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May 18, 2015After losing two out of three to both the Twins and Cardinals in the just-ended six-game homestand, the Cleveland Indians head to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex in Texas to face the Rangers in a Friday-Saturday-Sunday series. The Texas series is the first leg of a two-city, seven-game road trip that will conclude with four games against the White Sox in Chicago next week.
The Indians enter the weekend with a record of 12-21, nine games behind the Central Division-leading Royals. In the AL, only the Oakland A’s, at 13-23, have a worse record than the Indians. The Rangers, not much better at 15-20, are in fourth place, seven games behind the very surprising Houston Astros in the AL West.
The Astros and Royals, both at 22-13, are tied for the best record in the AL. Who’d-a thunk it? As it happens, the only series the Indians have won all season was against the Astros in Houston to open the 2015 campaign.
The Texas Rangers and Cleveland Indians both have Major League Baseball roots dating back to 1901. The Indians, of course, have been in Cleveland continuously since that year. The Rangers’ ancestors go back to the Washington Senators, who also came into the majors in 1901. The original Senators moved to Minneapolis-St. Paul in 1960, and that history and those numbers became part of the Twins’ record book.
The very next year, however, in 1961, a new Washington Senators expansion team re-joined Major League Baseball, but the combination of bad teams and the too-close-for-comfort competition with the successful Baltimore Orioles again led to baseball leaving the nation’s capital, this time for Arlington, Texas, beginning with the 1972 season.
Angry Washington fans, knowing their team was leaving following the 1971 season, turned the final game for the Senators into a fiasco. Thousands of fans streamed into the stadium without paying and, with the Senators leading the Yankees 7-5 in the ninth inning, many of the indignant fans streamed onto the field. (And here, the use of the word ‘literally’ can be legitimately used.) One fan literally stole first base … and ran off with it. Security guards by then had abandoned their posts and the umpires had no choice but to declare the game a forfeit.
Gee, why does this story have a familiar ring to it?
The 2015 editions of the Indians and Rangers will be playing this weekend at a ballpark named “Globe Life Park in Arlington.” The new Rangers ballpark opened for business on April 1, 1994, three days before the Indians’ new home, Jacobs Field, hosted its first game. The original seating capacity of the Rangers ballpark was 49,292. Renovations have reduced that number slightly to 48,114. The ballpark was originally named “The Ballpark in Arlington.” It’s also been named “Ameriquest Field in Arlington,” and “Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.” Perhaps it’s just a difficult place to find, but you’d think by now everyone would know it’s “in Arlington.”
When the Indians play the Texas Rangers in Arlington, our announcers never fail to describe certain essentials about Rangers baseball: That it gets very, very hot there with on-field daytime temperatures sometimes exceeding 110 degrees; that day games are rare because, let’s face it, who wants to play baseball in 110 degree heat; that the area is notorious for high, swirling winds; and that the playing surface is hard as a rock.
Growing up playing baseball in Texas, I’m told, you play most of your ball in spring and fall. During the summer months, serious players continue to play, but only in the evening when the temperatures drop to the 90-95 degree range. It’s just a matter of what you get used to I guess, but in Cleveland, we grew up playing three games a day, seven days a week and when the temps hit 90, we took a seat under the big old oak tree, thank you.
For this weekend’s series, however, the high temperatures are expected to be in the low to mid 80s. There’s a 100 percent chance of rain Friday night, a 50 percent chance on Saturday, and 60 percent on Sunday. Maybe that will soften up the playing surface a little.
The Rangers are managed by Jeff Banister. Banister had a longtime association with the Pittsburgh Pirates and is one of the very few players who can claim to have batted 1.000 in his Major League career — he went 1-for-1 on July 23, 1991 and never batted again in the majors. He was named the new Texas skipper following the 2014 season after Ron Washington, the Rangers manager from 2007, suddenly resigned last September.
Indians fans may not recognize every one of the Texas players the Tribe will face this weekend, but they’ll at least recognize Shin-Soo Choo. Like Jason Kipnis, Choo found his calling in the leadoff position and lately he’s been hot, but at age 32 and with a batting average in the .240 range this year and last, it looks like the Indians’ decision to trade him was one of their better transactions. In exchange for Choo and Jason Donald, the Indians received four players, including Trevor Bauer and Bryan Shaw.
