The Wash Situation Redux

 

So the reason Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington resigned was because "I was not true to my wife." I’ll go along with everyone else who takes that as a euphemism for "I had a sexual dalliance with someone other than the one to whom I had pledged my troth."

But I don’t see where you toss your entire career out the window because you wandered into places where you didn’t belong. That, alone, isn’t enough. Do you have any idea how many baseball groupies exist out there? They know the hotels where the visiting teams will be staying and they know how to "meet and greet" at those establishments. I suspect that many ballplayers are on a first-name basis with many of these charming lassies. If all the ballplayers who ever had sex with someone other than their wives during the season were forced to resign, no franchise could field a nine-player team.

There’s still more — much more — to this story than Washington is letting on.

I can think of only five reasons why marriage infidelity forced Washington away from baseball. (1) He contracted some life-threatening sexually transmitted disease; (2) His sexual partner of question is pregnant with his child and has decided to keep it (3, the most likely scenario) the person Washington dillied with is also a Texas Ranger employee or who is either in a high-ranking or sensitive position or who has threatened some form of sexual harassment proceedings against the team; (4, the second most likely reason) some form of violence was involved leading the possibility of sexual assault charges being filed; or (5) the person involved with Washington is the significant other of a Ranger employee.

At the other end of the this story is the fact that the Rangers, the team with the worse record in baseball, won their sixth — that’s right, sixth! — game in a row today under interim manager Tim Bogar. As far as I’m concerned, I’m thinking team General Manager Jon Daniels should remove that "interim" tag from Bogar’s title. Heaven knows the team could do a lot worse.

The Wash Situation

Ron Washington congratulating Tony La Russa for out-managing him in 2011 World Series

Let me get this out in the open right at the outset: I am not a huge Ron Washington fan. I know the overwhelming majority of baseball fans in this area as well as most if not all the area sportswriters think the former Texas Rangers manager walks on water, but I’m not that convinced. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say the Rangers win the 2011 World Series if Washington hadn’t completely bungled the pivotal Game 6.

Colby Lewis

For example, top of the fifth, Rangers up 4-3, two out, runner on third and Mike Napoli at the plate. For some reason I never understood, Cardinals manager Tony La Russa orders right-handed pitcher Fernando Salas to walk Napoli intentionally. Washington pinch hit David Murphy for Craig Gentry and Salas walks Murphy to load the bases. Next up for Texas is pitcher Colby Lewis. Washington had a lot of options at his disposal on the bench to possibly break the game wide open: left-hand hitters Mitch Moreland and Endy Chavez as well as the switch-hitting Esteban German. He also had a fresh bullpen. So what does Washington do? Unbelievably, he let Lewis hit for himself. (Curt Schilling twittered at that moment: "What in the hell is happening... Can't decide the worse move, Lewis hitting or Holland warming????") Lewis strikes out to end the inning.

Mike Adams

Now let’s go to the bottom of the eighth inning. Rangers are ahead 7-4 and appear on their way to a world championship. Left-hander Derek Holland is now on the mound for Texas. First Cardinal up is switch-hitting Lance Berkman who hits signicantly better against righties than lefties. Holland retired him on a foul ball. Next up for St. Louis are three consecutive right-hand hitters, Allen Craig, David Freese and Yadier Molina and Washington has one of the best right-hand relievers in the business, Mike Adams, who established a solid reputation for retiring righties in the eighth inning all season. Amazingly, Washington never even left the dugout. So what does Craig do against Holland? He homers. After that he brings in Adams who retires Freese and Molina. I’m betting Craig doesn’t hit a home run against Adams and the Rangers win Game 6 and the Series.

Earlier in that game the Rangers had runners on first and second, nobody out, again with Lewis up. The Cards sold out on the bunt and rushed their corner infielders toward the plate. When Washington saw this he should have waved off the bunt, but he didn’t and Lewis bunted into a double play.

Neftali Feliz

OK, I’ll grant you that Neftali Feliz, one of the game’s great closers, blew the ninth inning of that game. But the Rangers were back in front in the 10^th thanks to Josh Hamilton’s two-run homer and the Cardinals had the bottom of their order due up. Send Feliz back out there. He was only 23 at the time had all winter to rest his young arm. If nothing else, bring in C.J. Wilson, one of the elite lefties in the league that year, as your reliever. But, no. Washington summons 41-year-old Darren Oliver from the bullpen. We all know what happened next.



