Baseball: Remembering the 'StRangers' of 1994

The war drums are silent. And all's again quiet on the West Division front. But The Guy In The Stands still feels a need to point out an omission made in this summer's labor coverage.

Is there anyone out there that doesn't know by now how the 1994 strike done wronged the Montreal Expos? They became the poster children for those wanting to wax Shakespearean tragedy about a good team to which life threw a high, hard one. It's a wonder Jerry Lewis doesn't have them scheduled for an appearance on his telethon this weekend with the rest of his kids.

But what about the 1994 Texas Rangers? Now that was a team that was truly on to something when the game shut down that August. Yet where were their props?

The Rangers were a team that could have made history. Maybe it wasn't the sort of history Tony Gwynn, Matt Williams or the Expos were chasing. But remember: Man does not choose history, it chooses the Osbournes. And it chose The Guy to bring back those '94 Rangers of George W. Bush, Kevin Kennedy and Oddibe McDowell this morning, Kicking and screaming perhaps.

But bring them back nonetheless, if only to serve as a post-it note for those who will write about the next labor crisis. Hey, 2006 is just around the corner.

Why, you ask? Because his sense of humor is such that when he read about the two fishermen in Florida this week who caught a human head, he wondered: Jerkbait or Jighead?

The Rangers were 52-62 when the strike hit that summer. Ten games below .500 and riding a six-game losing streak. And they were in first place in the American League West. By a game over Oakland (51-63). By two over Seattle (49-63). By 5 1/2 over California (47-68). For the record, those were also the only three teams in the entire league which had worse records than the "front-running" Rangers.

"The good news is that we're in the American League West," Owner Bush uttered late that season, revealing even then keen powers of presidential observation.

How could we have forgotten? The Rangers (or one of the other forgettables) were seven weeks from becoming the first team to make the postseason with a losing record. The 1973 NL East-champion Mets (82-79) are the closest we'd come to seeing NBA- and NHL-itis infect baseball.

"I've been in baseball 20 years and I haven't seen anything like this," Kennedy, the manager if only for a few more weeks, said at the time.

The Dallas/Fort Worth area might've been the only first-place cities in history where fans asked their team to walk.

It was a team with Kenny Rogers and Kevin Brown in the starting rotation, yet owned a 5.45 ERA -- second-worst in the American League. It was a team that had younger and healthier versions of Juan Gonzalez, Will Clark and Ivan Rodriguez, that was fourth in the AL in runs, yet managed only one winning month (15-14 in July).

Funny. Sounds a lot like the present-day last-place Rangers, doesn't it? Then again, no. This year's Rangers have won more games.

When Commissioner Bud Selig joined the fray at the negotiating table in New York this week, it got The Guy thinking about who else should've been there discussing (baseball) death and taxes. To that end, he fields his All-Bargaining Unit:

Oscar Gamble OF Dave Cash 2B
John Strike OF Cap Anson 1B
Snake Deal OF Buck Martinez C
Jonah Goldman 3B Silver King P
Ernie Banks SS Leo Dickerman Cl

Leftover notes and quotes from the labor front. ... Better than two dozen of the '95 spring training replacement players are still in the big leagues. They aren't members of the union, but they sure as heck aren't management, either. ... What is purgatory like for this group? Diamondbacks catcher Damian Miller played in one "B" game that spring with the Twins. Yet even though he's now a starting catcher in Arizona, his name was not included on the T-shirt commemorating their 2001 World Series win. ... Braves pitcher Tom Glavine, NL player rep, had a message for the fans after his start Thursday at PNC Park: "Players understand the fans' anger. Believe me, it's played a part in the process. It has been talked about." Feel better? ... Astros owner Drayton McLane and players Orlando Merced, Doug Brocail and Octavio Dotel were stationed at entrances to Minute Maid Park Friday, greeting and thanking the fans. ... The A's had a walkup sale of 9,000 Friday for their first post-agreement game. ... Contraction is dead for now, but the new agreement might guarantee it in 2007. The union agreed it would not block elimination after this deal.

Bet you didn't know just how versatile Steelers rookie sensation Antwaan Randle El really is. You've probably heard that he "moonlighted" for two seasons as a backup guard on Bobby Knight's Indiana basketball team. But did you know that he also played part of a season on the Hoosiers' baseball team? He appeared in 13 games in the spring of 2000 -- his junior year -- before commitments to football forced him to give it up.

He made two starts in center field, hit .083 in 12 at-bats and stole two bases (in two attempts). OK, so they're hardly numbers that would have Barry Bonds looking over his shoulder. But the talent, the quickness, the speed and even the power were there.

"We tried to bring him along slowly because he hadn't played [since high school]," said Indiana Coach Bob Morgan. "But in time, he'd have overtaken some of the guys who were ahead of him. You polish someone like him and the sky's the limit."

Don't Steelers fans know. Scouts thought so, too. Coming out of high school, the Cubs drafted him in the 14th round.

