Friday Happy Hour at the Elysian Fields Bar & Grill
Welcome to the Elysian Fields Bar & Grill, where pitchers and catchers reporting is considered a national holiday.
* Rangers hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo gets inducted into the Panola College Hall of Fame tonight. Jaramillo played at Panola in 1971-72 and was a Junior College All-American after leading the nation in RBI. He went on to the University of Texas for one year before being drafted by the Rangers.
* Tom Hicks on Nolan Ryan being part of the Rangers decision-making process: "There's a few decisions that we've made in the past where I wish he had been sitting around the table with us."
* Licey Tigres won the Caribbean World Series. Rangers outfielder Nelson Cruz and banished pitcher Omar Beltre were on that team.
* Upper Deck has issued a set of baseball cards putting Presidential candidates into famous baseball settings. Mitt Romney is Carlton Fisk waving the ball fair in the 1975 World Series, Fed Thompson has been superimposed over Babe Ruth's picture, John McCain is portrayed as Ted Williams and Barack Obama is Chicago White Sox World Series hero Jermaine Dye.
* They also have a card of Jon Stewart of Comedy Central and conservative pundit Bill O'Reilly. The setting? Nolan Ryan's brawl with Robin Ventura. Stewart is Ryan and O'Reilly is Ventura.
* Hillary Clinton? She was in the set. But they had to pull it as being inappropriate. She was cast as Morganna, the Kissing Bandit.
* A baseball signed by Bill and Hillary Clinton goes for $549 on e-bay.
* One of the great moments in Rangers history was when Gregg Zaun "called his shot" and hit a home run into the right field bleachers during the 1999 Hall of Fame Game in Cooperstown. This game has been an annual exhibition since 1940 but for some reason Major League Baseball has decided to stop playing it after this year because of scheduling difficulties.
* They are playing in China and Japan this year but are finding it hard to play in the birthplace of baseball. Check out www.savethefamegame.com.
* The Rangers were 4-0 in the Hall of Fame game
* Nolan Ryan: "When you look at the talent that is here, there is a good nucleus on the Major League level and the trades they made and the drafts have brought a tremendous amount of talent to the organization. They all won't make it, we know that, but with the number of prospects in the system, the Rangers are in better position now than they have been in the last 15 years.
* You knew that Ryan's wife Ruth was a Class 3A state doubles champion at Alvin High School.
* Just for the heck of it: Steve Buechele.
* Ryan holds the Rangers single season record with 301 strikeouts in 1989. Charlie Hough holds the career record. But Ryan is tops with 10.06 strikeouts per nine innings for all Rangers pitchers with at least 300 innings pitched.
* Ryan is also fifth in Rangers history with 2.66 strikeouts per walk. The leader? Gaylord Perry, who struck out 3.03 batters per nine innings.
* Want one more? Ryan's 6.35 hits per nine innings is the lowest in club history. But he's second in baserunners per nine innings with 10.50. That record belongs to Bert Blyleven, who allowed 10.15 batters per nine innings.
* You were probably wondering about this too but Dave Schmidt allowed just 0.47 home runs per nine innings, the lowest in club history for all pitchers with at least 300 innings pitched.
* Former Rangers first baseman Pete O'Brien turns 50 tomorrow.
* Hicks: "It's encouraging for me to see teams like the Indians, Rockies and Diamondbacks and what they did in the playoffs last year. I see us having the same opportunity, we just have to get it together."
* The Yankees new ballpark, which will include a martini bar, looks like it will cost $1.3 billion. Said their COO Lonn Trost: "We tried to reflect a five-star hotel and put a ballfield in the middle of it."
* It was Will Rogers who said, "Baseball teams go south every spring to cripple their players. In the old days they only stayed a couple of weeks, and they couldn't get many of them hurt in that time. But, nowadays, they stay till they get them all hurt."
* The forecast is for sunny skies and a high of 76 degrees on Friday in Surprise for the Rangers first workout. Arlington? Rain and 63 degrees.
They should have cast all the candidates as bandits - but I guess that would be too true to life...
HClinton as Morganna - now THAT is funny. But I'm getting this really scary visual right now.
Wow. Glad that's gone.
If the wisdom of Will Rogers holds for this Rangers team, we may have to build an add-on to the traning room.
I'd also like to say that I have really enjoyed the articles that you've done the last two or three days, TR. Very fine work. Thanks for what you do.
Thanks also for your question (I assume that was you) at the Ryan press conference regarding NR's involvement in the baseball operations. I'm not sure I heard an answer to the question when Hicks replied - not that I expected one. It seems to me that NR's reputation is now at risk, I just hope for the franchise's sake that things turn out well.
