Do. Or do not.

On May 25, 1977, the Rangers and Yankees split a doubleheader, with Texas falling, 3-2, behind Bert Blyleven in Game One before Gaylord Perry blanked the eventual World Series champs in the nightcap, 1-0. Jim Sundberg’s second-inning sac fly brought Dave May in for the game’s lone run.

Mickey Rivers played in both games of the twinbill for the Yankees, as did Bucky Dent. Sandy Alomar Sr. played in both for Texas.

On May 21, 1980, Texas lost to California, 9-8, featuring a disastrous seventh inning pitched by Dave Rajsich, Jim Kern, and Sparky Lyle.

Rivers played in that game, too, but this time for Texas, and he filled the box score, contributing two singles, an RBI, two runs, and two assists from center field, once throwing Carney Lansford out at third and another time gunning Rod Carew down at home.

I probably missed that game, and can’t swear I wasn’t sitting in a movie theater for two straight showings, which I’ll now admit to on the assumption that the statute of limitations is less than 35 years.

On May 25, 1983, Kansas City called lefthander Bud Black up from AAA Omaha to make his 1983 debut (he’d appeared some with the Mariners and Royals the previous two years), and he went 7.2 innings strong in a 5-2 win over Texas. Danny Darwin, who was probably teammates eventually with everyone who played in that game, went the distance for the Rangers.

Dent played in that game, too, but this time for Texas, and he went 0 for 4, including a line-drive double play with George Wright on first that registered as 5-3-1, something I’d sure like to see a replay of.

On May 19, 1999, Texas beat Tampa Bay in its second year of existence, 9-8, a game started by Mark Clark and Bobby Witt, whom I swear I have zero memory of as a Devil Ray. Rafael Palmeiro took Witt deep twice, and Pudge Rodriguez and Todd Zeile homered off Witt as well.

It was a game in which none of 1999 Rangers contributors Esteban Loaiza and Ruben Mateo and Jonathan Johnson appeared, but not because they’d been traded before the season to Toronto for Roger Clemens, who was supposed to come to Texas for that trio in February and drop the puck at a Stars game that same night in what would be Dallas’s Stanley Cup season but was instead traded to the Yankees for David Wells and Graeme Lloyd and Homer Bush, and these nine paragraphs really weren’t teeing up that note about Bush, who was named yesterday as the Rangers’ new director of youth baseball programs, nor did I have any special interest in noting that Clemens beat Texas in the ALDS elimination game that same year, allowing New York to advance and knocking the Rangers out of the playoffs for what would be 11 years.

On May 16, 2002, Texas fell to the White Sox, 4-0. Future Ranger Sandy Alomar Jr. caught Chicago righthander Dan Wright’s only career complete game (64 starts).

Wright got Rangers center fielder Calvin Murray to strike out swinging and ground out twice, and these 11 paragraphs really weren’t teeing up that note so I could comment on Uncle Calvin’s nephew Kyler, who made huge news in College Station yesterday and will be making more huge news very soon, possibly touching the baseball page.

On May 19, 2005, Texas didn’t play. It was an off-day that preceded a nine-game win streak that catapulted the Rangers into first place in the division for the first time since the previous year’s August 5th.

I’m not sure what Justin Ruggiano did that day for Class A Vero Beach, but there’s a decent chance it was something good as the Texas A&M product was in the midst of his breakout .930 OPS season (High A/AA) in the Dodgers system, and these 13 paragraphs really weren’t teeing up a note on Ruggiano, who formally signed yesterday with the Rangers, a development I’ll comment on another time, nor was it meant to give me an opportunity to talk again about Kyler and bag on the Aggies.

Today is December 18, the date in Rangers history on which Texas signed Bobby Jones and Bill Stein (1980), Mike Jeffcoat (1986), Rob Ducey (1992), Bill Ripken (1993), Geremi Gonzalez (2001), Doug Glanville (2002), Brad Fullmer (2003), Endy Chavez (2010), and Justin Germano (2013).

I don’t know if Jon Daniels has anything momentous in store to mark today’s official release date of Star Wars: Episode VII, but it wouldn’t take much on the scale of Rangers happenings on the release dates of the previous six films in the series.

Though I would suggest that if JD does nothing today, it would be a solid upgrade over his predecessor gifting us with David Elder to Cleveland for John Rocker (and his Rangers ERA that’s right out of a movie script), December 18, 2001.

(And perhaps doing nothing today would have been solid advice for me to take. Unsubscribe if you must — I’ll understand.)