I figured it might be a good idea to start up a fan post for the variety of watch party locations that people are planning to be at.  Myself, I'm out of town in Kansas City Wednesday through Friday.  Is there anyone up in tehe Kansas City area that knows of a watch party?  If not I'll probably watch it at the hotel bar, but if a group of Ranger fans are getting together somewhere I'd be game for that as well.

American Airlines will just allow anyone on an aircraft these days I guess.

I had to fly from Columbus to Dallas for a very important business meeting.  My company bought the plane ticket.

What's with all these young whipper snappers walking around the airport as if they own the place?  They walk around with their iPod earbuds in and yapping on their cell phones about this "Rad night" they had last night all the while not even paying attention to the fact they're blocking walkways!

Anyways, I get to the gate to board the plane and I'm boarding really early because I want to make sure I get a carry on luggage rack near myself.  Although, of course you have the people that get there late and wander around looking for a spot for their oversized luggage that they probably shouldn't have been allowed to carry on in the first place.  There was one your rich brat that stood out in particular that walked around clanking his large backpack into seats left and right looking for a spot for his huge backpack.

The punk finally goes back to his row and wouldn't you know it, he's sitting right behind me!  Now I'm going to have to put up with this brat kicking my seat all flight.  He then goes to sit down and nearly punches me in the back of the head trying to get into his seat.  That was the last straw!

I shine up my bald spot really well hoping there will be a nice glare coming off it from the open window and then lean my seat back as far as it would go.  I then stretch back nearly smacking him in the face as I stretch my arms above my head.  That'll show him I bet.

Anyways, later in the flight this loser gets up from his seat.  I nearly thought he was a hijacker how long he stood.  I then notice the cart in front of him blocking his path, but the idiot starts spouting off nonsence such as "RESPECT MY AUTHORITIIIIIIIIIIIIIE!" and other stupid things.  He then dropkicks the cart out of the way and says "I went to Highland Park and I'm better than you, get out of my way!"

That was the last straw.  Myself and a couple other passengers got up and made sure he couldn't get out of the restroom the rest of the trip due to his rudeness.  We nearly left him though.

Oh well, I just wish the young people of today had more respect for people and the companies they serve.

Not a lot of huge games on tap today.  Biggest ones seem to be:

Oregon St @ (19) Penn St - Paterno had to suspend a few more players, can Oregon St bounce back from their loss to Stanford last week?

Ole Miss @ (20) Wake - Jevon Snead walks in to try to take out Wake who is looking like a favorite in the weak ACC.

Cincy @ (4) Oklahoma - Oklahoma should take care of business if they come to play, but Cincy will be up for this game.

(8) West Virginia @ East Carolina - Can they pull off the upset yet again, WVa is looking somewhat vulnerable.

Miami @ (5) Florida - Miami has been down for a few years, can they open up this year with a win at in-state rival Florida?

Stanford @ (15) Az State - Stanford beat Oregon St last week who many had picked to do good things this year preseason, can they jump out and beat Az State this week?

(15) BYU @ Washington - BYU should take this one, however recent years they've seemed to slip up in an obviously winnable non-conference game.  Can they go up to Washington and take this one to further their season?

My picks: Penn St, Wake, Oklahoma, East Carolina, Florida, Az State, BYU.

As for me today, it's TCU's first home game (Despite against I-AA Stephen F. Austin) so kicking the season off right by going to the Rahr & Sons brewery around 1, then tailgate, then be in the game in time for the 6:00 kickoff.

I tried looking at the Rangers website but they do not seem to have any information pertaining to the park and ride (I can imagine why given that it's free and they don't make the $12 a car off it).

Anyways, I was wondering what the basics of it are since I've never used it, but have considered it to avoid the $12 charge if I ever decided to go to a game on a day I may not be able to find someone else to tag along.

Where's the lots that you go to meet the bus and all that jazz and when do the buses start running and how long post game are they running?

Any help would be great, and I'm sure tehre's others out there that it could benefit that maybe didn't even know of the option.

Tonight is as close to a must win game as you can get in my opinion.  Go down 3-0 in the series and you've got a mountain to climb.  Win tonight and you bring the series within 1 game.  Ideally, Stars probably need to win both game 3 and 4, but let's focus on game 3 for now.

No word yet on whether Lehtinen will suit up, it seems that if he doesn't Chris Conner joins the lineup.  Hopefully Lehtinen is in there.  Seems that Barnes will still be out for the Stars and Franzen will be out for the Wings.

