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Let's twist again, like we did last summer The argument of whether you'd rather have the Atlanta Braves or Florida Marlins, to me, is decided: Would you rather win 10 division championships and no World Series or no division championships and two World Series?
Right now, give me Atlanta. The Texas Rangers combined their win over Seattle with a sweet 3-1 Oakland Athletics win over the California Angels to take the magic number to zero.
Who knew that Gio Gonzalez, Edwin Encarnacion (a former Rangers prospect and current Toronto Blue Jay), Jemile Weeks (1 HR last night) and Vernon Wells (the last meaningful out of the Angels' season and a perpetual target for the Rangers because he's from Arlington) would be such big players in the Rangers' season.
I hope now we can stop aimlessly scoreboard watching and worrying.
It's frustrated me as everyone's been watching the Angels play, going white knuckle over every out and play.
Meanwhile, the hometown Rangers merely kept winning. Since the last Angels series, when the Rangers were supposed to get their comeuppance against a "tough" schedule, they went 15-7 against the Rays, Red Sox, Athletics, Indians and Mariners.
We need to come to these realizations and discontinue being the same Rangers' fans of the past 20 years:
The Texas Rangers Are A Really Good, Well-Run Baseball Club
The Texas Rangers Should Be Scared Of No One
What haven't the Rangers done better than anyone else and what haven't the Rangers overcome?
The Rangers have young, unproven players. The Rangers have had injuries to key members of their club. But this is not a team built around one player. It's a team that puts complete faith in their bench players, in the youngsters and on its pitching staff to pick up the line-up and the line-up to pick up the pitching staff.
It's a team buoyed by its manager, Ron Washington, the greatest manager in Texas Rangers history. And, yes, he's still 90-odd wins from Johnny Oates' franchise record. Maybe Oates is a better human being, has better in-game strategy or whatever. But no one manages a baseball team like Washington.
It's a team put together by Jon Daniels, arguably the best general manager in baseball. Not every team can lose probably the best pitcher in the club's history and wind up winning more games than before. Not many clubs can manage to roll with the same five guys in the rotation -- three of whom, by the way, weren't in the rotation a year ago -- for 162 games. Not many teams wanted to pay Adrian Beltre that money or make very understated trades for Mike Adams or Koji Uehara. Daniels did. He's outsmarting the competition. There is very little these days that he does wrong.
It's a team built from the clubhouse to the field. It's a team that can bring in just about anyone and automatically make them "one of the guys." Winning is fun. Maybe fun is winning. Maybe it's that chemistry and that frat house of a clubhouse that leaks onto the field and makes it a game again.
The Rangers, the media, the fans and the front office don't have the same feel of other teams. Obstacles and setbacks don't have the same value as they do other teams.
It does not matter who's hurt, or having a bad game or year, who's being called up from the minors, who's being sent back to the minors, who's coming over in a trade. For 81 games, there was a solid 30,000+ fans at every home game -- whether it was the Red Sox or Marlins. And, no, Yankees' and Red Sox fans are not outnumbering the red, white and blue, the claw and antlers and the Kinsler home T-shirts any longer.
I simply could not be prouder.
Now, let me go watch Craig Gentry's inside-the-park home run again.
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