Weekends With Toby: He’s Back!
The local cable company in the wilds of Transvaal dropped the MLB package, so Toby had to come out of hibernation to watch the Rangers at TR’s house, and commandeer the laptop to type a few random thoughts on the world wide web. You’ll have to forgive Toby for being late today and for the blog entry being a little short – he’s a little out of practice typing his thoughts on the keyboard.
Pace Yourself
Toby’s old friends at the Dickie Thon Fan Club had a favorite saying “pace yourself”. That seems to be a motto Ranger fans might want to adopt, here’s what the Star-Telegram’s Jeff Wilson had to say about
“But the brakes need to be tapped by those who believe that the world is about to end after each Rangers loss. Or each time a regular gets a day off. Or each time a starter struggles.
This lull the Rangers are going through — which they are fully aware of — will likely be repeated at a time or two over the 162-game season. But they won’t be the only ones.
‘Every club does it,’ manager Ron Washington said. ‘Things go a little flat, but the only way you can deal with that is to work through it. You never know when things are going to turn around.’
The passion from the fans, though, is understandable.
‘It’s fun to see the way that fans are following us now,’ outfielder David Murphy said. ‘It might be hard from a fan’s standpoint to understand what we go through game in and game out, and how long a 162-game season is. I can understand the sense of urgency to win every game because we definitely have that.’ “
On The Other Hand…
Did anyone watch the Brewers – Dodgers game Thursday night on the MLB network? Let’s see the Dodgers have the best record in baseball, the same size lead in their division as the Rangers, are located in the one of the top 3 metropolitan areas – population wise – in the US – and yet it appeared Dodger Stadium was only about ½ full – there aren’t that many hockey fans in Los Angeles, are there?
What’s on tap with The 2012 Draft?
We used to get all geeked up about the draft, reading the scouting websites and parsing every word written on the Baseball America website. The truth is: is from 2000 to 2010 – it was pretty much all that die hard Ranger fans had to look forward to, the good news was the Rangers would be picking in the top 10. The better news is that building from that draft, whether through the farm system or using those drafted players in trade have put the Rangers in the position to pick in the low 20’s the past couple of years, there just isn’t as much to speculate about when you are that far down the draft board. But the reason the reason the Rangers are there – 2 trips to World Series – we’ll take that over a top 10 draft pick any day.
Toby’s Reading List: The DL
Have you perused the DL list around MLB lately? Matt Kemp, Nick Markakis, Jered Weaver, Travis Hafner, Troy Tulowitzki, John Danks, Doug Fister,Bret Gardner, Roy Halladay, Pablo Sandoval Evan Longoria. And of course, Taylor Teagarden and Brandon McCarthy too. Every team in the majors has multiple players on the DL. However, there just 
one team with only 1 player on the DL: that is your Texas Rangers. Let us pause and thank the baseball gods and the Rangers training staff for that bit of good fortune, meanwhile keep that rabbit’s foot, all those other lucky charms and an MRI machine handy – because, well just because.
This Week in Baseball History:
June 1st 1925: Lou Gherig pinch hits for Pee Wee Waringer, the next day Wally Pipp has a headache, Gherig takes over at 1B and the rest, as a baseball fans know is history.
June 1st 1975: California Angel pitcher Nolan Ryan wins his 100th game beating the Orioles 1-0.
Birthdays: Mercurial RHP Carlos Zambrano is turns 31 this week. The pitcher with the most W’s on the current Cleveland Indians roster RHP Derek Lowe is 39. Gone from the Rangers roster, and probably forgotten as well, OF Brad Wilkerson celebrates number 35.
Birthday of the Week: Jo-Jo White – not the basketball player – this the 5’ 11” CF for the Tigers was born on this date in 1909.
Last Call
“He was a symbol of indestructibility, a Gibralter in cleats.”
–sportswriter Jim Murray on Lou Gherig
T.R. Sullivan
Toby
