American League (MLB)

Tanking Update: Time Is Running Out For the Rangers to Start Losing Again

The last time Unfair Park mentioned that the Rangers were looking a little too competitive, the team proceeded to lose 14 of 20, so we decided we should speak up again. Under the temporary -- for now at least -- leadership of Tim Bogar, the Rangers have won 9 of their last 10 games. They've risen o ... More >>

Silver Linings from the Worst Season in Texas Rangers History

The 2014 Texas Rangers might not be the worst team in the club's 42 years in Arlington -- the 1972 and '73 Rangers have at least a claim to that title -- but 2014 has certainly been the worst year for the franchise as a whole. It started with the promise of knowing that the team had won at least 90 ... More >>

Who the Rangers Should Hire to Replace Ron Washington

Unfair Park has no concrete information as to who the Rangers are going to hire to replace Ron Washington, who resigned abruptly Friday afternoon. If we had to guess, we'd say the club is likely to hire an internal candidate. Former Rangers third baseman Steve Buechele currently manages the team's T ... More >>

Ron Washington Just Quit the Rangers

Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington has resigned from the club to deal with an undisclosed personal matter, effective immediately. Bench coach Tim Bogar has been appointed interim manager for the rest of the season. The team has scheduled a press conference for 3:30 at which co-chairmen Ray Davis a ... More >>

The Rangers Even Suck at Sucking

Behind a seven-inning, two-run start from Nick Tepesch and a two-run ninth inning, walkoff rally capped off by Adam Rosales' game-winning RBI single over a drawn-in infield, the Rangers knocked off the Angels yesterday, ending a four-game losing streak overall and a nine-game skid against the Halos. ... More >>

Can the Rangers' Season Be Saved?

Derek Holland. Matt Harrison. Martin Perez. Geovany Soto. Prince Fielder. Jurickson Profar. Engel Beltre. Three-fifths of the rotation, the starting catcher, the starting first baseman, the starting second baseman and the backup outfielder are currently not playing. This doesn't include players who ... More >>

Texas Rangers Say North Carolina Has Best BBQ, Immediately Lose Ability to Play Baseball

Yesterday on Twitter, the Texas Rangers Twitter account tweeted something awful. Something unbelievable. Something that's just not true. When asked by a fan, "What state makes the best BBQ?" the Rangers account replied, "North Carolina... sorry!" You're ellipsis-sorry for bashing Texas barbecue, T ... More >>

I Ate the Choomongous and I'm Still Alive Today

Every year, the Rangers roll out a whole bunch of stuff designed specifically to clog your arteries. It's their public service, as a socially-minded ballclub, to cut down on the population explosion in DFW by culling those stupid enough to eat a two-foot sandwich. I am one of those people. Yet some ... More >>

Your 2014 Texas Rangers Nicknames

Our 2013 Best of Dallas award winner, and Observer writer, Michael "Grubes" Gruber, is renowned for nicknaming Rangers players. In fact, if you follow him on Twitter (@tweetgrubes) like thousands of other people do, then his Diamond Tweets covering the Rangers games are largely incomprehensible with ... More >>

Introducing the Choomongous Hot Dog, the Rangers' Latest Player-Inspired Ballpark Food

There are a few new names we all need to get familiar with before the Rangers' season officially begins on April 1. In addition to Globe Life Park, Shin-Soo Choo, J.P. Arencibia, there's one more you're going to want to write on your cheat-sheet: Choomongous. Metroplex Sportservice, which manages ... More >>

Ian Kinsler Really Hates the Texas Rangers

There may have been a few Rangers fans who mourned when the club traded longtime second-baseman Ian Kinsler, but for most, his unreliable glove and mediocre performance at the plate far outweighed whatever goodwill his boyish good looks might inspire. Plus, we got Prince Fielder. But while Rangers ... More >>

Texas Rangers Rechristen Stadium Globe Life Park

There's always been something pleasantly nostalgic about the name of the Texas Rangers' stadium. The Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, like its red-brick facade, harkens back to simpler times, back before corporations plastered their names on every possible piece of sports-related real estate. Never m ... More >>

