Hey friends. Thanks for serving as my creative writing teacher this week, giving me prompts and forcing me to do something other than scrawl band logos in my notepad. This time of year—especially in a slower-than-usual off-season—it can seem like there are no real baseball things to write about, so it’s very helpful to get […]
Cold Stove: why the Rangers’ off-season has been so quiet (or has it?)
You might not have noticed the relative lack of content here in the Rangers section of the site. After all, we just careened headlong through the road-trips-and-flight-delays portion of the holiday season, and now you’re unpacking your gifts and begging the kids to get their Lego Foot Destruction blocks off the floor. But the last […]
9 Stories to Look Forward to in 2018
We’re getting ahead of ourselves, of course. It’s not yet Christmas, and I’m already pulling on the bit a little, nudging my head towards green grass and white lines and cracking bats and popping mitts. The free agent market hasn’t even fully shaken out, and there’s every chance that the next week renders this list […]
What Happens When Delino DeShields Swings More?
As we sat at the table and took questions—first from the crowd, and then from Ben Rogers, who was moderating the Newberg Report Book Release night—Delino DeShields leaned into the microphone and spoke in his usual soft tone: “Center field, left field, second base, first base, I don’t care (…) I just want to play.” […]
It’s still the pitching, stupid.
A quick addendum to the earlier article about potential starting pitching targets: I asked Jon Daniels if—after the acquisitions of Doug Fister and Mike Minor—any position players were starting to creep up the priority list. Despite recent rumors that the Rangers might be interested in Carlos Santana, Daniels said that pitching was still the first, […]
(Why) Does Baseball Matter?
It is Sunday morning and it is happening again: that tightness in my chest that I cannot unclench, the weight on my head that I cannot tip to one side and let fall to the floor. I am thinking about dying again. Today’s trigger? My wife’s left hand. We are sitting in church, and she […]