Welcome to the Newberg Report. Or welcome back.
Subscribe here to get full access to the old-school — yet newfangled — version of my Texas Rangers newsletter, the Newberg Report. Never miss a development, a reaction, a prediction, or an interaction as we deep-dive on the World Champions and their effort to repeat.
A little about me.
For those of you unfamiliar with the Newberg Report, above is a picture of me the second that the Rangers won their first World Series on November 1, 2023. (Here’s the 39-second clip it came from.) I was there. But not in the press box. I’ve had a credential for more than 20 years, but I never use it during games. I’m a fan, and I want to experience baseball — and write about it — exactly that way.
I’ve written about the Rangers for a long time; this will be my 27th season doing it. By day, I’m a trial lawyer. By (one) night (a week), I’m an adjunct professor at SMU, teaching an undergraduate sports law & ethics class. But baseball has always been there as well, and it has my heart and soul.
For 20 years, I wrote an email newsletter about the Rangers, with as many as 20,000 subscribers at its peak. I stubbornly rejected opportunities to write for anyone else until The Athletic came to Dallas-Fort Worth in 2018. I added a D Magazine byline in 2021; and I’m still writing for the good folks there. But The Athletic went all season in 2023 without a beat writer for the Rangers and then, in December, let me know my freelance stories would no longer be its in plans. That is why I am here.
I hope you will decide to be, too.
Here’s a sample of the types of stories I like to write:
News:
Jacob deGrom Is the Rangers’ Biggest Swing Yet (D Magazine)
For the Rangers and Evan Carter, the time is now — even if it wasn’t a part of the plan (The Athletic)
Nostalgia:
Chris Young, Bruce Bochy and a momentous mound visit: ‘You’re the reason we’re here’ (The Athletic)
Plan A, Plan B, and AB: The inside story of the Beltre-Rangers union that was neither's first choice (The Athletic)
Spitballing:
Rangers’ 5-year plan at every position: Development, free agents and a big trade (The Athletic)
Could the Rangers and Angels line up on a Shohei Ohtani trade? (The Athletic)
Lists:
Ten from 10: Michael Young ranks the greatest players he ever played against (The Athletic)
Texas Rangers 2023 midseason prospect rankings (Top 72) (The Athletic)
Family:
Dad, the Sports Gene, and Me (D Magazine)
A rainbow in the clouds: Mason Englert and the education of a father and mother (The Athletic)
World Series wins:
The Rangers Magic Number: Texas-Arizona, Game 5 (D Magazine)
The Rangers’ wild-but-true trade for Josh Sborz that is frozen in franchise history (The Athletic)
Whenever I write, I will come to you: Every new entry of The Newberg Report will go directly to your inbox. You won’t have to worry about missing anything.
So what’s the goal here?
I said the following in my launch post for Substack:
You know how much I love the build when it comes to writing about the Rangers: how we got here, where we stand, where we go from here. That won’t change – but now there’s a whole new (and awesome) prism for us to look through, and I can’t wait to dive into the challenges now facing a world champion and the concept of how the Rangers are facing up to those.
And:
If I can convey my love of Rangers baseball the way Bob’s love of sports permeates everything he puts into words, I’ll have met my goal. I hope you will follow me here and hold me to that, to trust that you’re going to get a focused, Rangers-from-all-angles approach – past, present, future, sometimes the big picture, other times zoomed in and laser-focused – that has driven me for 26 years, through the lens of an emotional, dedicated fan who views the work as “sharing” more than “reporting.” You know how I’m wired, and that won’t change.
Happily, the Rangers aren’t in rebuild mode — but I am. Hope you’ll jump aboard with me.