Rangers' Eric Nadel is Officially the Best Announcer in Baseball

It's like clockwork. Each October, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum announces that Eric Nadel, the longtime voice of the Texas Rangers, is a finalist for the Ford C. Frick Award. And every year, the award goes to someone else. Not this time. This morning, the hall of fame declared Nade ... More >>

A Week After the Rangers' Demise, Some Thoughts on What Went Wrong (And Right)

We asked former Ticket board op and master nicknamer Michael "Grubes" Gruber to autopsy the Rangers so we can throw their cadaver into our winter fire and focus on football. Here's his hot-but-not-tremendously-hot sports take: This was a weird season for your Texas Rangers. For all intents and purp ... More >>

Rangers Pitcher Matt Garza Went on a Misogynistic Twitter Rampage This Weekend

The square jaw and impressively rectangular goatee should be proof enough of the incredible manliness of the Rangers' newly acquired righty Matt Garza. So manly is he that it's all but inevitable that the testosterone that courses through his veins will eventually boil over and spill out onto Twitte ... More >>

Take Me Out to the Brisket: An Englishman on BBQ Sandwiches at Rangers Ballpark

Here's something -- I am a very big fan of baseball. I can't explain why. I guess it's like really fast cricket. Anyway, I used to watch it late at night on TV back in the U.K. quite obsessively. It's the only American sport I've ever managed to get on board with, American football being poorly name ... More >>

A Sandy Hook Parent Will Throw Out the First Pitch at Tomorrow's Rangers Home Opener

Emilie Parker, a tow-headed and ever-smiling 6-year-old, was gunned down on December 14 along with 19 of her classmates at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Her parents, Robbie and Alyssa Parker, have coped with her death by sharing their memories of her in the media and on Facebook. She was a vibrant g ... More >>

Major League Baseball's Screwball Economics

As another season begins, MLB faces an unsustainable future -- and you’re picking up the tab.

Ken Casey of the Dropkick Murphys Feels a Responsibility to Sing About Unions

In what has become a yearly tradition, the Dropkick Murphys make their way through town just before St. Patrick's Day. Their date in town is usually near to the dates of the Flogging Molly Dallas stop and to the North Texas Irish Festival. No one can ever claim that Metroplex residents wait until Ma ... More >>

Divorcing Josh Hamilton Was Exactly What the Rangers Needed to Do

Shortly after Rangers general manager Jon Daniels swapped erratic right-hander Edinson Volquez and reliever Danny Herrera for Josh Hamilton five years ago, I placed seemingly unrealistic expectations on the troubled outfielder. "He has the potential to be the best center fielder in Rangers' history ... More >>

Watch Thieves Smash Truck Through Glass Door, Steal Absurd Amount of Rangers Merchandise

The video above was taken at about 2:30 a.m. on Decenber 1 from inside the Texas Rangers store on McKinney Avenue. If you'll watch carefully -- or really if you just keep your eyes open -- you'll see the taillights of a white Ford pickup creep slowly backward, then smash through the glass door. Two ... More >>

Five Key Holes the Rangers Need to Fill This Winter, and How They Should Fill Them

Just a few days after the 2012 MLB season kicked off in Japan, one of the elite players scheduled to become a free agent in the coming offseason took himself off the market. The Giants enticed Matt Cain to stay in San Francisco, signing him to a six-year, $127.5 million contract extension -- the mos ... More >>

A Rangers-A's Open Thread, Because You Guys Aren't Getting Any Work Done Anyway

The good news: Meaningful day-time baseball. The bad news: It comes about a week too soon. The Rangers have one more crack at Oakland's swinging (and walking) A's this afternoon. It's win-and-they're-in, lose-and-they're-kind-of-in. Since workplace productivity will be in the tank anyway, we figu ... More >>

Time For Ron Washington to Stop Shilling For Ace Cash Express

If you watch a Rangers game on TV for more than about five minutes, you're bound to encounter manager Ron Washington telling you wonderful things about Ace Cash Express. If you can ignore the glare from Washington's shiny pate -- he often appears sans baseball cap, even though he is a man who benefi ... More >>

Big Thanks To Minnesota

Why (and How) the Rangers Should Go All In as the Trade Deadline Looms

What a week for Your Texas Rangers. Nolan Ryan and Ron Washington took turns publicly ripping Josh Hamilton for the alarming lack of discipline he's displayed at the plate, increasing the likelihood that he'll be headed elsewhere this offseason. Fans booed the slumping slugger at home for the firs ... More >>

A Texas Rangers Midseason Report: It's Time to Go All In

With the baseball season at the symbolic halfway point, we asked former Unfair Parker Sam Merten to root around in his beard and see if he could come up with anything to say. He obliged ... and obliged ... and ... Sports are unpredictable. That's why we watch. And there's no greater evidence than t ... More >>

Tigers by the Tail

Best Part About the Rangers Inking Roy Oswalt? Low Expectations and a Big Upside.

