Texas Rangers '10, The Year We've Been Playing For

[sully]

My point is, he's good.

[fischer]

I don't doubt that. I've never read anything other than that blurb.

[fischer]

and that blurb, while correct, was pretty meh.

[P. Marf]

He is filled with Rangers knowledge. It's amazing how little I care about how embarrassing the Cowboys are right now. And I love it.

[fischer]

where do I read some of his stuff?

Yeah, I am very thankful for the Rangers right now. The Cowboys are a traveshamockery.

[sully]

Newberg Report after Friday's World Series ticket was punched...


Though for reasons that I’m sure will begin to become more clear before long, the late-’90s playoff run never felt like this one. Part of it was that this club’s previous Mark Teixeira, slugger Juan Gonzalez, was reportedly not going to sign long-term for Larry Walker money ($75 million over six years), and at about this time in 1999, following the club’s third playoff season out of four, the Rangers decided to explore the idea of trading Gonzalez. He was shipped to Detroit in November.

What followed in 2000 was a 71-win season, the club’s worst in 12 years.

Texas then signed the best young player in baseball to the record-obliterating $252 million deal that was supposed to shoot the club right back into perennial relevance.

That contract was for ten years.

Starting in 2001.

And ending in 2010.

We can all make a list of a dozen reasons that last night’s result was fitting. One that we’ll all talk about well after his own date in Cooperstown is that the instant that Alex Rodriguez’s 2010 season ended, the season that was supposed to conclude a landmark Rangers contract that would be the centerpiece of a World Series-contending roster, at that very instant Texas earned its first-ever World Series berth, not with him but against him and, in a way, in spite of him, as at least one of the “kids” he disparaged and deserted six years ago and many others who weren’t around yet leaned forward, facing him, as were 50,000 of the millions who had once imagined big things with him in a Rangers uniform, and had been abandoned ourselves.

A-Rod was looking out at the team he couldn’t bear to play with, and then with a 1-2 count he was just looking, as Kid Neftali followed 100-99-99 with a picturesque 83-mph slider, a buckler that broke 11 inches and once and for all broke the hearts of a thousand New York writers convinced that the Rangers were merely invited to the Yankees’ progressive dinner that began in Minnesota and would continue in a National League park on Wednesday.

In a season that could never have been scripted – never – that last pitch, freezing Alex Rodriguez and sending this team to a place it had never been, a place that 10 years ago it had hoped with a pile of cash that A-Rod would help take them to, couldn’t have been scripted any more perfectly.

Dial back to the eight innings before that moment, and to the year before A-Rod signed with Texas, and you find Colby Lewis. Drafted by the Rangers in the supplemental first round in 1999, Lewis was on a fast track to join a pretty good baseball team, and probably felt pretty good about the future of the franchise he was part of when A-Rod arrived after the 2000 season, when Lewis had just finished his first full pro season, in High Class A. The superstar shortstop was only four years older than Lewis, after all.

But it then fell apart for the A-Rod Rangers, who finished all three of his seasons here (2001-03) in last place in the division, getting Lewis’s first 30 big league starts and a handful of relief appearances the last two of those seasons. His ERA over 161.1 innings was a bloated 7.08.

A-Rod was traded right before camp in 2004. Lewis lasted only a little bit longer, making three starts in April before being shut down with what was diagnosed as a torn rotator cuff. He was done as a Ranger. For six years, that is.

Alex Rodriguez wasn’t supposed to be somewhere else in 2010, and Colby Lewis wasn’t supposed to be back, pitching in a Rangers playoff rotation.

But they were, facing off over the last week six times, for the first time in their careers.

A-Rod went 1 for 6 against Lewis, one of the kids he ran away from six years ago.

Not that that matchup stood out in the six-game series for either Rodriguez (who hit .190 overall) or Lewis (who held New York to a composite .196 ALCS average, after holding Tampa Bay to a .118 clip in his one ALDS start against the Rays). But, given A-Rod’s importance to the Yankees attack, and the history here, it sure was sweet, particularly as he got rung up by Feliz on the final pitch of the series, and New York’s season.