Esteban German

Go back to Game 1 of the series which the Rangers lost 3-2. In the seventh inning, Texas had runners on first and second with two out and the next scheduled batter was relief pitcher Alexi Ogando. On the mound for St. Louis was lefty Marc Rzepczynski. Washington had two right-hand hitters on the bench: Yorvit Torrealba and, Matt Treanor plus the switch-hitting German. Torrealba had 108 hits during the regular season as well as four more in nine at-bats during the ALCS. He was tearing it up. Treanor didn’t play much in the second half of the season due to injury and, in fact, had not a hit since the All-Star break. German had only 5 hits the entire season, only a total of 22 hits in three major league seasons and had not even been to the plate in 24 games. Obviously, Torrealba is the logical choice but Washington pinch hits German who promptly strikes out to end the threat. The Ranger never had another runner on base the rest of the game. Now I’ll admit there’s no guarantee that Torrealba gets a hit I that situation but you simply don’t insert a pinch hitter into a pivotal moment in a World Series game who hasn’t batted in almost a month.

I’m not saying any single one of those bad decisions cost the Rangers the Series but put them all together and the evidence is obvious.

Now back to the present. I, for one, am not all that sorry to see Washington leave as the Rangers manager.

But I’m still mystified by the timiing and the reasoning. The reason given for his resignation was "personal issues," but general manager Jon Daniels went out of his way to assure the world it was in no way drug related (Washington had admitted to using cocaine in his past).

So here’s my theory.

Yu know who
 

One month ago, the Rangers placed their valuable ace Yu Darvish on the 15-day disabled list because of right elbow inflammation. I thought to myself at the time, that’s the last we’ll see of Darvish this year. The Rangers were in last place in the American League West with the worst record in baseball so what good would it do to bring Darvish back to get, what, maybe two more wins. Not at the risk of further damaging that valuable right arm. Darvish ranks right up there with Clayton Kershaw as the best pitcher in the majors. The Rangers invested vast sums of money in him. Why risk this investment as well as his and the team’s future by forcing him to pitch in meaningless games this year? And, then, a week or two into Darvish’s rehab period, Daniels suggested much the same thing.

Jon Daniels

Washington’s reaction was quick, hot-tempered and wrong. He said if Darvish was cleared by team doctors he should be out there on the mound, whether or not he was pitching in games of no importance, (He did, a couple of days, later apologize after, I must believe, wiser voices whispered in his ear.) But I think the damage had been done. I know I was thinking at the time that had I been in Darvish’s shoes I wouldn’t be thinking too highly of Washington right about that time. In fact, I might have even gone to my agent and told him to inform Daniels that, after this season ends, either he goes or I go.

So Daniels is left to ponder: Lemme see. Who’s more valuable to the Rangers future? Ron Washington, who bungled us out of the 2011 World Series, or Yu Darvish, runner up in last year’s Cy Young voting? Hmm, Washington or Darvish? Darvish or Washington? To me, the choice was obvious.

I’m not going way out on this limb and declare that’s what transpired, but until I get a better explanation …

By the way, the day after Washington’s resignation, Daniels officially announced Darvish would not pitch again the rest of the year. Coincidence? You convince me.

Eric Nadel on the proposed plastic bag ban

According to ace reporter Robert Wilonsky, Texas Rangers' legendary broadcaster Eric Nadel heartily supports Dwaine Carraway's proposal to ban plastic shopping bags.

Wilonsky reports he received the following from Nadel:

Eric Nadel
 

"Let’s stop the plastic bag madness, please. Plastic bags have a very slow rate of decomposition, and wind up on our streets, in land fills or eventually in our waterways and oceans. They are dangerous to marine life and harmful to the marine environment. They produce toxic microparticles that can enter the human food chain. Plastic bags can easily be replaced by biodegradable and re-usable materials that are not highly dispersed in the environment.

“Banning plastic bags is not the salvation of the environment, but it is a way to easily reduce the negative environmental impact of human activities. This one is a no-brainer. Now let’s move on to Styrofoam food packaging.”

Moneyball wins

It was not so much that the Texas Rangers collapsed at the end of the season. The real story of the Rangers slide from a 12-game lead over Oakland on July 1 to losing the division championship to the A’s today on the last game of the season was simply this: the Rangers were merely mediocre in the last half of the season and the A’s were outstanding.

