Buck Showalter has won the AL Manager of the Year award! Congratulations to Buck!! I can’t think of a manager more deserving. Granted, he’s my home team manager, so I tend to be biased towards that, but for a manager that took a team that was expected to lose 100+ games and have them up for division lead with less than 10 games to go in the season – that’s a MAJOR accomplishment. Here’s a few news stories about this:
All I’ll say about the World Series is this. Damn. It’s great that the Yankees were at home, but the way they got left at home was legendary! Go Sox! :)
Former Ranger Ken Caminiti has died of a heart attack at the age of 41.
While I personally feel bad when people die, I can’t help but feel his was of his own doing. He was consumed by his drug addiction, and it killed him.
The last game of the season ended on both a bright note and a scary note. Unfortunately, they’re the same thing. Chan Ho Park pitched the way he should have been pitching. Which means we’ll probably try and go with him again next season. Damn. On the other hand, he pitched really well again in a park that he always pitches well in – Seattle. I wonder if something could be worked out where we send Park to Seattle for something. Park does well there, Seattle has to know that. Park went 7 innings, gave up no runs on 2 hits (3 BB/3K). A stellar performance (unfortunately).
Francisco Cordero got his final save of the season, his 49th. A record breaking season for him, as no Ranger reliever has ever had that many saves. He looked good, and fans seemed to like it when he came in. I think we have this position solved for awhile. :)
We didn’t have a lot of offense ourselves, but we had enough to get three runs across. Texas 2-4, but didn’t score, or get an RBI. Nix had a HR, and Huckaby had a double. Mike Young drove in the other two that Nix did not. As I said, not a lot of offense, but enough.
And the season comes to a close. By every account, this was a huge success, we didn’t drop out of the race until after Game #158 of the season – a major accomplishment. Buck Showalter should be manager of the year.
I also sincerely hope that Rudy Jaramillo comes back next year. He’s a great portion of our success, and I would hate to have him leave. As I’ve said before, if he left to get a manger’s job, I can’t fault him for leaving for that. However, if he leaves and becomes a hitting coach somewhere else, then I’ll be pissed. If he takes a lateral move, it means the Rangers didn’t do enough to keep him.
The last game of the season ended on both a bright note and a scary note. Unfortunately, they’re the same thing. Chan Ho Park pitched the way he should have been pitching. Which means we’ll probably try and go with him again next season. Damn. On the other hand, he pitched really well again in a park that he always pitches well in – Seattle. I wonder if something could be worked out where we send Park to Seattle for something. Park does well there, Seattle has to know that. Park went 7 innings, gave up no runs on 2 hits (3 BB/3K). A stellar performance (unfortunately).
Francisco Cordero got his final save of the season, his 49th. A record breaking season for him, as no Ranger reliever has ever had that many saves. He looked good, and fans seemed to like it when he came in. I think we have this position solved for awhile. :)
We didn’t have a lot of offense ourselves, but we had enough to get three runs across. Texas 2-4, but didn’t score, or get an RBI. Nix had a HR, and Huckaby had a double. Mike Young drove in the other two that Nix did not. As I said, not a lot of offense, but enough.
And the season comes to a close. By every account, this was a huge success, we didn’t drop out of the race until after Game #158 of the season – a major accomplishment. Buck Showalter should be manager of the year.
I also sincerely hope that Rudy Jaramillo comes back next year. He’s a great portion of our success, and I would hate to have him leave. As I’ve said before, if he left to get a manger’s job, I can’t fault him for leaving for that. However, if he leaves and becomes a hitting coach somewhere else, then I’ll be pissed. If he takes a lateral move, it means the Rangers didn’t do enough to keep him.
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Kenny Rogers had a career season, winning 18 games. His previous was 17 wins, but he topped it by one this year, and in my opinion should have been a 20 game winner, but he had a few leads blown for him. :(
Mike Young went 3-5 with a home run and 4 RBI’s to lead the Ranger hitting attack. We also had a home run from Mench, and a 3-5 game from Teixeira and Mench. Hell, Manny Alexander went 2-3 with an RBI and 2 runs scored. We had a total of 16 hits with five doubles. A nice offensive display.
For a meaningless series, the games certainly seemed to be lively. Last night was Ichiro. Tonight was Edgar Martinez, who had a ceremony for his career tonight. He also took one pitch over at third base, his position for a long time before becoming a permanent DH.
161 down. One to go.