When I predicted Rangers in six games a week ago, I didn’t expect the Yankees to hit .201 or post a team ERA of 6.58. I didn’t expect Texas to rack up more extra-base hits (24) or more stolen bases (9) in the series than any playoff opponent ever had against the Yankees, or score the second-most runs (38) of any New York playoff opponent – trailing only the 41 that Boston scored in the 2004 ALCS, a series that went seven games rather than six.

Texas, which hit .304 with an .890 OPS (the second highest ALCS OPS since the series went to the best-of-seven format 25 years ago) and pitched so well most of the time, dominated this series, plain and simple.

In that same October 15 report, I wrote: “This I think I know: Over the next week and maybe for the rest of my life, I will harbor an irrational hatred for Nick Swisher, there will probably be a home plate ump or two whose name I’ll remember forever, and not fondly, and there will be several moments and images that will push all other moments and images down in my mental sports scrapbook.”

All of that is true, and there was that moment in the fifth inning last night when Swisher and home plate ump Brian Gorman threatened to make Rangers history, as Gorman ruled no contact on a clear hit-by-pitch, allowing Rodriguez to trot home on a wild pitch and tie the score, 1-1.

After Swisher grounded out on a 10-foot dribbler fielded by Lewis, Jorge Posada doubled to right, and that would have scored Rodriguez anyway, and maybe even Swisher – but in any event would have at least sent him to third with one out rather than two – but there’s also the theory that the pitch sequence to Posada might have varied, and maybe he doesn’t double at all. And even if Posada put the same pass on the ball, with Mitch Moreland holding Swisher on first, maybe he gloves the shot that instead eluded him with the bases empty.

But two points about the above.

First, that wasn’t the key Swisher punk moment. There was an ESPN report on Thursday that, as reporters asked a few Yankees players for comment about Cliff Lee, Swisher fired off a tirade for all in the clubhouse to hear: “You guys are talking about Cliff Lee? Who cares? I can’t wait to hit against his ass!”

April 16, buddy.

Second, last night’s omen.

There was a little sense of dread that crept in on the blown hit-by-pitch call, as three balls had been barreled that inning (Rodriguez’s double to the wall in left center, Lance Berkman’s sacrifice fly to right center that might have gone out on other nights, and Posada’s double to right), and there had been outs earlier in the game that New York had squared up on as well. Lewis had lost command in the sixth inning in Game Two, and with New York having tied the game in the fifth last night, and starting to hit the ball hard with regularity, the game didn’t feel very good.

With Posada on second, and Derek Holland starting to get loose in the pen, the batter was Marcus Thames. On the third pitch, he fouled an inside Lewis fastball straight up, a mile high, and I knew I’d have a play on it from my seat. I can remember thinking the play needed to stay on my left shoulder, as our six-year-old Max sat to my right. The ball ended up hitting my hand and the hand of the gentleman to my left at the same time (I call pass interference), and a woman sitting behind us came up with the ball – and gave it to Max.

After that? Two more strikes to Thames, a foul tip and a swinging strike three.

After that? Texas erupted in the bottom of the inning for four two-out runs, blowing the game open and making it OK to start thinking about the words “World” and “Series” in earnest, to start to really believe that those “little town” blues were, once and for all, melting away.

After that? Eleven up, nine down over Lewis’s next three innings, culminating with possibly the worst swing of Derek Jeter’s career, before Feliz was summoned to slam it shut in the ninth.

Game-changer.

And a lot better than the omen I was really worried about – the dual cloudbursts just before and right at gametime, far too reminiscent of October 2, 1998, the lone home game of that year’s ALDS sweep at the Yankees’ hands. Texas blanked New York in eight of nine innings that night, but the four-spot the Yankees scored in the sixth off Aaron Sele made it feel like 40-0 (as the Rangers had scored just one run in the first two games combined), particularly when a three-hour sideways-rain delay followed New York’s four-run inning by minutes.

