Poor Toby's Almanac: Of Algae Blooms, David Murphy and Sirius, the Dog Star

Yes, it's frustrating to come to Baltimore, open up the local newspaper and read about algae blooms in Chesapeake Bay. Apparently it's all over the Middle River and killing off crabs.

No doubt Al Gore could explain why the algae is in bloom in Chesapeake Bay, and maybe it will all go away and the crabs and oysters will be teeming again in this extraordinary body of water, just like the salmon will once again run in Puget Sound and San Francisco Bay.

And John Edwards will run for President and win in 2012.

And the Rangers pitching staff will start throwing shutouts...

Actually the issue is hitting, or the Rangers lack of it. They had four All-Stars and who knew that David Murphy was the key to the whole thing.

That injury hit the Rangers hard in the clubhouse, there's no doubt about it. The Rangers have had a lot of injuries this year and that's what can happen when you roll the dice with older players and/or players with a history of injuries.

But Murphy was young and strong and fighting Evan Longoria for Rookie of the Year, but now he's on the disabled list and the guy from Desperate Housewives may win by default. That may have been the psychological blow that sent the Rangers reeling because they certainly haven't been the same since Murphy crashed into Pudge.

Of course, Rudy Jaramillo hasn't been around either, back home in Dallas recuperating from knee surgery and who knows what impact that has had. Maybe he's even more important to this team than even his students ardently profess.

Maybe they shouldn't have fired pitching coach Mark Connor. Not that he had anything to do with the hitting but you know what Crash Davis said in Bull Durham...

"I told him that a player on a streak has to respect the streak," Davis told Annie Savoy.

Never mind, the Rangers weren't on a streak...

Anybody wondering why it all fell apart when ESPN finally put them on national television?

Getting Milton Bradley back in the lineup would help but he is day-to-day with a strained left quadriceps muscle and the Rangers have completely redefined what the term "day-to-day" means in baseball. It's now 12 day-to-days and counting and that may be a new record even for the Rangers, who re-wrote medical textbooks when they determined that a mild hamstring injury is something that keeps you out 4-6 weeks.

Bradley should still finish with his second most at-bats ever in a single-season but he probably won't go over 500 at-bats and that has to be something the Rangers consider this off-season when three and four-year contracts get thrown around.

Excellent hitter. Excellent teammate. Tenuous health.

Your boys are in trouble. Pitching? What did you expect? Hitting? They are banged up across the board.

Sirius is shining brightly in the night sky and when the Dog Star barks, it's time for the contenders to step up and the pretenders to fade away. From the Dog Star we get the expression Dog Days of summer and Sirius and Toby both understand what Rose Hart Thorpe was saying:

"Every evening, just at sunset, it has told the twilight hour.
I have done my duty ever, tried to do it just and right
Now I'm old, I will not falter. Curfew, it must ring tonight."

Is the Dog Star calling curfew for the Rangers? The algae is in bloom on the Chesapeake Bay but the great body of water has always proved resilient.

So have the Rangers...to this point.

Big game today.