Back on Sunday, Joey Matschulat over at Baseball Time in Arlington posted this..

Don’t think a tornado could ever hit Rangers Ballpark in Arlington while a game was in progress? Think again. The National Weather Service has confirmed that an EF2 tornado swept through downtown Atlanta on Friday night, sideswiping the 71,000-seat Georgia Dome during an SEC tournament basketball game between Mississippi State and Alabama and tearing multiple holes in the dome’s roof with 2:11 left in overtime.
One can only shudder to think what kind of havoc such a traumatic weather event might create at an outdoor sporting event.

Well, that’s been done already fictionally. Some time ago, the Discovery Channel ran a show called “Perfect Disaster: Supertornado”, and they had a digital representation of what would happen if an F5 tornado hit the Ballpark in Arlington. They use actual footage from the park, and refer to it as “Dallas Stadium”, but Rangers fans know what this is.
It’s fairly horrifying to watch, even though it’s completely fabricated. Not so much from gross things on the screen (they do not have people flying around in the tornado, but you know that would happen), but from the possibilities it rases in your mind. If things like that disturb you, you might not want to play this.

I’ve written a few times about baseball cards on this site. Those who know me know that one of my all time single favorite cards is the 1976 Topps Philadelphia Phillies Johnny Oates card. That card has been with me a long time, and even made it to the Oates HOF retirement ceremony a few years ago.

Anwyay, I ran into an article on ESPN tonight I wanted to draw your attention to. It’s about baseball cards, but it’s not the usual angle you run into. It’s about baseball card photographer Gregg Forwerck. Gregg has been taking photos for Topps for the last 19 years.

I was into getting cards when I was a kid, but mostly I just wanted my Phillies cards, the rest meant nothing to me. I’ve chronicled that too, as I would always get Julio Franco cards for some reason. He was my most “repeated” one, to the point that I would get mad when I got them. Even after I stopped, I always checked out a pack or two, and around 1990, I’d still get his Rangers cards. Stupid Julio Franco. I wasn’t a bicycle spoke collector, I would get them and put ’em in a box – doing the trading thing and all that. I got back into it around the time I got married, and have been collecting sets since then. So I’ve seen a lot of pictures. I always wonder who takes them. This article speaks to that.

According to the article, Gregg’s first job was for $100 in 1989 for Topps. The article talks about his rise to be what he is now, and some of the more famous players he’s taken pictures of. One of the more interesting stories is one he tells about Nolan Ryan throwing a ball at the dirt in front of all the card photographers once. The article is written around Gregg’s appearance in Surprise to take pictures of Jarrod Saltamacchia & Josh Hamilton this spring, so there’s a Rangers connection to the piece, although it’s not really about the Rangers as such. If you ever collected baseball cards, this is an article for you. Definitely check it out.

One other thing about baseball cards I thought I should point out. In the last two years, Topps has started a disturbing trend of photoshopping cards. I noticed it last year, but didn’t say something. Since I’ve already started talking cards, I thought I’d bring it up. For the longest time, you’d get Series 1 of a year’s set right around the start of spring training. You’d get Series 2 in the middle of the season, and the update/traded set for that year around the time of the World Series. I guess someone at Topps decided that they didn’t want players with the wrong uniforms in their “Series 1” cards. All the guys who were traded or signed elsewhere during the offseason generally didn’t get picked up in Series 1 as being with their new teams unless it happened early enough before the cards went to print. This started with the Series 1 set for the 2007 year.

Topps started photoshopping them at this time. The problem is that I know there’s NO WAY they could have player pictures with real game action in the uniform they were in on the card. It just strikes me as fake. For the most part, the photoshop jobs aren’t all that bad. But you KNOW they’re fake, so that takes it down a notch in your mind. Sometimes they’re quite obviously fake, like the 2007 Topps Derek Jeter card having Mickey Mantle in the dugout with him, and George W. Bush in the stands – uh WHY? What was the point in that?