Speaking of rain, can you imagine if Texas was pushed to a Game Seven tonight, and this lousy weather we had today ended up halting the game for such an extended period that Cliff Lee was forced out early due to inactivity?

Another what-if: If Joe Girardi hadn’t flipped Andy Pettitte and Philip Hughes, lining Pettitte up to pitch Games Two and Six rather than games Three (which he dealt in but lost to Lee) and Seven, would last night have gone differently with Pettitte on the mound?

As Max and I walked through the concourse an hour after the game ended, I heard someone singing, “Start spreading the noose.” I smiled.

A little misleading, I guess. I was smiling for about two hours straight by that time, just as Max was as he fell asleep in the car on the way home, lullabied by a cacophony of celebratory car horns that sounded oh-so-sweet.

You must read what Peter Gammons wrote about the Texas Rangers today. You just have to do it.

Here’s some other entertaining reading from the last week.

Filip Bondy (New York Daily News): “Ryan’s no-hitters aside, this ALCS represents one of sports’ great historical mismatches, 40 pennants versus zero. The Yanks should win this series just by throwing their pinstriped uniforms onto the field and reading from a few pages of The Baseball Encyclopedia. If only Bud Selig would agree to waive a few silly postseason rules, the Bombers might send their Scranton/Wilkes-Barre roster to Arlington for the first couple of games, make this a fair fight.”

Neil Best (Newsday): “We have had four decades to get used to it, yet ‘Texas Rangers’ still doesn’t sound quite right. It’s a mixed marriage between a football state and a hockey nickname, one that has produced a reliably mediocre baseball franchise. Now, thanks mostly to a pitcher passing through on his way to the Bronx next season, the uninspiring Rangers are all that stand in the way of a World Series capable of distracting Football Nation.”

Mike Greenberg (Mike & Mike Show, ESPN Radio), on Friday morning: “Even if you’re a Rangers fan, you’re hoping for a Game Seven with Cliff Lee.”

Rob Neyer (ESPN): “I don’t think the Rangers will let Daniels get away. And it sure sounds like the Mets like Sandy Alderson. But if I grew up in Queens and somebody offered me a chance to escape Texas and run the New York Mets . . . .”

Good grief.

There’s more, but leave those guys alone, especially the New York writers, in their time of mourning. Lay off. They’re having to deal with the illicit taking of a birthright. Hold a good thought.

All those intentional walks to Josh Hamilton last night were the in-game equivalent of the Angels telling Vladimir Guerrero last winter that he couldn’t get it done any more. Big Mad Vlad. Love it.

Mitch Moreland: A Starter Is Born.

Texas didn’t clinch the West at home, and didn’t win the ALDS at home, so nailing the ALCS down at home was extra-awesome, and I keep telling myself, with some amount of resignation but not too much, that it will never be the same again. At least not after the next week and a half.

The crowd last night was extraordinary. Really.

It’s been written in several places the last couple days, but people are noticing a parallel between Cal Ripken’s passing of the torch to Derek Jeter in 1996, and what might be happening now between Jeter and Elvis Andrus.

The Rangers/World Series commercial that Fox is running tonight gives me chills.

Speaking of tonight’s game, I’m pulling for the Phillies but then I want the Giants tomorrow. I want this thing going seven, which of course sets up Texas better in terms of pitching matchups.

Too soon to focus on the World Series roster, especially before knowing the opponent, but is Jorge Cantu’s spot in jeopardy?

Way too soon to think about the off-season, but what do you do with Nelson Cruz, who has three arbitration years coming up? Do you dare offer him a long-term deal that extends beyond that? Remember, despite his moderate service time, he’s already 30.

Lee told Jon Paul Morosi of Fox Sports on Friday: “I love this situation I’m in. I love this team. I love my teammates. It’s been a fun ride. It’s been an unbelievable experience. . . . It’s the closest to home I’ve ever played. This is great for my family, to be this close to home. . . . I would like to think there were a lot of Arkansans watching this game. Hopefully we can make them proud and bring home the World Series championship.”

