Merry Cliffmas? Bah humbug.

Cliff Lee is apparently a Phillie again.

My gut reaction was surprise, then bitterness, then acceptance. He did lead my favorite team to unprecedented success, but those sixth and seventh years of the contract the Texas Rangers were offering were kind of scary, seeing as how he’d be nearly 40 and making more than $20 million a year.

I never thought he would stay, and the moment I knew came in Game 1 of the World Series. He hit a double and the entire Rangers bench went crazy, jumping up and down, grinning and doing the claw.

But he didn’t return the claw gesture (as far as I could tell on TV, anyway) and just shrugged, which I felt was a slap in the face. Even the manager does the claw! I know it’s a goofy thing, but it would have been nice to see him fit in with his teammates at that moment. And the fans watching at home would have eaten it up. Since I wasn’t at the game to see the play, I could definitely be wrong about it, but I don’t think I am.

At least he’s out of the American League. That makes it easier to stomach. And of course I’m glad he didn’t go to the Yankees. But the Phillies’ rotation (Halladay, Hamels, Oswalt, Lee) is truly scary now.

I also respect that he left money on the table. Why he wanted to go back to Philly, a team that traded him away last year, is a mystery to me, but I’m sure we’ll find out soon.

I just wish he had stayed in Texas just a bit longer so C.J. Wilson and the rest of the pitching staff could coax some more nuggets of wisdom out of him.

Maybe Zack Greinke can be their new mentor…

A second chance

Pretty interesting news Wednesday about Rangers manager Ron Washington admitting to cocaine use in 2009. I hate to be skeptical, but that’s a pretty hard drug for a 57-year-old man to just randomly try one day.

Here’s a great column I read on Yahoo that says everything I’d like to say (thereby making this blog much shorter), and then some things I hadn’t thought of.

For example, the organization would have caught a lot of heck for firing Washington after he failed a drug test. They couldn’t pardon Josh Hamilton, who is white, without extending the same second chance to Washington, who is black. It was a very sticky situation.

I am disappointed in Washington, but I’m glad he is getting a second chance. I just hope he uses it wisely.

Baby, it’s below zero outside

Well, the wind chill is anyway. It’s all anyone, including myself, can talk about. My Facebook feed is totally clogged with statuses by cold-lovers and heat-seekers alike.

Through a quick Google search, I have learned that in most parts of the world, it can never be too cold to snow. However, looking out my window, that seems doubtful. The radar says it’s snowing, but I see nothing. All I see is icy ruts in the street, a pristine white blanket on my back yard, and I hear my wind chimes going crazy.

Speaking of my back yard, no, the drift that formed against our back door has not yet melted enough for us to get out there. (Well, I probably could squeeze through there, but not Jonathan.) The drift’s top has melted and frozen and refrozen since it blessed us with its visit two weeks ago.

So the forecast for my area is this:

Today Chance Flurries Hi 15 °F

Tonight Mostly Cloudy Lo 3 °F

Friday ColdHi 12 °F

Friday Night Mostly Clear Lo 0 °F

Saturday SunnyHi 17 °F

Saturday Night ClearLo 5 °F

Sunday SunnyHi 36 °F

Sunday Night Mostly Clear Lo 22 °F

Monday SunnyHi 39 °F

Here’s a link to the NOAA site.

While I’m dishing out links, here is a great story appearing in today’s World. A good read for people who scoff at cold but deep down, it scares them (like me).

To me, cold is cold. Not sure if it’s because I grew up in Texas or what, but there’s a difference between 97° and 103° to me. But 12° and 17°? Same thing.

Thankfully, I have all the hair-crushing hats, durable gloves, thick socks, cozy scarves, robust boots and sturdy coats I need to keep me warm. But apparently there’s a lot of kids in my city who don’t have such necessities, which is one reason why school is closed for the next two days. Many of them must wait at the bus stop or walk to school.

I’m glad school officials are taking the cold weather seriously. It makes me want to donate some of my lesser-used stuff to people who really need it. No one, especially a child, should be out in subfreezing wind chills or temperatures without proper bundling.

Anyway, enough about the cold. Here are some odds and ends that have been floating around in my head because they never formed into full blogs:

*TCU broke my heart. The Horned Frogs looked out of place at the Fiesta Bowl, and I feel really bad for the guy who dropped that sure touchdown. I was glad for Boise when they beat OU in their instant classic, but now I’m tired of them.