As for “why” those two were in there, I can pass it off as a gag, since they’re so obviously out of place. But other stuff is more bothersome to me. Am I just being a baseball card snob and not wanting people to mess with the pictures? I wonder what folks like Gregg Forwerck think about stuff like that? The Topps 2007 Frank Catalanotto card is a fake. His card came out in Series 1, and at that time, he had not yet played for the Rangers in his second go around. If you look at the card, it just looks like a bad photoshop edit. His forehead seems too big for that hat. Couldn’t they have found a better pic to edit? Look at this:

I’ve always felt this Cat card looks bad. First off, I know it couldn’t have existed, since they wouldn’t have used a picture from the last time he played with the Rangers in 2002. Plus the batting helmet just looks really fake there to me. I’ve always thought this, but have never expressed it on my site here before (I think). Am I alone in this? Am I really the only person who thinks this looks like crap?

Another thing that’s bugged me about baseball cards is how they’re picked. I know not every player gets in, and that’s fine, but what’s the selection criteria? You have to include the big names obviously, but how does Topps draw the line as to who doesn’t get a card? With all the rookies and whatnot that we’ll never see beyond their card, one wonders what the guys who DO get to the show feel when they don’t get a card, and all these minor leaguers do. Then you get things like Edgar Gonzalez of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Steve Trachsel of the Orioles. In the 2007 Topps series, they both got two separate cards. Base card number 462, as well as 296 in the update set for Gonzalez and base card 558 & update set card 5. I never quite understood that. Why two cards for the same guy? Aren’t there some other players who didn’t get a card at all that could have taken that slot? Heck, there’s Elizardo Ramirez who is in camp with the Rangers now who got two cards (84 & 554) in the base set. If someone was in base and the update set, and HAD been traded, I’d buy that. It would make sense. But when both cards were on the same team, it doesn’t. If someone from Topps actually reads this, I’d be curious to hear an explanation. The baseball card blog “Stale Gum” has written about this subject a bunch.

But the fake cards bother me more than the multiples in the same year. About this time last year I was going to do an article about the 2007 cards, and had kept all the fake ones out so I could compile a list, but I had forgotten to do it, and now all of the ones I had picked are lost (although the Soriano as a Cub card comes to mind). But this trend has carried on into the 2008 Topps series. I’ve had Series 1 for about a month now, and have noticed them doing this again.

Is it really that bad having Miguel Tejada in an Orioles uniform, or Miguel Cabrera & Dontrelle Willis in Marlins uniforms while the cards say Astros & Tigers respectively? It really can’t be.

The Andruw Jones ones doesn’t look quite as bad as the Catalanotto one above, but it isn’t that great. If you look at the larger version of the picture (you can click on any of the cards below to see a larger version), you can clearly (I believe) see that the outfit has clearly been altered. Not only that, but if you pay attention like I do, that’s Jacobs Field behind him in the picture. The Atlanta Braves played in Jacobs Field in 2007 in interleague play. The Dodgers did not. That means one thing – FAKE CARD!

I wonder what Gregg Forwerck thinks of all this. I think I need to find an unedited version of Billy Ripken’s 1989 Fleer card, however. That made me laugh. :)

I would love to hear from some of you who collect cards about this. What do you think about the “fake/photoshopped” cards? Does this matter to you?

Still taking a short break from updating. What I didn’t mention the other day since at that time I wasn’t ready to talk about it is that my wife and I lost our baby. We were pregnant. Not anymore, unfortunately.
I wrote about it at length at my personal blog. You can read about it there if you’d like.
I hope to be back and running again over the weekend.

I know it’s early to do this, but I have to take a break for a couple of games.
My wife is having outpatient surgery for something today (why I don’t want to get into here), and it’s going to knock her out of “mommy” commission for a few days. My mind will be elsewhere, so I’ll catch up when things are slightly more normal.

