So, what’s left to play for?

Spectacular catches like this one have put McCallum in a position to grab the #1 playoff seed. Photo courtesy of aaronisnotcool

By Sam Bohmfalk

LBJ beat Travis, Travis beat McCallum and McCallum beat LBJ.  Crockett lost to McCallum and LBJ, but nonetheless has secured a playoff birth.  So what’s left to play for?  A lot, occurring to a couple of District 26-4A coaches.

Todd Raymond, head coach at McCallum, says the main motivation to win this week is to maintain their placement in the district standings.  Since LBJ and McCallum are the two biggest schools in the district, they will go into the division 1 playoff bracket.

Raymond is quick to admit though, that he wishes he could rest his players more.  “At our level we don’t have the number of kids to just rest out starters,” said Raymond.  “Most of our offensive back-ups are defensive starters.  However, there are a few positions that I will take out faster to rest and protect against injury.”

Travis coach Armando Jacinto says the main motivation for his team is the district prize.  “This week’s game determines [the] district championship that lies in the balance so we as  a team have a lot to still play for in this last week.”

Playoff Seeding Scenarios

Division 1:

McCallum Win or McCallum loss AND LBJ loss

1. McCallum
2. LBJ

McCallum loss and LBJ win

1. LBJ
2. McCallum

Division 2:

Travis Win

1. Travis
2. Crockett

Crockett Win

1. Crockett
2. Travis

Rangers Vs Giants: Game 3 Live Blog

I have the great fortune of attending game 3 of the World Series in person, so I’ll be providing a live blog of the game.

Pregame:

4:33 – Giants are taking batting practice at the moment. Pablo Sandoval, the Giant’s DH for this game, is absolutely destroying the ball. He’s hitting everything into the second deck in right field.

5:28 – The video board shows a George W. Bush sitting by Nolan Ryan. He gets a hearty applause and cheers from the crowd and one “You suck” from a Giants fan sitting near me.

5:40 – Kelly Clarkson comes out to sing the national anthem. Rangers season ticket holders come onto the field bearing a flag that is in the shape of the United States. The final lyrics are drowned out by 4 F-14s that perform the flyover. The crowd goes wild.

5:44 – Rangers legends Pudge Rodriguez and Nolan Ryan come out for the first pitch of the game. Nolan climbs to the top of the mound and promptly fires a 80 mph fastball down the middle of the plate.

Gametime

Top 1st – The crowd is raucous from the beginning of the game. Everyone is standing as Colby Lewis starts the game off with Andre Torres grounding out. Towels are waving throughout the crowd, causing a huge cloud of dust to flow to the top of the stadium. It’s a bit hard to breathe right now.

Bottom 1st – The beer vendor for the upper section I’m sitting in has already run out of beer, only 15 minutes into the game. He races back toward the concession stands to refill his bucket.

Bottom 2nd – Mitch Moreland blasts a 3-run homerun to right field. Has a great 9-pitch at-bat where he fights off multiple breaking balls. Cody Ross takes two steps toward the wall before realizing that this ball has been crushed out of the ballpark. Towels start waving wildly again.

Top 3rd – Colby Lewis follows with a quick 1-2-3 shutdown inning. The crowd starts chanting “Colby, Colby, Colby” as he walks toward the dugout. One fan about three sections to the left has a vuvuzela and is blowing it with every chant of “Colby.”

Bottom 4th – Two Rangers fans that have been standing the entire game draws the ire of a couple of Giants fans sitting a couple of rows behind them. Giants fans starts throwing peanuts before security is called in and promptly escorts them out of the ballpark. This section of seats starts chanting “Nah, nah, nah nah nah nah, hey hey hey, goodbye” as they are escorted out.

Top 5th – Rangers crowd is just absolutely amazing today. The entire upperdeck is shouting “TEXAS” at the top of their lungs while the middle and lower decks follow with “RANGERS”. The seats are literally shaking right now and no one is sitting down. Claws and antlers are being flashed everywhere and giant Texas flags are being waved throughout the stadium. Lewis gets another 1-2-3 inning.

