Friday Happy Hour at the Elysian Fields Bar & Grill
Welcome to the Elysian Fields Bar & Grill, where we drink a toast to the late, great Merle Harmon.
* The Farmers Branch Mustangs play the Rawhide Creek Tanners at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Farmers Branch Historical Park. It's the Texas History Alive Exhibition Game, part of the Texas Vintage Base Ball League. Seriously...
* What is Vintage Base Ball? They play the game using 19th Century rules and uniforms. Apparently there are around 100 different teams playing the game around the country. http://www.vbbtexas.org.
* Omar Vizquel on his most memorable baseball game: "Game 7 of the 1997 World Series. That was my most memorable game ever. I did great. I wasn't scared and I wasn't out of my mind. My body was under control. It's great to know you can go through a challenge like that and contain your emotions."
* Milton Bradley missed three days with a strained groin, then was ejected from his first game at Wrigley Field while arguing balls and strikes as a pinch hitter on Thursday. Said teammate Derrek Lee: "I like it. He said what he had to say and walked off. That's him. He's intense. It's a big situation, he wants to do well, and he got upset. It's OK. He didn't do anything malicious. He was coming out of the game anyway, and now he just has to pay 500 bucks."
* Ivan Rodriguez was the Astros Opening Day catcher and has now started 18 straight Opening Days. That's the longest active streak in the Majors.
* Gary Pettis was hitting grounders to his sons early Thursday afternoon when Ron Washington jumped in and took over the drill. Said Washington, "I was sitting on the bench and couldn't take it no more. I went out there and he started catching the ball. Gary's an outfield guy."
* The Oklahoma City RedHawks will retire the No. 1 in honor of the late Bobby Murcer tomorrow in a special ceremony with his widow Kay prior to the RedHawks' home opener at AT&T Bricktown Ballpark. Murcer, a former Yankees center fielder and broadcaster, wore No. 1 during his best years as a Yankee player. Murcer was an Oklahoma City native and life-long resident of the area. He passed away last summer.
* Nelson Cruz has five home runs in nine games. The club record for April is nine, done four times previously by Carl Everett, Ian Kinsler, Alex Rodriguez and Ivan Rodriguez.
* Elvis Andrus, despite missing two games, has already scored ten runs from the ninth spot in the order. No other No. 9 hitter has more than six runs scored.
* Just for the heck of it: Richard Hidalgo.
* Michael Young: "Our offense just doesn't get down. We're a confident group. We know we can make quick adjustments."
* If you understand Twitter, you can go there to access "rangerstvjosh" and keep up with Josh Lewin. What does that mean? Said Lewin: "Twitter is basically a reverse 'e-mail the booth.' Tom Grieve and I get to tell the fans what we're doing and thinking, and give Ranger fans the latest information instantaneously.
* "We can 'tweet' on all kinds of things, from opening day parking lot updates to how far a home run just traveled. Social networking is apparently beyond 'fad' status... it's apparently here to stay, so I'm trying to embrace the technology rather than get steamrolled by it."
* Former pitcher David Wells on going to be broadcast booth: "I get (my outspokenness) from my mom and I thank her for it. Sometimes you have to watch what you say obviously and be careful. I think I can conduct myself in a good fashion and talking about baseball, you don't always have to use profanity. I want to speak my mind."
I don't think we'll have to worry about David Wells not speaking his mind. Good luck to him!