Not much need to add to that, is there?

Not now, at least.

Two months ago, Morosi tweeted this, as noted in a Newberg Report Trot Coffey delivery: “One rival exec describes Rangers as ‘very active’ lately. ‘They’re trying to win the World Series,’ the exec says.” Whether Morosi’s note was in reference to the Rangers’ rumored pursuit of Manny Ramirez, who was conveyed to the White Sox two days later, or Jeff Francoeur, whom Texas acquired five days later, or something else the club was working on, the point was made.

This front office – and we must remember that John Hart brought Jon Daniels here, and Tom Hicks both entrusted a huge job to Daniels and brought in Nolan Ryan – is what Kevin Goldstein described to us at Newberg Report Night as “scary smart,” and while I think this fan base is unusually cued into that, I hope we don’t take it for granted. Just as Jimmy Johnson wouldn’t have been as successful as he was without bringing Norv Turner, Dave Wannstedt, Butch Davis, Dave Campo, and Tony Wise aboard, Daniels will be the first to credit his directors and advisors and scouts, as he did on the trophy stage behind second base on Friday night.

Among the finest moves the Daniels crew has made, even if not as heralded as the Teixeira Trade or the Cliff Lee Trade or Volquez/Hamilton or the shift of C.J. Wilson to the rotation, was the almost unprecedented guarantee given to a Japanese export invited to return, a unique commitment to Colby Lewis, whose career arc, unlike Alex Rodriguez’s, has been marked not by landmark dollar amounts but by a pioneering scouting effort.

Scary smart has made this baseball team scary good when it’s healthy and clicking, and right now Texas is both. I don’t mind these few off-days before we get rolling again, facing off against Bengie Molina’s former teammates or Cliff Lee’s, but I can’t wait to sit back and watch what’s next, making me no different from you, millions of other Rangers fans, and Alex Rodriguez.

[fischer]

Wow, that was really long.

But it was also awesome. Now I see what you are talking about.

That crap earlier was regurgitated stuff from every sports outlet in the state and country.

[P. Marf]

sports.espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/news/story?id=5729471

Thanks Yankee fans.

[sully]

This one's long too, but good. This was the report after we beat TB...

There are images you never forget, a Nolan Ryan pitch that made history or a Rusty Greer catch that preserved a perfect game, a Pudge Rodriguez fist pump or Josh Hamilton double fist pump, an impossible Gary Matthews catch or improbable David Dellucci double.

Tuesday night’s indelible image for me was Cliff Lee’s march toward home plate as B.J. Upton lofted the first pitch he saw with two outs in the ninth, a simple yet striking walk toward battery mate Bengie Molina during which Lee never looked up or back, paid no attention to where Upton’s pop-up was headed or where or when it might land, an understated set of steps that I’ll never forget.

It started, as the ball shot straight up off Upton’s bat, with Lee demonstratively clapping his left hand into his glove, then taking a slow, measured walk towards the plate, presumably never taking his eyes off his catcher the whole way even though we didn’t get to see Lee’s face in those 10 awesome steps.

We didn’t see his face until well after we saw this:

(picture of Lee and Molina after the last out)

He never looked back. The baseball world watched the harmless flare settle into Elvis Andrus’s mitt, ending the series, all but Cliff Lee, who wasn’t even curious.

It was as if, just as most of his night had gone, he didn’t need to see where the ball ended up, because his own visualization of the ball’s path, start to finish, rang true with every pitch.

He was surgical all night long, with his four-seam fastball and his two-seam fastball and his cutter and his curve ball and his slider and his change, and for Lee there was no point in watching the 27th out get made. He knew exactly where the ball was going.

All night.

The man never looked back to see the biggest moment in Texas Rangers history.

He’s so ridiculously cool.

He’s Don Draper.

The local high school classes of 2029 are going to have an oddly large concentration of “Cliff’s” in them.

Our next dog will be named Cliff Lee.

And he, or she, will startle all comers with a spectacular lack of wasted energy, an imposing subtlety, and an endless supply of cool.