TR Sullivan’s weekly mailbag for the official Rangers site is up. Normally I don’t point those out, because I figure if you’re reading my site, you’re reading the official site, too, and don’t need me to tell you that. This time, however I want to point it out for two reasons.
First is the fact that there are no stupid trade scenario emails. TR Sullivan (Rangers/mlb.com) & Evan Grant (Dallas Morning News) handle the two biggest weekly Rangers related email newsletters. And the one thing that’s bugged me about both of them have been the persistent inclusion of totally stupid non thought out trade proposals. Now I’m not beyond my own goofy trade ideas, but these guys are pros. They know these things are dumb or unrealistic. What I want to know is why they keep publishing them? Are they that short on submissions that they need to publish those? Anyway, I’m glad this one didn’t have any, TR, let’s try and keep it that way, eh?
Second, there was a good question asking about the organization of the Rangers’ minor leagues. Now to someone like Jamey, that was a “skip” when reading I’m sure, but I thought it was good information, so I’m going to replicate it here. Thanks for that one, TR..

The Rangers have six farm teams. Let’s go from bottom to top with general but not necessarily strict guidelines:
Arizona Rookie League Rangers — This team starts in June right after the First-Year Player Draft. It consists of high school players from the Draft and young Latin players in the United States for the first time. Almost all players are 20 and under.
Short-season Class A Spokane Indians — This is another league that starts right after the Draft. Most college-drafted players start here, plus players up from the Rookie League.
Low Class A Clinton Lumberkings — Each team has two full-season Class A teams in one of five leagues. The Midwest (14 teams) and South Atlantic (16 teams) leagues are considered the low Class A, which simply means the players are younger and less experienced. Clinton (Iowa) is in the Midwest League.
High Class A Bakersfield Blaze — The California, Florida and Carolina Leagues are the high Class A. Bakersfield, of course, is in the California League. The competition is a little tougher.
Double-A Frisco RoughRiders — The jump from Class A to Double-A is the biggest jump in the Minors. This is where you really can tell if a player is a serious prospect.
Triple-A Oklahoma RedHawks — This is the last stop on the Minor League ladder and some players skip this level (Ivan Rodriguez) and some (Young) only stay for a limited time. Many teams stock their Triple-A team with former Major League players to provide depth in case of injury.

One last thing on the trade proposal thing. If you guys are putting them in there for mocking the request, that’s fine, but you don’t seem to be harsh enough. I absolutely loved Steve Busby on the old KRLD call in show, as he’d mercilessly mock callers who spouted off stupid stuff – and there were a lot of them. If you’re not going to mock a stupid user submission email, then don’t publish them. :)

As I wrote about a couple of times in recent months (February & November), I’ve written about cheerleaders in baseball. I’ve never considered myself a “purist” or “traditionalist”, who object to any change. Several things added have been good (wild card leaps to mind). But the one thing that I think doesn’t belong in baseball is cheerleaders. It just doesn’t “seem right”. I like mascots for sure, but cheerleaders seem like a bad idea.

Now having said that, a lot of the women in the first two articles I wrote on this subject look quite hot. Let me remind you of that first. Here is a picture of a “Marlins Mermaid”, one of the women who do the cheerleader thing for the Florida Marlins..

OK, now that I’ve shown you that, I need to apologize in advance for what I’m going to show you next. You see, I saw this come over the sports wire a week ago or so, and wanted to mention it to you.

This is a picture of tryouts for the “Florida Manatees”. This is a secondary set of cheerleaders that the Marlins will trot out in 2008. As much as I don’t like cheerleaders in baseball, what’s with this? It can’t be that serious – basically it’s a bunch of fat guys (well, mostly) getting out there and dancing. Can it be any better than Gene Gene the Dancing Machine from the Gong Show? (That ought to date me). I cannot imagine it will be taken seriously. This just seems to be a complete mockery and a total joke. I’m sure it won’t be PRESENTED that way, but I suspect that’s how it will be perceived.