Julia
http://werbiefitz.mlblogs.com/
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Hey fred, this ones for you. If you live in the DFW Metroplex and can get your hands on today's Dallas Morning News sports article of Kevin Sherrington's. Here is the summary: "If Rangers can't clean up the mistakes, their manager could pay, Nothing makes a beleaguered bullpen look better than a 13 run lead, but as the Rangers proved in Detroit, they will not always hit, good pitching beats good hitting. Just because it is cliche, doesn't mean it isn't true, or that it shouldn't be repeated, Ron Washington, can't afford a third bad April in a row, just how much can a manager have on a fundamentally challenged team?" Now i love the Rangers, but we need Nippert in the bullpen yesterday. Jennings i believe should be a starter. Benson or McCarthy could go to the bullpen for all i care. Mac is gonna pitch better on the road than in Arlington. He got the ball up in Tuesday's game and it ended up over the fence 3 times i believe. It is apparent that someone loves Bobby Murcer. But this retiring of players numbers that never played a lick for your team or organization well just seems senseless. Honor the guy by all means, take a moment of silence, name street after him, but retire his number NO. Heck, even the Yankees didn't retire his number for him, they did it for Billy Martin. In my humble opinion, it kind of decreases the magnitude of the honor of having your number retired if everyone is getting it done. The numbers will eventually all be gone. Hey TR how can you be for this one if you won't vote for Blyleven for HOF? Is bly gonna have to die before you say ok on him? He deserves to go in on what he did for the Dutch team as pitching coach. Hey Omar, you did well but i believe your team lost. That right there says all you want to know about the guy, i did well, but my team lost, i was under control. Hey Tony Romo got crucified for that kind of attitude. Hey Ron, you need to be hitting ground balls to Mr. Young at third, he isn't doing to well over there at the hot corner. DAvid Wells is gonna get fired for speaking his mind, period end of story and it will be a short speech.
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"So, if you’re in a situation like I am now, if they want me to go out there when I’m feeling a little banged up, I’ve got no problem doing that because they’ve made the commitment to me." - Milton Bradley. That didn't last long.
Bobby Murcer is and baseball icon in Oklahoma. That's why he's being honored. Minor league affiliations change over time. Home town and home state don't. That's why there are bronze statues of Oklahomans outside the Bricktown Ballpark instead of Texas Rangers.
Jennings would be a great rotation candidate maybe as soon as June, but seeing as he's not up to back to back relief outings yet, they're night likely to run him out there for 100 pitches any times soon.
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Ok then lets start putting up our own Texas born players out in Arlington, Texas. Those who went onto hall of fame careers with other organizations. That sure is a bunch of players though. Scratch that, lets just put up all of the pitchers that we traded that went onto good to great years. That way it would stand as a constant reminder, to never do that crap again. Righetti and Darling to begin with. Do we have enough outside entrances to the ballpark to cover it? It is kind of like when TR was putting Stengel up there. It wasn't really wrong, but hey you don't see the Yankees putting our guys on there website. They have there own history. That is one of the things wrong with this "organization". Its inability to build it's own +++++ history. Yes indeed Richard is back.....
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Sounds logical. No wonder you liked Milton "heart and soul of the team" Bradley so much. You're both liars. I guess the odds of him staying healthy are roughly the same as you getting a new shtick or actually talking current Rangers baseball in a coherent fashion. Jennings can't pitch back to back days, but he's ready for the rotation. Once again, totally logical. Have you blown the cover off any more conspiracies since your major revelation that Arias was injured playing center field?
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Hey hefe, i was just playing.... Don't be so mean and angry. I was just saying that retiring players numbers that never played for you well is just non sense. Bobby Murcer was a good player, not a hall of fame one. The town or city or state should have honored him when he was alive. Give the family some money if you want to help them.....I am sure that would be more appreciated than say retiring the #1. What does Andrus do if he gets sent down to AAA? Jennings should be in AAA or AA getting his strength back. Everything up above was from the news paper writer. But it does look familiar don't it...... But hey if we continue to score 19 then we will be ok. Again i love the Rangers, but the truth, well is just the truth....
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According to fred's logic, Murcer was a Yankee, if he established residence in New York. So how is it then, if that is the case, that Oklahoma then can turn around and honor him as a native son?????
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Hey D'god....in case you wondered...in my opinion you're still an offensive idiot! Do you ever bother to think before you open your mouth? I cannot believe you are gainfully employed as a peace officer! "I was just playing." Jerk!
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Mean and angry? Me? Never.
"I was just saying that retiring players numbers that never played for you well is just non sense. " - Tell that to the existing family of one Jack Robinson.
"The town or city or state should have honored him when he was alive" - They did. Your ignorance of the subject doesn't make it not so. Like I stated before, Bobby was and will remain an icon in Oklahoma baseball.
