Okay, I'm back, after having had a great time last night at the Tin Star...
Thanks again to Jamey, Eleanor, and the other folks who helped put on a great gathering...
And especially thanks to C.J. Wilson, Taylor Teagarden, Ian Kinsler, Kam Loe, and John Danks for coming out to meet the fans.
After doing the autographs, the five Rangers did a Q&A session with the fans who stuck around, and then ended up talking individually with folks afterwards. I got to visit with Teagarden about how he decided to go with Scott Boras as his agent, and how an amateur player ends up selecting an agent, among other things, and spent a good chunk of team listening to my brother Ben and Kam Loe discuss hunting, fishing, snake care, and whether or not Kam would like Ben to be his "lucky short person" (a la Pedro Martinez and Nelson de la Rosa).
We also met John Danks' mom, who attended, and who was very gracious and nice (although Ben and I thought at first she was Danks' sister).
Some tidbits from the Q&A...
First and foremost, C.J. Wilson's MySpace page is back up, which I'm sure folks will be glad to know...apparently, it was deleted by the MySpace folks because of some confusion about whether it was really him or not...
Wilson said his goal was to be a closer in the majors, and that Loe was going to win a rotation slot this spring.
Teagarden says he's expecting to start the season in Bakersfield, and should be 100% and ready to go when the season starts.
The players -- particularly the major leaguers -- indicated that they really didn't listen to the radio shows or pay attention to the media, for obvious reasons. Wilson was very upfront and matter of fact about not listening to the media when he was struggling last season, because "they were going to say that I sucked, and that's because I was sucking," explaining that, when you give up 4 runs in a third of an inning, you have to expect people to say that you sucked.
They seemed excited about Ron Washington joining the organization, happy with the moves thusfar (although they mentioned that the departure of DeRosa would leave a big hole in the clubhouse), very happy that Vicente Padilla was coming back (he was described as the "good kind of crazy"), and hopeful about landing Barry Zito.
Again, a great time, and as a Ranger fan, I'm very appreciative that these guys came out and spent the time with us that they did.