Ask any true
baseball fan about the grind of an MLB season and they will all come to the
same consensus in regards to any of the30 teams in the show; baseball season ebbs
and flows. There are times when the tide
of adversity rears its head and teams struggle.
This happens to even the best of teams.
But there are
also times when the sun emerges from behind an ominous gray sky, the clouds
clear and winning can be seen on the horizon.
No team epitomizes
this analogy like the Texas Rangers. My
mistake, I meant to say the first place Texas Rangers…as in all of baseball.
With a 47-28
record, it wouldn’t seem like the club’s fan base would have that much to be
pessimistic about. But in a sports town with
fans that have suddenly, for a lack of better words, developed a sense of
entitlement after seeing its basketball team win the finals last season and witnessing
the baseball club appear in back-to-back World Series there seems to be a
shortage of patience and an increase in ridiculous expectations.
What “regular” or
bandwagon fans fail to realize is that in the course of a 162 game season, your
team will lose. The will lose a
lot. No one will ever go 162-0 or 152-10
as I predicted but they will lose some games.
The Rangers will most likely lose about 50-60 games this season, but
that is still 112-102 wins. They are 76
games into their season and have lost just 28 games. If they match this record for the next 76
games, they will be at 94-56 with 12 games to play and yet someone will still
argue about some call the sipper makes or some move the GM didn’t make in some
mundane scenario that will have bearing only to the Skip Baylesses of the
metroplex.
The team is less
than a year removed from their last WS appearance and the haters are still
questioning the leadership of the club.
Rangers manager Ron Washington is still viewed by some as a guy just
along for the ride…eating seeds and hugging Jackie Moore after every
victory. They decry the fact that he will
not tinker with a lineup that for the most part has been the same for the past
two years the victories have increased. Did
I mention that they were in the World Series?
But an average
May record and two series losses in the beginning of June to division rivals
had some of Wash’s and the team’s detractors crying that the tea was in a tail
spin and big changes had to be made.
They didn’t take into account that the rotation and its replacements
were dropping like flies. Key sections
of the offense went through slumps to which they are just beginning to break
out of now. The fans had become spoiled because
they were treated to an exciting opening month.
Coming back to reality was like a hard crash after an all-night bender
at a gay bar-it was unbelievable.
The team was
14-13 in May and played some atrocious baseball but they also learned from
their mistakes which translated into June.
While the pretenders like the Athletics, Mariners, Blue Jays and Rays
(God I hate the Rays) remembered who they were, the Rangers remained calm and
played one game at a time. June started
off with a 4-6 record only to see the team go 12-3 and winning six straight
series, sweeping two in the process. They
are currently 16-9 with the A’s in town tonight as they look to extend their
lead over division rival LA Angels who have been in the Rangers rear-view but
have been closing fast.
Fans need to have
faith in our team, our manager and our front office. They have proven over the last two years that
they have a plan and are sticking to it.
Fans need to understand that injuries happen, teams have losing streaks,
players can’t hit the broad side of a barn, managers make dumb decisions and
some acquisitions don’t always pan out. But
for about 35 years we wished we had the problems we have now. The only conversation fans had about Rangers’
players in the playoffs was when they were being watched on other teams.
Fans need to
return the patient fans they were when the Rangers were losing, couldn’t pitch or
manufacture runs and enjoy what they are witnessing every day no matter the
outcome. Otherwise, we are just Yankee
fans.
