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An Open Letter to Trent Williams [UPDATED]

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I updated this after the initial reaction on Twitter.  Read below the picture…

Dude, please stop.

I’m talking about the guy who has season tickets out in section 51 of Rangers ballpark.  This is the guy who in the last few years has a habit of running out on the field, catching home run balls and throwing them back.    He’s been doing this for some time now.  I don’t recall offhand when he first started doing this, but I recall for sure seeing it during the 2011 season.    The earliest I can (quickly) find was this reference to a game in September 2011.

When he started doing this, it was kind of cool.  Even amusing.   I used to get a kick out of it.  Not anymore.  I am starting to hate when opponents hit home runs out there.  Not because of my objecting to throwing home run balls back (which is another entire discussion), but the fact that this guy dominates home run balls.   I mean seriously – he seems to want to be “the man” out there, and that’s why I have a problem with this.  If I were a parent in that area, I’d be really pissed off, because Trent Williams near me means my kid has no hope of getting a home run ball. [Read more…]

Win a Free Copy of Josh Lewin’s Book

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My site has been going for awhile now, and during that time I’ve seen several broadcasters come and go.  However, one of the more polarizing ones was Josh Lewin, who was the television play by play guy from 2002 through 2010.   I say polarizing, because there’s a lot of fans who really disliked him.  There’s a lot of fans who really did like him.  For the most part I liked him – although I did think there were too many forays into movies and food, but whether you liked his work or not, you can’t deny the man was a pro, and a hard worker.  He was ready for the games he broadcast.  I wish he was here for more of them (never liked the weekends away), but that’s all in the past now.  Today I’m here to talk about his book, “Ballgame!: A Decade Covering the Texas Rangers from the Best Seat in the House”.  Or as I call it, “Ballgame!”.   [Read more…]

Yahoo Fantasy Baseball 2013

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Have three open slots in one of my two Yahoo leagues.  Here’s the details for it.

URL: http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/league/rangerfans2
League ID: 49630
pw: onestriketogo
Draft: Sat Mar 16 @ 8PM Central

I do have one open slot, maybe two in the other league, but I need to confirm two people before I’m sure there.  Will post about that one when I am.

It’s free, and if you want to play, please.  Join.  But, please join only if you intend on playing the whole season out.  Nothing worse than a person who bails out in April.

 

Robbie Ross’ Glove

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It looks like Robbie Ross has been to “Round Rock Donuts” in Round Rock TX.   It looks like a giant glazed donut!

Yahoo Fantasy Baseball

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I just noticed that 2013 Yahoo Fantasy Baseball is up and running again for the new year.  I just saw it, and I’m pretty tired and will be heading to bed soon, so I’ll look into this tomorrow and get the ball rolling again.

Spring Training Remark

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I’ve been a Dallas Morning News Subscriber for some time.   However, in the last few years, I mostly read the paper on my iPad.   As a subscriber, I can read the content there, and frequently do.   However…

Yesterday morning in the Sunday paper was Evan Grant’s spring training preview.   THAT – for some reason demands to be read in the physical newspaper.  Oh sure, I can read it on my iPad, or on my web browser.  But for some reason, spring training materials to me need to read in a “real” newspaper, with a cup of coffee preferably.

Now that I’ve done these, I’m ready for spring training to start.  :)

A Second Voice

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As I posted a little bit ago, I had doubts that I wanted to continue on into the new season in the format this site has had for awhile.  I found it hard to stay focused when I have no TV to watch, and I couldn’t timeshift the radio broadcasts.  Fortunately, a friend of mine decided to step in and offer to write about some of the games on this site, too.  He’s a good friend of mine, the two of us attend church together, and he’s been a long time Ranger fan.  He lives in the Arlington area, and his name is Jeff.  We attended the one game together in the 2010 World Series that the Rangers won, so that was cool.   Here’s a picture of us from the MLB Gigapan photo.  I think Jeff knew when it was being taken, as he covered my face with his camcorder.  :)

I’m appreciative to Jeff for helping out going forward.  In fact, he wrote two commentaries already towards the end of the 2012 season.  The ones for Games 160 & 161, so you can check them out.   That will probably lighten the load on me going forward.  Plus, this site is called “Rangerfans” – as in plural, so it probably will be cool to get a second voice on here.    I also restored the byline credit on the site.  Because I was the only one writing, it seemed kind of silly to have “by Joe” under the title of each article.  But with two of us, I felt it was time to put that back.

Jeff posts in the Texas Rangers fan group on Facebook as well as me, so you might recognize him from there.   Not sure what the plans for off season writing is, probably a remark here and there when the mood strikes.  But I’m grateful to a friend for stepping up and helping out.   Back in the earliest days of this site I had a second author for part of the start of the 1999 season, but that guy didn’t last long – and disappeared off the face of the Earth too.  I would think Jeff wouldn’t.

About Me and this season

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I’ve discovered as we head into the last game of the season today that my lack of ability to watch the Rangers games on TV has seriously impacted my desire to maintain this site with regular daily updates.   I’ve gone three times this season where I haven’t updated for 2+ weeks, and when I do, I have to do like 20 games at once.

I still follow the team, but a lot of times it’s just on my iPhone app or something.   As I’ve said before, the time the games are on in the evening is prime family time, and given you can’t timeshift radio, I either have to forego family time to listen, or just not listen to the game.   It doesn’t make me want to do an update too much when I can’t listen or watch the games at all.

If this situation continues into next season, I might have to have a rethink about the site, and how I run it.   As I sit here today on Oct 3rd before Game 162 is played, I can say there’s about 50 games this season I haven’t written about.  Not sure I WANT to go back and write about them, to be honest.

I’ll probably do the playoffs properly, and then have a think about catching up the games I didn’t do in the season.  Although I suspect I probably won’t want to go back and do that.  We’ll see.

Anyone really care?  :)