Here are the telling figures: Since July 1, the Ranger’s won-loss record was only four games above 500, 43-39, a winning percentage of .524. Oakland, on the other hand, was an incredible 56-26 (.683!) over that same period.

How did they do it? It sure wasn’t with any outstanding performances on offense or defense. The team’s leading batter, Yoenis Cespedes (not exactly a household name) ranks 17^th in the American League with a .292 average. As a team, Oakland ranks 15^th among the 30 MLB teams in batting (Texas was first), 16^th in runs scored and 17^th in OPS. They were, however, seventh in home runs, hitting 194, only six less than the Rangers. On defense, Oakland committed 110 errors, 8^th worst in the majors.

Pitching, still a Ranger’s weak spot, was another story for the A’s. Oakland was sixth in the majors with a team ERA of 3.48. (Texas was 16^th with a 3.96), although none of their pitchers finished in the top 10 in ERA in the AL.

But somehow they put it all together for a fabulous second half of the season while Texas was barely above average.

It would not surprise me at all to see a World Series matching Oakland and Washington. Now, what were the odds of that happening at the beginning of the season?

Wash bears most of the blame for Rangers’ failure

I always thought the 1961 Texas Longhorn football team was the school’s best, at least until the 1969 National Championship squad. That ‘61 team was far superior to the one that won the national title two years later. It featured three running backs who were the best trio to ever — ever — play for the Horns at the same time: halfbacks James Saxton and Jack Collins along with fullback Ray Poage. The quarterback was Mike Cotten. There were games when all four rushed for more than 100 yards each.

Texas manager Ron Washington

After winning the Southwest Conference, they were scheduled to play Ole Miss in the Cotton Bowl. I attended all the practices leading up to that game. I didn’t have much else to do. It was the Christmas break period, but back then that break didn’t come between semesters and most professors loved to give major exams the first class session after the break. Not only that, I really had no place else to go. I was also a sportswriter for the school newspaper, The Daily Texan, which was daily in name only — it published five days a week during the regular school year and not at all during the Christmas break.

Anyway, I was out at one of the practices during the week leading up to the Cotton Bowl game and the offense ran this incredibly complex trick play that actually worked. After the practice, the two or three sportswriters who were there huddled around head coach Darrell Royal and asked him if he was going to use that play or one like it in the bowl game.

"Nah," he drawled. "You gotta dance with who brung ya," meaning the Horns were going to rely on the same dynamic running game that had been successful all season.

Now I immediately recognized that as I great quote and was silently screaming at the gods for not having a place to publish it. But it was published by the others who were there and it immediately became a sports truism and earned a permanent spot in sports lexicon.

I have been thinking a lot about that moment lately because if manager Ron Washington had followed it, the Texas Rangers might be the current reigning major league baseball champions.

For most of the season, reliever Neftali Feliz was the Rangers’ closer. It wasn’t Feliz’s fault that in the ninth inning of Game 6 Nelson Cruz badly misplayed a routine fly ball that allowed the Cardinals to score a pair of runs and send the game into extra innings. But then Josh Hamilton gave the team new life with a two-run homer in the top of the 10^th.

Why wasn’t Feliz on the mound in the bottom of the 10th?

This is the crucial moment in the Series. There is no reason to protect Feliz for a game the next day that should never take place. You think the Yankees’ Joe Giraldi would have pulled Manny Riviera had he been in this situation? Not a chance. You gotta dance with who brung ya.

I have yet to see an explanation from Wash on why he lifted Feliz. I’m not sure anyone has posed the question. I just hope general manager Josh Daniels and majority owner Nolan Ryan bring it up in their post-season interviews with Washington and that they receive an answer that warrants keeping Wash around another year as the Rangers skipper.

Not buying LaRussa’s communications story

St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa is blaming this for last night’s World Series loss to the Texas Rangers. Here’s what happened: Right-handed hitting Texas catcher Mike Napoli hit a two-run double in the eighth inning off left-handed reliever Marc Rzepczynski to break a 2-2 tie — the last runs scored in the game.

Mike Napoli

LaRussa claims Rzepczynski shouldn’t have been in the game at the moment, that the bullpen coach warmed up and sent in the wrong pitcher. He said the crowd noise at Rangers Stadium was so intense that the bullpen coach couldn’t hear LaRussa’s instructions over the phone connecting the bullpen with the dugout. (Rangers Stadium is constructed in such a way that you can’t see what’s happening in the visiting team’s bullpen from its dugout, but that’s just one of the reason it’s called "a home field advantage." Another reason is local crowd noise.)

