JSngry

First time in the last 25 or so years I've had real withdrawal pains after a season's end... what else can explain watching MLBN's Play Of The Month show from freakin' May and actually getting into it?

I don't have that calendar, but I'll gladly live by y'all's, at least for this month (and maybe longer, depending on how many gigs are on that callendar...).

Go Moody!

Save the condolences for some other season, please, not this one!

Maybe it's because God is sad that the Rangers lost, or maybe He's sad that baseball season is over,..... ...or maybe He's sad because now the local sports media will go back to doing what they do best: over-analyze every aspect of why the Cows stink again this year! Knowing God (and the local sports media, who usually think that that's who they are) like I do, I'm absolutely certain it's that last one.

Not to get too maudlin or anything, but the weather here has been just a little better than average up until this morning, when it finally tuned cooler and nasty-rainy-damp. First real "season change" weather we've had this fall, and that it signals the end of this particular baseball season as well seems...just right.

You know what this is like? This is like if Paul & Paula were real people, with functioning brains, musical skills, genitals, and souls. And how do you not like that?

Harry Potter Porter Kilbert Dilnert

Yeah, I'm optimistic about there being playoff baseball in Arlington for some years to come, but another World Series? You want to think so, but realistically, that is one of the great unknowns, which is why savoring this one to the fullest, even in a loss, is a "must do" afaic. You wanna talk about torture...torture is watching Renteria hit that ball, it's got good air but the distance is not immediately discernible, at least from our seats...I'm watching Murphy & Hamilton both get heading towards it, looking for some kind of sign one way or the other as to whether or not either one of them have a play on it, jeez, somebody line up for either a catch or a leap, PLEASE and...they never do. The ball clears the fence but doesn't make the seats...a near-perfect metaphor for how this series was just that much - but definitely that much - out of reach for us. And then Cruz answers back, and we're thinking this is the inning when we find a crack, ok...maybe...but then not. Feliz comes in for two and SMOKES, and we got the top of the order in the 8th & 9th, they get one more chance, miracles do happen, but not that often, that's why they're considered miracles, and...no miracles tonight... But it sinks in pretty quickly that just being there was a miracle of sorts, how this franchise & this team this season has in one season, less than half a season, really, fundamentally changed the meaning of the words "Texas Rangers baseball" for, hopefully, a good long time to come. With Jerry World right next door, an inescapably mammoth monument to hubristic fraud of the highest/lowest order, and with the memory of Mark Cuban, a guy I used to dig big time, but now revealed as a fanboy first and a serious team owner second (or third...or fourth...), coming this close to owning the team, the realization that those words - "Texas Rangers baseball" might soon come to represent the apex of DFW sports in terms of performance and integrity, well... yeah, miracles do happen, even in losing a World Series.

No, iirc Harry didn't come onboard until '65, the year the Colts became the Astros. His signature home run line back in those days was "and THAT ball is an ASTRO ORBIT!"

The kid who in went to the Astrodome the first year it opened (1965)) and sat out in center field for 50 cents(!) feels compelled to jog your memory to remind you that in 1962, the no-hitter would have been pitched against the: Texas baseball means never being able to forget the dark past, no matter how hard you try...

Ca'purange was a little bit of a "hit", wasn't it? The tune itself, that is.

And "Mister Magic"!

I had a buddy who used to joke that Paul Gonsalves was so tough that he didn't really have to play any lines to swing, his tone swung hard enough just by itself. That might have been meant as a joke, but it's pretty much the truth too!

No complaints, no excuses, nothing but fullest baseball love for the Giants & their fans (many of whom were in attendance this evening! Charlie got some shots of a large group celebrating post-game, & if I can figure out how to do it, I'll upload them here for the SF fans. Very nice, civil people, and it was easy to feel their joy & be glad for them, really. Quite unlike many other teams' fans (yeah, I'm talking to you, obnoxious Cowboys fans, a.o.). People here be talking about how unfortunate it was that the Rangers bats went cold, but when your hits go right at the fielders as often as ours did (when we made contact, that is), you know you're simply facing dominating pitching, period. And dominating these guys on as consistent a basis as the Giants did isn't luck - it skill, artistry even. Charlie commented in the 9th how clean everybody's unis still were, and I told him, hell, they really haven't had to do too much, ya' know, either team, that's what a good pircher's duel is all about! Any lover of the game has got to appreciate that, even if it's against your guys. Maybe even especially if it's against your guys, because you know that you had the privilege of facing/witnessing true greatness. There's so much mediocrity in this world that getting to witness greatness is,,,,well, just be thankful, that's all. Learn from it, and hope that you get so blessed some more in this life (and that it gets to be your turn some day). No complaints, no excuses, and no regrets either. When the New 2000 Year Old Man comes out of nowhere to be Babe Ruth/Series MVP, you know that those baseball gods that Tim keeps talking about simply decided to point their fingers the other way this time, so there's really nothing else to do except sit back, enjoy the show, and realize what a kick it is that you finally got to be a part of it. Walking out of the ballpark this evening was really interesting - there was no real sadness or disappointment, just a sense of thankfulness of finally getting to be a part of the true greatest show on earth, and a sense of hope - finally - that there will be more to come. Optimism is a powerful medicine! Optimism & joy in the face of a pretty...unambiguous defeat...like the man said, that's the way baseball go. Hard to argue with that.

Other than Game 1, the Giants pitching has done a great job shutting down the Rangers bats. Even in Game 3, you take away those homers and...not much else really happened. No sustained rallies. At first I thought that the bats had gone cold, but there reality has sunk in that the Giants' staff right now is just pretty damn awesome.

I really think that the singing on this, individually & in duet, but especially individually (esp. Gene Thomas), is something special....lots of little choices of nuances being made that didn't have to be made, if you know what I mean.

People can also have relative pitch, where they get the intervals right, just not always the key.

The software will combine all posts made within a certain timespan. Not sure if it's 60 seconds, or 90, or 120, but you can make separate consecutive posts if you wait the requisite time between them.

Back in the day you could have legit jukebox hits as well as radio hits.

Either way, David - something to be thankful for. I'm like Al, no matter the outcome of the series, the Rangers have given their fans so much to be thankful for. This is a tough sports town (as I suspect most are...) with everybody "loving" a winner and ditching a "loser" like yesterday's kleenex, and l sense a fading fadom amongst the "fandom". In the wake of the Cowboys' & Mavericks' failures, a lot of people just wanted to latch on to a winner no matter what. To them, I say get a life of your own. Be your own winner, raise a son who understands that being a Ranger fan is a subset of being a baseball fan, not the other way around. Much love here for my boy, and much love for the 2010 Texas Rangers. And if/when they do it, much love - and props - for the 2010 MLB Champion San Francisco Giants. Of course, I do reserve the right to believe in miracles and to alter "MLB" to "NL" should one perchance occur. Just in case...

Eddie Harris & Herbie Hancock did.

Yeah, I used "suite" earlier, but "concept album" is probably more accurate.

Ugh, me neither. He won't consider expanded replay but he's all eager to expand the playoffs? Hey - I remember the controversy when divisional play began, how it was destroying the purity of the game, the stats, how you either have the best record in the league and are its champs or you don't and you aren't, and imagine the DISGRACE of having a team with a lesser record go to the Series. Same arguments came up with the addition of Wild Card rounds. They're long enough as it is. The game is based on an almost supernaturally perfect concept of symmetry. Leave it be lest that symmetry be pushed past the point of no return..