Posts Tagged ‘Nolan Ryan’

More Random Rangerness Posted by Ken Jones in Texas Rangers, The Bullpen September 4th, 2008

Finally, the Rangers get the 3-game sweep they’ve been looking for all year, knocking off the really, really, really, really awful KC Royals. This is not only the Rangers first 3-0 series of the season, it’s their first EVER 3-0 trip to Kaufmann Stadium. Of course, the sweep would have meant more if it had come in April, May, June, or July, or if the Rangers hadn’t preceded the whitewash with a 3-14 streak that wiped out three months of hard work, but who are we to complain?

Speaking of complaining, in a battle, when one army is beaten and surrenders, they will wave a white flag. In wrestling, a beaten foe can ‘tap out’ on the mat. After aerial combat for mates, the losing male of the Asian Red-Billed Sparrow will show submission by laying prone on the ground in a silhouette of the American Bald Eagle, similar to the back of a U.S. Quarter. (I might have made that last one up…) I just mention this because the Rangers called up Nelson Cruz this week.

Speaking of Nelson Cruz, I’ve actually been very impressed by the Rangers this season. While Cruz was destroying the pitchers in Triple A, Texas passed over him several times as they needed outfield help. I don’t know whether this was a conscious effort to give guys like Brandon Boggs an audition, a signal to Cruz that they’ve seen what he can offer, or an attempt to shake Nelson into believing that he needed to mentally toughen up, but it was refreshing. Maybe the next 30 games will give us a chance to see if Cruz can handle the majors or if he is the Latin Crash Davis.

Speaking of the last month of the season, it should be interesting to watch, if for no other reason than to see if Michael Young can extend his streak of consecutive 200-hit seasons to six. 45 hits in 30 games is an awful lot to ask, but do you want to bet against the man? If Ian Kinsler can come back and if Josh Hamilton can stagger to the finish line of his first full major league season, Michael could have an outside shot at it. And it gives us something to cheer for.

Speaking of cheering for the Rangers, ESPN’s “Baseball Tonight” poll to determine the greatest player for each franchise surprised me when they rolled through Texas. Dollars to donuts, I would have bet that it was Nolan Ryan in a landslide. But out of more than 41,000 votes cast, Pudge Rodriguez squeezed him out, 35% to 33%, even if he’s a Yankee now. (I still haven’t gotten over that. I would rather watch “The Thin Red Line” again than see Pudge in pinstripes…) Juando got 12%, followed by A-Rod, Frank Howard, Raffy, and Michael Young. Charlie Hough, Buddy Bell, and Ruben Sierra rounded out the list with less than 1% of the vote apiece. Read more

K is for Kershaw Posted by AJ Jackson in Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets, New York Yankees May 30th, 2008

The Dodgers believe they have the next big time pitcher. The next Dwight Gooden, the next Roger Clemens, the next Sandy Koufax. His name is Clayton Kershaw. Even though he has pitched just six innings on the year, Dodgers fans are over the moon for this young pitching project. Since Kershaw is just 20 years old, the Dodgers plan on limiting him to about 170 innings on the season. However, that should be more than enough time to get a feel for what the young phenom can do.

Standing in at six feet three inches, the lanky left hander is the kind of pitcher front office personal dream about. Hailing from Texas, Dodgers faithful are hoping that he proves to be more Nolan Ryan than Roger Clemens. Joe Torre had wanted to bring Kershaw along slowly, but at the end of the day, the Dodgers pitching has not performed as well as hoped. Kershaw is one of the few southpaw’s that the Dodgers have.

This Friday will be a big test for Kershaw as he will be pitching under the bright lights of New York City when the Dodgers play the Mets. Wearing number 54, Kershaw is trying to bring life to a Dodger team that has been underachieving for most of the season. Joe Torre plans on using Kershaw the way he used Joba Chamberlain last season with the Yankees, which is to say he will be used sparingly.

Whatever Kershaw can bring to the table will be an improvement as not one member of the Dodgers rotation has a winning record. Kershaw will be the Dodgers fifth starter for the foreseeable future. Right now, Kershaw is in line to see a number of starts in the coming weeks, then management will evaluate where there young phenom is at. One thing is for sure, the Dodgers hope that Kershaw can be their best left hander since Sandy Koufax. But, they would be happy if Kershaw turns out as good as Orel Hershiser. Either way, if Kershaw is lucky he will end up like Brad Penny and get to date both Alyssa Milano and Eliza Dushku.

Me and Julio, Down At The Ballpark Posted by Ken Jones in Texas Rangers, The Bullpen May 7th, 2008

So, Julio Franco finally retired, eh? Well, there’s only one way you can really describe him now: Quitter.

Okay, maybe not. This week, Julio retired at the age of 47, 50, or 54, depending on which baseball card and/or birth certificate you checked. I remember my grandfather telling stories of seeing Franco hit when he was just a kid. And of course, there are a lot of teams out there that can put claim on Julio: Tampa, the Mets, Atlanta, Milwaukee, the White Sox, Cleveland, and the Phillies, not to mention teams in Japan, Mexico, South Korea, and the Ottoman Empire.