But I digress. There are those who say LaRussa is throwing his bullpen coach under the bus. One St. Louis columnist quoted someone in the Cardinals’ bullpen as saying LaRussa’s account "is not what happened."

But even if I give LaRussa the benefit of the doubt, I’m not buying his story. This is the World Series. This is the time when you wear both a belt and suspenders. The crowd noise/bullpen issue probably wasn’t much of a concern in the blowout Game 3, but I’m betting it was there in Game 4, which the Rangers also won. I have to believe that LaRussa meets with all his coaches after each game to discuss issues/problems and what can be done to address them. If the crowd noise was that much of an issue, it should have been discussed after Game 4 and addressed then.

But back to my "belt and suspenders" comment. Even if the noise wasn’t discussed, LaRussa, if he’s the genius who thinks of all angles like we’ve been led to believe, should have come up with a simple plan, telling his bullpen coach: "When I call you, be sure to repeat what I’ve told you. If you don’t hear anything from me, it means I have hung up because you heard me correctly. If you still hear my voice, that means get out your cell phone because I’m about to text you."

But Napoli did more than hit the crucial double. I thought his signature play was in the ninth inning when Rangers closer Neftali Feliz hit Allen Craig on a 1-2 pitch bringing Albert Pujols, the best hitter in the game today, to the plate as the tying run. But Felix not only struck out Pujols on a 3-2 pitch, but Napoli gunned down Craig trying to advance to second for a double play to empty the bases. (Napoli also threw out Craig in the seventh with Pujols at the plate in what was later described as a botched hit-and-run called by Pujols, not the coaches.)

By the way, has anyone else noticed how the won-loss pattern in this World Series is mirroring the W-L pattern of the NBA championship series? When the Rangers win this Series in six, I can’t see anyone other than Napoli being named the Most Valuable Player.

Cliff Lee and the LaBron Factor

Want to know who to blame for the loss of Cliff Lee? LaBron James. That's right. Lee just followed James's example when the pitching ace signed with the Philadelphia Phillies: Surround yourself with the players that give you the best opportunity to win a championship.

He knew the Yankees, thought to be Lee's primary suitor, weren't the answer. There's an excellent chance the Bronx Bombers won't even make the playoffs next year. The Boston Red Sox are clearly the best team in the American League East right now and that would be true even if the Yanks had signed Lee. Could the Yanks sneak in as a wild card? Don't know. That's how they made it in last year, but their starting lineup is aging dangerously (you could really see Derek Jeter's fall off in the last half of last year) and they could finish behind Tampa Bay again this coming season.

In fact, the Rangers have a better shot at another playoff run this year than the Yanks. Recall the Rangers would have won the West last year even without Lee and they should be favored to repeat, although the Angels and even Oakland are poised to give them better competition. What Lee did for the Rangers was give them the two playoff series wins that got them into the World Series, although most observers (and I'm betting Lee is one of them) considered the playoff win over Tampa Bay a fluke. And Lee was not going to give the Rangers an edge over the BoSox this coming season.

The Phillies are an entirely different matter. I'm trying to recall if baseball has ever witnessed a four-man starting rotation to match Lee, Halladay, Hamels and Oswalt. I certainly can't recall one. Lee isn't even the No. 1 starter in that group. The Phils finished last year with the best record in the majors (97-65) and the addition of Lee easily pushes them over the century mark.

I know it's early, but right now it's shaping up to be a Boston Red Sox/Philadelphia Phillies World Series next year and if pitching really does make the difference in a post-season series than you must give Philadelphia the edge. Philadelphia was the only team that offered Lee a realistic shot at a championship and, like LaBron with Miami, he took it. He just made his decision in a far more classier style than James did.

A short epitaph on the Texas Rangers season

I'm proud of the performance of the over-achieving 2010 edition of the Texas Rangers. Sure they lost the World Series in five games, but they at least brought the Series to North Central Texas for the first time ever and how many folks realistically expected that to happen when the season started? To be honest, I didn't expect it to happen when the playoffs started.

