Today was the trade deadline in Major League Baseball. Your Texas Rangers missed out on their No. 1 starting pitcher target (Zack Greinke, who ended up with the Angels), but they were happy to pick over the remaining carcass of my Chicago Cubs today by landing Ryan Dempster. Â (Not to mention getting catcher Geovany Soto from the Cubs yesterday.)
Dempster, aside from being a consistently good hurler, does a terrific impression of Hall of Fame broadcaster Harry Caray. See an example above.
As you may know, the Rangers already have a Harry Caray impersonator on the team: pitcher Derek Holland. Holland’s impersonation got him in some hot water with Tim during the World Series last year. Â You can see an example of Holland’s work after the jump.
So whose impersonation will reign supreme in the Ballpark clubhouse?
Forbes magazine ranked the world’s 50 most valuable sports franchises, and your Dallas Cowboys came in tied at No. 3 with the New York Yankees, both teams valued at $1.85 billion. Â Â Two of those European clubs that play that sport where matches are allowed to end in scoreless ties finished on top.
Much of the praise for the Cowboys from the Forbes staff was directed the team’s Cash-Cow-Death-Star:
Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones is a master salesman and has attracted the NBA All-Star game, the Super Bowl, a Manny Pacquiao fight, soccer matches, concerts and more to Cowboys Stadium since the $1.2 billion venue opened in 2009.
Mayor Robert Cluck of Arlington may be sending a correction letter to Forbes staffer Kurt Badenhausen, who says in the video above (skip to the 1:51 mark) that Jerry Jones financed the building of Cowboys Stadium “almost entirely himself.”
I realize that the stadium cost about $1.2 billion and the city of Arlington kicked in only $325 million, but that’s still about 27% of the cost.
Also making the list, at No. 50, are the Texas Rangers, whose recent increase in value (to a more modest $674 million) is tied both to record attendance this season and last, but especially a hell of a sweet TV deal with Fox Sports Southwest.
Even before Josh Hamilton had his relapse with alcohol last week, the Texas Rangers were faced with having to make a tough decision this year regarding his future with the team. Hamilton can become a free agent at the end of the coming season. He’s already established himself as one of the greatest players to ever wear a Rangers uniform, and naturally that makes him one of the most popular players on the Rangers roster.
But his injury history gives one pause. Plus he’s going to turn 31 this season. The overwhelming body of evidence in baseball suggests that most players peak between the ages of 27 and 29, which means that Hamilton is past his peak and will see his skills decline from here on out.
Which isn’t to say that he won’t still be a valuable player this year, and for a few more years yet. If he’s looking for something like the 10-year deal that Albert Pujols got from the Angels this offseason, that seems unlikely (and would be incredibly unwise.) Â Last November, Adam Morris of Lone Star Ball argued that the Rangers should let Hamilton walk after 2012. In January, Grant Brisbee of Baseball Nation called Hamilton’s situation “The Most Difficult Contract Decision in the History of Baseball” and argued that Hamilton is worth a big money-short term deal.
So does what happened at Sherlock’s last week change anything at all? Â (more…)
Seems about right. Â Take your team to the World Series two years in a row, even if your managerial decisions may have allowed for a heartbreaking Game 6 collapse, and you’ve earned two more years on the job. He should be in the dugout in Arlington through 2014 at least.
Congratulations, Wash.
We’re looking forward to more of this:

(Via Baseball Nation)
Why all this outrage (sub. req.) over the Rangers’ “leaked” audiotape? As in the latest hot-mic incident revealing our leaders’ true thoughts about Israel’s prime minister, seems like folks ought to be relishing, not damning, such entertaining glimpses behind the curtain. Especially at a time when phonied up and scripted is the order of the day — in business, government, sports, whatever — what makes an American League baseball club so sacrosanct? As I recall the Rangers circled the wagons after axing Chuck Greenberg, refusing to talk plainly to the press about what really went down. Now Jon Daniels is clamming up again, about the leaker’s identity, and winning praise for it by a media that’s usually pushing transparency and “sunshine.” Weird double standard, anyone?
Hey, it’s your old pal, Zac Crain. How’s it going? Yeah, I know. I’ve been there.
Friend of the show Bethlehem Shoals (of FreeDarko and, soon, The Classical) has a piece up at Deadspin today about the most notable Rangers fan. A taste:
His face, like Nixon’s, should probably be shamefully totemic.
Yet subjected to repeated shots of Bush, interpolating them into the game as I would any other recognizable face in a baseball stadum, I rarely think “arch-fiend doodler” or even “apocalyptic klutz.” He’s utterly harmless, and actually, seems natural in a way he never did while attempting to run the country. But the Bush reax shots–and our reax to them–are not just a question of relief. This is George W. Bush’s element. He’s no different from any number of Texas oil brats who went off and had themselves an adventure, one that involved sizable failures but never a crisis of confidence.
