What it takes.
When I was 20 years younger, after a bad exam or a frustrating Cowboys loss or an awful stretch of Rangers baseball I would grab my keys and head to the batting cages, hitting fastballs until I'd raised a couple blisters. These days it's easier, just as therapeutic, more productive, and less self-flaggellating to go read with my kids. Pick your catharsis. Grab a carton of Blue Bell. Pop in Season 5 of "The Shield." Blog, with the iPod set to random shuffle. Get your mind off of this, because it's not good for you. Then get your head right with ball again, and make plans to be at Sherlock's on Park Lane at Central Expressway on Wednesday. Yes, because you can ask Assistant GM Thad Levine questions from 5:00 until the 6:00 first pitch (and maybe get some one-on-one time after that, too), but that's not the key reason. Yeah, Rangers-Jays will be on every TV set for us all to watch together, and the event is free. But that's not what I'm getting at. We'll raffle off two tickets behind the plate to this Sunday's Rangers-Yankees game and three separate pairs of Lexus Club Level tickets to the September 27 Rangers-Mariners game. Still not why I bring this up. Here's why: May 19, 2010: Newberg Report/Fox Sports Southwest live in-game chat – Texas 4, Baltimore 3 June 2, 2010: Newberg Report/Fox Sports Southwest live in-game chat – Texas 9, Chicago 5 June 30, 2010: Newberg Report/Fox Sports Southwest live in-game chat – Texas 6, Los Angeles 4 July 25, 2010: Newberg Report Night at the Ballpark – Texas 6, Los Angeles 4 August 4, 2010: Newberg Report/Fox Sports Southwest live in-game chat – Texas 11, Seattle 6 August 30, 2010: Newberg Report Game-Watching Party v.1 – Texas 3, Kansas City 0 There was a walkoff win in that mix, a Rich Harden start, a Scott Feldman start (and a separate Feldman vulture win), an Omar Beltre start, a Rangers victory (a shutout, no less) in the last 10 days. Plenty of games that didn't look good on paper, but when we've had an event of any sort this season, we're 6-0. It seems like there's no game these days that looks good on paper, but we're getting the band back together Wednesday night, and maybe that's enough. Call it a playoff beard. Hopping the baseline. Not talking to the pitcher putting up zeroes. This man asks you: "Are you willing to do what it takes to win?"
Please make it out to Sherlock's on Wednesday. A pennant race may be depending on you. =========================================================== To join the free Newberg Report mailing list so you can get e-mail deliveries of every edition of the newsletter, daily minor league game recaps, and frequent Newberg Report News Flashes, go to www.newbergreport.com and click the "Mailing List" link on the top menu bar. (c) Jamey Newberg http://www.newbergreport.com Twitter @newbergreport