Milwaukee Brewers

Major League Baseball's Screwball Economics

As another season begins, MLB faces an unsustainable future -- and you’re picking up the tab.

Five Key Holes the Rangers Need to Fill This Winter, and How They Should Fill Them

Just a few days after the 2012 MLB season kicked off in Japan, one of the elite players scheduled to become a free agent in the coming offseason took himself off the market. The Giants enticed Matt Cain to stay in San Francisco, signing him to a six-year, $127.5 million contract extension -- the mos ... More >>

Why (and How) the Rangers Should Go All In as the Trade Deadline Looms

What a week for Your Texas Rangers. Nolan Ryan and Ron Washington took turns publicly ripping Josh Hamilton for the alarming lack of discipline he's displayed at the plate, increasing the likelihood that he'll be headed elsewhere this offseason. Fans booed the slumping slugger at home for the firs ... More >>

A Texas Rangers Midseason Report: It's Time to Go All In

With the baseball season at the symbolic halfway point, we asked former Unfair Parker Sam Merten to root around in his beard and see if he could come up with anything to say. He obliged ... and obliged ... and ... Sports are unpredictable. That's why we watch. And there's no greater evidence than t ... More >>

Sierra Missed: Three Former Texas Rangers Are Now on the Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot

​Juan Gonzalez and Rafael Palmeiro made their debuts on the Baseball Writers' Association of America's 2011 Hall of Fame ballot -- and didn't even come close to finishing near the Top 10 vote-getters. Raffy, poor Raffy, came closest with 64 votes; Juando trailed just behind Palmeiro with 30, two a ... More >>

In the World Series Match-Up Between the Texas Rangers and St. Louis Cardinals, Don't Dismiss the Impact of Tony La Russa

St. Louis CardinalsTony La Russa on the field at Busch Stadium yesterday afternoon.​For whatever reason, my relationship with baseball went from casual to deeply committed bordering on obsessive during the 1986 baseball season. Like most kids growing up in North Texas, my father taught me to l ... More >>

Albert Pujols Better Than Joltin' Joe? Say It Ain't So!: Texas Rangers-St. Louis Cardinals World Series Preview and Game 1 Open Thread

Texas RangersGives you that warm, fuzzy feeling inside, doesn't it?​It's finally here. Pinch yourself. Your Texas Rangers are back in the World Series, and this time feels much different than last year's playoff run. There's a confidence flowing through my body that just wasn't there before, a ... More >>

Cruz-ing to Another World Series: Rangers-Tigers ALCS Game 5 Preview and Open Thread

Photos by Sam MertenNelson Cruz giving me a free ticket to the gun show last year.As the trade deadline approached in July 2006, it seemed inevitable that Jon Daniels would make a bold move to bolster a mediocre offense in his first season as general manager. He targeted the best hitter on the mar ... More >>

Kevin Devine Talks Nirvana, Politics and Your Texas Rangers: "You Guys Got a Good Club!"

Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Kevin Devine is such an avid fan of the New York Mets that he named his first band Miracle of 86 in honor of that baseball club's surprising victory overthe Boston Red Sox in that year's World Series.But Devine is far more than a fan of The Great Game. He's an astute ... More >>

Rangers-Angels Take Baseball's Center Stage. Or at Least They Should.

​There are only two division races in baseball. And only one with playoff implications. As we play the regular season's final month the Tigers, Phillies, Brewers and Braves each have leads of at least 7 games with only 20 remaining. In the AL East the Yankees lead the Red Sox by 2.5, bu ... More >>

Rangers Take Another Step Toward Peaking ... and October

​Seven games up with 38 games remaining. Magic number down to 32 (smallest in baseball along with the Brewers and Phillies). Three of the first four in the bag already in Anaheim, with a chance to sweep tonight. For those of us who make a living bitchin' and moanin' about this or that with ... More >>

Mavericks Getting a Teeny Tiny Bit of Help for Stretch Run with Corey Brewer

Corey Brewer​Don't get too giddy if and when the Dallas Mavericks sign free-agent forward Corey Brewer today. Decent player at both ends of the court, but it's basically one more attempt to fill in the gaps left by the absence of Caron Butler. Maybe with the additions of Peja Stojakov ... More >>

The Texas Rangers Are Better, But Who's Gonna Talk About 'Em?