Heading into Tuesday night's 10-3 ass-kicking by the Seattle Mariners, the Rangers and their fans had very little to complain about the 2012 season. Name an offensive stat -- batting average, runs scored, hits, home runs, total bases, on-base-plus-slugging percentage (my personal fave) -- and the Ra ... More >>

Eric Nadel is a Rangers Hall of Famer

The Texas Rangers just confirmed what everybody already knew: Eric Nadel is a bad ass.The team announced at a press conference this afternoon that the longtime radio broadcaster, the voice that has narrated, if not propelled, its climb into Major League Baseball's upper ranks, is the 2012 inductee i ... More >>

Evan Abeele of Memoryhouse Talks Sub Pop, Hockey and Philip Glass

Back in the '90s, Canada's Memoryhouse were one of those bands you would never expect to release an album on Sub Pop. But over the past decade, the Seattle-based label has diversified so much that just about anything goes, including the dream-pop of Evan Abeele and Denise Nouvion. Driving through ... More >>

An Excuse For Hotdogs

So Long, Pudge Rodriguez

While the Mavs stare bleakly into James Harden's beard and the Cowboys kick tires ahead of Thursday's draft, the local sports world takes a minute to look longingly in reverse today, over the long, remarkable career of Pudge Rodriguez, arguably the best catcher of all time. (And what is baseball goo ... More >>

Yu Darvish's Deb-Yu: Five Observations of Last Night's Game from a Mariners Blogger

We asked Seattle-based sports blogger and A.L. West obsessive Brian Elsner to review Yu Darvish's Major League debut from a division foe's perspective. These are his thoughts. 1. Darvish Needs to Rely on All Those Other Pitches Everyone raves about the number of pitches Darvish can throw; I've hear ... More >>

Happy Opening Day. Let's Predict Some Stuff.

Oh, it's a Good Friday alright. Maybe the best Friday, if you happen to have a job that allows you escape the cubical farm and head to the nearest TV-and-frosty-beer-equipped bar with your fellow farmers. (For bar suggestions, mosey here.) Going to the game? Well, then, it's an Even Better Friday. ... More >>

What the Ballpark in Arlington Will Look Like When the Texas Rangers Return to the Field

Back in November the Texas Rangers invited media folk out to the Ballpark in Arlington for a sneak peek at $11.5 million worth of renovations being made out in Vandergriff Plaza, where, among other things, the team's adding a private-party zone, retooling the kids' area and building a new bar. Said ... More >>

To Promote New Play About '66 Cowboys and Sportswriters, Mike Shropshire Tells All

​As I've noted a few times, Mike Shropshire's Seasons in Hell, about the "worst team in baseball history" (the '73-'75 Texas Rangers), is my favorite sports book; probably has something to do with being raised on the '73-'75 Texas Rangers. Anyway.On a very related note, a Friend of Unfair Park sen ... More >>

You Can Always Get What Yu Wants: Texas Rangers and Darvish Agree to Six-Year Deal

​With a 4 p.m. deadline on the horizon, T.R. Sullivan wasn't hopeful at daybreak: "The word Wednesday morning was that the Rangers' optimism has waned a bit." Sources have been saying in recent days that Japanese pitching sensation and magazine cover boy Yu Darvish wanted a five-year deal, the Tex ... More >>

If Signing Yu Darvish and Prince Fielder Are Mutually Exclusive, The Texas Rangers Might Be Better Off If Darvish Returns to Japan

