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A (fictional) Tornado at the Ballpark

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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.

Baseball Cards

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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?

Derek Jeter Topps 2007 Card

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?

ST19: Rangers lose to A’s, 9-7

Posted by on at http://texas.rangers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080316&content_id=2430968&vkey=spt2008gamer&fext=.jsp&c_id=tex>MLB.com Recap

I’m about out of time to write tonight, so I’ll make this one short.
Josh Hamilton walked and doubled to extend his on base streak to 13, where it ended, as he struck out on the fourteenth.
Kevin Mench went 2-3 with a double, raising his spring average to .355.
Gerald Laird homered while going 1-4, making his average .276.
David Murphy continued a pretty torrid pace, but not like Hamilton’s. Murphy is now batting .417.
Sidney Ponson pitched like the guy everyone expects him to be. Bad. 2.1IP, 6H, 4ER, 2BB. Bleh.
I twisted my ankle, and it’s starting to hurt a lot just sitting here, I need to go soak it in the tub. Yeah, I know, TMI, but it’s hurting me to write right now. :)

ST18: Rangers get 10th win with 10 runs over Rockies

Posted by on at http://texas.rangers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080315&content_id=2429347&vkey=spt2008gamer&fext=.jsp>MLB.com Recap

As I’m writing a few games’ commentaries on Sunday night off of box scores, the first thing I do is scroll down the page to look at the pitching lines. After the last few stinkfests, I expected another line somewhere where a Ranger pitcher was horrendous and the rest were pretty good.
Well, this game five Rangers pitchers threw, and two gave up runs, and just one was crappy. That was Frank Francisco, who threw just two thirds of an inning, giving up hits, three earned runs and four walks. With a line like that, you’d think he’d have more runs scored against him. Eric Hurley started the game, and went four innings. He had a bunch of 2’s on his line. Two each of hits, runs, walks, strikeouts.
The stinkfest came from the Rockies starter this time. In a stink that you’d actually need TWO Mark Clark outings to get to, Mark Redman went 4.2 innings, giving up ELEVEN hits, seven earned runs, but just one walk. Ewww….
David Murphy was the big name here (mostly because Josh Hamilton didn’t play today). Murphy 3 for 4, scoring twice, and knocking in four. Two of the three hits he had were two run home runs. The other hit was a single. Nelson Cruz also had a good day, going 2-3 with a solo home run of his own.
Ben Broussard went 1-3, and his average is .219. There’s been some talk that Shrek might get time at first base. Kevin is batting .321 this spring, and if these two players keep this up, I wonder how realistic the possibility is that Ben doesn’t make the team, and Kevin does as a first baseman. Jason Botts & Ramon Vazquez also had two hits each.
Nice offensive day that ended with a 10-5 win by the Rangers.

ST17: Rangers beat Royals Friday, 10-8

Posted by on at http://texas.rangers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080314&content_id=2427084&vkey=spt2008gamer&fext=.jsp&c_id=tex>MLB.com Recap

Josh Hamilton continues to tear it up in Arizona, by going 2-2, and reaching base for ten consecutive plate appearances. His average has now been raised to .607 for the spring. Quite insane. Even for spring numbers, which are generally out of whack anyway.
The Rangers had four guys with two hits (Hamilton, Shrek, Marlon Byrd, & Ben Broussard). Broussard had better get a move on, as you hardly hear his name in game reports. Ben & Ryan Roberts each had a double. Shrek had a triple, and nobody homered, so there were a lot of singles (twelve of them).
Kason Gabbard started, went three innings, and continued the “starter stink” I mentioned for the game report right before this one. Gabbard’s line was 3 innings pitched, seven hits, seven earned runs, and four walks. Ugh. He’s my leading candidate for the Mark Clark performance of the week.
Elizardo Ramirez followed, and threw two scoreless frames on three hits.
Robinson Tejeda threw a scoreless frame.
Jamey Wright finished up by throwing three innings, allowing four hits and one run. Not bad.
Our old friend Ron Mahay threw a scoreless frame for the Royals, too.
As for the Royals offensively, I’ll just copy this out of the official mlb recap: “The Royals strung together seven hits and a walk before making three successive outs in their six-run fourth inning. They hit for the cycle — Billy Butler homered, David DeJesus tripled, Mitch Maier and Tony Pena Jr. each doubled and Joey Gathright, Alberto Callaspo and Alex Gordon each singled. Butler’s homer was his third in Cactus League action.”
This makes the Rangers 9-6-2 in Cactus League action so far this year.

ST16: Rangers get second tie of the spring; 6-6 against Rockies

Posted by on at http://texas.rangers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080313&content_id=2424854&vkey=spt2008gamer&fext=.jsp&c_id=tex>MLB.com Recap

The Rangers record now includes a -2 at the end of it, and that’s not two losses. It is two ties. This game did go to extra innings, it ended after 10, though. Generally that stuff is decided ahead of time, from what I can gather.
We do have another person on the injury list (which is dangerously close to being larger than the active player list). This time it was Frank Catalanotto leaving the game with back spasms. I know I’m writing this on Sunday night, and this game was Thursday, but still. Great. Not.
Both team’s starters had the air of “stink” in their box score lines.
Mendoza: 3.1IP, 5H, 5ER, 1BB, 1K
Jimenez: 4.2IP, 8H, 5ER, 2BB, 6K
They both went longer, but as we’re at the midway point of the month now, you should be seeing a lot more of that now. Relievers on both sides were quite good. There were eleven relievers combined for both teams. Between all those pitchers and the twelve innings of work, they had eleven hits, and just two earned runs. Not all that bad on the reliever side. Actually, Mendoza’s damage was all in the fourth inning. He was perfect in the first three frames, but a stink bomb like the fourth tends to discount the good work in the first few for most people.
Offensively, the Rangers were led by Hank Blalock, who had a three run home run. David Murphy also had a solo shot, and both Michael Young & Josh Hamilton had three hits. Hamilton is now batting .577 after this game. Obviously those kinds of numbers won’t translate long term into the season, but even if he bats just 50% of that, it’s .288, which isn’t anything to sneeze at, either. I think he’ll do better than THAT, however.

