Things I will never do again

Things I will never do again:

-Lay more than 2 TD's to Tech

-Watch a Texas v. Tech game at a bar unless I know for certain there will be no Tech fans within a 100 ft radius

That was not an enjoyable game to watch, the Tech fans next to me at the bar not withstanding. Seemed like we were always about to bust out but then we'd have a turnover, stall out offensively, or play 10 yards off the Tech receivers all the way down the field. Tech was better than advertised and I always forget their offense is just plug and play. I'm happy with the win though, just ask USC. That same effort doesn't beat OU though.

Bricks

Who laid the bigger one.... Cowboys in the last regular season game of 2008 or the Rangers in this homestand? Workin on 3 shutouts in 4 days. Pretty fantastic stuff. I guess if we're going down it might as well be in spectacular fasion. 1 hit... awesome. Moving onto football season where we will hope for no more bricks...

Rangers eulogy (maybe)

That was the worst loss of the season for the Rangers. By far. A 1-3 homestand is unacceptable at this point in the year. Getting shutout by Brett Tomko is even more unacceptable. The team just looked lazy last night. Same sort of lazy at bats that we've seen through stretches of this season. Maybe they were tired from sitting around all weekend then playing a DH on Sunday, but lets stop making excuses. The weather situation sucks but it is what it is.

The bigger issue is that the pitching has started to collapse at the worst time. Millwood is obviously pitching hurt so he can vest his option. I'd want to call him terrible names but I suppose it is 12 million and probably the last big salary year he'll get. Holland is probably suffering from pitching more innings than he ever has. On top of all that, the rotation rock faltered in a big way last night. Its been fun. I think the only shot the Rangers have left is for Boston to sweep the Angels. Then the Rangers would have to go at least 5-2 against the Angels coming up. Long odds considering the state of our rotation and the holes in the lineup.

Speaking of lineups, Washington may be considered for Manager of the Year but only because hes a motivator and gets players to play hard for him. His grasp on in game management and putting together a lineup leaves a lot to be desired. Always going on gut. My gut tells me that I want a triple cheeseburger but considering the 5 pounds I've put on recently thats probably not a good idea is it? Gut should have told Wash much earlier to look a freakin stat sheet and realize that Cruz has been our best OF all year and is not a player that needs to platoon. At this point its all nitpicking though. Its been a positive year, and if anything, at least everyone realizes now that Blalock sucks. Never seeing him in a Rangers uni again will make me happy. The young talent in the rotation and in the lineup going forward is just a bonus.

Hello again

Its been a while. I think I might make a return MJ style wearin the 45. For now, the Rangers are gonna make the playoffs. Put it in stone. Back with more later.

T-New tells it like it is

I think this is what they mean when they say hard hittin interview. Terrence Newman isn't one to sugarcoat things. I mean, hell, hes called out the entire coaching staff before. Well heres exhibit 137. This interview was filmed before TO was released so I'm not really sure what took so long for WFAA to post it.

Amongst the highlights are him openly saying that in-team bickering affected the teams performance down the stretch, talking about how Romo needs to take more of a leadership position, alluding that Jessica might have affected Romo, and calling out the coaching staff by saying the Cowboys 3-4 scheme is too simple. He elaborates on the 3-4 scheme by saying that opposing offenses were calling out where rushers were coming from... which completely negates the point of the 3-4. He also goes to great lengths to talk about how much he likes Pacman Jones. In a twist of almost too obvious irony he says that too many players went to the media to air out grievances. Well um... nevermind.

This probably won't help improve locker room chemistry much but at least it provides us fans with more entertainment.

Lets talk TO

Its been several days now since the TO release went down. I should have hit on it sooner given the magnitude of the story (if ESPN was any indication it was the biggest story of the decade), but the length of time has allowed me to fully process my thoughts on it. And they're still mixed.

When I first heard it my initial reaction was of surprise simply because I didn't think Jerry would do it. I figured in his mind, the financial and on-the-field implications would outweigh the off-the-field issues. Initially I didn't feel good about the move. Thats 10 TDs and 1000 yards minimum that you're taking off the field. Some argue that his play declined significantly but I still contend that scheme and poor game planning were more to blame than anything for his down numbers in 2008. Declining numbers or not, thats a lot of production you're removing from the team. Even though skinny Roy Williams (I guess we don't have to make that distinction anymore since the fat one got cut) is my boy, I don't know if hes ready to be a number 1 receiver on a team that actually wants to win. I would prepare for a very run oriented offense next year.

Like I said though, that was my initial reaction. Eventually I came back around to my original reaction of shock that Jerry actually made the move. As the ringleader, and I do mean ringleader, nobody wants to win more than Jerry. If anyone were to keep a guy like TO around despite all the ancillary issues, it would be Jerry. He takes more risks than anyone and has always believed that "chemistry" is only a buzz word used by teams that already win football games. He will be the first to point to his mid-90s teams as evidence that you can win despite a circus atmosphere. So if Jerry of all people was resigned to releasing TO, I'd have to believe that Owens was a real issue... despite my previous assertion that this season TO was a victim of his past.

Going forward, the pressure just got turned up on Jason Garrett. This is what he wanted. His offense was subpar this year and he believes that TO was part of the cause. He tried to draw a line in the sand while interviewing for other jobs... its me or TO. Of course, that blew up when he didn't get any other offers. Nevertheless, lets see some results this year then. Whatever pressure Garrett feels though, multiply that by about 10 and you'll be in the ballpark of Romo's pressure cooker. This is what Jerry alluded to when he said they wanted to make the team more Romo-friendly. Jerry has chosen to go forward into the new stadium with Romo as the FOTF and its never been more clear. Tony might want to work on a different version of his "life goes on" stance after crushing defeats.

I realized that when watching Cowboys games I was always keeping track of TO's touches. Have we thrown to him enough today? How many catches does he have? Does he have 100 yards? If he doesn't have 100, does he at least have a TD? Is hes going to be mad after the game? If I'm thinking that, what must Romo be thinking. That in itself is an issue and I suppose it says something about TO as a teammate. Heres hoping this frees things up for Romo a bit... and in turn, loosens up the rest of the team so we can avoid the purgatory of 9-7 in 2009.

Interesting Rangers notes

Apparently Brandon McCarthy has decided to scrap the pitch that made him a legit prospect. His curveball is being shelved for a slider. I found this interview with him very insightful. It provides some insight into a pitchers thought process on the mound and how he feels about his own pitches. Hes fairly straight forward in saying that he his curveball could get minor leaguers out but simply wasn't fooling anyone in the majors. They could identify it on release based on his arm slot and since he couldn't throw it for strikes they just wouldn't swing. On the flipside, this interview from BBTIA states that sliders are actually more stressful on the arm than curves. McCarthy says he doesn't feel anything in his arm when he throws the slider though. Heres hoping hes finally healthy but I wouldn't count on it.

Global warming comes to the Ballpark. At least according to Rudy Jaramillo and some environmentalist from the WSJ. Apparently the jetstream is moving north about 1 mile per year. The jetstream shoots out into right center at the ballpark which is in a southeasterly direction. So moving north would shift it more towards straight away center which presumably would be better for pitchers as more line drives carried by the jetstream would die at the wall.