The Midpoint of Camp

Posted on March 13, 2014 by colonelsportsnation

Today is pretty much the midpoint of the Spring Training Season. The Rangers are 3-9, with a few ties sprinkled in there, which is the worst record in the Cactus League, but like everything else in Spring Training it doesn’t count. … Continue reading →

Rangers win first Spring Training Game 11-7

Posted on February 28, 2014 by colonelsportsnation

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In the words of former of former Ranger broadcaster Mark Holtz, “Hello win column”. The Rangers get off to a good start this spring as Yu Darvish looks very dominant and for once actually gets run support. Darvish who went two innings threw 29 pitches, 23 of them were strikes. He also struck out 4 of the 8 hitters he faced. He said, “I just feel really relaxed,”. Darvish also said it was the best spring debut he has had since joining the Rangers. Hopefully for the Rangers and Darvish he is not peaking too soon. He still has 3 or 4 more starts until the real season starts.

Prince Fielder had a solid debut as well. He grounded out in the first, but then hit a solo home run to right field to make it 3-0. He is expected to provide left handed power for the Rangers this season. Hopefully this is just a sign of things to come. The Rangers offense as a whole had 11 runs. The run production was spread throughout the lineup as seven different players drove in runs. Other notable performances included Michael Choice getting two hits against left handed pitching. Tommy Hanson got the first outing of the 5th starter candidates and went 1.1 innings. He was pulled after that, but the Rangers say they were satisfied with his performance. His fastball was sitting at 88-90 mph. JP Arencibia also drove in a run in his first game going 1-3 with a double.

Not a lot else happened for the Rangers. Justin Germano struggled in his first outing of the Spring as he went 1 inning giving up 5 runs. He is competing for a spot in the bullpen, but with performances like that it will be for the Round Rock or Frisco bullpens. Jim Adduci trying out as a first baseman struggled as well when he booted a ball and that led to the Royals getting on the board.

Today the Rangers face the Royals again at 2:05 and Alexi Ogando will be making his Spring Training debut. Ogando this Spring is thought to have one of the rotation spots locked down after finishing 2013 well. His goal this spring is just to get better every start and be ready when the season starts. That process starts today.

In non game news, Harrison had a long toss and said he felt great afterwards, said he felt some ooomph in the ball. Tanner Scheppers threw 30 pitches of live batting practice as he is trying to recover from back soreness. Both have been dealing with lingering injuries early on in camp. Scheppers at this point is probably just pitching for a spot in the bullpen, but hopefully he will ready for opening day. That’s all the Rangers news for today. We are a month away from opening day and I cannot wait.

Finally for highlights of the Fielders home run and Darvish’s performance just click on the picture above.

Daily Countdown: 31 Days.

