Michael Young held a goodbye presser yesterday, and as you can imagine, things are a tad maudlin in the papers and online media this morning.
T.R. Sullivan begins by writing on how Young is ultimately appreciative for his 12 years in Texas and is looking forward to his new challenge in Philadelphia.
Jeff Wilson covers Young thanking his teammates first and foremost, lavishly thanking Ron Washington, thanking the coaches and staff, thanking the fans, thanking the hot dog vendors, thanking the parking lot attendants, thanking Evan Grant for being OK with not actually being thanked, and basically thanking so many people that the Academy Award play-'em-off music began to play. Except, where was the thanks for management? Thanks, but no thanks, says Young:
"There's no relationship there, but that's fine with me," Young said. "My relationship is with guys in uniform. I haven't spoken with management since this whole thing went down."
Cold.
Richard Durrett expands on the Young/management relationship with quotes from Nolan Ryan and Jon Daniels both saying they had planned to speak with Young soon. Also, there's Daniels admitting the relationship with Young had become strictly professional in the last few years and, therefore, the trade was made strictly as a baseball decision.
Behind the DMN paywall, Grant writes of a "Young at his best" at his farewell conference compounding the Rangers' "nightmarish" three day stretch by having us watch a man who could "tell C.J. Wilson to shut up, Derek Holland to grow up, Hamilton to occasionally hustle up" leave while the team was busy losing out on Russell Martin and James Shields to the likes of Pittsburgh and Kansas City.
Anthony Andro writes that even though Young sounded genuine in being grateful for his time with Texas, he also sounded ready for a fresh start in Philly.
Durrett offers Young's assessment of Jurickson Profar. There are some good quotes and anecdotes from Young who sounds excited to see what Profar will do in his "very bright future".
Behind the DMN paywall, Kevin Sherrington writes that even though it was probably time for the change, maybe we won't know what we had in Young until he's been gone.
With the Young trade complete and the Rangers' top two pitching targets off the board, Sullivan takes a look at players on the Rangers' radar with still plenty of opportunity to improve the ballclub. (Fair warning: The names "A.J. Pierzynski" and "Jose Valverde" are contained within.)
Ken Rosenthal has piece on how, yet again, these aren't going to be your 2011 Texas Rangers. The Face of the Franchise is now gone. Alternative Universe World Series MVP Mike Napoli is gone. Living and breathing Roy Hobbs is potentially out the door. Ian Kinsler might be quietly unhappy at first base. Even Feldmania resides elsewhere, for crying out loud! The Rangers haven't figured out how to go from currently good to potentially very good yet this offseason even though we know it's going to be different no matter what.
Finally:
Retrospection forces us to remember that sports don't allow for a Face of the Franchise to last forever. When Michael Young broke into the big leagues, he began by wearing #2 on his jersey before switching to his now famous #10. #2 is the number Jurickson Profar wore in his 2012 debut. With any luck, the new #2 will eventually have as meaningful a day as #10 had on Sept, 25 2010 or as reputable a decade as the one that preceded it.