Texas Rangers Getting “The Band” Back Together
By Ben Davila
As the Texas Rangers keep finding ways to stay in the playoff hunt, they’ve been drawing from their past in an attempt to find success in the present.
Plenty of Rangers’ fans ran the gamut of emotions when Josh Hamilton came back. And for whatever negative feelings that initially elicited, most–if not all–can be forgiven when the big guy produces like this.
That particular walk-off at bat against the Red Sox on May 31 has proven to be an accurate microcosm of the season in general. When this thing is going well, they’re not trying to do too much.
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At the plate, they’re working counts. They’re not trying to yank the ball out of the park. If the pitch is away, they’re hitting away.
On the mound, they’ve been able to win some tense one-run games with good starting pitching and a supremely taxed–and emotionally taxing–bullpen.
What it all amounts to is a very unique season from the Rangers. As a lifelong fan, I’m having difficulties remembering such an up and down year.
Couple that with the rest of the seemingly average American League, and you have a team still very much in the hunt for the AL wild card.
After Saturday’s 11-3 extra innings win over the Seattle Mariners, in which they exploded for eight runs in the top of the 11th inning, a division title can’t be ruled out, as they pulled to within 4.5 games of the AL West leading Houston Astros.
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On Friday, we learned that former catcher and fan favorite, Mike Napoli, was coming back into the fold in order to provide a right handed bat with power and the ability to hit left-handed pitching.
The team now has a look of a once-successful band coming back together to try to catch that old lost magic. Typically, these types of moves in the music world are a cash grab and a blatant stab at appealing to the fans’ sense of nostalgia.
The argument could be made for the Yankees, but given the Rangers’ 5-2 season record against the Bombers this year, I’m sure players and fans alike are quite nonplussed at the potential prospect of facing them in the post season.
While the cash-grab aspect of this is not as pronounced in the sports world (since pro athletes already have their money), the longing to revisit a better time and those old, familiar feel-good tunes certainly resonates in music and sports alike.
As a Rangers homer, there is certainly a sense of “warm and fuzzy” when you see Josh, Napoli, Beltre, Elvis, and company return to the proverbial scene of the crime with something still to prove.
Save for the Kansas City Royals, who are the clear-cut favorite in the American League, there is no obvious second banana in the bunch.
The argument could be made for the Yankees, but given the Rangers’ 5-2 season record against the Bombers this year, I’m sure players and fans alike are quite nonplussed at the potential prospect of facing them in the post season.
The Yankees have their own problems with the Toronto Blue Jays at this moment, anyway.
GM Jon Daniels has tinkered with personnel relentlessly. Manager Jeff Banister has pushed buttons and pulled levers in order to keep the season from careening off the road.
Josh Hamilton has proven to be a refreshing addition in that the indifferent, flailing three-pitch at bats of yesteryear are a thing of the past. Pitches he used to lunge for are now being studiously avoided for something better to hit.
Of course, the jury is still out on Napoli, but if the can provide the aforementioned punch from the right side of the plate, there’s no reason to think this iteration of the Texas Rangers can’t contend into September and beyond.
Team chemistry is excellent. Cole Hamels, Yovani Gallardo, Martin Perez, Colby Lewis, and Nick Martinez are currently giving their team a chance to win on most nights.
I get the feeling the players have the same hunch fans are feeling right now.
Why not us?
Stay tuned, Ranger fans. This thing is far from over.