But I got to give these guys credit. They didn't lose this Series. They didn't give it away. They were defeated by a superior team, a team with the best starting pitching rotation since the magnificent Baltimore Oriole team of 1971. (Remember Jim Palmer, Dave McNally, Pat Dobson, Mike Cuellar? They all won 20 games for the Orioles that year.) And in a short series, pitching is going to make the difference.

As I alluded to earlier, I didn't expect the Rangers to get past Tampa Bay in the ALDS. So, from my point of view, this Series appearance was a bonus, a tribute to the togetherness of a fine baseball team. But now this club has whetted my appetite: I want to see them back in the Series in 2011.

Growing up in New York City, as I did when the City had three baseball teams, one of them -- the Brooklyn Dodgers -- always ended their season with a phrase that seems apt right now: "WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR!"

Little Leppert

In one of its preview stories on the baseball World Series, The New York Times paralleled the cities of Dallas and San Francisco through their contrasting mayors, Tom Leppert of Dallas and (someone I believe has a bright political future) Gavin Newsom of San Francisco. You can read the entire story here, but the editors also came up with pictures of the two in their younger days dressed in baseball uniforms. In Newsom's case, it was a shot from his high school days in Larkspur, Calif. What you see here is the picture the paper ran of Da Mayor.

Here's my favorite paragraph from another one of the paper's Series preview pieces:

"One ballpark sells T-shirts with the team logo superimposed over the symbol of the Grateful Dead. The other sells photos of the team owner wrapping Robin Ventura in a headlock. If you need to be told which is which, you’re probably not interested in this World Series, anyway."

An interesting piece of pre-World Series baseball trivia

The very first interleague baseball game was played June 12, 1997, in Arlington between the Texas Rangers and the San Francisco Giants. The Rangers' starting pitcher that night was none other than Darren Oliver. The Giants won that game 4-3.

Watching the Rangers win the pennant while thinking about Joe Lovitto

I wish Joe Lovitto could have lived to see this day. I really do.

I was working for UPI in 1972  when the Texas Rangers opened their first season in Arlington. Man, was that a miserable year for baseball in North Texas, a season of 100 defeats. I always knew if a team got a two-run lead on the Rangers, the game was over, Texas couldn't come back. That was a miserable offensive team: Dick Billings behind the plate, Ron Howard (long past his prime) at first, Dave Nelson at second, Len Randle at short, Toby Harrah at third, Tom Grieve in left, Elliott Maddox in right and Lovitto in center.

Lovitto was one of those "can't miss" prospects who did -- miss, that is. He had blazing speed and was a career .300 hitter in the minors. He was being groomed to be the first superstar of Texas' newest sports franchise. And, as Billy Martin wrote in his autobiography, he might have become just that if not for the injuries. In his rookie season of 1972, however, he hit only .224 with 19 RBI and 13 stolen bases. But for us covering the Rangers, he was usually the sacrificial lamb the team used to speak for the team in the locker room after every home game. Night after night we had to try to force meaningful words out of Joe Lovitto who was, to put it kindly, not the brightest intellectual light in the locker room.

Because of injuries he only played in 26 games in 1973. In 1974 he played he played in 113 games but hit only .223. He was on the disabled list for most of 1975 and then at the beginning of the 1976 season he was traded to the New York Mets, who cut him during spring training.

Lovitto settled in Arlington where he died of cancer in 2001 at the age of 50.

For the overwhelming majority of the time the Rangers have made Texas their home, they were more Joe Lovitto than they were Josh Hamilton. That, as the world now knows, is no longer true. The Rangers are going to the World Series and I really don't care what happens to any other area sports team -- even my beloved Texas Longhorns -- for the rest of the year and into a goodly portion of next. The Rangers are going to the World Series. I was seriously concerned I would never live long enough to write those words.

And they did it not by beating the best team in the American League -- they had already done that earlier when they eliminated Tampa Bay. But they did by beating baseball's gold standard -- the New York Yankees. And they beat them in just about every phase of the game -- hitting, pitching, playing more aggressively, out-managing the Yanks. The only area I would call a push would be defense. And because they completely dominated the team all others usually genuflect before, I'm convinced the Rangers can take either the Giants or the Phils in less than seven games, if they can continue to play at this level. And I see no reason why they shouldn't, especially now that Cliff Lee is set up to pitch the opener. This team doesn't know the meaning of pressure. They aren't daunted by your pedigree.