*Where do I start on the Cotton Bowl? I’ll save that for another blog.

*I want Texas to win the BCS national championship tonight. By many accounts, Heisman winner Mark Ingram seems like a standup guy, but I’m not rooting for Nick Saban. Plus, conference pride, right? Go Big 12… do something, anything, good this year.

*Gundy suspends Perrish Cox for the Cotton Bowl for breaking curfew. Ford suspends Marshall Moses for Coppin State for marijuana arrest. These situations have generated a lot of chatter, and outsiders (including myself) who spout off opinions about punishments don’t usually know anything about what’s going on behind closed doors. Cox’s too harsh, Moses’ a slap on the wrist? Perhaps. Gundy says even the stars must play by the rules, and Ford says trust me, this kid has run many miles of laps.

*Darren Oliver. WHY. The third time will not be the charm for this guy. His career ERA as a Ranger is 5.28. On paper, he appears to have found success in the bullpen (3.10 ERA as an Angel), but that seems like an anomaly to me. The real question is, can he pitch in his own stadium? Surprisingly, the best baseball Web site ever, baseball-reference.com, didn’t have the answer, but I think we all know it’s no.

*”The Hangover” is the first movie I have seen that truly lived up to the hype. EVERYONE was raving about how it was the funniest movie ever, and it really was quite good in all its gross-out hilarity. I think I read somewhere they are making a sequel about what happened that night. (The characters spend most of the first movie putting together the booze-soaked puzzles pieces of the previous night to help find their missing friend.)

Well, I’m just getting started here, but hunger has set in. I’ve got some of Giada’s lentil soup with beef in the fridge. We’ll be eating it for a week, as it made enough for an army. (Less stock, more lentils next time.)

Stay warm, y’all!

Let’s talk playoffs

The Rangers are a mere two games back in the Wild Card, and a doable 3.5 in the West, after Friday night’s games.

Other American League teams looking to head to the postseason right now are the Yankees, Red Sox, Angels and Tigers.

The scorching Yanks are running away with the division American League, so let’s assume they’ll face the wild card winner.

Hmm… Rangers meeting New York in the playoffs? If history means anything, that doesn’t appeal to any Texas fan.

The optimists recall the only playoff game the Rangers have ever won was against the Yankees. For the pessimists, all the losses were to the Yankees, too.

So let’s think Detroit. A good team, but beatable. Unless you’re Texas.

I don’t know why, but it’s like the Rangers get brain freeze every time they play the Tigers this season. Detroit won the season series 2-7, with two sweeps at home.

Texas is 2-4 against New York this year.

So before Rangers fans get ahead of themselves with visions of October floating in their heads, keep in mind the games won’t get any easier.

Fun with tables

I’m taking this course on Cascading Style Sheets, which is kind of like HTML except more powerful.

I’m almost done with the course. Last week, we had to format a table. I have found that I enjoy homework much more when the subject matter is meaningful to me.

My dad and I have always talked about how none of the DFW teams are ever all good or all bad at one time. So I did a little research and had some fun with my project.

I compiled a table that shows the success of Dallas-area sports teams by year since 1994, which is when the Stars came to town, making it a four-sport area. (The year refers to the year the playoffs were in, except for football.)

I concluded that in fact  in no year have all four teams made the playoffs. However, at least one team did go to the playoffs every year.

Thanks to the Stars’ sub-par season, 2009 will not be the exception. I’m optimistic about their future though, especially because they have played in the postseason the most of the four teams.

The Rangers have some talent lurking. Will 2010 be the year?

P.S. If you are really interested in the nuts and bolts of my fancy table, right-click on that page and select “View Page Source.” Doesn’t that look fun! Glad the course is nearly over.

A little bit about a lot*

First things first, since I’m old-school, I need to issue a correction for yesterday’s post. I had the Rangers’ record incorrect. It should have been 7-9. Had I known that, there might have been quite a bit less belly-aching, especially considering they won Saturday night and are second in the AL West.

Second, I’ve been playing with the photo at the top of the page. I thought the night snow was pretty for a while, but it’s almost May.

Moving on, I really wish I could have watched the whole Penguins-Flyers playoff game today. I saw Philly score two quick goals at the end of the first and the orange crowd went berserk. When I read later that Pittsburgh came back to win 5-3, I was stunned. Hope that game is replayed later.