​So now that the Texas Rangers have a hitter (Adrian Beltre) and a pitcher (Brandon Webb), they've got one more important hole to fill this off-season: Television play-by-play voice. Remember just before Game 5 of the ALDS, the Rangers announced they weren't bringing back nine-year veter ... More >>

Texas Rangers' momentum comes to a screeching holiday halt by the Phils Who Stole Cliffmas

Closing the Book on Cliff Lee, Who Would Have Loved Texas For the Right Price

Sam MertenAdios, Cliff. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.​I know. I know. You're tired of hearing about Cliff Lee. He's a goner, and it's not like the Rangers didn't do their best to keep him here. Actually, I'd say Jon Daniels, Nolan Ryan and Chuck Greenberg did too much in their attemp ... More >>

My (Fausto) Carmona: Plan B Now That Cliff Lee and Zack Greinke Are Headed Elsewhere

Trading for Fausto Carmona would help ease the pain of losing out on Lee and Greinke.​Since we can all feel OK about losing out on the Cliff Lee sweepstakes, it's fair to evaluate Jon Daniels' Plan B, especially with the trade of Zack Greinke -- easily the best pitcher to be had on the marke ... More >>

Werth It? Doing the Rangers' Math as Fat Contracts Swirl Around MLB Winter Meetings.

Photos by Sam MertenDamn. If Jayson Werth commands a seven-year, $126 million deal, how much is this guy worth?​Prior to the beginning of baseball's winter meetings yesterday at Walt Disney World Resort, a flurry of activity resulted in big-name players dealt and fat contracts inked. Predictab ... More >>

The Case Against Cliff Lee

​Whether free agent Cliff Lee chooses to re-sign with the Rangers because of Arlington's proximity to his Arkansas home or bolts to New York for the extra dough, his decision undoubtedly shapes the future of both teams significantly. Yet in all that's been said and written about Lee, rarely do ... More >>

Can the Texas Rangers Win National League-Style Baseball?

Hey, maybe Nolan Ryan can give the Rangers' pitchers some hints. ​Baseball has its problems: A reluctance to use instant replay. Arrogant umpires and their customized strike zones. An All-Star exhibition game that actually affects the World Series champion. But of all our national past ... More >>

The Texas Rangers Thrive while Owner Tom Hicks' Sports Empire Crumbles.

The World's Top 10 Left-Handed Athletes

Right is wrong and left is ... right? Seems to be. It's not exactly a bass-ackward revolution, but left-handers are doing okay for themselves in sports these days. Or are they? The idea struck me last week when I saw highlights of college quarterbacks Josh Heupel and Matt Leinart winning BCS Nation ... More >>

A Christmas List for Jon Daniels

Here in The Sportatorium, every now and then we like to talk baseball. I mean hard-core, balls-and-strikes baseball. By "every now and then" I mean this morning. And by "we", of course, I mean seamhead colleague Sam Merten. Sam, the floor is yours: For those of you distracted by Sean Avery's ... More >>

Never Forget|Strike Back|Focus on Plate, Not Walls

NFL Quarterback Rankings: Week 5

Sure, the Rangers Are Fun and All. But There's Still Some Fixin' To Do.

The Rangers' Milton Bradley, the Hot-Head with a Hot Bat, Has Gotta Go

Ask A Mexican

There is no fool like an April Fool.

Two Iconic Baseball Voices Announce a Texas Dream Team for the Ages

Can Nolan Ryan Save the Texas Rangers? Again?

Play Ball! Notes from Texas Rangers Spring Training, Thus Far.

60 Minutes of Real Sports

Tom Hicks' Folly |Jesus and Harry Potter| Tonex's Naked Truth |Missing the Mark

Boy Blunder

Is baseball's youngest general manager man enough to rebuild the Rangers?

Play It Again, Sammy

Can the Rangers' oldest rookie leave his diva days behind and deliver?

Roughing It

The Unnatural

Jamey Newberg's a major-league hit with his minor-league reports

Grain of Terror

Why do we drink beer while watching sports?

Not as dome as you think

Dallas attorney Darrell Jordan wants to cover the Cotton Bowl--anyone got $150 million to spare?

Damned Rangers

The Texas Rangers better win the pennant this year, if only to atone for subjecting fans to two decades of baseball hell. Mike Shropshire chronicles the team's cursed early years in an exclusive Observer excerpt.