I also think this series finale wrapped up the American League Most Valuable Player Award for Josh Hamilton. His only serious contender was Robinson Cano, but the Yankee second baseman had a donut at the plate in his season finale and made that critical throwing error in the first inning that allowed Elvis Andrus to score the Rangers' first run.

The World Series begins Wednesday night in either Philadelphia or San Francisco (personally, I would prefer San Francisco) and the Rangers are going to be in it. For some strange reason, I wished Joe Lovitto could have been around to witness this memorable day.

And we'll root, root, root for the home team

I was born and spent most of my early childhood in New York City, back when the city had three baseball teams (as well as three pro football teams, but no one paid any attention to them). The city was divided into specific geographic areas. Mine was where you loved the Yankees, tolerated the Giants and hated the Dodgers. My family, especially my dad, took that seriously.

I don't know how he did it -- I was way too young to ask at the time and he died before I could find out later -- but my dad got to know a number of the Yankees personally. The Yankee lineup during this time consisted, for the most part, of Johnny Mize at first, Billy Martin at second, Phil Rizutto at short, Bobby Brown at third, Gene Woodling in left, Joe DiMaggio in center and either Tommy Henrich or Hank Bauer in right. A rookie named Yogi Berra was the new Yankees' catcher and the starting rotation consisted of Allie Reynolds, Vic Raschi and Eddie Lopat.

My dad was in the construction business and I remember parties at our Lower East Side apartment that were attended mostly by New York Yankee players and gangsters I later saw portrayed as much younger thugs on the television program "The Untouchables." One of the wildest of those parties was one thrown in honor of my little brother's christening. My mom and dad worried about either my safety or my ability to get some sleep (possibly both) in that environment and convinced our neighbors down the hall to let me spend the night there. Those neighbors were the Dunphys. That name might not mean anything today, but back then Don Dunphy was considered "the voice of boxing," the man who did the radio and later the television punch-by-punch announcing for the matches emanating from Madison Square Garden as well as the heavyweight championship fights wherever they occurred. This was also back in the day when the milkman delivered his product right to your front door. Anyway, on this particular evening I was racing down the hall to the Dunphy's apartment and slipped on a piece of glass from a broken milk bottle and fell into the bulk of the shattered bottle. I was bleeding profusely, and Don Dunphy, on his way to the job at MSG, opened the door of his apartment, saw me and wrapped his tuxedo jacket (he always wore a tuxedo to announce the fights) to fashion a tourniquet before the ambulance came to take me to the hospital. For many years after we left the city, I received a holiday card annually from Don Dunphy that included the words "You still owe me a tuxedo."

Back then there were eight American League teams and eight in the National League and the winner of each played in the World Series. There was no wild cards or playoff games. In the American League, the pennant race consisted of the Yankees against the Ted Williams-led Boston Red Sox. The two teams would be neck- and-neck until around Labor Day when the Yanks would sweep a series from the Sox and then win going away. I felt like Yankee Stadium was my second home. My dad worked in Rockefeller Center and commuted by subway. Just about every night I would wait at the end of the block where we lived for my dad to come home from work and on most of those nights when the Yanks were at home we would head for the Bronx after he changed out of his dress suit. This was back when the left and right field walls at Yankee Stadium were only three-feet high and the monuments were in the field of play.

And once each season we would make a road trip to a series in Boston, always staying at the same hotel as the Yankees. This hotel had a restaurant with a bar at one end, a circular bar with seats all around the perimeter. Once my dad and I were having dinner in the hotel restaurant and we spotted Martin, Rizzuto and Bauer at the bar. About 15 minutes after we sat down, Yankee manager Casey Stengel walked in along with Frank Crossetti and other coaches. He saw the players at the bar and firmly told them that sitting in a bar in public on the road that early in the evening violated team rules. The players seemed to oblige Stengel. However, when the manager turned to go to his dinner table, the players simply moved around to the far side of the bar, figuring Stengel couldn't seem them there, since this pillar in the middle of the bar obscured the view of the far side. What they players didn't realize, however, was that the bar was slowly revolving. As the trio came back into Stengel's line of sight, the Yankee manager jumped from his table, stormed over to the bar and unleashed a torrent of words plenty loud enough for me, my dad and everyone else in the restaurant to hear, even if we didn't understand them. (Stengel often spoke in an indecipherable language all his own that the New York media dubbed "Stengalese"). The players just looked at him dumbfounded and when the outburst ended, sheepishly left the bar.

