All right!  First day after the All Star Break!

Of course, due to the genius of the MLB scheduling folks -- the same folks who think that it is a good idea to have less than a full slate of games on Memorial Day -- a bunch of teams, including the Rangers, are off today.  So no game tonight.

Hank Blalock is expected to be activated -- finally -- on Friday.  No word on who will be sent down to make room for him, but the speculation has been that it will be Chris Davis.

Richard Durrett has a piece up about the chemistry of the team, that includes some of the rituals and themes from this season...this piece includes an awesome quote from Tom Hicks:

While Brandon Boggs was keeping tabs on the finger about a month ago, it was stolen from the dugout. A replacement was found immediately.

Several players speculated that someone from the owner's suite near the dugout took the finger, possibly one of owner Tom Hicks' sons.

Hicks denied those claims.

"I have heard from all my sons, and we were not the red finger stealers," Hicks said.

Evan Grant talks about the importance of this particular game, taking place at Yankee Stadium in its final year, to some Rangers...

Anthony Andro says the Rangers won't likely deal veterans at the trade deadline.  Andro has the odds of Hank Blalock being moved at 10-1, Frank Catalanotto at 25-1, and Milton Bradley at 40-1.  I think this is way off...there's a greater than 10% chance, I think, that Blalock gets moved, and better than a 4% chance Cat gets moved.