The Rangers will spend the majority of the rest of the season at home which is good because they still have some work to do if they want to make the playoffs. One thing about this team, it's a cliche but it's true, they don't quit.
Don't bet against the Fightin' Ron Washingtons
11:31 PM CDT on Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Column by JEAN-JACQUES TAYLOR / The Dallas Morning News | jjtaylor@dallasnews.com
The Fightin' Ron Washingtons ain't going away. Not this week. Not next week.
Not the week after that.
This club is here to stay. Los Angeles and Boston might eventually earn the final two playoff spots, but they aren't going to be having champagne showers anytime soon.
You should know that by now.
Every single time you write off the Fightin' Ron Washingtons, they prove you wrong.
Every. Single. Time.
They lost consecutive games against the woeful Orioles a few days ago, and the chatter immediately began about their season nearing an end.
That talk has already stopped.
Texas drilled Cleveland, 10-0, Wednesday afternoon for its third win in 19 hours. In the series, Texas hit .348 with seven homers. The Rangers scored 31 runs on 48 hits.
Now do you believe? You should.
"It's the makeup of the guys we have. It's easy for us to look past yesterday and focus on today," outfielder Marlon Byrd said. "It has been like that all season. We had a little lull early in the season, but no one worried. No one panicked.
"Whether we won yesterday or lost yesterday doesn't matter. All we're trying to do is win today."
At one level, it's easy to understand any skepticism regarding the Rangers.
This team has been a joke for much of the past decade. It has one postseason win in franchise history and has not been to the playoffs since 1999.
You're entitled to be skeptical.
Plus, they're trying to make the playoffs without star third baseman Michael Young, who has a strained hamstring, and enigmatic Josh Hamilton, the team's most talented player, who has a pinched nerve in his back.
No one knows when either will return to the lineup. We don't even know if Hamilton will play again this season.
The Rangers win because the players on this team refuse to accept or make excuses.
They persevere. They play hard. And with passion.
They don't always win, but they believe in Ron Washington's motto, "The best team doesn't always win. The team that plays the best on a given day wins. Why can't that be us?"
All that matters is with three weeks left in the season, Washington's team trails Boston by two games in the wild-card race and trailed Los Angeles by four games in the AL West going into the Angels' late game against Seattle on Wednesday.
It doesn't matter if you want to credit president Nolan Ryan for giving this wayward franchise direction. Or if you want to credit general manager Jon Daniels for putting together a farm system that has produced every time the Rangers needed someone from Triple-A to contribute whether it's Derek Holland, Tommy Hunter, Neftali Feliz or Julio Borbon.
On Wednesday, reserve third baseman Esteban German banged out five hits while Omar Vizquel rested.
It doesn't seem like it to me but the NFL kicks off tonight for real. Not many seem to think the Cowboys will be very good this year, I kinda disagree. I guess I'm not totally alone.
A voice of optimism for the Dallas Cowboys’ 2009 chances
By RANDY GALLOWAY
Ft. Worth Star Telegram
rgalloway@star-telegram.com
Emmitt Smith, one of our all-time favorite Cowboys and ballroom dancers, is making the national media circuit this week, talking football and, of all things, promoting pork.
Typical of me, being the last to know Emmitt has been hired as the spokesman to promote the eating of more hog.
Never having been one, however, to turn down a pork chop, I don’t see a problem here.
But the other morning, when Colin Cowherd of ESPN radio steered the conversation toward the NFL, and asked Emmitt "as a resident of Dallas" to assess his former team in the season that starts Sunday, well ...
He didn’t exactly slop the home pig.
"I think the Cowboys can win seven games" came an answer that seemed to catch Cowherd off guard.
Hearing that on I-30, I swerved the truck at least one lane, while asking myself, "Am I the only human [outside of Jerry, and he doesn’t count] who actually likes this team’s chances?"
Say, 10 wins worth, and I can see 11, or maybe one more. OK, make it 11, tops. But that’s a good team. Good enough to win the NFC East, and more important, win a playoff game or two.
Obviously, this goes against the prevailing national trend. But an early September ago, I was with the trend, predicting great postseason things for the Cowboys, even while knowing this was a team infested with rats. Talent, however, would prevail. It didn’t come close, of course, to prevailing. The rats wrecked it.
Then came Wednesday morning, and while cruising through the geek wire, I came across the predictions of ESPN.com’s army of NFL media.
Sixteen "experts" gave their opinions on all areas of the new season. Three had the Cowboys winning the NFC East. Two others had them as a wild card for the playoffs. Of the three predicting a divisional title, two had them in the Super Bowl, losing, respectively, to New England and San Diego.