Reassignments

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  • The following players were reassigned to minor league camp: 1B Nate Gold, C Taylor Teagarden
  • The following players were optioned to minor league camp: P Matt Harrison, P A.J. Murray, P Warner Madrigal, CF Brandon Boggs [ Link ]

ST15: Laird powers Rangers to 5-4 win over Cubs

Posted by on at http://texas.rangers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080312&content_id=2422296&vkey=spt2008news&fext=.jsp&c_id=tex>MLB.com Recap

First off, I get done writing an entry for yesterday’s game, and then I turn around to write one for today’s game that just finished. So I see the score, which is good. Then I see this article. Can we stop this, please? DO NOT WANT! Too many of these small fiddly “don’t matter” things. Sigh.
Eddie “Replace your divot, please” Guadardo was the only pitcher who really had what could be considered a bad line. Went 0.2 innings, giving up two hits and two runs. Then he discovered he had a hangnail, and had to come out of the game (OK, I’m exaggerating JUST a bit). Jason Jennings started, and went 3 innings, giving up three hits and one earned run (two runs total). More importantly, he had four strikeouts and one walk. Elizardo Ramirez, Robinson Tejeda, & Wes Littleton all threw scorless frames, and Sidney Ponson made his Rangers debut. He went two innings, and faced only six batters. Walked one (erased on a double play), and struck out one. I hold no real hope for Ponson and the Rangers long term, but you always want to see a better line than a bad one. I could take the stance that I want him to have an ERA of 54, so he’d be released, but then that would hurt my team in general.
Offensively though the story was Gerald Laird. Gerry had two home runs (both solo shots), and Michael Young also contributed with a solo home run in this game. Young went 2-3 and had a second RBI besides his home run – the fifth came from Edgar Alfonzo.
Former Ranger Alfonso Soriano had a home run in this game (off divot boy). I was busy at work again with a project that has been demanding almost all my afternoon time for the last month to 6 weeks, so I didn’t get a chance to listen. Hopefully we finish the project before the season starts. :)

ST14: Rangers beat White Sox in 10, 7-5

Posted by on at http://texas.rangers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080311&content_id=2419224&vkey=spt2008gamer&fext=.jsp>MLB.com Recap

Any long time reader of this site knows that I don’t care for extra inning games. We always seem to lose them. And we always seem to lose them in the tenth inning, too. If we can get past the 10th or 11th, we have a shot, but we usually don’t get there.
So it was quite the surprise when I saw the game score on the 6PM news saying that it was in extra innings. Much bigger surprise when I saw the score on the 10PM news that we had won in extra innings.
This game was driven by Josh Hamilton again. Mr. Tattoo went 3-3 with an RBI and a run scored. The RBI was a home run, which was shown on the Channel 5 10PM news. Bound for AAA (or another team) catcher Adam Melhuse chipped in with an RBI and a 2-2 game. Hamilton’s home run wasn’t the only tater by the home 11 either. Ben Broussard & Nelson Cruz also went yard. (This paragraph turned out to have way more silly phrases than I normally have in my writing).
Most of the Ranger first stringers in this game threw an ofer as well. Young, Cat, Kinsler, Blalock, etc… That was a bit of a surprise.
Vicente Padilla went 3.2 innings, and game out with one of these “minor injuries”. All the quotes afterwards were saying the usual niceties about how it’s not a big problem, how it’s nothing to worry about, etc, etc, etc.. But I’m seeing way too many of these. Something is going on, and I’m not sure I like it. Anyway, Padilla wasn’t helped by defense, as he gave up two unearned runs (and no earned runs). Still had more walks (3) than strikeouts (2). Scott Feldman wasn’t all thatr great either, although he did pitch four innings – I believe the first Ranger pitcher to do that this spring. Feldman gave up three earned runs on six hits and a walk. A few too many for four innings.
Kazuo Fukumori pitched another scoreless inning. That’s all he’s thrown this spring in his six innings of work overall. It’d be nice if he could carry that over into the regular season and keep it going. We could use a performance like that.

ST13: Rangers beat Pads Monday night, 5-2

Posted by on at http://texas.rangers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080310&content_id=2418393&vkey=spt2008gamer&fext=.jsp>MLB.com Recap

Josh Hamilton is in spring turning out to be everything we have hoped for so far this spring. His batting average at the moment is .450. He only went 1-3 last night, but had a big two run RBI triple, which at the time gave the Rangers the lead in the game. Rangers fans have been excited about this kind of stuff before, but given the man’s background (in baseball, not his personal life story), you have to be just a little excited about this. :)
Rangers minor leaguer Nate Gold also helped here with a solo home run in the eighth inning (off of Trevor Hoffman, no less). This was another of those spread out offensive attacks. The seven Ranger hits in the game were by seven different players. Only Gold and Hamilton had extra base hits, the rest were singles.
Rangers pitching was pretty good too. The only one that really qualified as not great was Matt Harrison, who gave up three hits and one earned run in his two innings of work. In fact, Harrison was the only pitcher who went more than a single inning. Every one of the seven other Ranger pitchers went just one.
The Padres were not helped by their fielding. Three of the five Ranger runs were unearned. Shawn Estes gave up four of the five, only allowing one earned.
Next up is Vicente Padilla against the White Sox on Tuesday. Let’s see if his surprisingly good spring keeps going.