I went snooping around the Rangers clubhouse. I couldn't find any hard booze. I think they ought to get some. If not for the pitching, then for the pain.
Everything I wrote leading into this story has turned out to be an egregious lie. This place is less heaven than it is a bad
Kevin Costner postapocalyptic movie set--the beautiful azure skies have clouded over and gone ash gray for three straight days. The temperature has dropped a good 12 degrees, and large drops of rain have poured down from the heavens. Whoever said it doesn't rain in Arizona--I think it was my editor--is a fool. Word has just come down that it's snowing in Dallas, 3 inches or something close to it, which lends a small amount of comfort. If not for schadenfreude, I would have eaten a bullet years ago.
Kevin Scanlon
Hank Blalock, above at the plate, was supposed to be Rookie of the Year last season, but he spent most of it in the minors. The Rangers hope this year he fulfills his promise. New manager Buck Showalter, below, is a perfectionist, always eyeing the players, looking for opportunities to help them improve.
Kevin Scanlon
Alex Rodriguez's huge contract hampers the Rangers, but it doesn't completely excuse their poor play or the bad moves general manager John Hart made last year.
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With the weather as dark as my mood, the Rangers have scheduled a day of indoor activity--simulated games, meetings and the like. None of that will get going for another hour. Apparently, someone forgot to tell Alex Rodriguez. It's just past 8 a.m. and A-Rod is already at work, taking batting practice in the covered cages. He is, by all accounts, diligent. Then, the Rangers aren't concerned about Rodriguez's production. What they need is someone to pick up some of the slack. And if you were looking for a bright note, this is it.
There are two prime candidates to sit to the right of A-Rod's throne--third basemen Mark Teixeira and Hank Blalock are on everyone's list of the best young prospects in the league. Teixeira, who hasn't yet played higher than Double A ball, will probably start the season in the minors and hope for a midseason callup. Blalock played sparingly with the big club last year, and not all that well, but still has everyone whispering reverently about his skills.
"The good thing about those guys is, they don't have to necessarily hit .300," A-Rod offers. "We can ease them in and let them grow."
With Blalock, the issue becomes where to insert him in the lineup. The Rangers are playing musical chairs with their infield--except they don't have enough seats for everyone to sit down. The way it looks now, Blalock will start at third, which would probably move Herbert Perry--as nice a guy as the Rangers have and last season's happy-happy success story--to the DH spot. The other, though less likely scenario, is leaving Perry where he is and playing Blalock at second base, which would move incumbent Mike Young to the bench.
"We're just trying to get better," says Young, whose locker is near Blalock's. "I'm not really worried about that right now. Obviously I want to play. But Hank is one of my best friends on the team, so it's not awkward, no."
I can attest to that. This morning, the two of them, joined by backup catcher Todd Greene, sat around the clubhouse during media hour, listening to Howard Stern. The shock jock was asking rock star Fred Durst whether the musician had banged Britney Spears. The players' recap went like this:
Blalock: So...did [Durst] crush it?
Young: Yeah, he just said he crushed it. Dude, he said he ate her ass.
Blalock: He ate her ass?
Young: That's what he said. Fred Durst is a cool dude.
Agreed.
Now that's a friendship--who else can you talk to about celebrity salad tossing? Anyway, whether they're both in the starting infield or not, and with Teixeira waiting for a shot, at least the Rangers have options.
"We're excited about our young guys and our future," Showalter says. "But, I mean, we can sit here and have a feel-good whatever, but the reality of the season--that'll be a memory. We were hired to win the division. That's what we're here to do. I don't see anything bold about it. Crazier things have happened. I hear guys talk about being competitive--well, hell, I'm competitive when I drive in here in the morning. It's a tough division, but we're here to win it. And I like the idea of kinda laying in the wings a little bit. You know, you win 90 games and you're in the hunt in September. Some people don't think that's realistic, but we'll see.
"Now, to sit here and say simply that we have who we need, no, I'm not going to say that. We're a work in progress."