His first time through the Rays lineup, Lee threw 28 pitches. Every one of them was a fastball, or a cutter. Every single one of them.

As the Rays order rolled and leadoff hitter Jason Bartlett stepped back in with one on and one out in the bottom of the third, and Texas ahead, 1-0, Lee, who knew in pregame warm-ups that the curve was going to be a reliable weapon for him in Game Five, and yet kept it in his back pocket through each Rays hitter’s first look at him on the night, finally showed the big bender.

Lee had Bartlett down in the count, 1-2, and had thrown to first several times to keep Sean Rodriguez close, when he spun his first curve of the night, a pitch that stayed up and that Bartlett beat into the ground for an infield single to set up what would be Tampa Bay’s lone run of the night (on Ben Zobrist’s single to center). Lee escaped further trouble by getting Carl Crawford to roll back to the mound (and starting a 1-2-5 rundown to erase Bartlett from third) and Evan Longoria to bounce out to shortstop.

He never threw a second curve that inning.

But then the gameplan shifted. Texas took a 2-1 lead in the top of the fourth (when Nelson Cruz turned two mistakes into a run, first admiring a double off the center field wall that should have been a triple, and then inexplicably attempting to steal third with two outs [it’s not as if David Price, who tends to work up in the zone, was prone to Brandon Webb a pitch or two into the dirt, which I suppose might have made the risk of getting thrown out worth the reward of moving from second to third] and coming home when Kelly Shoppach’s throw toward third took off into left field), and Lee took a new plan to the mound.

After throwing just the one curve in his first 42 pitches over three innings, Lee would throw 18 of them over his remaining 78 pitches. And most of them were gorgeous. Or nasty. Depending on your perspective.

Lee would maintain the cut fastball, which was a tremendous pitch for him all night, but would show the Rays far fewer four- and two-seamers, actually throwing fewer over those final six innings than he did in the first three frames. From a strike efficiency standpoint, the curve was actually the least effective of Lee’s six offerings (12 of 19 for strikes, or 63 percent), but several of them came in huge spots, and the threat of that pitch made everything else work. Of the 38 cutters Lee threw, a silly 33 of them were strikes (nine swinging, seven called, nine fouled, eight put into play), and very few were hit with any authority.

You’ve heard this many times by now: there have been eight playoff pitching performances in the history of the game in which the pitcher logged at least 10 strikeouts and no walks. Lee has now authored four of those masterpieces. Four other pitchers (Deacon Phillippe, Don Newcombe, Tom Seaver, and Sterling Hitchcock) did it one time each.

The great Dave Cameron of U.S.S. Mariner points this out:

Sandy Koufax pitched 57 playoff innings in his career, scattering 10 runs on 36 hits [two home runs] and 11 walks, striking out 61.

Cliff Lee has pitched 56.1 playoff innings in his career, scattering 12 runs on 38 hits [one home run] and six walks, striking out 54.

Lee tied an LDS record with 21 strikeouts (matching Kevin Brown’s 1998 effort with San Diego), and his zero walks in 16 innings represented the first time a pitcher had thrown at least 15 walkless frames in such a series.

He put on an absolute clinic in Game 5. To say he located all night doesn’t do his performance justice. The dude flat painted.

Three-fourths of Lee’s pitches went for strikes, but very few pierced the zone – he annihilated the picture frame, with assassin’s precision.

Meanwhile, the Rangers offense didn’t so much punish Price as it pressured him, creating opportunities and capitalizing on them. I was too locked in watching the game, practically immobilized (outside of my Twitter barrage), and so the thought didn’t occur to me until afterwards that the way the Rangers generated offense Tuesday night reminded me of the Super Bowl Saints, a team that probably had fans without a rooting interest thinking, “Man, I wish my team played baseball like that.”

Yes, Cruz and Ian Kinsler did something no playoff teammates since Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig had done (hitting three home runs each in a playoff series, which Ruth and Gehrig did in 1928), but Game Five was more about audacity than brawn. The first three Texas runs, unbelievably, scored from second base without the ball ever leaving the infield – unless you count Shoppach’s throw that sailed past Longoria into left.