As Wednesday's 4 p.m. deadline nears in the negotiations between the Texas Rangers and Yu Darvish, the most significant hang-up is reportedly the 25-year-old's request for a five-year contract and the team's preference for a six-year deal, according to Yahoo! Sports' Jeff Passan. Understandably, Dar ... More >>

Former Rangers Prez Mike Stone Talks About Helping to Save the Fort Worth Cats

You can buy this 1953 Cats-Oilers game program for a mere $38.​Longtime Friends of Unfair Park will recall: In early 2009, United League Baseball co-founders John Bryant (yes, that John Bryant) and Byron Pierce said that come time for first pitch 2010, they would have a minor-league ballclub on th ... More >>

Are Yu Kidding Me? The Texas Rangers Are About to Open the Bank Vault For Darvish.

​In winning the well-publicized bidding for Yu Darvish shortly after 10 Monday night, the Texas Rangers have positioned themselves to sign the famous Japanese hurler to one of the riskiest contracts in baseball history. And unless the 25-year-old right-hander immediately establishes himself among ... More >>

How Will the Texas Rangers Celebrate 40 Years in Arlington? With Lots of Throwin' Back.

​Since every Cowboys game is a Game 6 these days, it's time to look to the 2012 baseball season, when Your Texas Rangers will celebrate 40 years in Arlington. And for those of us who've been going to games since first pitch at Arlington Stadium (thanks, Dad), today's announcement is full of all ki ... More >>

Hell of a Day to Be a Texas Rangers Fan as Angels Snap up Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson

​What you see at right is the artwork currently decorating the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim's website: side-by-side pics of Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson, both of whom are now Angels. The now-former Cardinal's deal is for 10 years and worth between $250 and $260 million, and is said to include a ... More >>

Exploring Texas Rangers' Options as Wheelin' and Dealin' Begins at Hilton Anatole

Photo by Sam MertenThe scene yesterday afternoon in the lobby of the Hilton Anatole.​Likely bracing for the departure of free-agent hurler C.J. Wilson, the Texas Rangers have already inked former Minnesota Twins closer Joe Nathan to a two-year, $14.5 million contract and announced Neftali Feli ... More >>

After Club Signs Nathan, Moves Neffy to Rotation, Rangers Offer Wilson Arbitration

​My bad. Been meaning to get back in here and post something, anything, of note, and there's been plenty in recent days. And as Josh's Broken Groin notes, it's been way too long. So then, to today's Breaking, or Broken, Rangers News: The club has offered salary arbitration for next season to C.J. ... More >>

Breaking Down the Texas Rangers Offseason Plans in the Wake of Coming So Close

Photos courtesy Texas RangersNo need to place all of the blame on Nellie. There are plenty of other folks at fault for losing the World Series.​No matter how hard you try to find a scapegoat, the story of the 2011 World Series doesn't have a chapter about its version of Bill Buckner, nor shoul ... More >>

This Week in "Dewey Defeats Truman," FOX4

​I didn't sleep a wink last night -- kept replaying over and over the myriad mistakes made by Ron Washington and the Texas Rangers last night, twice one strike away from Winning It All. They're recounted below, blow by painful blow; how Sam gets it up for tonight's Do-or-Die preview and open threa ... More >>

Rangers Radio Great Eric Nadel Knows How You Feel. But: "Time For an Attitude Change."

​Last night, during the 10th inning of Game 6, Steve Busby handed the mic to his Rangers broadcast partner -- Eric Nadel, Frick Award finalist and a man whose voice has gotten us through countless seasons in hell. Buzz wanted to make sure Eric had the opportunity to call the final out of the game, ... More >>

Final Gut Check: Rangers-Cardinals World Series Game 7 Preview and Open Thread

St. Louis CardinalsTrying to forget this happened won't be easy for Texas, but they have to find a way if they want to salvage the championship.​As I've written before, I fell in love with the game of baseball in 1986 -- the first year I watched every inning of the World Series. Although I ha ... More >>

Guts, Not Gaffes Give Texas an Opportunity for the Kill Shot: Rangers-St. Louis Cardinals World Series Game 6 Preview and Open Thread

Texas RangersMike Napoli celebrates his game-winning double in the eighth inning of Game 5.​The intellect of one of the best managers and greatest players in baseball history short-circuited at the worst possible times for the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 5 of the World Series, but Monday night ... More >>