Hit one for the Home Team

 

Corey Seager, the Ranger representative in the All Star Home Run Derby—even after someone asked WHY was he selected to the All Star Game, truth be told, its because he earned his place.

Why would anyone ask that, or question it, this is a ball player that shows up to the park and give 100% every game—solid with the glove, and as shown a pretty good bat at that.

The Rangers as a whole? Well that’s a different beast by a different color. They are not showing anything when it comes to pitching. In fact that had to make a start against the division rival Seattle Mariners, by committee. If you are not certain of that phrase, it means that its going to be a Bull Pen night, where your starter goes ONE inning, and then the rest is picked up by relievers. In the case of this particular evening, they brought back Taylor Hearn the young man from Royce City, Texas, and was recalled from Triple A Round Rock earlier in the week.

His outing was pretty good aside from the runs that were give up—including an error by the outfield, but SEVEN STRIKE OUTS, to go with the  5 hits he allowed—and the four runs he gave up. Two of those runs were UN-EARNED.

So there is a message being sent clearly to the man in the carpeted office, and hopefully—the Rangers will indeed get him some Run Support in the interim.

Though sitting here, just thinking out loud, about how baseball has changed and is changing, some for the better, some not so much.

For instance, this “ghost” runner at 2^nd base to start extra innings, is just plain simple, ridiculous! Simply put—JUST PLAY THE GAME as it was meant to be played. Extra innings is just the by product of the rules of the game. The other thing that they wish to implement is the ROBO UMPIRE! That’s right, they want a “machine” to call balls and strikes, and take it out of the human factor. There’s already instant replay to help overturn or confirm calls in the field, and that takes time and away (once again) from the game that they are trying to speed up.

The other thing I wish that they would outlaw—and this really has nothing to do with the game, this is more of fan participation, but for goodness sakes, PLEASE STOP THE WAVE! Oh dear heaven—there has to be something more productive that fans can do, other than just stand up and cheer when that thing hits your section in the stadium. I mean Football was one thing back in the 80s (thank you Seattle Seahawks at the KINGDOME) where that started.  Talk about annoying, and not just to the players, but the fans at home watching on TV. It just makes for bad viewing. OH I know, its something to do during the game for the fans have an interaction, but truthfully, you can become interactive if you were to watch the game, get your faces out of your phones, and maybe—by a score card and score the game.

I’m just saying, its another way to become involved in the game. And something else, why is it that the Stadium has to throw up on the scoreboard a CUE CARD for you the fan to read—to know when to Cheer or scream! WHY? I mean as a fan you should know when there is TWO strikes on the batter—and your pitcher is throwing BB’s—to stand up and cheer him on! YOU should not have to be reminded to do so! OH wait that means you would have to pay attention during the game—

Refreshing to hear the fans on a particular night, cheer without the help of the scoreboard—they were clapping and cheering and with the bases full of the opposing team and no outs in the inning—the reliever came on and struck out the first two batters he faced—and even went full count on one batter only to strike him out on a high fast ball looking! However—with the bases still full,  one batter took that relievers fast ball deep to center field for a grand slam—and for all the cheering and paying attention for 1/3 of an inning—it all came to naught.

So the top of the 9^th we headed—and that reliever is still on the hill, and will try and close this portion of the inning out without anymore damage—and see if his teammates can bring it back being down by five!

Just a thought