The Rangers 2013-2014 OffSeason Recap

Posted on February 14, 2014 by colonelsportsnation

The Texas Rangers 2013 season was an up and down roller coaster. They were in contention for the division into September, and forced a one-game playoff for the wild card game with a 7 game winning streak to end the season. If not for a bad start to September they would have made the playoffs. They came up just short. Most of that is because of what happened in the previous offseason. Going into the 2012 season the Rangers were armed with money and players they were wanting to get. They were aiming to get Justin Upton in a trade from the Diamondbacks and sign Zach Greinke. They were also in the market to resign Josh Hamilton and do about a half-dozen other things. Unfortunately none of it happened. They were left to put a raw Leonys Martin in center. sign A.J. Pierzynski to play catcher, and sign Lance Berkman to play DH. Then when you thought things couldn’t get much worse, the Biogenesis scandal broke in February. It implicated Nelson Cruz as one of the buyers of PED’s from this clinic in Miami. MLB then started their investigation and stated that they were aiming to suspend these players that were buying and using these PED’s. Going into the 2013 season all the question marks revolved around the offense. As the season progressed we got to see that those question marks were well deserved. Leonys Martin did get better as the season progressed and Pierzynski produced offensively, but Berkman was awful. He couldn’t stay healthy and when he was healthy he wasn’t hitting. In August there were even rumors that he was going to retire. He didn’t though, but he also did not play a lot down the stretch. He was replaced at DH by Jurickson Profar for most of the second half. With a disappointing offense and numerous injuries in the pitching staff it was no surprise that they came up short. They just were not good enough. They still did finish with 90 wins for the fourth straight season. That is a Rangers record. It wasn’t a complete disappointment, but Jon Daniels had a mission this offseason and that was to improve the lineup.
The checklist for the Rangers this offseason read like this, improve first base, catcher, settle the middle infield positions, and get a middle of the order DH type hitter. As far as free agents they had decisions to make on Nelson Cruz, Joe Nathan, Pierzynski, and Geovany Soto. They also had to decide what to do with the middle infield combination of Andrus, Profar, and Kinsler. Profar had definitely earned a spot in the 2014 lineup. With all of this and about 30 million to spend the Rangers had the potential to make some big moves.
It started early for the Rangers. On November 1st Joe Nathan declared for free agency and you saw the Rangers pretty much move on from him. Then three weeks later they made one of the biggest trades of the offseason and shocked two fan bases. They traded long-time fan favorite Ian Kinsler for first baseman Prince Fielder and 30 million dollars. That made my mouth drop. I could not believe it. With one trade the Rangers had solved two problems. First, it filled the hole they have had at first base since the Mark Teixiera trade and it resolved the middle infield issue they had last season. The downside was losing Kinsler, but to get something you have to give up something. From there it sent the message that the Rangers were willing to open up their wallet and spend money.
They followed that up by signing J.P. Arencibia to compete for the catching position. They signed him based on what he had shown in the past and they hope that he can recapture that. He certainly is a catcher that can hit for power as evidenced by hitting more than 15 home runs these last seasons and for 1.8 million they might have gotten a steal.
From there is was a pretty quiet December. They were rumored to be in on outfielder Shin Shoo Choo. He was going to replace David Murphy. It was a long wait through December until December 27th it was officially announced that he had agreed to a 7 year/ $130 million deal. It was an enormous deal, but it showed the Rangers ownership was willing to step up and pay the price to help this team get better. Going into the 2014 season the Rangers are hoping that Choo will continue to have a high OBP and provide some pop in the outfield from the left side. He will be the starting left fielder.
Just when you think they are done they make a trade with Oakland A’s to acquire outfielder Michael Choice. In that trade they sent Craig Gentry and Josh Lindblom to the A’s for young outfielder Michael Choice and middle infielder Chris Bostick. Gentry had been a guy who is great defensively and light hitting offensively. Choice is a player that is under control longer and has a higher ceiling. He will certainly be competing in spring training for the fourth outfielder spot, otherwise known as the David Murphy role.
The Rangers then finished off their offseason by signing pitchers Armando Gallaraga and Daniel Bard. Gallaraga is again trying to get his career back on track. Since that perfect game that wasn’t he has really struggled and has been on multiple teams. Bard also is a reclamation project that the Rangers have signed. He is coming back from thoracic outlet syndrome surgery on January 2nd. He will not be ready for opening day, but the Rangers hope he can contribute in the second half of the season. If he can get healthy he could be a real asset for the bullpen. Gallaraga will be competing for a spot in the rotation in spring training.
The Rangers after all was said and done accomplished all of their goals. They improved the lineup and found Profar a spot in the infield. After all of these moves the Rangers look poised to make a run at the AL West division title. The A’s are not going to be a pushover and the Angels will be better. The division looks to be up for grabs. The Rangers have done all they could this offseason to give themselves a shot. It is now up to the players to perform. In my opinion I give the Rangers a grade of 9 out of 10 for this offseason.

My Top 5 Favorite Rangers Moments

Posted on February 8, 2014 by colonelsportsnation

The Rangers have provided all of us with moments that we will never forget. Moments that we will be telling our kids and grandkids about. Here are my top 5 moments from my time as a Rangers fan. The post for 6-10 is below. Oh and to see video of these moments just click on the pictures. I am sorry, I could not find video of the David Delluci moment anywhere. I guess that will just have to live in my head.

5. -Rangers 3 walkoff wins in succession against the Angels in 2013 season. Soto, Martin, Beltre.