"Give the family some money if you want to help them....." - Another statement of astonishing ignorance. Bobby's family was well taken care of, but during his life the man was a central figure in several cheritable endevors, including BAT.
"What does Andrus do if he gets sent down to AAA?" - huh?
What a completely nonsensical post.
This is my favorite: "Jennings should be in AAA or AA getting his strength back."
At 10:36 in the am, you want Jennings in the rotation. At 3:06 in the PM you want Jennings in the minor leagues. Which is it? Now it's clear why you stay with they same, tired, schtick. When you try to talk actual, current baseball, you fall flat on your face. Please lament the loss of Rhigetti and Darling some more as you've avowed never to do again, or tell us how horrible it was to deal away Mark Teixeira............
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Hey hefe, lets get current. After last nights game any truthful Ranger fan can see....."Good pitching beats good hitting anytime." That is why we don't see the Rangers in the post season, no pitching period end of story. "We need two starters and two relievers." Jamey Wright looked pretty good last night, is that current enough for you? Just why didn't they re-sign him? How are the Braves getting by without Saltalamacchia and Harrison? Newsflash to the Texas Rangers, the other team is trying to beat you, so be ready at the beginning of the game. Some more current cliches for your "pitchers", don't beat yourself, throw strikes and walks kill you. It is only one game last night, but it looks eerily similar to last year when we were way too often out of it before we even batted. But hey if we can just score 19 runs a night we will be ok.... Now having said that i believe Harrison and all of our other young pitchers have to go through this struggle, that is ok with me. What isn't ok with me is an "organization" that is trying to sell me a product that they themselves have not invested in. They talk a good game, but they don't put there money where there mouth is. There was a ton of AFFORDABLE pitching out there and they did nothing. We aren't going to see the likes of the price or # of them out there for awhile.
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Oh and i forgot they did invest $4 million in park upgrades in order to get you out there to buy $6.25 beer, $12.00 parking. Maybe i should have just put everything on the master card and refused to pay my debt as Hicks has done. Could he really say anything to me about not paying my debts? You gotta love a guy like that, hey i got my money and i ain't paying. Makes you wonder what Bush is thinking buying a home in his neighborhood and hanging out with him...
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OMG D'Goodie, please stop your bitchin. If you don't wanna pay the prices, DON'T GO. As you so quaintly say, "End of story". Just browsing around it appears that 12.00 is very typical, unless you are from the East Coast.
Brewers: Weekdays 8-15.00, Weekends: 10-18.00;
Nationals: On-Site 40.00, Perimeter 35.00, Take the Subway from Remote 10.00;
Althetics: 15.00;
Royals: 9.00;
Tampa Bay: 4 people or more in a car FREE, less than 4, 15.00, Remote 10.00;
Marlins: 10.00;
Reds: 10-12.00.
End Of Story..................
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Complaining about ballpark prices is complete crybabyism. The Rangers remain of the best values in the major leagues. Tom Hicks is not forcing you to stuff your gullet with the same ovepriced beer and consessions that you find at every stadium/ballpark/field across the country. If you can afford to attend a few games, great. If not, please don't whine about it. You can get into the park for $6, pay $5 to park, if you don't mind a 10-15 minute walk, and they let you bring your own food in.
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Jamey Wright pitched in 75 games last season with an ERA over 5. That was the reason for not resigning him. If he goes on to have a great season, then hindsight general managerialism will dictate that he should've been resigned. The real world reasons for not bringing him back were fairly clear. The Rangers abused him last season.
The Braves? Not a Braves fan. I'm a Rangers guy but for the sake of argument let's revisit that trade that you've bellyached about since it went down. Rangers: Starting catcher, starting shortstop, starting pitcher, #1 prospect in the system (top 10 overall) and a lefty minor leaguer who throws in the low to mid 90's. Braves: a middle relief prospect and a 26 year old first baseman who has yet to hit as many home runs in a season as Chris Davis hit in half of one last year. Any current or future success the Braves having will be in spite of, not because of that trade.
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