I called Chuck Morgan when I saw this, and I could see him shaking his head through the phone. The scary thing that Chuck Morgan mentioned to me was the rule in baseball that if someone is successful in something, others will copy. It’s bad enough it’s on the Marlins, but if it spreads elsewhere, I just have this to say:

ACK! I need someone’s help. I had one person bail out of my fantasy league #1 which is drafting tomorrow night! That leaves us with an odd number of teams, and Yahoo won’t draft a league with an odd number of teams; we’ll lose our draft slot in that case.
I need someone to join the league between now and about 6PM tomorrow night (Central Time). If you were thinking of joining, and missed the boat, I need some help in filling the league. Thanks.
League 1 ID: 10215
Password: sosa600
Live Online Draft: Sat Mar 1 @ 8:00pm CST
Unique URL: http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/league/rangerfans
It’s been taken care of – thanks to the guy who signed up to pick up the slack.

Something I try to do every year to bring the site up to speed is update my roster pages. I started this site in December of 1998, and unless a player is a “cup of coffee” guy, I create a roster page for them. As they move to other teams (and even other countries), I try and keep them up to date. The problem is that as the years have gone on, and I’ve amassed more and more former player pages, it becomes harder to make a pass through them. I have a total of 226 pages at the moment. I try and keep all the links the same, so two years ago when I decided to add a Wikipedia link to the roster pages, I had to go through and edit all the pages for that. A few years I never made it through the “pass”, but this year I did.
I’ve gone through all my roster pages, and updated everyone. There were bunch of players from last season I never created pages for, and they’re all up to date now, too. As is the case during spring training, I don’t add pages for everyone, since most of the guys in camp aren’t breaking camp with the big club, and they’ll likely not be seen again, or won’t be seen for awhile anyway.
So at this point unless we trade for a major player who has a guaranteed major league contract, or sign a guy who will be on the big club, I’m not adding any more pages until the 25 man roster is set in late March.
One thing though – all the current player pages I’ve added a new widget thing from ESPN – it has individual stats and news on players. Here’s an example of two: They’re free, so I figured why not. :)

Now that Nolan Ryan is our president, I wonder how plausible this might be..
In a couple of years, Pudge Rodriguez will likely be on the back end of his career. He’s still pretty darned good now. Not the Pudge of the mid/late 90’s, but he’s still a great catcher. Of all the former Ranger players from the championship teams that went and played somewhere else, Pudge is probably still the most beloved.
Juan Gonzalez is in the Cardinals system trying to hang on, most have retired, but Pudge is still pretty active. He turns 37 after the 2008 season, so I wonder.. When he’s no longer a frontline catcher, I wonder if the Rangers will bring him back to be the backup catcher/part time DH. Nolan caught Pudge back in the day, and I wonder if that might spark something on either side for a career ending reunion.
Other Ranger players have done that kind of thing at the back ends of their career. Jim Sundberg came back in 88/89 to finish off his career after spending a few years in Kansas City and Chicago. Jeff Russell came back in 95/96 after a couple of seasons in Oakland, Boston, & Cleveland. So it could happen.
I was at Pudge’s final game as a Ranger. It was quite the love fest, and when he’s returned with Florida and Detroit, he’s always warmly welcomed by the fans.
Wouldn’t surprise me.

Yahoo’s fantasy baseball is open again. I’ll be running the usual league I do, but someone posed this question to me..
What about doing a paid league? Where folks had to pay to play? Yahoo has a pay league which has more in the way of stats, and all that. If the league was made up of folks who paid, we’d be likely to keep the league together towards the end.
I’ll still have a free league whatever I do, but is there enough interest in putting together a paid league?
The league costs $125 to buy the whole league, which would be not too bad if we spread it out amongst everyone who joined. Is there enough interest from those of you who regularly play in the leagues I put together?
Please let me know.