As undeserved as it might seem to the 66 percent of the world that loathes him, the man just wants to get on with his life, legacy be damned. For Bush, that means attending the World Series, not endlessly revisiting the battles of his presidency. Like us, he seems glad the whole thing is over.
David Roth is one of my favorite writers — online or otherwise, but you can mostly find his stuff online. At The Awl this morning, he goes back and forth with the also very good David Raposa about last night’s contest between the two baseball teams. Probably a little different than most game recaps you’ll find. A taste:
David Roth: It’s worth noting that Joe Buck sounds not merely awake, but intermittently interested during the World Series. During the ALCS, it seemed like he was listening to an audiobook and watching the game at the same time. I mostly say this because he kept mentioning stuff from The Help when he was supposed to be talking about Jhonny Peralta. I know book groups are important, but you have to move that meeting or read before the game starts, you know?
David Raposa: I honestly can’t tell the difference between Regular Joe Buck and Joe Buck Zero. Both of them have the same vacant stare and glossy dental veneer. And both give me gas.
David Roth: I think when the Cardinals are involved and/or when a Flashy Black Wide Receiver does something DISGUSTING, Buck cares. Otherwise he’s watching Hulu during the game and eating Ambien like they’re Mike and Ike’s.
(Also, I would be remiss, since I’m already here, in not pointing you toward the similarly structured Physically Unable to Perform column Roth co-writes with Jeff Johnson for GQ.com twice a week.)
The Texas Rangers will defeat the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games, with the seventh game of the 2011 World Series decided in the 14th inning. The computers have spoken, and there’s no use in arguing with them.
But I will anyway. If, as they claim, David Murphy will have five home runs in the Series, then there’s no way the Cardinals are lasting seven games.
Great work by the website of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in comparing North Texas to St. Louis ahead of tonight’s World Series opener. I love that they take pains to note not just that Arlington is named after Robert E. Lee’s plantation in Virginia, but that he’s “failed Confederate general Robert E Lee.”
Here’s a bit that gives you a sense of the rest:
CULINARY HISTORY
St. Louis: Boasts several culinary innovations, most notable toasted ravioli, gooey butter cake, pork steaks and its own style of pizza. The 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis popularized the ice cream cone, hot dogs served on a bun, the hamburger, peanut butter, cotton candy and an obscure Texas soft drink called Dr. Pepper.
Texas: According to the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau, the frozen margarita machine was invented there.
Game 1 is at 7:05 p.m. tonight in St. Louis.
So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss.
–Sun Tzu, predicting a Rangers sweep in the 2011 World Series
Texas Rangers fans, you know yourselves. Now it’s important that you take a moment to come to know the enemy. I’m here to help.
I was born in Springfield, Illinois. There comes a time in the life of every child of central Illinois when he faces a decision that will shape the man that he will become, one which may very well be the single-most important decision in determining his life’s course. He must decide to pledge his heart to one of two Major League Baseball teams. I made the right choice. I chose the Chicago Cubs, and so I’m uniquely qualified to explain just why you should hate their arch-rivals: those smug, self-satisfied Misery-ians known as the St. Louis Cardinals.
Perhaps the very fact that the Redbirds are facing off against your beloved Rangers in the 2011 World Series, starting Wednesday, is enough of a reason. Nevertheless, I want you to understand that there’s so much more to loathe.
As I’ve said before, I’m a lifelong Rangers fan. I’m as thrilled as anyone about their second consecutive World Series berth. But I’m also thoroughly disgusted by the ridiculous amounts of chaw that several players shove in their mouths before taking the field. Nelson Cruz and Neftali Feliz, in particular, look like they’re each struggling to find space for a second tongue. Are any other members of Clawntler Nation put off by this habit?
If you’ve been a Rangers fan for a fair to goodly amount of time, you know about the duo of nuns that have been die hard fans of the team for decades – Sister Frances Evans and Sister Maggie Hession. The two had prime seats behind home plate, and Sister Frances always has her drum with her.
WFAA’s Jim Douglas brings us news now that the duo is now more of a single, as Sister Maggie’s Alzheimer’s now prevents her from attending games. Sister Frances is now the only one that remembers the two being the first two people through the turnstiles of the Ballpark, and the only one that remembers their trip to Yankees Stadium.
It’s a wonderful story, and a sad one, too.
Some of these facts may be true. Some of them SHOULD be true. Â Add more to this list in the comments, and you will win … (more…)
Former Maverick Guard/Swagger Connoisseur Nick Van Exel Lends His Support To the Rangers With Some Sort of Claw/Antlers Hybrid
"I guess I got my swagger back. Truth."