The last time a playoff run scored from second on an infield grounder was in 1970, when Orioles outfielder Paul Blair motored around in the eighth inning of Baltimore’s World Series-ending Game Five against the Reds, as Cincinnati second baseman Tommy Helms tossed to reliever Ray Washburn covering first base on a Boog Powell grounder.

Forty years later, the Rangers did it twice, in the first (Andrus) and again in the sixth (Big Bad). And that doesn’t count Cruz scoring from second on his crazed stolen base attempt, with two outs and Kinsler’s hot bat at the plate.

It’s almost funny: If you had to name the four Rangers with the biggest issues on the bases in 2010, it would probably be Andrus, Guerrero, Cruz, and the glacial Molina. They were the base-running stars in Game Five.

(It wasn’t only Cruz’s run that probably shouldn’t have happened the way it did. Think about this: If Shoppach hadn’t held onto a Hamilton foul tip on 2-1, Andrus’s first-inning steal of second would have been nullified. Maybe he still would have stolen on the next pitch [which turned out to be a 2-2 ball], setting up Hamilton’s run-scoring groundout to first. But maybe not.)

(And this: Price gets the primary blame for Guerrero’s run, but Shoppach deserves some, too. If he wasn’t out of position at the plate, Price’s throw home almost surely cuts Guerrero down.)

The havoc that Texas created on the bases had to make the Yankees uncomfortable from their couches. New York can be run on, as the Rangers proved in 2010, stealing eight bases without being caught in the teams’ eight matchups.

New York decided yesterday to flip Phil Hughes and Andy Pettitte in its rotation, setting up the following matchups: C.J. Wilson against C.C. Sabathia in Game One, Colby Lewis against Hughes in Game Two, Lee against Pettitte in Game Three, and Tommy Hunter against A.J. Burnett in Game Four.

The Yankees aren’t modifying their playoff roster from their Division Series against the Twins, but the Rangers are. Pinch-runner Esteban German (who wasn’t used against the Rays) will be dropped, replaced by an additional left-handed reliever. The bullpen, which was a bit shaky against Tampa Bay, needed the reinforcement, while David Murphy’s proven health has made Julio Borbon a bench player, minimizing the potential need for an extra runner like German. Candidates for the southpaw spot include Clay Rapada, Matt Harrison, and Michael Kirkman.

Frankie Francisco, still not recovered from his rib cage injury, will not be added to the roster.

Ron Washington said that Jorge Cantu will likely be in the lineup at first base against Sabathia or Pettitte. He sat against Price on Tuesday after looking overmatched against him in Game One.

Lee’s use on Tuesday meant he’ll start Game Three instead of Game One, but a few thoughts there.

First, Texas was reluctant to use Lee on short rest in Game Four against Tampa Bay, which was at the time the biggest game in franchise history, so shouldn’t we assume it would be unlikely for the club to have planned to use him on short rest in the World Series? He wasn’t going to pitch Games One, Four, and Seven.

Second, Game Three is the first game in Yankee Stadium – I sure don’t mind Lee getting that assignment, no matter what happens in Arlington in the first two games.

Third, using Lee on short rest in any scenario would make it less likely we’d get nine innings out of him, and the way several of the relievers are going, you don’t want to go into any game increasing the chances you’ll need to depend on the bullpen.

Texas advanced without getting much of anything in the ALDS from who most would agree is its best player, Hamilton. Almost as stunning as the fact that Texas won the five-game series without winning a home playoff game for the first time is the idea that the Rangers move on without getting so much as an extra-base hit from Hamilton in the entire series.

But Texas has Cliff Lee, who the Yankees would have right now if they hadn’t been so insistent on replacing injured minor league second baseman David Adams, alongside catcher Jesus Montero, with righthander Adam Warren instead of infielder Eduardo Nunez or righthander Ivan Nova in their trade talks with Seattle. Had that played out differently, the Rangers aren’t in the ALCS right now. They probably would have reached the ALDS, but with a much different team, and not only at the top of the rotation.