Overall, however, very limited support. Again, so it goes, nationally.
Why my optimism? Two things: (1) Totally different team chemistry — which, to me, anyway, is extremely important. (2) The schedule between now and the start of the five-game December-January run.
Look over that schedule. Good chance, don’t you think, to win four of the first five (including all three road games), six of the first seven and, through Thanksgiving, be sitting at 8-3 or 9-2 depending on what happens in the back-to-back November trips to Philly and Green Bay?
Granted, the last five games, starting on Dec. 6 at the Giants, and ending in early January with Philly in Arlington, now that’s a Cow question that no one can answer. San Diego is also here, and there are trips to New Orleans and Washington.
Steve Jobs came back yesterday with an Apple keynote. He mentioned the minor events in his life while he was gone (he had a liver transplant) and then introduced new iPods and a brand new iTunes.
Jobs in Fighting Form After Liver Transplant
By BRAD STONE and DAVID POGUE
New York Times
Published: September 9, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO — After a prolonged absence from the public eye, a thin but energetic Steven P. Jobs reappeared Wednesday at an Apple news conference and addressed his illness in personal terms for the first time.
After a five-month absence, Mr. Jobs said, “I’m back at Apple and I’m loving every day of it.”
“I feel great. I probably need to gain about 30 pounds, but I feel really good,” said Mr. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, in an interview after the event. “I’m eating like crazy. A lot of ice cream.”
At the music-themed event, Apple introduced new iTunes software and a new line of iPod Nano music players with video cameras. But the product announcements were eclipsed by the public return of Mr. Jobs, five months after he received a liver transplant at a hospital in Tennessee. Mr. Jobs needed the operation after suffering from complications from a rare form of pancreatic cancer.
“I’m vertical, I’m back at Apple and I’m loving every day of it,” he said on stage, after a standing ovation from the crowd, which included Apple employees and journalists gathered for the news conference.
The applause “was an endearing statement for someone who is clearly still recovering,” said Gerry Purdy, a wireless analyst at Frost & Sullivan who has covered the mobile computing industry for 20 years. “You just feel like this is an opportunity to share in the greatness of someone who is an icon in the industry.”
Mr. Jobs, who appeared as gaunt as he was when he went on a leave of absence in January, immediately addressed the matter of his health.
“I’m very happy to be here, and thank you all,” he said. “As some of you know, five months ago I had a liver transplant. I now have the liver of a mid-20s person who died in a car crash and was generous enough to donate their organs. I wouldn’t be here without such generosity, so I hope all of us can be as generous and elect to be organ donors.”
But after that gentle opening, Apple’s chief executive, who wore his characteristic outfit of jeans and a black turtleneck, was as tough as ever. He used the news conference to take jabs at competing products from Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, Dell and Cisco Systems.
Mr. Jobs’s public return will reassure many Apple fans and shareholders, who view the charismatic co-founder of the company as crucial to Apple’s success.
“Apple users and investors think the world of Steve Jobs and the world of Apple products, and that he was here today is a statement that he is back in charge,” said Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray. “The wizard of Oz is back in Oz.”
The actual products announced Wednesday were not nearly as magical as recent hits like the iPhone.
Apple announced a new version of its iTunes software that will allow users to better organize their applications for the iPhone and the iPod Touch and to share music and videos among up to five computers in the home.
The company also introduced a line of iPod Nanos that have a video camera, microphone, speaker, FM radio tuner and pedometer and start at $149.
Apparently Van Halen is going to tour in 2010. Anybody who pays attention knows that planning that far ahead with this band typically is a waste of time. It would be cool though.
Van Halen Tour?
Pollstar.com
Posted on Wednesday September 9, 2009 at 12:01 PM 13 |
Van Halen will hit the road in 2010, Ticketmaster Entertainment CEO Irving Azoff announced during the 2009 Bank of America Merrill Lynch Media, Communications and Entertainment Conference Sept. 9.
This was not expected to be the time when the next VH tour would be announced, but some lines got crossed and the information was brought during the Q&A.
Azoff also announced TM plans to unveil interactive seat maps in the fourth quarter followed by dynamic ticket pricing in 2010 and praised the company’s initial moves into paperless ticketing.
Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino, who joined Azoff for their first ever co-presentation at the conference, echoed the need for more dynamic pricing in ticketing and called LN’s no service fee Wednesdays offering this summer a success, garnering 80 to 90 percent approval ratings in exit surveys with fans.
The principals remained fairly mum about the pending merger deal, however both expressed hope they’ll see closure by the end of the year.
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