But in my heart, he’ll always be a Ranger. Franco came to Texas at the league meetings in December of 1989. In the span of just a few days, the completely unremarkable losers that we had all known as the Texas Rangers were totally rebuilt, becoming a much, much more interesting bunch of losers. 42-year-old legend in the making Nolan Ryan was signed from Houston. Raffy Palmeiro was aquired from the Cubs. And Texas traded local hero Pete O’Brien along with Oddibe McDowell and Jerry Browne to the Indians for their new 2nd baseman. Franco went on to win the All-Star Game MVP in 1990, lead the league in batting average in 1991, and provoke hundreds of thousands of back injuries in the Dallas-Fort Worth area as impressionable children tried to imitate his batting stance.

The stance is what remains clearestin my mind’s eye. Knees together, hands held over his head, bat slung horizontally off in the direction of the nearest nacho stand, menacingly waving back and forth. I would compare it to a young jedi who didn’t want to stop training no matter how bad he had to go to the bathroom, but the man played in the majors for 26 years, so maybe we’ll cut him a little slack. And then, after all of that, Franco would take the first pitch, every time. (Well, almost every time. Occassionally, he’d take a rip and scare some pitcher who knew that Franco wasn’t going to swing at the first pitch.)

Wikipedia, the Earth’s own Hitchhikers Guide, tells us that in 2006, Julio Franco became the oldest pinch runner in baseball history. It sadly does not report what Carlos Delgado thought when he was lifted so that a possibly 47-year-old man could run for him.

It always made me happy when I’d see Francobouncing off the bench for the Mets or the Braves in the last few years. He left Texas 14 years ago, and he was old when he left. I’ve always thought that I can’t possibly be old yet: Julio Franco is still playing ball.

Thanks, Julio. Thanks for sticking around…

Random Rangerness Posted by Ken Jones in Uncategorized May 3rd, 2008

So, I was at the Rangers game on Thursday, talking with former Mavs coach Avery Johnson. “Avery,” I said, “what do you make of this Brandon Boggs kid? I mean, he wasn’t even on the radar, and all he does is come up and start his major league career off by reaching base five straight times. He really looks like a player, and he came out of nowhere. Isn’t baseball great?” Do you know what Avery said? “$4.50 for the bag of peanuts, man.” I nodded knowingly and handed him a fiver. “Keep the change, coach. Keep the change…” Just a few more random thoughts from the week:

Speaking of Thursday - Wow. Sidney Ponson, SIDNEY PONSON, climbs out of Mr. Peabody’s WayBack Machine and throws 8 innings, allowing one run and six hits. CJ Wilson comes in and takes care of the ninth. A couple of solo shots for Kinsler and Vazquez. And it was in the win column. IN TWO HOURS AND TEN MINUTES. No lie, I checked 4 different clocks to see if I was reading them right, and then rechecked the start time. The Texas Rangers do not play games in 2 hours and ten minutes. Now, they occasionally will let the Tigers score 11 in an inning that runs over two hours…

Well done, Mr. Hamilton. On a team that had to scramble to reach 10 wins, setting a new record for the month with 18 losses, Josh Hamilton hit .330 with 6 HR’s and 32 RBI’s. Puts him in the Rangers record book to start the year around names like Juan Gonzalez and Alex Rodriguez. Nice April.

Managers often like to split up their starters to throw a righty, a lefty, then another righty. Or stagger starters with different styles to keep batters off balance. (It always seemed kind of unfair in the late 80’s for the Rangers to trot out fastballer Nolan Ryan, followed by knuckleballer Charlie Hough, followed by fastballer Bobby Witt.) Having said that, I don’t know about throwing “Undecided” in back-to-back games at Oakland this weekend. But Mendoza, Gabbard, and Jennings on the DL will make that choice for you. How bad is the season when you hit May 1 and are saying “Thank goodness for Sidney Ponson and Vincente Padilla”? If anymore starters go down, well, I don’t know if Bobby or Nolan could go, but I’m pretty sure Hough could still trot out there a mess with batters for seven innings.

An Open Memo: Dear Jason Botts, your disgust at being sent to minors would be bolstered a little if you had hit better than .158 so far. Nelson Cruz has hit 10 HR’s in 29 games at AAA this season, and he got skipped over so that Saltalamaccia, Boggs, and Shelton could come up to Arlington. So get to the back of the line, Jason, start hitting, and hope you measure up to the “You must be this tall to ride this ride” sign next time it’s your turn. Then we’ll feel bad for you.

Ah, Oakland. It took a full-month, but the Rangers finally got around to playing the division-rival A’s. It’s not really baseball season until you hear the announcers discussing the amount of foul territory at McAfee Stadium. Due to an obscure 1977 FCC regulation, both TV and radio crews must mention this at least twice a game, every game. I would have pointed this out to Avery, but he’d moved on. But that’s okay, because he really doesn’t like to talk about things that happen out in the East Bay anyway.