Going into this series in late July both teams were really struggling. Angels suffered through a 2013 season filled with injuries and superstars not playing up to their potential. The Rangers meanwhile had lost 9 of their last 13 games and were struggling just to score runs. The whole pitching staff was keeping the Rangers in games, but the offense just couldn’t deliver. They just needed wins, to help turn the season around. The division still wasn’t lost and they were in the race for the wild card spots as well. In game 1 they faced a one-run deficit heading into the 9th inning. A.J. Pierzynski and then Geovanny Soto hit home runs to tie it up and win the game. The team was ecstatic. One night later they were facing the same situation when Leonys Martin came up with the bases loaded and proceeded to hit a game-winning grand slam. Then on the third night, just when you thought things couldn’t get any crazier Adrian Beltre hits another walk-off home run to win 2-1. After that the Rangers turned things around had a great August to get back into the race and then in game 162 they forced a one-game playoff against the Tampa Bay Rays. They would lose that game, but those 3 nights in July will not soon be forgotten.

4. Elvis Andrus’ base running in 2010 playoffs

Elvis Andrus was a revelation in these playoffs. Against the Rays and Yankees he showed what kind of disruptive force he can be on the bases. It started in game 5 against the Rays where he scored from second on an infield ground out. Then he did that again in game 2 against the Yankees to get the Rangers on the board. He was constantly forcing the action on the opposing team. He was stealing bases and taking the extra base whenever he could. Before this he had been known as mainly a defensive guy who was a light hitter. After this series people started seeing what a great baserunner he is. In the 2010 ALCS alone he ended up with four stolen bases and a .333 BA and .378 OBP. He made his name in these playoffs with his base-running and continues it to this day.

3. David Delluci gets game winning hit against the A’s.

2004 was a magical season for the Rangers. They traded Alex Rodriguez right before Spring Training for Alfonso Soriano. Going into the season there really was no expectations for the team. It was expected that they would probably finish fourth behind the Angels, A’s, and Mariners. Driven by a young infield of Mark Teiexiera, Soriano, Michael Young, and Hank Blalock this team refused to believe what was being written about them. They competed all season long and were still in the race come September. Then the chair-throwing incident happens in Oakland at the beginning of the month causing them to lose one of their best relievers in Frank Francisco for the rest of the season. The team doesn’t quit though and rallies instead and is 5 games back going into a series against the A’s at home. They need to take all three to have a chance to win. They take the first two, but the A’s look like they are going to win game 3 when they lead 4-2 going into the bottom of the 9th. The Rangers though refused to die and came back on a Hank Blalock home run and then David Delluci gets the game-winning hit when he pulls it by Jermaine Dye. The Rangers win that game and sweep the series and stayed alive. They would not make the playoffs that season, but it was quite the ride to watch them try.

2.-Cliff Lee beats the Rays in game 5 to send the Rangers to ALCS

July 9th, 2010 is a day I will never forget. It was the day that the Rangers beat the Yankees and acquired Cliff Lee. It was a turning point in not just the Rangers history, but the Yankees as well. Cliff Lee in those few months he was here made a lot of memories for Rangers fan. He struck out 14 in an August start against the Yankees. He was a guarantee to go 7-8 innings everytime out. No memory for me was greater than seeing him pitch Game 5 against the Rays. Up to this point in the Rangers history they had not won a single playoff series. They had been to the playoffs three times, and all resulted in divisional round exits. 2010 looked to be different after the Rangers had won games 1 & 2 in Tampa. Then the Rangers dropped games 3 & 4 at home. It was down to this all-decisive game 5. The Rangers would have Cliff Lee on the mound, while Tampa would counter with David Price. Ace versus ace, it was bound to be a low-scoring game, and it was for Tampa. Cliff Lee was brilliant in this game. He went the complete game striking out 11 and walking none. The Rangers would go on to win 5-1 and advance to play the New York Yankees in the ALCS. None of this would have happened had the Rangers not acquired Cliff Lee in July.

1. -Rangers beat Yankees to make it to the World Series.

The Rangers since even before moving from Washington D.C. to Texas have always been known as a losing franchise. They weren’t even lovable losers though, they were just irrelevant. They had moments here and there where they made a splash. Moments like the 96,98, and 99 seasons where they made the playoffs. Each time they were beat by the Yankees in the divisional round. Then they made a splash when they signed Alex Rodriguez to the biggest contract in sports history. That didn’t really help them win though. It wasn’t till my number one moment that they crossed that threshold from irrelevance to household name. When Neftali Feliz struck out Alex Rodriguez to send the Rangers to the World Series it put the Rangers on the map to stay. That series showed all the fans at home that the Rangers are winners and that they are fun to watch. The win also rewarded all those fans that have stuck with the Rangers through all those years of losing and irrelevance. I will never forget that I was at work when it happened and I just jumped about as high as I could. It was a feeling that I will never forget. That whole night I kept repeating the phrase, “The Rangers are in the World Series”. I never thought I would be able to say that.

