No matter how thoroughly gutless it was Wednesday afternoon on the West Coast, say this on behalf of the Texas Rangers:
They will never, no matter what, be able to out-gag the franchise’s most historic gag job.
Game 6. One Strike Away. Twice.
Speaking of twice, it is beyond disturbing, of course, that for the second time within a year, the Rangers have somehow managed to claim their own little cul-de-sac in baseball hell.
It’s a dead-end called Choker Street.
...It got to this point, got to Game 162, because the Rangers couldn’t close out a divisional race, couldn’t hold off the totally improbable A’s gusher of a finish, and then choked like crazy in the final week.
Four games up with six to play last week, and the Rangers lost the AL West. That kind of thing takes a while to chew on. But by losing five of those six, including being swept in three games in Oakland, the Rangers again soiled their baseball shorts.
When it comes to hate status, the Rangers haven’t come close to reaching the Yankees’ status, and never will, but the story of the bottom-line budget, no-name A’s had the baseball world cheering for this kind of miracle. And you can’t blame them.
Except it was the Rangers, an organization that attempts to do it the right way, that ended up playing the fools for the “mighty” A’s. Losing this divisional title, losing it this way, slaps an indictment on the entire organization, starting with Nolan Ryan, going to Jon Daniels and then right to the dugout with Ron Washington.
Repoz
Posted: October 04, 2012 at 05:50 AM |
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1. Edmundo got dem ol' Kozma blues again mamaOf course you can say this – the 1959 Braves are one good example – but in any case the point is somewhat inane. So what? Some teams fail dramatically and then go on to be lousy the next year (the 1987 Red Sox). Most teams never get good enough to almost win something two years (in this case three) in a row. Some perspective is needed, though I realize perspective never sold a newspaper :)
that's a very good run not including two world series appearances.
sorry the team won 'only' 93 games and made the playoffs again.
That being said, I hated the tone of this. The Rangers didn't 'choke', they got outplayed and outmanaged. The A's were hot, and put it to them. The Rangers aren't as scary on the road. Why didn't he write about that?
I agree with everyone above, but it's worth noting that losing the division is a bigger deal this year than in previous years due to the new Wild Card structure. In the past, teams could be somewhat indifferent to whether they won the division as long as they made the playoffs. Not anymore.
It's also worth noting that under last year's format, the Rangers would be in exactly the same position they are in today (except possibly playing the do-or-die game on the road instead of at home). And they'd have been sweating out the O's/Rays game last night because a Baltimore win would have eliminated them from the post-season entirely. IOW, one more Orioles win and losing the division would have been a bigger deal for the Rangers under the old wild card structure.
EDIT: should have refreshed, but Bob only gets a six-ounce coke because I'm one of the guys who remarked in another thread.
That's one lousy epitaph.
Zack - I've always wondered how Marv Levy is historically viewed as a coach, both by outsiders and Buffaloans (is that even a word?). On the one hand, he never won the Big One so he is probably viewed as being short as a tactician on X's and O's.
On the other hand - how do you motivate a team to keep coming back year after? I'm not sure which is more crushing to a team's fighting spirit - losing by 1 point when your kicker misses a field goal? Or getting buried 52-17 where your team was just never even in the game. Yet in both situations he somehow got his team motivated to come back the following year and make it back to Super-land. That's gotta be tough to do.
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