Thursday A.M. Jeremiad

Here's a song for you to play while you read this morning's links.

Yesterday was awful, in part because it was a reminder, of sorts, of the years of futility we suffered while the Rangers were on their way to becoming this team. It's worth rememberingb however, that failing to win the AL West and having to play-in to the post-season is a whole different flavor of failure than we tasted through the first forty years of this franchise. Someone to whom I delivered a pizza said that the Rangers are the Buffalo Bills, but it's much better to be the Buffalo Bills than the Detroit Lions.

Instead of being mad at the players, who had a great season and finished it poorly; or the Oakland A's, who are a bunch of nobodies that strung together a colossal second half and deserve the tip of our caps; instead of being mad at Ron Washington, who did what he thought it took to win the AL West (wrongly, as it turned out); instead of being sad or irritated or mad at people that don't really deserve it, I invite you to be mad at someone who thoroughly deserves it, that being Randy Galloway. Randy Galloway wants you to know how much of a bunch of choking chokers the Texas Choking Rangers are, which is so choking much it would blow your choking little mind, with some choke on top. As angry as I was at the Texas Rangers this afternoon, all it took for them to win back my heart was this column by Randy Galloway (may Baphomet devour his coal-black soul), because f_ck Randy Galloway, that's why.

Last night, I was at the Electric Fat Chick drinking cranberry juices and playing pool (before you ask, I got there after the male strip show was over). I don't play pool nearly as often or well as I did when I was still a drinking man, but in my first game against my boss, I sank the seven on the break, and then proceeded to drop every other solid on the table, leaving only the eight to get me a win. I never got to shoot again, because my boss then ran the table. I didn't play a bad game... in fact, I played a very good one. But my boss' game was better.

The Rangers had a good season, a season that should have been good enough to win the West... but the A's had a better one. So Randy Galloway, thank you for bringing nothing to the table. Thanks for crapping all over the team and bringing up Game 6, because before I read your buzzword-full yet content-free column I was pretty down on the Rangers. Now, I'm just down on the elderly.

My Uncle Don was shot while driving his truck in Crowley in the 80's. He bragged in the hospital that his window was rolled down, so he wasn't going to have to replace the window. Then he was told that the bullet passed through the door frame, breaking the window, meaning he was going to have to replace it after all, which made him pretty mad. I am reminded of that story because Drew Davison says that dropping six of the last eight kept the Rangers from setting a franchise record in wins which seems akin to worrying about your truck window when you're recovering from a gunshot wound. Davison's article also has some notable accomplishments for individual Rangers, including Elvis Andrus leading the league in sacrifice bunts with 17, which is an accomplishment deserving a "Participant" ribbon if I've ever heard of one.

Jeff Wilson has reactions from Ron Washington, Michael Young, and David Murphy on having to play-in to the post season, with Washington saying "We don't make excuses." Josh Hamilton apparently got the memo about no excuses, because after the game he answered questions about his 2 run error on a fly ball in the fourth and did not blame the sun, time travelers, or Jennifer Bueno, saying instead that he played it poorly.

T.R. Sullivan has a notes column where we learn that Ron is still being careful with Adrian Beltre, Yu Darvish will be starting against Baltimore on Friday, and that Mike Adams hopes to begin throwing again soon.

Evan Grant had a post yesterday before the game about the atmosphere in the clubhouse, which was loose. With hindsight, that brings to mind the quote from The Usual Suspects: "How to spot a murderer. Let's say you arrest three guys for the same killing. You put them all in jail overnight. The next morning, whoever is sleeping is your man. You see, if you're guilty, you know you're caught, you get some rest."

Evan also tells us that Yu Darvish is ready for Friday: "Of course I'm ready. If I'm not ready, I probably wouldn't be picked." But, really, Darvish is the last thing I'll be worrying about on Friday.

Richard Durrett has a column saying that never has a team led its league for so long and still walked away without the title, and also has his rapid reactions to the game.

Finally, putting things in a bit of perspective, A's reliever Pat Neshek (who left the team to be with his wife for the birth of their son) is dealing with a horrible tragedy. Losing a child is a horrible thing to bear, and my heart goes out to Neshek and his wife Stephanee.