My Favorite Moments as a Rangers fan

Posted on February 4, 2014 by colonelsportsnation

The Texas Rangers have existed as a franchise since 1961 when they were born as the Washington Senators. Then in 1972 they moved the team to Arlington, Texas and became the Texas Rangers. This countdown takes a look at my 10 favorite moments as a Rangers fan. All of the moments tend to range from 1996-2013. I am 30 years old and have been a Rangers fan since about 1992. I didn’t go to my first game till 1994. I know I am leaving out several moments like Nolan Ryan’s no hitters, Kenny Rogers perfect game, Julio Franco All Star MVP, and several other moments from before 1996. I apologize for that, it just is that I was really too young to really appreciate it and remember it. So here are my favorite moments from 10-6.

10. The Rangers clinching the AL West in Oakland in 2010 with a Jorge Cantu Home run.

2010 was a breakthrough season for the Texas Rangers. The theme was, “Its Time”. It meant that it was time to break through and start winning. They had been making a steady climb up hill from 2007-2009. In 2010 the expectation was not to just compete, it was to win. All season long they made moves to help them win. They traded prospects for Cliff Lee, Bengie Molina, and Jorge Cantu. They were serious. The Lee and Molina moves worked out splendidly, but Cantu not so much. Cantu had always been known as a guy who drives in runs. Yet, in his almost two months with the Rangers he had yet to drive in any runs heading into the game against the Oakland A’s on September 21st. The Rangers were one win away from the clinching the division that day, but going into the 8th inning the score was 3-3. Cantu had an RBI single in his previous at-bat, and in the top of the 8th Cantu sent a long flyball to left-center that carried out over the wall and put the Rangers ahead 4-3. They would go on and hold on to that lead and clinch the division that day. That was pretty much the only thing Cantu did in a Rangers uniform. Mitch Moreland would go on to replace him at first base in the playoffs.

9. Nelson Cruz hits 6 home runs in 2011 ALCS.

The ALCS in 2011 was between the two best teams in the AL that season in the Texas Rangers and the Detroit Tigers. The Rangers were led by their powerful lineup with Josh Hamilton, Mike Napoli, and Adrian Beltre. The Tigers were led by MVP candidates Miguel Cabrera and Justin Verlander. They came into the series having beaten the Yankees in 5 games and the Rangers came in having beaten Tampa Bay 3 games to 1. It was a series that was a season in the making. The Rangers won 96 games and the Tigers won 95 games and due to a Rangers win and a Tigers loss in-game 162 the Rangers had the home field advantage. It was going to be a competitive series. The one thing no one was expecting though was the kind of show Nelson Cruz was going to put on. Cruz hit 6 home runs in this series. Two of them were hit in crucial moments. He hit a walk-off grand slam to win game 2 and he hit a 3-run home run in the 11th inning in game 4 to extend the lead to 7-3 and help the Rangers win that game. He followed that with two more home runs, one in-game 5 and one in-game 6. He helped carry the Rangers to the World Series that year. He won the MVP in this series with a .364 BA, 1.273 slugging%, 6 Home Runs, and 13 RBI’s. He was a machine that series. The Rangers ended up winning the series 4-2 and made it back-to-back AL pennants.

