Of Pine Bluff, Bologna sandwiches and the Hunter's Moon

Maybe Alex Rodriguez did it just to thank Tom Hicks.

Maybe Rodriguez and Scott Boras felt they owed Hicks for that $252 million contract from seven years ago and felt the Texas Boss deserved a $21 million tax break.

So he didn’t get a $300 million contract, at least not yet. But there will be Thanksgiving at the Rodriguez house, the Hicks manse and even out there in California where Boras still holds much clout as an agent despite recent developments and heaped ridicule.

There will be Thanksgiving in Atlanta with maybe some rain in the morning and that’s worth giving thanks for if you understand how bad the drought is out there. Water you lawn and put you in jail until you pay off a steep fine.

Global warming apparently although the north wind that came through Texas on Wednesday was anything but warm, a true autumnal chill that reminds us that the season is over and it’s a long time until pitchers and catchers report.

The Hunter’s Moon will be here on Saturday and the Rangers are hoping for their own Hunter’s moon that has nothing to do with fair Luna being full. But it appears that Torii Hunter will spend the weekend in Los Angeles and then there will lots of talk and apparently a decision before they all show up in Nashville on Dec. 2 for the winter meetings.

The Rangers compete against the Dodgers and the Chicago White Sox and Hicks said he’s optimistic although he added, "obviously it’s going to come down to money."

Must be nice spending Thanksgiving contemplating offers of $75-90 million. Beats Thanksgiving 1985, my last before marriage, sitting in an apartment down the street from Paschal High School, eating bologna sandwiches, drinking two bottles of wine and watching football on a 12-inch Sears black-and-white that is now 30 years old and still working.

Well, I think it can get Channel 8 but doubt Dale Hansen is any more palatable in grainy black-and-white than he is in living color.

But by all accounts Hunter is a special person, not only a talented outfielder and solid person but a strong clubhouse presence and leader. Four division titles in the past six years for the Minnesota Twins aren’t bad.

Plus he comes from Pine Bluff, Arkansas, or Pine Box as Hunter and his friends called it, a tough town in the heart of the Mississippi Delta. Surviving Pine Bluff is not easy, not anymore today than 40 years ago when Robert Kennedy first went down the Sugar Road to bring to light the poverty of the Delta.

Hunter knew at least ten friends who were killed in gang shootings but now the Torii and Katrina Hunter Pine Bluff Community Fund raises thousands of dollars for their hometown. Hicks and Hunter have talked about bigger plans if they can reach an agreement on a new contract but that decision won’t come down until after the Hunter’s Moon has waxed and waned.

So it’s time to give thanks, eat turkey – or bologna – and feel the cold wind. The Rangers got one big present early in the off-season when their old shortstop helped out his old boss. Now they wait and see if Santa Claus will be good to them as well and bring them the center fielder they want so dearly.