We later moved to the San Francisco area, a couple of years before the Giants made a similar move. The local team then was the minor league San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League. The highlight of my dad's week was the televised "Game of the Week" (featuring play-by-play by Dizzy Dean). The GOTW featured the Yankees more often than not. Those telecasts would turn my dad into a nervous wreck. He would pace back and forth in front of the television, alternately praising a Yankee play and cursing a Stengel strategy move. Too often, however, the games would run long. It would be the bottom of the ninth, the score tied, runners on first and second, my dead hanging on every pitch and the local station would interrupt the telecast to begin the San Francisco Seals pre-game show. At that moment my dad would make Stengel in the bar seem like a piker. "What's going on?" he would scream. "Interrupting the New York Yankees for some bush league's pre-game show???" He would then vow retaliation like firebombing the station and, in some cases, the entire city.

I moved to Dallas in 1968 to take a position with the wire service United Press International and when the Washington Senators relocated here as the Texas Rangers two years later, I was assigned to cover most of their home games. UPI's Southwest Division sports editor at the time worked from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m., so any sporting event that occurred after 3 (which, of course, was most of them) was covered by another staffer, most of them by the great Mike Rabun. For some reason, however, I got the bulk of the Ranger games. One year the Rangers opened their season at home against the Yankees. Not only that, the Rangers had a new manager, former Yankee Billy Martin. For that reason, UPI's national sports desk in New York wanted to make sure I obtained a number of quotes from Martin after the game. So after I filed my story and the box score, I trotted from the press box to the Rangers clubhouse, walked up to Billy Martin and introduced myself: "I'm Pete Oppel of UPI." Martin stared at me. "Oppel ... Oppel," he said. "You're dad isn't Bill Oppel, is it?" I said that it was, but that my dad had died eight years earlier. He grabbed a clubhouse phone and called what I later learned was the Yankees broadcast booth and said "Hey, guys. I've got Bill Oppel's son down here." That night I wound up in a room at the Inn of Six Flags, which used to be located across the Turnpike from Arlington Stadium, playing poker with Billy Martin, Phil Rizzuto, Yogi Berra and Don Drysdale, simply because I was my dad's son.

For the past week I have been dreading a matchup of my beloved Yankees against the Texas Rangers in the ALCS. I actually got caught up in the Rangers this year -- in the Josh Hamilton saga, his run for the MVP trophy, the acquisition of Cliff Lee, the sale of the club to Nolan Ryan et al. Who was I going to root for? I didn't know. I emotionally could not make a choice.

Tonight my son decided he wanted to cook out on the grill in the back yard and then watch the opening game of the series. My grill rack was rusty so I went to a neighborhood store to get a replacement. The store had all kinds of Rangers and Yankees baseball paraphernalia and without even thinking I decided to buy three shirts, one for me, one my son and one for my granddaughter. Her's sports Michael Young's number, my son has Ian Kinsler's last name and number on the back. And mine? Mine is also fire engine red, with the name Lee and the number 33 on the back.

Stay cool, dad.

Mr. Lee

Wow! What a masterful pitching performance yesterday by Cliff Lee in the Rangers' playoff opening victory! The only thing that could have knocked Lee off the front page of the nation's sports pages was somone pitching a no-hitter.

Could Rangers Wednesday win prove prophetic?

The Texas Rangers came from behind Wednesday night to beat Cleveland 4-3. Now I would like another area team to take something from Cleveland, much to the delight of this gentleman. Although most prognosticators are now predicting LaBron James will join Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh in South Beach, I'm hoping that when James makes his announcement on live television Thursday night, he announces he will stay in Cleveland. I say that because the only chance the Dallas Mavericks have of landing James is via a sign-and-trade with the Cavaliers. They certainly don't have the cap space to sign James as a free agent and, in fact, haven't been among the active suitors for James's services.

Mark Cuban promised Dirk Nowitzki, when the Big German agreed to contract terms with the Mavs this past weekend, that he would go out and find another marquee name to play alongside him. Bosh and Wade, however, are out of the picture. Carlos Boozer has signed with Chicago, Amare Stoudemaire is now a New York Knick and Joe Johnson is apparently staying put in Atlanta. Except for James, those signings have wiped the marquee clean. If Cuban is going to fulfill his promise to Nowitzki, it all hinges on James announcing he re-sign with the Cavs.

