Friday Happy Hour at the Elysian Fields Bar & Grill

Welcome to the Elysian Fields Bar & Grill, where the patrons unanimously believe that Gary Matthews Jr. deserves a Gold Glove.

* Teams are supposed to have exclusive negotiating rights to their own players for another week or so but word is the Dodgers, Giants, Rockies and Angels have already expressed interest in Rangers center fielder Gary Matthews Jr. Meanwhile the Phillies, who were eager to trade Bobby Abreu and would like to dump Pat Burrell, are in the market for either Alfonso Soriano or Carlos Lee.

* Francisco Cordero was with the Milwaukee Brewers for just over two months but was still voted the team’s Pitcher of the Year.

* Add to this to the club records that Michael Young set this season. According to Stats Inc., Young hit 295 ground balls in 2006 and that erased the old mark of 276 set by Darryl Hamilton on 1996. Trust me, there are people who get paid to sit in the press box and record such statistics. Then there are people like me who are paid to write about them. But methinks they go back only to 1988.

* Having dug up such information, should add that Rafael Palmeiro’s 251 fly balls in 2001 is also the club record. Palmeiro has five of the top six seasons are far as number of fly balls hit, all coming in his second Texas tour in 1999-2003.

* There is also this: Mark Teixeira was thrown 2,884 pitches this year. That was 17 short of the club record. Alex Rodriguez saw 2,901 pitches in 2001.

* Left-handed pitcher A.J. Murray is pitching his way back into the Rangers future. Murray, who missed all of 2004 because of shoulder surgery, is 3-1 with a 1.88 ERA in the Arizona Fall League and farm director Scott Servais said, "We are excited about his progress. Although it is early in his road back, we are encouraged. We have good reports out of AFL on him."

* Among those who have filed for free agency is former Rangers outfielder Brian Jordan.

* Kevin Millwood was the 13th highest ranked pitcher in the American League, according to the Elias Rankings. Akinori Otsuka was the 16th best reliever, although the rankings cover two years and he was a setup reliever in 2005. Joaquin Benoit was No. 30.

* When the manager got fired he said, "The bottom line was that my team was tired of me…after being kicked along through two bad years and two good ones (they) didn’t think it was worth it anymore. The irony was that I’d helped them mature to a point where they could win without me." That was **** Williams when he was fired by Montreal in 1981.

* After graduating from the University of Richmond in 1979, Rangers president Jeff Cogen spent eight years working for the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

* Just for the heck of it: Mike Simms.

* Last off-season the Rangers made a hard push for utility infielder Bill Mueller, who instead signed a two-year $9.5 million contract with the Dodgers. But he played in just 32 games before having knee surgery and his career could be over.

* There are dozens of worthy candidates for the Ford Frick Award for broadcasting excellence – especially Mark Holtz and Eric Nadel – but one guy who stands out to me is Tony Kubek, who spent 24 years on NBC as an analyst on the Game of the Week. He was the best that ever was in that role.

* Josh and April Rupe are parents. Tucker Matthew Rupe was born on All Saints Day.

* Apparently the late Red Auerbach and I had something in common. At 4 p.m. every day, he would shut his door and refuse to be disturbed because that’s when Hawaii 5-0 was on.

* Hall of Fame manager Sparky Anderson: "Just give me 25 players in the last year of their contracts; I’ll win the pennant every time."

* Former Rangers pitcher Bruce Hurst is now the pitching coach for the Chinese National Team for the 2008 Olympics. Jim Lefebvre is the manager. The team gets an automatic bid as the host nation.

* Lefebvre is the former Dodgers second baseman who managed the Mariners and Cubs. He also did some acting. He was a native on Gilligan’s Island and one of the Riddler’s henchmen on Batman.

* Only on Baseball-Reference.Com can you find out that pitchers from the University of Texas have won 1,236 Major League Games. That’s second most. USC pitchers have won 1,283 games. Oklahoma is the only other school with more than 1,000 victories. Bobby Witt is the all-time Sooner leader with 142 wins.

* USC also holds the lead with 3,410 home runs, followed by Arizona State with 3,166. Nobody else is close. UCLA is a distant third with 2,093. The Longhorns are better at pitching than hitting. They have just 919 Major League home runs.

* Shortstop Dave Owen, brother of Cleburne’s Spike Owen, hit a home run for the Cubs in 1984. It’s the only Major League home run hit by a player from Texas-Arlington.

* The New York Yankees have 14 players already signed for 2007 at a total $176 million.