Overall, the Stars looked a lot better in game 2, but couldn't get their shots on net.  Hopefully tonight they go on net.

GOOOOOOOO STARS!  We need this one tonight.

Liverpool goes down 1-0 early on a goal off a corner kick.  Losing to a non-league team at the moment.  What say ye scousers?

Rafa is looking a bit perturbed at the moment.

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Hey all, just wanted to post here since I know there's quite a few Stars fans here.  I'm starting up a Stars blog over at wordpress, and hope to eventually move it over here (Although they require a bit of writing first from what I gather).

I've got the first post up about the new team uniforms released today, and over the coming days will be taking a look at how the roster is shaping up with a look at each position.

It'd be great if anyone interested would check it out, leave any suggestions (The layout will have to be something that waits a bit since you have to pick from their layouts, but this one fits the Stars colors at least) as well as any comments about the posts themselves.  Any links to the blog would be appreciated as well and will link back as well, already posted a LSB link.

http://dallasstars.wordpress.com

Hey, not sure what we have for Blackburn or Everton supporters here, but I know Hypoluxa is also a Blackburn supporter like I am.  I also saw hinduplaya say he was an Everton fan.

Anyways, I think hypoluxa and I decided we were going to meet up this weekend at Fox and Hound in Arlington (Just a little northwest of the I30/360 interchange, just off Collins St) and wanted to invite any other Blackburn or Everton supporters, or anyone else who would want to come watch a match.

Game is 11am.
Fox and Hound address is 1001 N.E. Green Oaks Blvd.

It should be fun, I'll be there in my Blackburn jersey

Who here still does hattrick?  I just re-joined and got a team.  Down in V.94 of USA.  Definitely have some work to do on my team.

Is there still a group to join of Ranger boardies?

TEXAS RANGERS
Home (25): 7 Seattle, 6 Anaheim, 3 Oakland, 3 Baltimore, 6 Cleveland
Away (22): 6 Seattle, 3 Anaheim, 3 Oakland, 6 Detroit, 4 Tampa

OAKLAND ATHELTICS
Home (25): 3 Seattle, 3 Texas, 3 Anaheim, 3 Tampa, 3 Boston, 3 Baltimore, 3 Chicago, 4 Cleveland
Away (23): 3 Seattle, 3 Texas, 4 Anaheim, 4 KC, 3 Toronto, 3 Tampa, 3 Minnesota

ANAHEIM ANGELS
Home (26): 4 Seattle, 3 Texas, 4 Oakland, 3 Boston, 3 New York, 3 Baltimore, 3 Toronto, 3 Chicago
Away (22): 3 Seattle, 6 Texas, 3 Oakland, 1 Cleveland, 4 New York, 3 Detroit, 2 KC

SEATTLE MARINERS
Home (21): 6 Texas, 3 Anaheim, 3 Oakland, 3 New York, 3 Boston, 3 Toronto
Away (28): 7 Texas, 4 Anaheim, 3 Oakland, 3 Tampa, 3 Detroit, 4 KC, 4 Chicago

Looking initially, Seattle is at the greatest disadvantage as the only team with the majority of their games still on the road.  Plus they're about to play a brutal swing that starts with the road trip in Texas, Oakland, and Anaheim, followed by a home stand vs the Yankees, Red Sox, and Angels.  They'll likely be out of it after this 20 game swing the rest of August.

Now if you cancel out the same series to Texas, for convenience, I've cancelled them out even if one is road and 1 home if that's the only difference:

TEXAS RANGERS
7 Seattle, 2 Anaheim, 2 Cleveland, 6 Detroit

OAKLAND ATHELTICS
4 KC, 3 Toronto, 3 Minnesota, 2 Tampa, 3 Boston, 3 Chicago

--------------------

TEXAS RANGERS
6 Seattle, 5 Cleveland, 3 Detroit, 4 Tampa

ANAHEIM ANGELS
1 Oakland, 3 Boston, 7 New York, 3 Toronto, 3 Chicago, 2 KC

--------------------

TEXAS RANGERS
2 Anaheim, 3 Baltimore, 6 Cleveland, 3 Detroit, 1 Tampa

SEATTLE MARINERS
3 New York, 3 Boston, 3 Toronto, 4 KC, 4 Chicago

Looking at it this way, Oakland may have close to a level schedule with us remaining.  Minnesot and Boston should offset Detroit.  KC and Tampa should offset Seattle, while Anaheim and Cleveland should offset the White Sox.  Or at least fairly closely overall.