I guess if I have to root for someone, it’s Pittsburgh. I like Sid the Kid, and I hate the Flyers. So it’s a no-brainer.

I saw the first half of Mavericks-Spurs Game 4 today. I think it’s kind of hilarious that Tony Parker scores 43 and they still lose.

Also, I should note: I have this strange mental block where I often get Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich confused. I think I have some kind of old-white-guy dyslexia. Obviously I know who is who, but it’s the darndest thing.

Most of my day was spent in football mode thanks to the NFL draft. The most memorable part was Chris Berman’s fugly outfit (pinkish pinstriped shirt with orange, yellow, green and blue striped tie. Ew.). Did he get dressed in the dark??

Today will be the really fun day. (And I use the term “fun” loosely.) Dallas has 12 picks after trading their second-rounder on Saturday. Due to intense reader interest, we basically consider the Cowboys a local team.

Also contributing to the fun is that the majority of OU, OSU and TU guys that we are watching will probably go today as Brandon Pettigrew and Phil Loadholt went Saturday.

Speaking of the Pokes, attention all O-State (or Big 12) fans: World columnist Dave Sittler has a bold (some might say “crazy”) prediction for next football season.

Pick up the Sunday World to find out what he thinks. (Or check out the RSS feed on the right side of the screen: “Call me crazy, but OSU could start 11-0″. If it’s not in the feed, it’s on the site.) If you’re not intrigued, you should be.

*Best headline ever!

Musings in the wee hours

It’s approaching 5 a.m. and I’m in that dreaded “physically tired, mentally wired” state.

But I usually get off work around midnight to 12:30. So if midnight is like my vampire version of 5 p.m. (when “normal” people get off work), right now it’s like 10 p.m. for me. Looking at it in that light always makes me feel better.

I just finished some of my CSS course homework and now I need to unwind. There’s no weekly due date for the homework, except of course for last week. Long story short, I crammed three weeks worth of homework into three days and now I’m caught up until Monday. Which is nice.

I have a list to the side of me of blog topics I’ve been meaning to bring up. I just can’t seem to find the motivation.

I’m a perfectionist, so I can’t just bang out some halfway thought-out blog about how bad the Rangers are, or how surprisingly competitive the Mavericks-Spurs series has been. I guess that’s a good thing.

But…

I guess I can make an exception this one time. After all, this post is titled “Musings.” And I haven’t posted anything in nearly a week.

*Vicente Padilla: We know he has the stuff. Is he really just that inconsistent? He is killing my fantasy team’s ERA and WHIP. Maybe I should drop him and pick up…

*Brandon McCarthy: If this guy has ONE MORE good start, I’ll officially renounce his status of “fool’s gold.” Why? Because of what happened last start to…

*Kevin Millwood: Ah, so much promise. Hopefully it was just one bad outing. Kind of like…

*The kid who debuted in Kason Gabbard’s jersey: I was halfway asleep, but I heard rumblings of this from Josh and Tom. I was interested in his situation and even drowsily considered blogging about him, but sleep won out. Speaking of winning, if it were opposite day, I could be referring to…

*The bullpen: One word – BLECH.

This is how all loyal Rangers fans have been rewarded this season: 6-10. Really? From 3-0 to 6-10. They won just enough to evoke dreams of red and blue November parades and shiny rings.

I guess the “best farm system in the nation” will get plenty of practice this year.

Remember, my fantasy team last year was named “Rangers in 2010″ for a reason. You gotta believe. Just not right now. (And I do hope they prove me wrong.)

Mavs-Spurs: As far as that series is concerned, I don’t have a whole lot to say. I’m not a huge NBA fan, but I do like Dallas when it is good, and I’m not ashamed to admit it.

I’m pleasantly surprised to see the Mavs lead the series, 2-1. It’s good they got that road playoff monkey off their back. They had lost, what, nine straight road playoff games, dating to 2006? (The best chance they ever had to win the title, in my opinion.)

Not sure what the deal was in the blowout game the other night. Why did Popovich sit his stars?  I didn’t see most of the game, and when I found out that not only was it on, but the Mavs were up by 32, I decided it was good luck that I wasn’t watching.

So, all that being said, it is clear that my knowledge of the series is seriously lacking. You can bet I’ll be paying better attention from here on.

Final thought: It’s kind of a fact that Dallas’ four major teams can’t all be good at the same time. I promise I will back this up in a future post.

