonight, and noticed that the Yankees are 79-70, and in FOURTH place in the AL East. There’s no chance they’ll end up in the cellar, the Orioles have a firm grip on that.
But to see the Yankees in fourth was a surprise. But what I really enjoyed was seeing their “Elimination Number” at just 5. I’d say the Yankees being eliminated from the playoffs completely will happen before the weekend. The Yankees play the White Sox this week, and the Rays play both Boston & Minnesota. Might not happen on Wednesday like I’d like, but I figure the Yankees will probably be eliminated on Friday.
That will be a great moment – no Yankees in the playoffs for the first time in ages.
Unfortunately, they’ll probably overreact and try getting every high dollar free agent for next year.
I’m also not sure exactly what day it happened, but I did also notice the Rangers were officially eliminated from the post season, too.
I’m a bit busy at the moment, and don’t even have time to handle the smallest of updates. Will catch up in a few days.
That thing in Boston last night. Holy crap!
Remember these? There was a series of kids’ comic books in 2001 that were given away at the ballpark. Kind of amusing now looking back at it in 2008 that all four players had their name tied to steroids in some way. On top of that, the images on the book look pretty roided up. Yeah, I know, its artistic license for the superhero theme of the comic book, but still.
Was looking through some old entries on my site, and saw that picture. Does anyone actually still have all of those?
I have a pair of tickets for Thursday’s game which I cannot use.
Was wondering if anyone wanted them. They’re in Section 325, Row 14, Seats 20 & 21 (end of the row).
I’m looking for $16 for the pair. If you’re interested, please email me.