Looking at Texas and Anaheim, Texas has a clear advantage with only 3 Detroit games being hard games, while Anaheim has 7 vs the Yankees and 3 vs Boston, plus 1 extra vs Oakland.  I'd give advantage to the Rangers over the Angels.

As for Texas and Seattle, Seattle appears to have the tougher schedule with New York and Boston while Rangers have only Detroit.

On the whole, the White Sox could be the wild card, if they get over the funk they're in now, they could really help us as they have series left with all our competitors while we're through with them.  We also need the Red Sox to wake up as they have series against all our competitors but we're through with them.  On the whole though, I think I'd take our schedule over the competitors of those remaining, even though Oakland is about ot come up on a pretty easy 13 game stretch.

Nothing released yet as far as contract details, but as long as it's a fairly low base salary that's incentive laden, then I think it's a good deal.  I'm guessing it probably is, especially since they released Guerin for being a salary cap liability.

It'll be odd seeing Lindros in the Stars green though.

Thought this might be an interesting topic...

If you could go back in time and reverse 1 trade made by the Rangers over the lifetime of the franchise, what trade would you reverse and make never happen and the players involved still put up the same numbers for their original teams as they do on the teams traded to.  So Sammy Sosa would still put up his Maris chase of a season and career, Travis Hafner still turn out the way he has, etc.

Myself, I think I might have to look hard at that Hafner trade.  However, that would also mean no Nevin trade.  In the end, I think I might have to go back the Sosa trade of Sosa, Wilson Alvarez, and Scott Fletcher to the White Sox for Fred Manrique and Harold Baines.

Baines and Manrique didn't provide much to the Rangers, Manrique gone at the end of the year and Baines traded to the A's the next season for 2 players to be named later.   Meanwhile, Fletcher was a decent middle infielder, Alvarez went on to have a nice career as a starter that would have looked nice in a Ranger uniform, and we all know what Sosa went on to accomplish.

DFW Sports Most Wanted Dead or Alive List...

1. Marty Turco (SWISS CHEESE!)
   
2. Francisco Cordero (Gas can closer)
   
3. CJ Wilson (Gas can reliever)
   
4. Terrell Owens (Star Dancin')
   
5. Buck Showalter (Let's bat my worst hitter with the game on the line and bring in my least trust worthy pitchers in the most crucial situations)
   
6. The Dallas Stars defense (Here come take a shot on goal, we won't stop you)
   
7. Vinny Testaverde (Still inexcusable years later)
   
8. RA Dickey (Mr. Batting Practice)
   
9. Rod Barajas (Popout Specialist)
   
10. The Entire Dallas Stars team (Pathetic)

Hopefully the Stars can get rid of that nasty taste of week and hooker spit out of their mouth and play a good game today.  This is the make it or break it game and Turco needs to step up HUGE!  Win this one and I think the Stars could build enough momentum to make a comeback, lose it, and the series is all but over.

Didn't do it last night due to going to the Stars game, and that I can tell you sucked, but oh well, back to the grind today of watching baseball.

Just got in and got caught up on the top of the first.

[7:10ish] Rangers finish top first with 55.3% to win.  Nothing too exciting about that this early.

[7:14] Matthews draws a lead off walk worth .024, then gets thrown out at second stealing worth -.048

[7:19] Nevin smacks a double off the wall putting men 2nd & 3rd worth .026. Blalock with a shot to get some in.

[7:23] Zito plunks Mench with bases loaded. That play was worth .077 for netting a run. Rangers at 64.3% to win now.

[7:25] Wilkerson strikes out to end the inning bases loaded and is worth -.060. After 1 inning, Rangers at 58.3% to win it.

[7:33] Padilla makes it through the top 2nd only allowing the lone walk which ends up not affecting much. Rangers at 64.1% to win and Padilla already up to a .111 WPA on the day.

[Bot 3rd] I'll do this all in one entry since I had to run out for cooking supplies (Eggs and Milk) to make dinner. Anyways, Young getting thrown out stealing was worth -.038. However, then the 2 out rally happened. Blalock hit a 2 run homer worth .155. Then Mench followed it with a solo homer worth .061 before Wilkerson finally ended the inning. Rangers at 83.3% to win game.

[8:10] Thomas draws a lead off walk worth .020. Bradley draws antoher walk worth .043.