Rangers pics

My dad and his friend, Ken, recently scored some prime seats at a Ranger game. Ken is a photographer, and he took some great photos.

Here’s a link to his Picasa gallery. It was Jackie Robinson night, so everyone was wearing No. 42, which is a little confusing. He got some good ones of Ian Kinsler, Michael Young, Marlon Byrd and Josh Hamilton… I think.

There are also a couple of Nolan Ryan, who was sitting only a few rows away. (I mentioned they were great seats, right?) He looked kind of grumpy, so they must have been taken before the Rangers exploded for 19 runs in the win over the Orioles.

Wish they could have found some of that offense this weekend. They’re on the verge of getting swept by the Royals. Kansas City looks better than it has in the past, but still. It’s the Royals.

Opening Day

So far, so good!!

The red-clad Rangers had a solid win yesterday over Cleveland. It’s an encouraging start to the season, especially after the last two dismal Aprils.

Millwood, Blalock and Andrus were impressive as reigning Cy Young winner Cliff Lee got lit up. It was much better than the lackluster spring training game against Kansas City that I attended on Saturday. I know, spring training doesn’t count and all the scrubs played, but still. The most memorable play was when someone stole third as a lefty was batting. The runner was out by a mile. I can’t remember if it was a Ranger or a Royal because they were both wearing blue jerseys and I was distracted by my friends and the sun baking my skin. Marlon Byrd hit a homer early, but we hadn’t arrived yet. Overall, the game was enjoyable though.

I’m eager to watch the next game so I can figure out whether this win was a fluke. I’m guessing no, though.

Anyway, hopefully Ron Washington can guide this team to a sneaky-good run this year. My fantasy team’s name last year wasn’t “Rangers in 2010″ for nothing. Maybe they will be a surprise in ’09.

Speaking of fantasy, my team is in first place! I need to appreciate it because it probably won’t last. Thanks, Hanley Ramirez, Adam Lind and K-Rod.

Thanks for ruining my childhood

So Alex Rodriguez admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs on Monday.

Great. Another ex-Texas Ranger is linked to steroids. There’s another bobblehead for the dumpster.

Just add A-Rod to a long list of guilty – or at least highly suspicious – Rangers, such as Rafael Palmeiro, Juan Gonzalez and Ivan Rodriguez.

I actually used to admire A-Rod’s tireless, some would say obsessive, work ethic and fluid fielding.

As fellow lefties (I played varsity softball in high school), my daddy and I admired Raffy’s smooth-as-butter swing. You could always count on RBI-machine Juan Gonzalez to come through for a big, clutch hit.

Let’s not forget iron man Pudge Rodriguez, who was always praised for playing the most physically demanding position in the sweltering Texas heat with consistent catlike-ness.

All tarnished memories.

Actually, I still have my Rafael Palmeiro bobblehead, as well as the commemorative poster I got when I attended the game in which he hit his 500th career home run.

There’s even a place on the poster for my ticket from Sunday, May 11, 2003. Section 45, Row 14, Seat 2. Less than 10 rows away from where that ball landed. My family was even visible on TV.

These were handed out at the game. Notice the classy Viagra ad in the corner.

Also in my collection is a yellowed newspaper clipping from Dec. 12, 2000. The corners have greasy spots from being hung on my bedroom wall with Sticky-Tac. From the Star-Telegram, the page features a cutout of A-Rod in a Mariners uniform, seemingly paused in the motion of turning two. To the right is a breakdown of A-Rod’s skills at the five tools of diamond-played sports. All five are favorable reviews.

This page ran in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram after he signed his record-breaking contract. It also hung on my wall for several years to inspire my little softball heart.

I have an autographed Rusty Greer jersey, too. I am 99 percent sure it, however, is safe.

So what do I, as well as all the other once-impressionable youth who are now in our 20s, do? The people who grew up with Mickey Mantle, Hank Aaron and Nolan Ryan as their heroes don’t have this problem. If players did anything illegal in those days, it likely didn’t enhance their performances. (Except for Dock Ellis.) And by the time the infants of today are old enough to enjoy the sport and have a favorite team, there will probably be much better ways of testing for steroids.

To me, A-Rod is like the straw that broke the camel’s back. I’m done. I’m tired of it. Wipe those years from my memory.

What really matters are the memories I made going to games with my family and friends. The dollar hot dogs, the fireworks, and the quiet nights talking shop with my dad are so much more important than a few collectibles.