Games.
Maybe you’re not old enough to remember those 1970s Hot Wheels race tracks that had crossing lanes. You’d spend a lifetime (a childhood, really, but what was the difference?) trying to reenact the commercial and have those cars cross intersecting paths at a million blinding miles per second while still grabbing the plastic road and skillfully avoiding collision, when truthfully the triumph was in just staying on the track while, on occasion, trading lanes.
Sitting back and watching the race without having to chase upended cars or losing interest, whichever came first, might not have made a great TV spot, but it was success.
Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots: Knock the head off the opponent, game over. Drop the mic, street cred for days.
Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down. Useful.
Lite-Brite refills, allow 6-8 weeks for delivery. Patience.
Etch-A-Sketch: Part of that weird period of English construction (Choc-O-Lunch cookies??), but solid. Precision. Station to station.
Chutes and Ladders: Don’t roll a 5 or that center-cut fastball is gonna basically drop you off the board.
View Master felt like the future. More, please.
Keep overusing that Brick Red and that Midnight Blue, tempting as it is, and your 64-man roster is going to be compromised. Cadet blue just isn’t the same.
It’s Slinky.
It’s Slinky.
For fun, it’s a wonderful toy.
It’s Slinky.
It’s Slinky.
It’s fun for a girl and a boy.
Worst walk-up music ever.
And like, the Hot Wheels track, never quite lived up to its marketed billing.
Mouse Trap, on the other hand: Underrated.
Longball Baseball, Go for Broke, Super Slam/Super Toe, Go to the Head of the Class, and Yahtzee, too.
The bottom of the roster counts.
Texas and Toronto were both swept in their series immediately after throwing down with each other. An 0-6 record, outscored 50-14.
So much for the galvanizing effect.
One of those teams, for what it’s worth in mid-May, is relatively healthy but four games under .500, and a half-game out of last place in its division.
The other, still somewhat decimated, is three games over .500, and a game out of first.
The current focal point in Texas, the bullpen, . . . .
It will be better.
It will.
This team hasn’t yet found that click-rhythm, that run of consistency in all phases that leads to eight-game winning streaks and 14 of 17.
And yet?
The Rangers have spent 23 days in first place, and 23 days not.
Today they’re not.
But Shin-Soo Choo is apparently a day away, Yu Darvish a start away, and Sam Dyson may have a few saves in the meantime.
Texas might enter the weekend back in first place. Might not.
There have been ladders and there have been chutes. They’ve wobbled. Haven’t fallen down. Rocked ’em, socked ’em, have turned the bullpen Etch-A-Sketch upside down and shaken.
Some refills have arrived, some are on the way, and there’s more in that View Master if you want to take a peek.
Bottom line? Texas is still very much on track, trading lanes occasionally, moving forward. Can’t complain.
Just waiting for that blinding tear.