After the Texas Rangers fired Buck Showalter following the 2006 season, general manager Jon Daniels interviewed five candidates. Of course, there was Ron Washington, a longtime third base and infield coach for the American League West rival A’s who wasn’t interviewed for Oakland’s managerial vacancy. Then-Rangers bench coach Don Wakamatsu,…
On Wednesday, the Pittsburgh-based Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights issued a report titled Dressing Babies in Sweatshop Clothing: Dallas Cowboys, Ohio State and a Creepy Business, in which it alleged that the Cowboys are having team-branded clothing made in “gross sweatshop conditions at the Style Avenue factory in…
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 market — Carlos Lee, an established 30-HR, 100-RBI slugger. And Lee was…
As depressing as it was, I believe Game 3 of the American League Championship Series was an anomaly, much like Game 1 of the ALDS. Nothing seemed right. And while Wash’s decision to keep Colby Lewis on the mound when he was obviously out of gas was the turning point…
The Houston Astros are this close to being sold, as Drayton McLane is set to sell the franchise to Jim Crane for $660 million, pending league approval. (And, yes, that’s the same Jim Crane who tried to buy the Texas Rangers out of bankruptcy last year.) The deal’s expected to…
Speaking of great eyes …Surely you’ve seen the ESPN 30 on 30 offering Pony Excess, about SMU receiving the NCAA’s death penalty in 1987. If not, you must. It was directed by Thaddeus Matula, a Jesuit alum — who, as it so happens, is also responsible for this short SMU…
Wow. What an amazing start to the American League Championship Series for Your Texas Rangers. Two close games. Two incredible wins. Now Detroit has to win four of the next five games to get back to the World Series for the first time since they fell to St. Louis in…
Just got off the phone with a gentleman who’s also keeping an eye on Texas-Detroit: Alex Cosmidis. He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, and is pulling for the Tigers — surprising, since Cosmidis once played baseball in Dallas and in Fort Worth, first as an Eagle in 1955 and ’56,…
Back in February 2009, I penned a cover story about the Texas Rangers’ new philosophy of relying on kiddos from their farm system instead of throwing big money at the likes of Alex Rodriguez, Chan Ho Park and Kevin Millwood. The youth movement was in full swing that spring as…
Reports out of England have Liverpool and Manchester City of the Premier League taking a long, hard look at FC Dallas’s Brek Shea, the 21-year-old College Station-born star just called to the U.S. National Team at September’s end. Problem is, Shea — a chief contender for MLS’s MVP award –…
[Editor’s note: At the request of a few regulars, we’re going with a rare weekend-night open thread to celebrate the Rangers’ second straight appearance in the American League Championship Series. Will we do this again tomorrow? Hard to say. Let’s see how tonight goes. I’ll be in and out, but…
Back, by popular demand, is today’s ALDS Game 4 open thread as the Rangers try to finish out the Rays following last night’s epic nail-biter — so nerve-wracking even Nolan Ryan said it was “as stressful a game as I’ve sat through.” Before we get to first pitch, once more…
As we make the slow transition to bringing sports back to Unfair Park, several have asked: Um, how ’bout a Rangers playoff liveblog or open thread? To which I say: Absofreakinlutely. I had hoped to bring Best of Dallas-winner Jamey Newberg, namesake of The Newberg Report and the man to…
In 1997, an insurance company called Rushmore sued Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys in federal court, insisting that Jones owed close to $1 million in workers comp claims filed by former players — among them Harvey Martin, Tony Dorsett, Billy Joe DuPree, Randy White and Bob Breunig. The suit…
Doesn’t seem like that long ago we were just here: trying to work and watch a Rangers post-season game. Today’s extended dance remix of the 2011 major league season starts at 4:07 this afternoon at the Ballpark in Arlington, with Texas, for the first time ever, facing Rays rookie Matt…
It’s creepy to write your own obituary. Nonetheless, I’m dead. This truly is Whitt’s End, my final column at the Dallas Observer. While I’m actually alive and relatively well, budget cuts — you’ve heard of those? — have forced the Observer to eliminate its full-time sportswriting position, one of the…
Thanks to my 8-year-old son’s intense but not at all unpleasant love affair with baseball, I’ve spent way too many evenings in recent days glued to the MLB Network watching Tampa Bay and/or Boston slug it out to see which team lands the American League wild-card spot. Because if the…
I could have sworn I watched the game last night. I had it on, anyway. But nowhere did I see Tony Romo running around with bloody rib bone sticking out of his jersey, making impossible touchdown throws, suffering through some unknowable agony to lead his team, his city, his fellow…
Mike Modano, the highest-scoring American-born player in the history of the National Hockey League and the face of the Dallas Stars even after he signed to Detroit for a final season, stifled a sob as he bade farewell to those who shaped his legendary career, which included 12 70-point seasons,…
Yesterday, upon the occasion of Mike Modano’s retirement announcement, several Friends of Unfair Park asked if the Dallas Stars would sign him to a short-lived contract so the single-season Detroit Red Wing could exit the National Hockey League with the team that first signed him. When I asked Stars spokesman…
Mike Modano is on Facebook. And out of hockey. The legendary Dallas Star used social media to announce his retirement from the NHL yesterday, ending a 21-year career as one of the sport’s all-time greatest skaters and its most prolific American-born scorer. Feels like we’ve delivered these eulogies before — remember…
Let’s see: There have been the firing of the hitting coach, the TV play-by-play voice and even the co-owner. A loyal father and fan leaned over a railing in left field and fell to his death. Every time you turn around a player is taking paternity leave. Last week the…