Another player who will be hard to miss is Prince Fielder, who leads the Rangers in most offensive categories. Although his 2014 season ended in June due to injury, he’s played in all 35 games this year and is batting .348 with 4 home runs, 20 RBIs, and an OBP of .405.
Adrian Beltre, at age 36, still anchors third base for the Rangers. After five straight years at or near a .300 batting average, he’s down into the .240s this year.
Elvis Andrus has been the Rangers shortstop since 2009. He has a career batting average of .270 but this year he’s down to .223, although he always seems to do well against the Indians.
Another player who has played well against the Indians is first baseman Mitch Moreland. He was reactivated a few days ago following minor elbow surgery.
Overall offensively, the Texas Rangers aren’t faring any better than the Indians. The Rangers as a team are batting .233 (12th in the AL) compared to the Indians at .250 (8th). They’re in the same neighborhood with total runs scored, with Texas and Cleveland ranking 10th and 11th, respectively. They’re tied for 9th place in home runs with 31.1
The Texas pitching staff, overall, is doing a little better than the Indians. Their ERA is 9th in the AL at 4.08 compared to the Indians, ranked 13th with a 4.49 ERA. Ranger starters are ranked near the top of the AL with an ERA of 3.77, while the Indians are near the bottom at 5.05.
Pitching matchups for the weekend: Friday, LHP Bruce Chen (0-1, 13.50) vs. LHP Wandy Rodriguez (1-1, 2.70); Saturday, RHP Danny Salazar (4-1), 3.27) vs. RHP Colby Lewis (3-2, 2.40); Sunday, RHP Carlos Carrasco (4-3, 4.84) vs. RHP Nick Martinez (2-0, 1.88). Rodriguez has been hot of late and he’s a lefty, so the Tribe will be challenged yet again to get things moving offensively.
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Watching a ball game on ESPN this past week I was interested to see that they have a new strike zone graphic they’ve been using. It’s a thin line, inauspicious I thought, which they keep on the screen continuously during each and every at bat. I was interested because, assuming it accurately reflects whether a pitch is in the zone or not, it shows pretty readily whether the umpire is accurately calling the pitches and whether the batters have a beef when they go through their body language complaining rituals.
The Indians telecasts used to employ a strike zone graphic much more often than they do now, so I’ve been wondering if maybe Major League owners had decided to cut back its use for some reason, like maybe to avoid the public perception of umpire inaccuracy. So I went online and did a little research on the use of the strike zone technology in baseball telecasts and what I found was quite surprising. A great many online commenters seemed to place those responsible with implementing the new ESPN graphic on a par with, say, organized crime. Some felt they’d rather not watch the game at all if such a practice were to continue.
I just don’t get it. Most commenters seemed highly offended … “I know where the damned strike zone is, I don’t need no stinking video game to teach me where it is.” Well, all those professional umpires also know where the strike zone is, but it’s pretty clear they have a lot of difficulty calling a game with something above a 90 percent accuracy rate. In every single game I watch, there is a crucial at bat involving a bad call. Maybe it’s the difference between a count going to 1-2 versus 2-1, but we all know the advantages that accrue to the pitcher or the batter depending on which way the call goes. So, as I said, I just don’t get the complaints. And at the moment I’m inclined to think the batters know the strike zone as well, or better, than the umps.
An interesting item passed along by Matt Underwood during the just-ended series with the Cardinals is that Frank Lane, the reviled “Trader Lane” who traded Rocky Colavito and made countless other bad trades as GM of the Indians, was also GM of the Cardinals for a time, from 1955-1957. Well, he made a number of bone-headed trades as the Cardinals GM as well. He even tried to trade the great Stan Musial until the Cardinals owner put a stop to it. One Cardinal player Lane did trade was future Hall of Fame second baseman, Red Schoendienst. It so happens, my very first baseball glove was a Red Schoendienst model. Of course, without Interleague games in those days, I never saw him play. I’m not even sure I ever learned how to pronounce his name.
- And by the way, those pesky Astros lead the AL with 49 home runs. [↩]
10 Comments
It would be nice to win a series. We have won every series we have played in Texas this season afterall (these trivia notes will continue to get more difficult the way this season is going).
Only 5-10 Fri-Sun though…
Undefeated Fri-Sun in Texas
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Ok, so this changed, but Indians have won every single series they have played in the state of Texas.