It was very interesting that JD got extended, and will be extended along with Nolan. I agree with those who ask why that couldn't wait until NR had a chance to review things and extend him himself, if he chose to do so. Hicks didn't let NR get in his way of making team decisions on day 1 of NR's tenure - how can anyone think that things will be different with NR as president? NR even talked about being involved in the construction around the stadium during the press conference.
I was glad to see that RW wasn't extended with JD, though. Those of you pining for a pitching coach (I support this as well) are forgetting that we'll need a third base coach too, after Matt Walbeck becomes the new manager (which should happen around the ASB).
Report any abuse or spam
I'm excited, for one, to have Nolan Ryan at the top of our baseball organization. Nolan is a baseball guy, and should necessarily put JD's "comfort level" to the test, as JD proclaimed, that it would be great working "WITH" Nolan Ryan. He should have said, "FOR" Nolan Ryan.
As much criticism as I've given to JD, and others alot more (any guesses who...?), I will cut JD some slack here, and let him worry about putting the players on the field. I personally wish he'd hire Fergie Jenkins to teach these guys how to pitch and re-hire Sandy Johnson to further build and develop the farm system....but I know that makes way too much sense for JD to do such a thing.
If the current trend is reaching back in our history to go forward, why not Fergie and Sandy Johnson?
I'd have hired Rusty Greer, Mark McClemore and Will Clark in a New York minute, to give some hands-on training and teaching to the present lot of Rangers. Our history "ain't" that historically successful, so it is very easy to cherrypick the right guys who could lead us forward.
Well, I wish Nolan and his legacy well. With Hicks as the owner, it is a fierce struggle for Nolan to keep his own legacy and reputation intact. Sure, the figurehead that Nolan is will be a tremendous asset for our respectability and credility. Still, with our measly and miserly payroll in this Major Market of Fort Worth/Arlington/Dallas, and recent personnel decisions these last years (which "stunningly" correspond to Tom Hicks' ownership) have been chiefly misguided and boneheaded.
Here's hoping Nolan can right the ship. (I didn't say Titanic)---hey, I'm officially launching the 2008 Texas Ranger Bandwagon, here and now. All aboard?
Just for the heckuvit: Tom Henke, Barbaro Garbey, John Rocker, Hidecki Irabu, George Wright.
Report any abuse or spam
You know, that's pretty bad, that MLB is cancelling the hall of fame game after this year. Yet another case of baseball neglecting its roots. It's not bad enough we have had an entire generation of players disrespect the game by shooting themselves full of PED's, now we're going to neglect Cooperstown? What's the point of the Hall od Fame anymore if we're just going to neglect it and turn it into a giant circus?
Report any abuse or spam
Oh how this post stirred a memory!
Nolan Ryan and Morganna.
I was in attendace in Arlington with Ryan on the mound. Suddenly from somewhere near the first base side a short blond woman in a blue T-shirt or similar garment is running toward Ryan. She had more side-to-side movement beneath the shirt than forward movement.
To my surprise Nolan dropped to one knee and opened his arms wide to receive her.
Report any abuse or spam
I should have found that picture
Report any abuse or spam
Management 101 at The University of Longhorn, says, you don't extend the GM after you supposedly hire a President to run things. Nolan, hope you got some money to be a stooge. The President should have been allowed to make the decision after an evaluation of the club, then if NR, liked what he saw, he could have extended Daniels, this would do 1 to 2 things. #1 Daniels would know that Nolan was his boss, #2 their would be some sort of "organization". Now it just looks like Hicks was making a statement that hey, i am still running the team. What a joke, nothing has changed, only a PR move. 20 bucks says, Nolan will soon see the handwriting on the wall, and discover that he is a stooge and cuts his ties quickly. Did he get an ownership interest? The extension of Daniels on the same day was counterproductive to me and sent the WRONG message. As Briant said up above, it is the same old, same old. Why not hire a baseball guy to come in and gut the whole thing. Herzog is the name, don't wear it out. It is the year of the rat. Go Whitey. We could do a lot worse and have done so. MANCH, MANCH, Kevin is coming to town. Ha Ha.....
Report any abuse or spam
It is funny how Daniels is distancing himself from Wash. Wash is his hire and Daniels should be fired on that one alone. So if you are counting, we have Nelson Cruz, for Soriano, Gonzalez, Young, Cordero, Mench and Nix. Seems fair to me! Great trades add that Manager hire, that he just had to have and Daniels should be toast. Doesn't NR have a few former friends from the Angels that he might have in mind for GM? I want Mike Hargrove as Manager, Grover was a fan favorite and has a proven record with Hart, is a good manager and loves Texas. Boy i wish we could get him.
Report any abuse or spam