Bottom 5th – Josh Hamilton blasts a homer to right field as the crowd chants “MVP”. The chants can be heard even over the fireworks and continue through the next batter. Vlad is walked and Jonathan Sanchez is taken out of the game. The video board shows an animation of the pitcher getting kicked out of the ballpark by a giant boot.

Top 7th – Cody Ross finally gets the Giants on the board with a solo homerun. Ross has been absolutely amazing this postseason and is a candidate for the postseason MVP. He’s batting .318 with 5 homers and 10 RBI in 13 games.

Mid 7th – A 12-year-old girl is given thirty seconds to run from the left field wall to third base, then back again. She completes it with 6 seconds left and is given third base to take home as a souvenir. That will be an interesting item to put on the fireplace mantle.

Top 8th – Andres Torres hits another solo homer for the Giants. The fan who catches the ball fires it back onto the field and the crowd reacts by giving him raucous cheers. The crowd starts to get really anxious and nervous when Lewis hits Aubrey Huff with a pitch. They fear turning this game over to the bullpen. Darren O’Day relieves Lewis and the O’Day chants start going.

Mid 8th – Official announcement comes in that tonight’s crowd is 52,419. That’s the largest crowd ever to attend a baseball game at the Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. It may have been 52,419 officially, but it sounded and felt like 100,000 people.

Top 9th – Feliz comes in to close the game. He strikes out Pat Burrell. Burrell is having a horrible World Series, going 0-9 with 8 strikeouts, including 4 strikeouts this game. Crowd is on its feet for every pitch and explodes when strikes out to end the game. Multiple fireworks go off an enormous number of flashbulbs go off as cameras are going crazy. Fans are chanting “Let’s go Rangers” in the parking lots and along the streets as they walk to their cars.

The wait for a Rangers World Series berth is over

Though this blog will mostly be an unbiased look at local and Texas-based sports, it feels appropriate to write about an achievement that can’t be overlooked. In just three days, the Texas Rangers will play in their first ever World Series against the San Francisco Giants.

After 22 years of being a living, breathing, die-hard Rangers fan, it’s still a little weird saying that. What’s not hard is knowing that I should feel proud of this accomplishment.

I remember the late 90’s Rangers, where power was the game, and the likes of Johnny Oates, Rusty Greer, Juan Gonzalez and (Pudge) Rodriguez were the faces of the franchise. Of course, I remember the jubilation of winning their first ever game, and the disappointment in the nine straight loses to the Yankees in the ALDS in 1996, 1998, and 1999. It blew, but that was just the beginning.

Years of below mediocrity. Years of disappointing high-profile players who were only in it for themselves (cough, A-Fraud, cough, Teixeira, cough). But something clicked this last four years, and it all started with one man: manager Ron Washington.

He brought the team mentality that was needed to bring this group together. No more focusing on the long ball. It was about being aggressive, playing small ball, preaching defense, etc. All that was needed was the core.

Michael Young: the ultimate team player. Switching from second base to shortstop to third base to help the team build out young player like Elvis Andrus.

Trading for the like of Andrus, ace rookie closer Neftali Feliz, power man Nelson Cruz, veteran catcher Bengie Molina, and the ace to tie it all together, Cliff Lee. He might leave next year, but he should already be considered one of the best pitchers this franchise has had the pleasure to have. Add in the likes of Ian Kinsler, Mitch Moreland, C.J. Wilson, Colby Lewis, and Vladimir Guerrero, and you’ve got a pretty good team.

And of course, Ham-bone himself, Josh Hamilton. His redemption story has been played. His skills have been admired. But his presence on this team can really be felt when the team celebrated their ALDS and ALCS victories with ginger ale instead of champagne so he could resist the temptation of alcohol and join his teammates in celebration. That move alone shows not only this franchise is a true team, but Hamilton is a necessary part of it. The ALCS MVP, probably the regular season MVP, and for this team to win their first title, hopefully the World Series MVP.

I leave you with the definition of a true Ranger fan. I’m walking through JCPenny’s Saturday, and an employee asks another about the image on the back of his shirt. It was a deer with hands substitued for antlers.

“What does it mean?” the employee asks his co-worker.

“I don’t know,” he responds.

“It represents a speed play, like a steal or hustling and diving to make a catch,” I said.

A couple steps later, I throw up the claw. My own power-based play. Go Rangers!