Stay strong.
The morning after the NFC and AFC Championship Games in 2005, I wrote about the fallout from the clandestine flight that Rangers owner Tom Hicks, manager Buck Showalter, GM John Hart, and Assistant GM Jon Daniels took to Puerto Rico to make Carlos Delgado a four-year, $48 million offer, which agent David Sloane shopped to other clubs and then complained about after Texas decided to move on.
I’d just rolled Edi(n)son Volquez out as the Rangers’ top prospect. Next were Thomas Diamond, John Danks, and 20-year-old Joaquin Arias, fresh off his first season in the system, followed by a 17th-round pick named Ian Kinsler coming off his first full pro season (.402/.465/.692 in Low A, followed by .300/.400/.480 in AA).
Six months earlier, a month after Kinsler’s promotion to Frisco, Hart had traded the young infielder and righthander Erik Thompson to Colorado for Larry Walker, mercifully saved by Walker’s veto.
I didn’t have an iPhone and neither did you. There was no YouTube, and there were no tweets. Leody Taveras and Hans Crouse were six.
Kinsler had been given a non-roster invite to big league camp, which was around the corner. Doug Brocail and Brian Shouse were ticketed for bullpen roles, and Don Wakamatsu was Showalter’s bench coach.
Righthander Ricardo Rodriguez was coming to camp to compete for a job. Not that Ricardo Rodriguez.
The Patriots and Eagles locked in tickets to the Super Bowl that weekend in 2005, and here we are again.
Tom Brady is back, but nobody is for Philadelphia, unless I suppose you count Eagles defensive backs coach Cory Undlin, who was on New England’s staff the first time.
Wakamatsu is the Rangers’ bench coach again, and Brocail and Shouse will be in uniform in Surprise. So will a Ricardo Rodriguez.
In my vein of trying to look at things through a prism of positivity, I guess I take comfort in the lock that one of the Patriots and Eagles will lose the next football game.
New England is the Crimson Tide. Would have preferred something new.
Philly is the Astros. Nope.
MLB Network rolled out a ranking of the best bat flips of all time yesterday.
No, thanks.
I did not watch. The televised weekend was already deflating enough.
But the Rangers’ Awards Dinner was Friday and Fan Fest was Saturday and there was a memorable baseball practice on Sunday, all of it signaling that the Great Game is around the corner. Baseball America rolled out its Top 100 Prospects list this morning, Keith Law unveiled the back half of his own rankings, and the Rangers aren’t finished adding to the roster.
They’re not.
The next two weeks of Not Baseball will be borderline-insufferable. I’m sure I’ll be tuned in on February 4, though between commercials I might be digging into the BA write-ups.
One of those football teams is going to win, there will be “Dilly Dilly” spots, and we’ll still be a full week and a half short of Pitchers & Catchers.
Hang in there, friends. Stay strong. We can get through this.
And Watch Out for Ruddy Yan.