8. Rangers 11-10 Comeback against the Angels on August 1st, 2012.

This series came in late July early August. This series had importance to both teams. After a slow start the Angels had rallied to within 3 games of the Rangers division lead. The Angels wanted all 3 games to give them momentum heading into the home stretch and tie up the division. They did take the first two and were in great position to take game 3 up 7-1 going into the bottom of the 5th. The Rangers turned it around though with a four run 5th finished off by Elvis Andrus’ RBI single to score Ian Kinsler. So from there it stayed 7-5 till the 8th when David Murphy had an RBI single to score Adrian Beltre. That is when things offically got crazy. In the 9th Kinsler hits the game-tying home run and sends it to extras. Then in the 10th the Angels respond with a solo home run by Chris Iannetta and a 2-run home run by Albert Pujols. So you are thinking well they did come back, but it just was not meant to be tonight. The score was 10-7 and was 3 outs away from a loss that night and a series sweep that would have tied up the division. The Rangers under Ron Washington are a never say die group and on this night they responded in an unbelievable fashion. Nelson Cruz gets things started with a home run to make it 10-8. Michael Young reaches on an error, David Murphy walks, and then a single by Mike Napoli to load the bases with no outs. From what looked like a sure loss to a game you would expect them to win just like that. Mitch Moreland then singles to right field to make it 10-9 and Elvis Andrus steps up to the plate to win it with a 2-run single on a ground ball that gets by Alberto Callapso. The Rangers win the game and the Angels end finishing in the 3rd in the division.

7. Yu Darvish nearly throws a perfect game against the Astros in game 2 of 2013 Season.

Yu Darvish came over from Japan in the winter of 2011. The Rangers then proceeded to sign him to a contract in 2012. He came into 2012 hyped as the next great pitcher. He didn’t quite live up to that potential. He struggled his first few months with high pitch counts and a lack of control. He could not quite figure out how he wanted to attack hitters. It wasn’t till the last two months that he started to figure it out. He ended the 2012 season as the Rangers best pitcher and started the AL Wild Card game. Going into 2013 there was high expectations for Yu Darvish. It was expected that he would take that next step and become one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. He didn’t get the opening day start, Matt Harrison did due to his overall performance in 2012. Darvish though left no doubt in game 2 who was the better pitcher. In his first start of the season against the Houston Astros he proceeded to retire the first 26 hitters of the game. He was using a mixture of fastballs, curveballs, and an improved slider. He kept the Astros off-balance all night. It wasn’t until the 27th hitter came to the plate did he give up a hit. It was a ground ball single up the middle by Marwin Gonzalez past Darvish that rolled into the outfield. Darvish continued to bring it every 5th day the rest of 2013 as he went 13-9 with a 2.83 ERA and a league-leading 277 strikeouts. Finally, he finished second to Max Scherzer in AL Cy Young voting.

6. Juan Gonzalez hits 5 home runs in ALDS against Yankees in 1996.

Juan Gonzalez was one of the most feared hitters in baseball in the 90’s. He won two MVP awards. He would go on to win it in 1996 and again in 1998. Each time he was among the league leader in home runs and RBI’s. Going into this series no one knew how he was going to do or how the team was going to perform. It was the Rangers first time on the postseason stage. Many of their players were experiencing this for the first time. It was thought that going up against the more experienced Yankees would be too much for them. For most of the players you would be right, but Juan Gonzalez had one of the best series from an outfielder in postseason history. He hit 5 home runs in 4 games in that series. He was an unstoppable force, but unfortunately no one else could get their bats going and so after winning game 1, the Rangers proceeded to lose the next 3 and were done. That doesn’t take away from what Gonzalez did in those 4 games. He was spectacular, and his efforts will not be soon forgotten.

Welcome to Baseball Season

Posted on February 3, 2014 by colonelsportsnation

43-8 win by the Seahawks, who saw that coming. I don’t think anyone did. Now that the football season is over with, I am here to welcome to the 2014 MLB season. In the next few weeks here is what you can come to expect. I will be posting links everyday in the daily links section to the latest Rangers news as we get set for pitchers and catchers to report later this month. I will be previewing Spring Training, by looking at the top positional battles there will be, prospects to be on the lookout for, and keeping you up to date on any injury issues the Rangers have heading into Spring Training. I also will be writing about the top issues facing MLB heading into the 2014 season. That is what you can be expecting this month.

This week I will also be posting my Top 10 favorite Rangers moments. It will be a fond look back at those moments that I am sure all of us remember. I will be going back to those moments and reliving them for all of you as we look back on the past and look forward to the future. Moments 10-6 will post tomorrow morning and 5-1 will post on Thursday morning.

Finally, there will be more postings as we get closer to the season. I don’t know about you, but I am glad that we can now seriously start the countdown to opening day. After all the moves the Rangers made in the offseason I am ready for some baseball. To help get you in the mood I posted this video from youtube of the Rangers 2010 playoff run. Have a great day.

