April 19 is the 109th day of the year (110th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 256 days remaining until the end of the year.

1775 – American Revolutionary War: The war begins with an American victory in Concord during the battles of Lexington and Concord.

1927 – Mae West is sentenced to 10 days in jail for obscenity for her play Sex.

1971 – Launch of Salyut 1, the first space station.

1971 – Charles Manson is sentenced to death for conspiracy to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders.

1987 – The Simpsons premieres as a short cartoon on The Tracey Ullman Show

1993 – The 51-day siege of the Branch Davidian building outside Waco, Texas, USA, ends when a fire breaks out. Eighty-one people die.

1995 – Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, is bombed, killing 168.

Birthdays

1903 – Eliot Ness, American lawman (d. 1957)

1930 – Dick Sargent, American actor (d. 1994)

1935 – Dudley Moore, English actor, comedian and composer (d. 2002)

1946 – Tim Curry, British actor

1968 – Ashley Judd, American actress

1981 – Troy Polamalu, American football player

1983 – Joe Mauer, American baseball player

In last nite's OT thread, we started an LSB group over at Fitocracy. Fitocracy is a place where you 'level up' the more you exercise. There are several of us already in the mix. You can join Fitocracy here and then join the LSB group here.

/Shameless plug -> Since I need to include more words, why not check out my music (ElectricOkra) on SoundCloud and if you like it you can buy it on iTunes. :)

You may or may not have heard the story yet, but here it is from the guys who got the now famous ball from their new favorite center fielder.

Sit down, shut up and enjoy the game

Original title changed so that no one will feel bad that they were confused as to the subject and take that out on me From C.J. Wilson's MySpace blog

BGL says he's doing a live on-air interview around noon DFW time at mlb.com in case anyone besides myself is interested...

ESPN story here

Park went 4 innings giving up 7 runs on 6 hits.  

Somehow this makes me happy that it wasn't just us he was screwing with...

So we are now 25 games into the 2007 season.  That is roughly 15% of the 162 games that will be played.  The Rangers are 10-15, five games below .500.  Last year through 25 games (also ending 4/30), the Rangers were 13-12.  Just two days earlier, they had been 11-12 and they would not be below .500 again until the end of July.  

The 2007 squad is already 5 games below .500 (or 2.5 depending on how you figure).  The only time the 2006 team was in that same position was when they were 2-7 through the first 9 games.  They never fell that far again (they were 6 games above .500 on June 18 at 38-32, the best W-L difference they would have that year) and lost the last two games of the season to end at 80-82.

I am the eternal optimist when it comes to my teams.  I always believe they can pull it out and come from behind and that miracles happen.  But at what point do comparisons like this stop becoming knee-jerk and turn into being a real worry?

Me and a few friends did something similar to this at the old Arlington Stadium back in the day.  While it was fun, we didn't receive half the attention this guy did.

http://www.improveverywhere.com/2006/08/30/rob!/

Well, it's official. The Rangers have made an offer to Barry Zito.    There is no info as to how much or how long, but now it's just a waiting game to see if he accepts this offer or looks for more from the Mets.

With a few members of this little community throwing out Piniella's name for manager, I thought we should take the time to watch the man at his finest...

Anyone else remember the series against the M's in September of 2002 where the first 3 games went into extra innings (we lost all three, including this one) and Piniella's complete breakdown after a great Michael Young play to get the runner in the 9th..?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4cnE8Td-Co

Also in this video clip, look for:
A-Rod
Rafael Palmiero
Travis Hafner
Josh Lewin making the scene even better to watch