Tag Archives: Rangers

The Alamodome is going to be hosting baseball this weekend

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As I noted way back in November, the Rangers and Padres are going to be playing a 2-game exhibition series in the Alamodome in San Antonio.

Well, that series is coming up this weekend. Tonight (Friday night) and tomorrow (Saturday), to be more exact. There are pictures and a story of how the venue (which was made with basically everything but baseball in mind) has been transformed for the games here, if you are interested. In addition, both games will be shown nationally on tape-delay on MLB Network, and hopefully there will be video on MLB.com of any weird plays that come about from such a strange set-up.

Michael Young leaves the Rangers, removing another career-with-one-team man

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Michael Young wasn’t drafted by the Texas Rangers- he came as a Minor Leaguer in a trade with the Blue Jays- but he has for years been Mr. Ranger. But now, he is headed to Philadelphia, waiving his no-trade clause in order to be traded to the Phillies. He has, barring a possible mostly-ceremonial return at the end of his career, hit his final hit and played his final game as a Ranger- he held the record in both categories for the team.

But what it also does is eliminate the chance that Young would join the list of players- increasingly endangered- who have played their entire career with one team.

In fact, as far as I can tell, these are the only active players left who have spent their entire career of 10+ seasons with the same club:

Derek Jeter

Mariano Rivera

Todd Helton

Jimmy Rollins

Brian Roberts

Now, admittedly, there are a bunch of players who are only a season or two away from joining this list: Joe Mauer, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, David Wright, Cole Hamels, etc. But as “Mr. Ranger” leaves Texas, it’s interesting to know this in order to truly appreciate just how rare it is now for a player to spend their entire career with one team… and how Michael Young won’t be one of those players.

Texas + Baltimore= Wackiness

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On May 10, 1972, the Texas Rangers (formerly the Washington Senators) faced the Baltimore Orioles for the first time. The game was a tight pitching duel between Dave McNally and Pete Broberg, who both went the distance. In a strange circumstance, the Orioles would win when, in the bottom of the ninth, Merv Rettenmund would score on a error by Rangers’ catcher Ken Suarez. In other words, not a single earned run was scored in the 1-0 Orioles victory.

This set the tone for the future of the two most bizarrely matched teams in baseball. When the Red Sox and Yankees face off, the games go forever. When the Orioles and Rangers face each other, games go to the Twilight Zone. So after that first game, where no earned runs were scored, here are some notable occurrences since then:

Interestingly enough, the weirdness magnet that is Texas-Baltimore did not start when the Rangers moved their from DC. On Sept. 12, 1962, Senators pitcher Tom Cheney went 16 innings and had a record 21 strikeouts.

Know of any other weird Texas-Baltimore games? Let me know.

Putting Josh Hamilton’s 4 HR night in perspective

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Josh Hamilton went 5-5 with 4 HRs and a double last night. Here’s some perspective on that:

  • It was only the 16th time in MLB history that somebody hit four homers in a game. By comparison, there have been 21 perfect games.
  • Hamilton is only the sixth player in American League history to do it. To put that into perspective, twice as many people have walked on the moon.
  • The 18 total bases Hamilton had last night, an AL record, meant that Hamilton traveled 1620 feet on the basepaths.
  • That is almost five-and-a-half football fields.
  • That distance is almost the walking distance between Camden Yards and Babe Ruth’s birthplace.
  • Babe Ruth, by the way, never hit four home runs in a game.
  • Hamilton’s 8 RBIs were greater than the run totals of all but one non-Texas Rangers team (Milwaukee)  last night.
  • It was more runs than were scored in five of last night’s games.
  • And, finally, it was only one less than the number of RBIs that Albert Pujols has had all season.

So, yeah, it was a historic night.