Can the Texas Rangers Catch Fire? Or, for That Matter, Anything?

We’re at a rare, almost unprecedented and admittedly awkward spot in Texas Rangers’ history. The Rangers will win the American League West, but they’re still so far away with so much time left in the season that it makes for – honestly – some uninteresting and practically meaningless baseball here in mid-September…

Bad Day at Blackstone For Tom Hicks

​In the past few hours, stories from the U.K. began surfacing: Tom Hicks isn’t leaving Liverpool after all, but has instead asked a Blackstone Group subsidiary to help him refinance his debt. Which suggested to some that Hicks’s has no intention of getting Yanks-out after — hence this weekend’s planned…

Bears 27, Cowboys 20: My Top 10 Observations

10. If I told you that Team A had edges over Team B in yards (410-308), plays (71-49) and time of possession (33:40-26:20) while holding its opponent to 1 of 11 on third downs and producing a special teams touchdown, you’d probably say that Team A had a 90-percent chance of winning that…

Cowboys’ Defense: Tough, But No Turnovers

Hard to be persnickety about a defense that didn’t allow a touchdown in the season opener, but at some point the Dallas Cowboys’ pressure has to translate into points. Right? Continuing a troubling trend from 2009, the Cowboys harassed Washington quarterback Donovan McNabb and generally suffocated the the Redskins last…

He Isn’t MVP, but Ian Kinsler is a Critical Ranger

It’s common sense that Ian Kinsler should not have been suspended. It’s also becoming pretty clear that he’s vital to the Texas Rangers’ post-season success. Loved me some Andres Blanco. He filled in with OK defense, scrappy base-running and even some pop in his bat. But in Wednesday night’s 11-7 win over the…

Survivor: Nicaragua. The Coach as Champion. Week 1

Once upon a time at a Valley Ranch far, far away, Jimmy Johnson drove his black Nissan 300Z into the parking lot and hurried into the building. He’d summoned a snotty-nosed, smart-ass reporter to his office, and I sat nervously in the foyer. After reading aloud my story in that day’s Fort…

How – and When – the West Was Won

“It’s Time”, meet “It’s Over.” With an 11-4 thumping of the Detroit Tigers last night – combined with the Oakland A’s loss in Kansas City – the Texas Rangers won their first American League West division championship since 1999. I know the magic number is 10 and there are still…

Cowboys vs. Bears is … Affordable?

If you want to go to Sunday’s Dallas Cowboys’  home opener against the Chicago Bears, good news: Over at StubHub there are more than 2,000 tickets available. And, get this, they are cheaper than 2009. The current average ticket price is $209, actually down from last year’s $222. Party passes are…

2010 NFL Quarterback Rankings: Week 1

Like the BCS, style points count. So do geeky, black-and-white stats such as touchdowns and quarterback rating. 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…

Who You Want: Yankees or Rays?

I spoke too soon. Maybe you thought it too. It seemed like a foregone conclusion that if and/or when the Texas Rangers made the playoffs they’d face the New York Yankees. NY would win the American League East, the Tampa Bay Rays would win the Wild Card and the Minnesota…

Should Deion Sanders Go Into the Hall of Fame as a Cowboy?

Deion Sanders played for the Atlanta Falcons, San Francisco 49ers, Washington Redskins and Baltimore Ravens. Why, then, does it feel like it’s a no-brainer that he goes into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a Dallas Cowboy? He’s – perhaps reluctantly – ours, right? Former Cowboys Bill Bates, Charles Haley,…

Keith Brooking: Motivational Speaker

Just wanted to get your day off to a kick-ass start. Find yourself dragging? Remember, the stage is set and, yes, the lights are indeed on. Wait, the guy in his face and seemingly most hypnotized by Reverend Brooking is none other than Tashard Choice. Did Brooking shout some marching orders…

Rangers 3, Yankees 0: As Good As it Gets

Same as we shouldn’t get too low with the Dallas Cowboys, let’s not get too high with the Texas Rangers. Because, well … oh eff it. You know what, let’s do get high. I know the Rangers didn’t face C.C. Sabathia or Andy Pettite, but sweeping the New York Yankees…

Redskins 13, Cowboys 7: My Top 10 Observations

10. Cruel. The Cowboys fans in my house erupted in ecstasy as Roy Williams caught what appeared to be the game-winning touchdown, only to seconds later be stabbed in the heart by agony in the form of Alex Barron’s game-ending holding penalty. Cruel, but fair. Lots of crap to talk…

Tom Hicks Is “Toxic” In Liverpool

Spirit of Shankly​Hit it, Lozninger: Baby, can’t you see what the Royal Bank of Scotland just did — it moved Tom Hicks and George Gillett’s £237 million debt in Liverpool FC to the totally-teffed-list. Meaning: After asking somewhere between £600 and £800 million for the Reds (which, I believe, translates…

The Best Football Team in Dallas

When ESPN debuted in the early 1980s, one of the network’s time-filling staples was Australian Rules Football. I was obsessed. The giant, oval field. The fans with gigantic pom poms. The four – that’s right, four – goal posts. The referees that signaled points by seemingly drawing six-shooters from their holsters and by resuming play…

Is Marion Barber “The Barbarian” or a Backup?

Bill Parcells considered him a closer. Jerry Jones gave him a ton of money. At one point we called him “The Barbarian.” But at this point, Dallas Cowboys’ running back Marion Barber is just a minimal role player. Right? Barber went to the Pro Bowl as a backup in 2007,…

The Claw > Rally Monkey?

If only Fritz Von Erich was around to see this. The old Dallas-based professional wrestler used to mesmerize me and paralyze opponents in the 1970s – down at The Sportatorium, no less – with his signature move, “The Iron Claw.” He’d basically take his powerful right hand and squeeze the life…