10. Antlers > Rays. Ironic that the Rangers – who for years and decades floundered playing feast-or-famine baseball founded on the home run – scored their first three runs via speed. Think about it, the Rangers small-balled, manufactured and ran their way to the American League Championship Series. Yes, Texas,…
To the Texas Rangers, tonight’s do-or-die game is unprecedented, uncharted territory. But as metroplex sports fans, we’re accustomed to these elimination scenarios. And, you know what? We’re pretty damn good at them. While the Rangers take their pathetic 3-11 playoff pedigree into tonight’s decisive Game 5 against the Tampa Bay Rays,…
Looks like about 3.5 times more of you – 885,000 homes to 250,000 homes – watched the Dallas Cowboys over the Texas Rangers on Sunday, so let’s not shun football today. Though Leonard Davis is admitting he sucks and Martellus Bennett is hurt and the Cowboys are 1-3 and old…
History isn’t on the Rangers’ side. But everything else is. When the Texas Rangers face the Tampa Bay Rays tonight at 7:07 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, they’ll do so knowing they’ve never won a playoff series and that no 5-game baseball series has ever been decided via five wins…
George Gillett, left, and Tom HicksIt’s déjà vu all over again this morning in the U.K.: On the one side of the courtroom are attorneys repping the creditors trying to force the sale of a sports team owned by Tom Hicks; on the other side are Hicks’s attorneys. So perhaps…
There, on the High Court of Justice Chancery Division’s to-do list tomorrow, is one of two U.K. cases in which locals will keep a close eye: Royal Bank of Scotland PLC v Hicks & Others. As in: Tom Hicks, from whom the Royal Bank of Scotland wants the money owed…
In the aftermath of a stinging season-ending loss in Philadelphia in 2008, Dallas Cowboys’ quarterback Tony Romo shrugged his shoulders and infamously offered: “If this is the worst thing that ever happens to me, well, then I will have had a pretty good life.” In the wake of a stinging…
10. No two ways around it, your Dallas Cowboys are not a good football team. They are a collection of talented football players. But together they are not a good team. In linebacker Keith Brooking’s words, “We play really stupid football at crucial times in the game.” 9. Tony Romo was…
10. After a wasted weekend in Arlington we know this: Derek Holland isn’t ready to be a playoff pitcher. Saturday he allowed a single and a walk to ignite Tampa’s game-tying rally and in today’s Game 4 loss he served up a two-run homer to Evan Longoria that broke the…
10. ‘Twas an occurrence about as rare as Halley’s Comet this afternoon out here at Rangers Ballpark. In the Rangers’ 39-year history they’ve played 3,092 home games in Arlington. Game 3 was only the fifth playoff contest. Texas is 0-5 all-time in home playoff games. 9. In the owner’s box: Nolan Ryan,…
Back on July 11, I spent a couple innings with Texas Rangers general manager Jon Daniels inside a luxury suite at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington as the team finished a lousy four-game series with the Baltimore Orioles. His team would lose that day and limped into the All-Star break after…
10. I know the Rangers banged two more homers and generally roped the ball around the park, but I think Josh Hamilton set the tenor with his back-to-back superb catches — one diving — in the second inning. 9. As expected, Tampa starter James Shields was, well, James Shields. In…
Like the BCS, style points count. So do geeky, black-and-white stats such as touchdowns and quarterback ratings. Wins and losses? Definitely. Leadership? Uh-huh. When it comes to my weekly NFL Quarterback Rankings — if I had one of those little encircled R’s to signify a trademarked idea, it’d go here — the…
We waited 5,100 days in between Texas Rangers’ playoff wins. Might we suddenly get two within 24 hours? As dominant as Cliff Lee was in the Rangers’ 5-1 Game 1 victory on Wednesday, I like the matchup of C.J. Wilson over Tampa’s James Shields even more in Game 2…
Before we go any further, click here. You’ll find a picture taken on May 29, 1972, in Arlington, during a Texas Rangers-Oakland Athletics game at what had only months before been Turnpike Stadium. The photo features then-Rangers skipper Ted Williams arguing with home-plate ump Jim Odom over a strike-out call…
The Texas Rangers are in the playoffs. The Dallas Cowboys are authoring their annual drama. Texas-OU just captivated the Cotton Bowl. Big Tex is offering up fried beer at the State Fair. And, hey look, on TV it’s a Seinfeld rerun. I love Jerry, George, Kramer, Elaine and the gang…
10. Going up 1-0 in a best-of-five series is always nice, but an even better sign to me was the effective, aggressive play of Josh Hamilton. He singled in his first at-bat, cut loose a throw ambitiously behind a runner after a fly ball and even stole second base with…
The defending Super Bowl champion Dallas Cowboys were 2-3 under Barry Switzer and on their way to a playoff loss to the Carolina Panthers. The Dallas Mavericks were embarking on a season that started with head coach Jim Cleamons and the Three Js — Jason Kidd, Jim Jackson and Jamal…
An old Friend of Unfair Park will be skipping work this afternoon to watch Rangers Playoff Baseball — he’s got the note from Chuck Greenberg to prove he, like John Reed, has come down with Red Fever. (It’s after the jump for those likewise inflicted. It’s cute enough.) We were…
Though they didn’t pop the champagne in Oakland until Sept. 25, the Rangers clinched the AL West on July 9. That day changed a season. Changed a franchise’s credibility. Changed October plans. That day, of course, brought Cliff Lee. The Texas Rangers now have a post-season polished pitching ace. The…
Well, there’s no Shaft of Austin Powers or James Bond after all. But filmmaker Mike Jefferies has, as promised, just posted to the YouTube his short film Dear Mr Hicks, aimed at you-know-who over you-know-what. There are some familiar faces mixed in there, not that that’s important. But for some…
Fox Sports Southwest reporter Jim Knox seems a fine fella. His job on Texas Rangers games — interviewing Boy Scout Troop #137, talking to face-painting Sally and whatnot — seems almost impossible to make interesting. But if you’ve ever wanted to see Knox get his, well you’re day has arrived. Courtesy…