Michael Young Announces Retirement

Posted on January 31, 2014 by colonelsportsnation

Yesterday Michael Young announced his retirement. It came as really no surprise to those who saw him struggle these last two years. His swing was slowing and he was limited defensively. I don’t want to remember him for that though. That was just a product of age catching up with him like it does everyone. I want to remember him as the guy who was the heart and soul of the Rangers during the down turn in the 2000’s and then the inspiration for the team when they were making their World Series appearances.

Young was a very consistent hitter. He had over 200 hits in 5 consecutive seasons. He won the batting title in 2005. He won a gold glove at SS in 2008. He finished with a .300 career BA. He was the model of consistency for several years. He was willing to do whatever was asked and or needed of him to help his team win. He was definitely a manager’s player in that respect. That is probably why even when he was struggling Washington refused to sit him. Lets remember the player he was, not the player he ended up being.

Normally most guys like him are associated with just one position, but Michael Young played all four infield positions and I am sure he would have played outfield if they needed him to. He started out his career really in 200l. He was coming up to replace an injured Randy Velarde. It was supposed to be just short-term, but his performance kept him up from then on. They ended up trading Velarde that season and gave Young the full-time spot at second playing next to Alex Rodriguez. He went on to play that position for the next 2 seasons, that is until Rodriguez was traded to the Yankees for Alfonso Soriano. Going into Spring Training in 2004 the question was who would play second and who would play SS, but instead of a competition Young volunteered to switch positions to make room for Soriano. From 2004-2008 he was the Rangers SS and with help from Ron Washington he would go on to win a gold glove at the position in 2008. It was at that point though that the Rangers decided to make a move and bring up Elvis Andrus to be the opening day SS in 2009. Elvis was acquired in the much talked about Mark Teixiera trade in 2007. He had worked his way up from A to Double A ball and the Rangers felt like he was ready to come up. At that point Young requested a trade, but after soothing things over with management he agreed to move over to 3rd base. He made the transition pretty well. In 2009-2010 he was the starting third baseman. He played the position well, but again in the offseason of 2010 the Rangers made a move and acquired Adrian Beltre. Once again Young was on the move. This time he would be splitting time at first and DH with Mitch Moreland. He accepted this move, but it was at this point his age started to show. He didn’t pick up first as well as he had the other positions. His bat though bounced back. He hit .338 and once again had over 200 hits. Michael Young was back, but it didn’t last long. He followed that up with a disappointing 2012 that saw the Rangers collapse down the stretch and in the offseason he was traded to the Phillies.

Overall though, he was the face of the franchise for many down years. Yet, he brought his effort and hard work into every game and every season during that stretch. He was one of my favorite players and a guy I loved to root for. He didn’t have the natural tools that others had. He didn’t possess raw ability. He had to work for everything he had. Hopefully one of these days his number 10 will be retired. As of right now, he is the Rangers all-time hits leader. Rangers will always remember his ability to drive balls into the gap or just to dump them over the second baseman’s head. Hopefully we see him back in baseball in some aspect in the next few years, whether as a manager or a hitting instructor. He would be great in either role.

Rangers Acquire Pedro Figueroa

Posted on January 30, 2014 by colonelsportsnation

Yesterday the Rangers acquired hard-throwing left hander Pedro Figueroa on a waiver claim from the Tampa Bay Rays. Figueroa is an enigma so far in his career. He throws in the 97-98 mph range, but doesn’t have much control. He is 28 years old, so he has that going for him, but this will be his third team. He spent most of last season pitching for the Triple-A Sacramento team. He pitched mainly in their bullpen and he went 3-4 with an ERA of 4.10 and a WHIP of 1.523.

The Rangers are mainly looking at him as low-risk high-reward guy. If they can get his control problems fixed then they may have a guy who can really contribute to that bullpen and give them another power arm out there. If Robbie Ross makes the rotation out of Spring Training then they will have a need for another left-hander in the bullpen. The pitchers competing for the left handed spots in the bullpen right now are: Michael Kirkman, Neal Cotts, Joseph Ortiz, and Figueroa. Cotts who was their best left-handed reliever and who Ron Washington counted on in the second half figures to make the team. So the competition will really be between Kirkman, Ortiz, and Figueroa for that second left-handed spot. If Figueroa gets his control problems figured out he will have a good shot, if he doesn’t then the Rangers will send him to the minor leagues and hope he can figure them out there. Whatever happens this is a no-lose pick-up for the Rangers.

