Nothing makes me 'sadder' than Dallas envy of Houston teams!!! http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcon.../rangers/stories/021204dnspofraley.5fd3d.html Astros' star rising as Rangers fall back Letting Ryan get away another public relations setback for Texas Thursday, February 12, 2004 By GERRY FRALEY / The Dallas Morning News When the Houston Astros celebrate this fall, the Rangers can watch and ask themselves a question. Why didn't we make better use of Nolan Ryan? A streak of baseball futility that began in 1962 will end this season. A team from the state of Texas will win a postseason series for the first time. It will not be the Rangers. The Astros have put themselves in position to break through after going 0-for-7 in playoff series. There has been a simple theme to the Astros' off-season. The Rangers' pain is the Astros' gain. Andy Pettitte, who has 68 wins in the last four seasons, wanted to return to his home state. The Rangers were interested, but the Astros had the advantage of location and payroll space. Roger Clemens, who became a 300-game winner last season, decided he would end a brief retirement only with a team in his home state. The Rangers tried; the Astros got Clemens. The worst indignity of all for the Rangers: Ryan, the Hall of Famer, ended his 15-year relationship with the club and is poised to return to the Astros in a significant role. Adding Ryan will push the Astros over the top. "There's no question Nolan could help," Astros general manager Gerry Hunsicker said Wednesday. "He's a living legend in the state and throughout the game. To have someone of Nolan's stature associated with your team, having him actively involved, can only help." Ryan, Clemens and Pettitte would give the Astros an intangible they have lacked, Hunsicker said. "As good as some of our teams have been on the field, I'm not sure that we really believed that we were going to win every day, especially in the postseason," Hunsicker said. "These guys have been on the big stage. Adding them can raise the confidence level." Not having Ryan as the franchise icon is another public-relations setback for the reeling Rangers, who have exhausted their supply of goodwill. To his credit, owner Tom Hicks tried his utmost to keep Ryan, whose business holdings and schedule make him a better fit for the Astros. Without Ryan, the Rangers cannot count on the big crowds that came to The Ballpark in Arlington every time the club found a reason to honor him. At least the marketing department knew what to do with Ryan. The baseball operation never did. During Ryan's 10-year stay with the club under a personal-services contract, the Rangers wasted a precious resource. Ryan spent 27 seasons in the major leagues. His knowledge of the game in general and pitching in particular is staggering. Put a bunch of young pitchers in a room with Ryan, and they would learn just by osmosis. Ask Ryan to evaluate pitchers rather than agent Scott Boras, and it is doubtful the Rangers would have gone on a spending spree for flops such as Chan Ho Park and Todd Van Poppel. Chicago Cubs right-hander Kerry Wood understands that. During a lengthy slump two years ago, Wood consulted with Ryan. The information Ryan provided was helpful, Wood said. The Astros understand that. Ryan owns the Double-A Round Rock franchise, a Houston affiliate in the Texas League. He has worked with young talents such as Roy Oswalt and Tim Redding. The Rangers never reaped that benefit. No pitcher ever tapped into Ryan. That is the club's fault. Dick Bosman, the pitching coach from 1995-2000, and Ryan had conflicting philosophies. Ryan thought it best to stay out of the way. Larry Hardy, the pitching coach at the start of the 2001 season, wanted to use Ryan, but he had a short run. The same for manager Jerry Narron. With the arrival of John Hart as general manager after that season, anything associated with past regimes was shoved aside. The Rangers even changed the sign commemorating Ryan's retired number, moving it from a prominent spot in the right-field home-run porch to high in the left-field seats. That was no way to make a Hall of Famer feel wanted. The New York Yankees surround themselves with former Hall of Famers. The same holds for St. Louis. The late Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax played significant roles in the Dodgers' long success with pitching. Each organization believed that keeping those giants around made everyone better. The Rangers had a Hall of Famer with roots in the organization and did not make the most of it.
i thought about this the other day when it happened because it was such a direct H-town to dallas punk. but, seriously...the tone of a lot of articles i'm reading from dallas lately have been, "wow...we used to make fun of houston, but they're kicking our ass right now."
To be brutally honest. I think there is only one of those three people mentioned that the Rangers actually had a chance at signing and it was Ryan. If Pettitte went anywhere besides Houston it would have been back to the Yankees. If Clemens went somewhere other than the Astros it would have been to the golf course.
that's exactly right...they weren't looking for texas teams...they were looking to houston teams. roger was in no way shape or form interested in pitching for the rangers.
I don't think Rangers fans ever made fun of the Astros. The Rangers have never been better than the Astros. Until the Ballpark opened and the Rangers made it to the postseason for the first time in their history, nobody locally ever thought too much of the Rangers. Most of the time, they were out of the race by the All-Star Break, if not sooner. Heck, the Rangers don't even seem like a Dallas team a lot of the time. They're the only major team in the area without "Dallas" in front of their name (and that includes the lesser teams like the Desperados, the Burn, etc), and they play all the way out in Tarrant County, which is, in many ways, a world away from Dallas. But certainly after the last few years of Tom Hicks ineptitude, no Rangers fans would be denigrating the Astros. The Rangers are arguably the worst-run team in the League, at present, and have regularly been among the worst teams in MLB since their inception (only the very brief 1996-1999 run prevents their record from being entirely fruitless).
Didn't Peter Gammons call the Rangers the worst run organization in Major League history a while back? Seems like he did, or at least should have.
I love it. In football news.... Jerry Jones is "jonesin'" for a new stadium for the cowpokes to be funded by the taxpayers. The reponse? The "No Jones Tax" campaign. Move over Dallas, let a city with class lead the way. No Jones Tax website enjoy! a sample statement/quote from the site: the late Annette Strauss was quoted as saying, "Jerry [Jones] was wondering why people take such an instant dislike to him. Well, Jerry, they're just saving time." hee, hee!
