My opinion is this. While the Rangers didn't do anything wrong and were certainly in their right to say and act as they did, they had a chance to really step up and do something humbling and humanitarian. Instead of showing that they could be a beacon of compassion, they showed instead a business like self interest. You reap what you sow.
The precedent argument? Really? Like it would have been that big of a stretch to make an accommodation in one of the biggest disasters in US history? That's still ongoing? Again.. I understand why the Rangers did it. It was for their own fan-base and pockets... sure, not technically anything wrong with that, but they deserve all the criticism/flack/scrutiny/embarassment/PR nightmares (and then some) they're getting for this decision. Just like the Astros would deserve if they made a similar decision if the roles were reversed,
anyone remember that baltimore Raven upset about the hurricane messing up their practice schedule. don't know why i thought of that.
Yep. If the Astros weren't playing the Rangers, I'm sure they would be happy to take them up on that offer, but they aren't going to give the Rangers 3 extra home games. These games matter. Not only is that unfair to the Astros, that is unfair to teams in the WC chase.
From a sports / where-to-play-the-games perspective, the nature of the disaster is irrelevant except in making some kind of an emotional argument and garnering sympathy. It doesn't really matter WHY the stadium is unusable - it just is. If it was just a week of rainouts in a non-domed stadium somewhere, the impact on the teams would be the same. The same "fairness" issues would be there, etc. If anything, the nature of the disaster should put the fairness argument in context of how trivial it is.
Willis McGahee. I will never forget that douche talking about how the league was trying to throw adversity THEIR way by shifting their bye week, but that THEY would persevere. *******.
Families were going to be disrupted anyway - I don't think they go follow players to every 3 game road series they go to. The teams were disrupted. But the fans aren't. Houston fans are no more disrupted than they would have been had the games been played in Houston in the middle of a hurricane (where no one could get to the stadium). Arlington fans have no disruption at all. Tampa fans get some free games.
He does realize that in a swap he was keeping the same number of home games? What he wanted was 3 extra home games.
Again... your precedent argument is all you're hanging on to.... and we know that this is a situation that defies precedent. There was a simpler and fair solution to the problem... both teams maintain home games, they just switch the dates. Both teams maintain revenue. There were no conflicting events at either of the venues. The venues themselves are only 4 hours apart. But most importantly, the Rangers would have gotten zero of the deserved negative PR and vitriol they're getting now (that is making this story unnecessarily a focus in a time of tragedy)... and actually would have come out smelling like roses had they not only switched the dates, donated the proceeds/etc., and then reassured their fan base that the displaced season ticket holders would be accommodated. Hopefully, this sets a NEW precedent... for the next natural disaster, teams do make accommodations if possible. Again, none of this really matters... those that try to defend it pretty much are adding even more useless legs to the story. The Rangers had a chance to do what was fair, right, and logistically NOT COMPLICATED (based on your own precedent arguments.... plenty of games get rained out/re-scheduled, and season ticket holders are accommodated). They failed... they deserve the flack. Not sure why you're defending them.... unless you just want to argue for the sake of arguing.
What's worse is the comment JD made about having Texas on their jerseys and Houston on ours; looks like he should change it to Arlington or assholes
Again, the *why* isn't relevant. The argument from Astros fans is about fairness/etc. From a baseball perspective, a 3-game rainout is no different than a 3-game disaster/hurricane-out. Are you suggesting that there have never been 3 days of rain in cities before that rained out a whole series? Why, though? What exactly is the ppint from the Rangers' perspective? One fan base is getting screwed over in any scenario. Why is it on the Rangers to have it be theirs? That still makes no sense at all to me. 100% agree that they've handled the PR side of it very poorly. They should have just put it in MLB's hands - MLB was never going to move an extra series.
No, it really doesn't. You're making an emotional argument about the need for fairness in baseball games in a life-threatening situation. If anything, it would make more sense if there a 3-game regular rainout in April and it was just done for convenience. Astros fans complaining about losing 3 home baseball games while people are dying and their city is a disaster zone is the opposite of the moral highground. No one except Astros fans is going to remember this in two weeks, and I'm not sure anything the Rangers do is going to generate goodwill with the Astros. Sorry, this is not going to happen. They certainly handled the PR side of it poorly, but they did the absolute right thing, and it's exactly what any team in that situation does - always has been, always will be.
I'd really like to see you explain how the Rangers fans would have gotten screwed... please devote a lot of effort to making this complete farce of an argument. I know scores of Rangers fans...season ticket holders... who wouldn't have cared less about having to reschedule their plans, or having the team play more road games later rather than now. Quote/reply/and spend a lot of effort now defending them... go.
3 straight days of non-stop heavy rain? Really? I can't recall more than 2 games of a series being lost for weather. The Astros fan base is incredibly screwed over compared to a small inconvenience to the Rangers fan base. The Rangers players would probably be less inconvenienced by the swap.
Sorry - replace "Houston fans" with "people attending the games in Houston", if that works better for you. What happened in disruption is the same thing that happens in any disruption of a typical rain out. Any other solution would have caused more disruptions for more people.
No, the nation is calling out the Rangers organization for not being accomdating. Nobody truly cares about the games themselves Completely speculative and baseless. We know the Rangers are getting deserved criticism now. Doubtful that would have happened. And that's the myopic view that deserves every bit of criticism being thrown out there... you're actually mirroring it quite well... Thankfully, the NFL and NBA have made huge new precedent accomodations in recent years for teams displaced... MLB/Rangers have gotten enough negative press in over 24 hours in the scope of a disaster that they did not need.
Really? You think every fan that was going to the September game would have been able to go to a game today? None of them made plans in advance? None of them have things going on this week? No family events? No one is out of town this weekend? There's a reason teams release schedules and times in advance and not the week of a game. Of all the absurd attempts to justify things here, this might be the most ridiculous. That's great - do you know the 100,000 or so people who were going to those games? I'm not sure the relevance of "scores of season ticket holders" is. Those people, in particular, are people that go to lots of games - missing a few doesn't matter much. It's the single game ticket holders that might have limited money or ability to go to games and planned a game weeks or months in advance that might be affected just a tad bit more. Your inability to see beyond your own limited world is laughable.