Actually this makes sense for LaBron. Sign a three-year deal, come to Dallas to play in what is probably going to be the final three years of Nowitzki's prime (plus having the opportunity to play alongside a Hall-of-Fame-bound point guard), and then, three years hence, have the opportunity to sign an even bigger free agent deal. Plus, he will be playing for the most player-friendly owner in the NBA. Meanwhile, my beloved Mavericks become the pre-eminent team in the NBA and the most likely choice for at least one NBA title, which is one more than they have ever won.

It would also do my heart good to see the Mavericks put one over on Wade after what the Miami guard did to us in our only trip to the NBA finals.

We got the good Vlad

The New York Times today celebrated the selection of Vladimir Guerrero of the Texas Rangers to the American League All-Star team and argued that Guerrero, along with the Rangers' pitching, are the reasons the team might make the playoffs for the first time since 1999. The Times' story said Guerrero has "shifted the balance of power in the American League West." Ironically, that balance of power has shifted to the Rangers from the Los Angeles Angels, the team that decided it didn't want Guerrero any longer after the end of last season.

A weak defense

There is the classic movie scene in which the wife arrives home unexpectedly and discovers her husband in bed with another woman. The husband grabs a sheet around him and says pleadingly to his wife: "Honey, it's not what you think. Who are you going to believe: me or your own eyes?"

That scene came to me this morning when I read Kevin Sherrington's essay in the Dallas Morning News about why the Texas Rangers should still pursue Houston Astros pitcher Roy Oswalt. Last night, for reasons that need not be explained or excused, I found myself in an Uptown frozen yogurt joint, one of those with plasma TV screens hanging on every conceivable wall space, and watched Oswalt being shelled by the Rangers. I thought to myself at the time it was one of the worst job interviews ever.

The price of success

I wonder if this would have happened if the Rangers were not dominating the American League these days?

Not so fast

At first blush, one would think that the Texas Rangers should have Mitchell High High School (near Tampa, Fla.) senior Patrick Schuster high on their draft list. After all, Schuster will be on the mound today as Mitchell plays in the opening round of Florida's high school baseball playoffs and he will be going for his fifth consecutive no-hitter.

According to reports, Schuster has 90-mile-an-hour fastball, "a nasty slider and curve, each of which he trusts enough to throw on 3-2 counts." He has struck out 60 during his current string of four consecutive no-hitters.

Here's the deal, however: Two other high school pitchers threw six consecutive no-hitters -- Chris Taranto in Mississippi in 1961 and Tom Engle in Ohio in 1989 -- and neither of them became major league stalwarts.

The Chicago Cubs have a new owner and he's not Cuban

I'm not sure how much praise this is, exactly, but Mark Cuban is the best owner the Dallas Mavericks have ever had. I would also say Cuban is a superior sports franchise owner than anyone individual or group of individuals who have ever owned the Texas Rangers. Maybe that speaks more the quality of owners more than anything else, but there you have it.

From a number of items I have read (admittedly, I never addressed Cuban himself on this subject) I gathered he also wanted to own the Chicago Cubs baseball team. There were all kinds of questions that grew out of this interest. Was he too flamboyant for the staid image of baseball? Would other owners even grant him admission into their country club? If he couldn't produce an NBA championship, what makes him qualified to produce a World Series winner? Did he have the bandwidth to devote the required attention to the Chicago Cubs, the Dallas Mavericks, HD Net and what-have-you?

I actually thought those questions and others were being debated until I read this Associated Press Story which (1) announced the sale of Cubs to one Tom Ricketts, a member of the family that founded TD Ameritrade and someone who met his wife in the bleachers at Wrigley Field, and (2) said that Cuban was not even one of the finalists considered for the purchase. In fact, nowhere in this story does the name Mark Cuban even appear.

Did I miss something along the way? Did Cuban withdraw his offer? Was the Tribune Company, the current Cubs owners, just toying with him? Whatever, I'm personally happy that he is still just the owner of the Dallas Mavericks -- not that he can make them contenders anytime in the near future, but at least he restored some semblance of competition and excitement to pro basketball in Dallas.

But, hey, Mark, if you want to get a WNBA franchise for these parts, I'm behind you 100 percent.

Ian out

It's not like te Texas Rangers were in the thick of a pennant race or something, but it's still a shame when a team loses its second best hitter.