What the Padres did in the bottom of the fifth inning Aug. 23 vs. the Marlins, even stunt drivers on a closed course could not do. They sent 11 consecutive batters to the plate with the bases loaded. That's once through the lineup plus two. That's long enough for the Padres to have to pay the occupational privilege tax. That's long enough for beer vendors to be forced to cut off sales. "I'm not sure I've seen the bases loaded for that long," said Marlins Manager Jeff Torborg after watching his team finally lose, 18-2.

A combination of walks, bunts, infield hits, seeing-eye grounders and fly balls too short to work as sacrifice flies kept the Padres from doing anything but play station to station baseball. When the monotony had cleared, the Padres had scored nine runs on 10 hits -- all but one singles.

"I got 12 ground balls hit to me [in that inning] -- more than I see at third base," Marlins left fielder Kevin Millar said, exaggerating a bit (though not much).

What can happen when a team actually challenges Barry Bonds? Bonds reminded baseball this week. In a four-game series at Coors Field, Rockies pitchers walked him only once. In his other 16 plate appearances, he had 10 hits including five homers, two doubles, seven RBIs and seven runs scored. Included was a three-homer night Tuesday. Still, Rockies Manager Clint Hurdle wasn't doing any second-guessing.

"To walk a guy with nobody on, that's ludicrous. ... I really don't care how the Dodgers feel about it or the Diamondbacks. We pitched to their guys all year. We went right at him. It's the right thing to do as far as I'm concerned," Hurdle said.

The Dodgers, who have long cultivated talent in the Dominican Republic, believed they'd discovered another jewel this spring when they gave 17-year-old Jonathan Corporan, a right-handed pitcher, a $930,000 signing bonus. In the four months since, it has come to their attention that Corporan is not 17, but 21. Which should not come as a complete surprise, seeing as this has been the year of the age change for the visa-crunched Latin American player post-9/11. What they couldn't have expected, though, is that he is not Jonathan Corporan, but Reyes Soto.

Outaged at his duplicity? Offended by his lack of integrity and honesty? Well, no. Instead, the Dodgers "only" gave him $150,000. Hey ... a fastball by any name is still a fastball, right?

Good: Joe Crede, White Sox, Tuesday: 5 AB, 2 R, 2 H, 2 HRs, 7 RBIs in an 8-4 win vs. the Blue Jays. His two-run homer in the ninth tied the game and his grand slam in the 10th won it.

Wild: Kenny Rogers, Yankees, Monday: 5 IP, 13 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 4 BB, 0 Ks in a 10-3 loss to the Yankees. Well, at least the Boss had something to smile about this week as Rogers -- a Yankee free-agent washout -- remained winless (0-7) vs. New York since 1993.

Ugly: Jose Lima, Tigers, Aug. 24: 2 2/3 IP, 9 H, 11 R, 11 ER, 2 BB, 1 K in a 12-3 loss vs. the Athletics. One of only two pitchers to allow 10 or more runs in a game three times in the 2000s. Said Lima: "It wasn't Lima Time. It was Oakland Time."

So Coors Field is the launching pad? Think again. The Ballpark at Arlington has surrendered the most homers this season -- 209 through Friday. Fittingly, major-league leader Alex Rodriguez belted No. 200 in the eighth inning Tuesday vs. the Orioles. ... Barry Bonds was so locked in in Denver, Rockies pitcher Kent Mercker still couldn't figure out how Bonds connected for his third homer of the night off him Tuesday. "I just don't know how I throw a pitch 20-mph slower than the previous pitch and he's sitting on it." ... Did you notice that former Pirate Jose Guillen has found yet another life? Released by Arizona last month, he emerged in Cincinnati when Austin Kearns got hurt. ... The Mets finally ended their 12-game losing streak. For all the New Yorkers out there, Jayson Stark of ESPN.com puts such a humbling into perspective: The Yankees haven't had a losing streak that long since 1913. ... Curt Schilling's 43 wins the past two years are already the most in a two-year period by any NL pitcher since Philadelphia's Steve Carlton won 43 in 1976-77. ...

Terry Mulholland (Uniontown) makes his first start for the Indians Tuesday. ... With six strikeouts Friday, Arizona's Randy Johnson needs just five to pass Bert Blyleven for fourth all-time. ... Bonds' three-homer game Tuesday was the seventh of August -- most in one month in history. ... Starting pitcher Odalis Perez provided the game's only run in the Dodgers' 1-0 win vs. Arizona Wednesday with a home run. He makes the fourth Dodgers pitcher to homer this year -- the most since Sloppy Thurston, Ray Phelps, Jumbo Elliott and Watty Clark all went deep in 1930. ... Braves pitcher Tom Glavine got the chance to get some pictures taken with the Stanley Cup when Red Wings forward Luc Robitaille brought it to Dodger Stadium this week. Ironic, really. Glavine was selected in the fourth round of the 1984 NHL draft by the L.A. Kings, or five rounds and 102 picks before the Kings took Robitaille.

What was the measure of fans' desperation as the final hours wound down toward a possible strike? One fan went so far as to hang a sign in right field at PNC Park Thursday that read: Derek Bell: Save Us.