Lee will start in New York on Monday and, if the series is still going, in Arlington a week from Saturday (or conceivably Friday). That feels really, really good.

There may be another indelible image or two to add to the bank, right around the corner.

[sully]

If you want anymore, sign up for the email list at texasrangers.com. Somewhere near the bottom left of the page. Or you can go straight to his website.

[P. Marf]

www.newbergreport.com

[cowtownmike]

I might just be wrong about ole Cliff and the Yankees...

www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/al/rangers/2010-10-25-cliff-lee-rangers_N.htm


The main line of questioning: With a pennant in hand, will he turn his back on the Yankees and other deep-pocketed clubs come free agency this offseason?

"I love this city," Lee says. "I love my teammates. It's going to be a good team for years to come. For my family, this couldn't be a better situation.

"Free agency is when a player finally gets a choice, and I'm looking forward to that. There are so many things that can happen. I'm just more focused on helping this team win a World Series."

Then came the words that the Rangers will hang onto.

"If we do that," Lee says, "it would be hard to walk away."

It has been long assumed that Lee, who is earning $9.6 million this season, would end up a Yankee, given that they spent $243.5 million on two starters the last time they failed to reach the World Series in 2008. Those two starters now are ready to recruit him: CC Sabathia is one of Lee's best friends and a former teammate in Cleveland, and A.J. Burnett is another Arkansas native, who like Lee, is a client of agent Darek Braunecker.

Yet, Lee and Kristen say, the Dallas-Fort Worth area feels like home to their family, which includes daughter Maci, 7. They are just a 40-minute flight from their hometown of Benton, Ark.; they are moving into a restored 1927 house in Little Rock this winter.

They attended the same middle and high schools, and their families and friends still live there.

"That's the greatest thing, being so close to home," says Kristen, who says she is superstitious and refuses to answer her phone when Lee pitches.

"Cliff can fit in anywhere, but it makes my life a lot easier. We've never had a short commute before. Having a direct flight from Little Rock is great."

Says Greenberg, whose ownership group took over the team in August after winning an auction in U.S. bankruptcy court: "We think we have things to offer from a lifestyle standpoint that are enormous advantages.

"We can't control what the Yankees or any other club chooses to offer. We know we're going to have to be aggressive financially.

"We're not going into this with a pea shooter. The old Rangers are gone."

Perhaps the Rangers' greatest sales pitch simply was having Kristen sit in the visiting family section at Yankee Stadium during the playoffs. She says there were ugly taunts. Obscenities. Cups of beer thrown. Even fans spitting from the section above.

"The fans did not do good things in my heart," Kristen says.

"When people are staring at you, and saying horrible things, it's hard not to take it personal."

Who knows if the fans' behavior will have any affect on Lee's decision. Nothing ever unravels him, Kristen says, unless something interferes with him during deer hunting season, which starts Nov. 13 in Arkansas. Free agency can wait a little longer.

"Everyone in Arkansas thinks the world of him," says family friend Larry Crain, 69. "Little Rock has historically been Cardinals territory. But you see more and more Rangers fans now. They're even wearing his jersey."

When the Rangers' flight arrived in Dallas after they beat Tampa Bay in the Division Series, more than 1,000 fans waited at the airport, chanting Lee's name.

Now, besides asking Lee to help them win a World Series, they'll soon issue a formal request, asking he stay for the next five or six years.

"We don't want him going anywhere," second baseman Ian Kinsler says. "In the offseason, I'm probably going to call his phone, oh, a couple of hundred times.

"Yeah, he's been a nice pick-up."




Maybe y'all can take him out to the lease and convince him to sign?

[fischer]

wow.

I'd let him shoot my buck if he would stay.



I sure hope he's on tonight. We're going to need him.

[fischer]

Nervous about this game tonight.

[karilou]

Houston's rooting for you guys tonight. i still hold tight to my sweep prediction.