26 Miles

Rangers Still Sliding

// August 24th, 2005 // Life

As misery loves company I thought it proper therapy to share mine with the world.

I spent some time the other day doing a little analysis of the Rangers season so far — but since I’ve lost all my notes, I’ll have to go from memory.

Simply put, after a good April and stellar May (18-7 record), the team has nosedived since June 1st. That nosedive has steepened since the Kenny Rogers / cameraman altercation on June 30th, and further so by the departure of #2 pitcher Chan Ho Park on July 29th.

There are several novel-worthy mysteries in all this mess: why let perennially solid and developable pitcher Ryan Drese go, why trade our #2 pitcher Chan Ho Park for a “power-hitter” that’s now hitting sub-200, why has Soriano not been leveraged in a trade to build our pitching staff, why is John Hart still the General Manager and not flipping burgers somewhere, why does there seem to be so little desire by the Rangers ownership and management to do what it takes to win? It seems almost conspiratorial, as if management wants to lose for some unknown reason.

The fans (and probably the players themselves) are stumped by all of these, and more.

On another note, I’ve not in recent memory seen a manager so closely aligned with a front office and seemingly so distant from the clubhouse. This only hurts matters. It seems everyone on Earth except the three decision-makers know how to fix this team.

In general, I’ll not use this forum to badger the Rangers front office, but now and then something must be said.

As of today, the Rangers sit with a record of 58-66 (.468) and the playoffs are out of the picture at this point. As of June 1 they were 30-20 (.600).

If you think it’s tough being a Cubs fan, try strapping on a Texas Rangers hat for the last 20 years. But we keep coming back, and probably always will, for these players especially, who in many cases and unlike the most other Dallas-based professional players, seem worthy of our support.