Why I Love Baseball

Posted on January 29, 2014 by colonelsportsnation

by Michael Sanders

Our lives are very fleeting. They are filled with moments and events that we will never forget. For me I will never forget events like proposing to my wife, graduating from college, and getting the phone call that told me I had been hired as a video editor. Those are events that are etched into my memory. My life has also revolved around sports. With each big moment that happens to one of my favorite teams I can tell you where I was and what I was doing when it happened. The best events have happened when I experienced it with others. I have always believed that sports is better experienced in a communal environment. That could be at the stadium or arena, with a group of friends at a bar, or just at someone’s house for a watch party.

I will never forget being at my church watching the 2001 Orange Bowl and seeing my beloved Sooners capture their 7th national championship. We had probably 50 people there and none of could believe what we were seeing. With each quarter that went by the anticipation started building and the tension in the room continued to increase. Then in the 4th quarter when Quinton Griffin scrambled in for the touchdown to make the score 13-0 the room exploded. Everyone was on their feet screaming, clapping, and high-fiving all the people around them. It was an unforgettable moment.

That is what sports is, but to me, nothing tops baseball. Baseball is a team sport built around individual battles. It is the pitcher going up against the batter, each of them trying to figure the other out. The pitcher has a scouting report on the batter and the batter has one on the pitcher. When the batter steps into the box though all that is gone and it is just mano e mano. Each of them trying to bring their best stuff for that appearance. To me the only things that match it in sports is in basketball when they clear it out for the superstar to try to make a play, penalty kicks in soccer, or shootouts in hockey. Unlike the other sports the battle between a pitcher and batter occurs to start every play in baseball.

As a fan, my favorite moments has been when the complete unexpected has happened. I will never forget being in my dorm room at college watching the 2004 Texas Rangers go up against the Oakland A’s in September. Going into the series the Rangers needed to take all three to have any shot at the division going into the final week. They took the first two games, but in-game three it looked like the A’s were going to take it and shut the door on the Rangers season. It was 4-2 after the A’s had put a run in the board in the top of the inning. Dotel was coming into the game. All he had to do was get three outs and the Rangers would be practically eliminated. He gets the first out, then boom, Blalock hits a home run to make it a one run game. Michael Young then with a double, Teixiera with the intentional walk to try to set up the double play, and Brian Jordan then beats out the throw to stop the double play. So, two outs, and I am on my feet in my dorm room on this Thursday afternoon. David Dellucci comes up and 2-2 count, then he pulls one to deep right field and Jermaine Dye is heading to the corner trying to get it, and he dives and the ball shoots by him. Michael Young scores and Brian Jordan, running as if he was ten years younger, beats the throw home. I am jumping up and down screaming my head off, and not caring who was around. That is a moment that I will never forget.

In my life, baseball has provided me with many moments like that, whether it be good or bad. I remember the game where the Rangers beat the Orioles 30-3 in the first game of the doubleheader. It was a game where most of the starting lineup was full of people who no one would be able to recognize in a game that nobody would care to watch. I will remember the 2010 ALCS game 1 against the Yankees where the Rangers had established a big lead heading into the late innings, only to see the bullpen blow it. Then, the thoughts about if this was going to happen again, are we really going to lose to the Yankees again. Of course they didn’t and they made their way to the World Series for the first time.

Baseball is a funny game, you never know what you are going to get. You know that there is going to be at least 27 outs for each side. Other than that, the rest is a mystery until the umpire says, “play ball”. That ultimately is what I love about baseball. I love the day in day out storylines that it provides. The hitter who is on a hitting streak, the pitcher who can’t seem to lose, the team who is on a winning streak, or the young player who is having a breakthrough season. I love all of that. I love seeing someone I have followed from the minor leagues on up start to realize their potential. That is what being a baseball fan has been like for me. It started when I was 7 years old and continues to this very day. Every year around this time I start to get fired up, because soon pitchers and catchers report, and soon after that the games get started. I hope this has given you insight into what life as a baseball fan and sports fan has been like for me.