[8:21] Phone call disrupted updates, nothing more of note happened top of 4th as Padilla got out of it unscatched. As for bottom of the 4th, 4 up, 3 down. Rangers at 85.6% to win the game after 4 innings. [8:23] After four innings, Padilla is the MVP of the game with a WPA of .220 over 4 innings. Meanwhile Zito is the dog of the game at -.179. Blalock and Mench also above .100 and Nevin only other above 0 on the Rangers.

[8:28] Payton hits a double and Kotsay follows up hitting an RBI double. Kotsay gets .074 on the play.

[8:29] Swisher smacks it back up the middle and Padilla runs down the running going to 3rd. Worth .052

[8:35] Nevin goes yard with a moonshot of a homer to LF. Worth .054 and puts the Rangers at 89.4% to win the game.

[8:48] Jason Kendall hits an RBI single. Worth .057 to bring the A's back to within 5-2.

[8:52] Jay Payton hits a hard grounder at Jimenez who lets it go into RF to make it 5-3. Worth .080. Padilla gets yanked with the win expectancy falling to 76% for the Rangers.

[8:57] Benoit gets out of inning and is worth .057.

[9:13] Alfonseca gets out of the 7th and Rangers at 86.2% to win the game after 6 1/2 innings.

[9:27] Got a meeting to head to at 9:30 but after 7 innings, Rangers at 82.7% to win it with Otsuka coming in.

Going to do it a little different today, plan to do it more play by play, but moreso big play by big play.

Continue reading this post »

Rangers with 58.3% to win game.

MVP of the Game: Kevin Mench .224
Dog of Game: Seth McClung -.337

Kameron Loe at -.254

Seth McClung at -.337

Top 3 for Tampa Bay
Cantu .078
Branyan .074
Wigginton .065

Bottom 3 for Tampa Bay
McClung -.337
Lee -.014
Paul -.008

Top 3 for Texas
Mench .224
Nevin .069
Blalock .049

Bottom 3 for Texas
Loe -.254
Matthews -.023
Wilkerson -.016

3 Biggest plays
Kevin Mench Grand Slam to take 5-4 Lead .224
Jorge Cantu RBI Double to take 1-0 Tampa lead .078
Russell Branyan HR to take 3-0 Tampa lead .074

Continue reading this post »

Check below for end of game entry. Rangers win 4-3 on a 9th inning run... Filling space to get to 300... xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxTTTTTxxCCCCCxxxUxxxUxxx xxxxxTxxxxCxxxxxxxUxxxUxxx xxxxxTxxxxCxxxxxxxUxxxUxxx xxxxxTxxxxCxxxxxxxUxxxUxxx xxxxxTxxxxCCCCCxxxUUUUUxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Yes, this was that crazy game with the Tigers in 2004 that the Rangers pulled off 16-15.  Just for fun, I thought I'd chart win expectancy in that one.

I figure this is one where the chart would look really cool on, plus have a positive outcome after tonight's game.

So just to give a taste, here's the leaders through 4 innings.

MVP of the Game: Bobby Higginson .183
Dog of Game: RA Dickey -.365

RA Dickey at -.365
Doug Brocail at .038

Mike Maroth at -.108

Top 3 for Detroit
Higginson .183
Infante .098
Sanchez .098

Bottom 3 for Detroit
Maroth -.108
White -.094
Pena -0.45

Top 5 for Texas
MYoung .122
Soriano .117
Brocail .038

Bottom 5 for Texas
Dickey -.365
Jordan -.094
EYoung -.067

Win Expectancy

I'm going to attempt to chart it through this game.

After the first inning...
Mariners with 60.7% chance to win.

Ibanez leads Mariners with .084
Sexson lowest on Mariners with -.025
Moyer at .047

Mathews only Rangers in positive with .036
Young lowest with -.074
Millwood at -.059

OK, I know this isn't baseball, but with the season winding down and not a whole lot of topics to discuss I thought now would be a good time to raise it.  Especially since The Office is now in it's 2nd (or is it 3rd) episode of the 2nd season.

OK, I know initially a lot of you lot hated it because it copied the BBC version of the show too much, but I think since about the 2nd or 3rd episode, it's really taken off on it's own path and for the better.  Now it's basically just the shell of the BBC show with basically the same shell of characters, but has developed them differently.

Anyways, I was just wondering if anyone else's opinion of the show has changed from the original one and if anyone else has tended to like the show a bit more recently.