Game 2

Plop, plop, fizz, fizz - oh what a relief it is! -- Marla Hooch
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Game 1

The Rangers do what they do: blow a 5-1 lead and lose.

-- Marla Hooch

Unreal

I drove into work this morning thinking – I have to write something, anything.

The truth is, I don’t know what to write. This whole week has been unreal. Even in my best daydreams, I couldn’t image this happening.

Baseball Mom and were talking about the Monday night game we attended in old Arlington Stadium back in the 1980’s. The Cowboys were on MNF, we went to the Rangers game and literally counted the fans in the stands, yet the front page of today’s paper isn’t about Tony Romo’s hangnail or Dez Bryant’s Discover Card bill or even Mike Modano’s return to Dallas – it’s about the Rangers – unreal. Stopping by Krogers after work the other – they had a entire display of game watching snacks anchored by the Rangers gear (not the football team) – I counted 15 people waiting in line to check out wearing various Rangers garb – unreal.
Looking at the series : the Yankees appear to be a team that “turn it on” whenever they want to (although why they didn’t “turn it on” to win the division – is a bit of a mystery to me) . Maybe they aren’t the steamroller they were in the 1990’s when the Rangers played them in post-season, but they are still very, very good. However, the Rangers are pretty good too and more importantly: resilient. The Yankees haven’t face any adversity in the playoffs – maybe the Rangers will give them some.

I can’t make a prediction, in fact I don’t want to.

This season has been beyond belief in so many ways, however this series ends up doesn’t really matter to me (although a win would be awfully good).

I’m going to the game tonight (Thank You again to the Sullivans) and I’m going to enjoy every minute of the unreality of it all..

Go Rangers!! -- Marla Hooch
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Game 5

(With apologies to Edwin Hawkins)

O Happy Day

O Happy Day

O Happy Day

When Cliff Lee Washed The Rangers Sins Away

O Happy Day

I have never been so happy to be wrong about anything in my entire life!

Rangers! -- Marla Hooch



Tonight

I’ve been reading Ranger fan websites this morning that are all basically saying the same thing: “Trust Cliff Lee”.

The thing of it is, it’s not a matter of just trusting Cliff Lee - I do – it’s the rest of the team that I don’t trust. Without those other 9 players it doesn’t matter what Cliff Lee does tonight.

Cliff Lee will show and do his best I am sure.

But….

--- Will Michael, Josh, Vlad, whoever is playing 1B and the rest of the OF show up offensively?

--- Will the Rangers batters realize that they are not going to see the same David Price as they did last Wednesday and make the adjustments?

--- Will the Ranger defense concentrate on making the routine plays and not worry about making the spectacular plays that could into spectacularly stupid errors?

--- Will the bullpen find itself and be the bullpen that we could depend on all season long?

--- Will Neftali Feliz be the Neftali Feliz who saved 40 games and not the Neftali Feliz we saw on Saturday?

Finally: I’ve been a fan of this team for a long, long time and the one thing I am sure of is that they are always on the wrong side of history. I love this team and I remain a loyal fan, but I don’t think that this is the day they will  be able to overcome 30+ years of futility.

It’s been great – but the Rangers season ends tonight  --  Marla Hooch
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Game 4: [Deep Sigh]

I'd hate to think that Carl Crawford was right, but after all it is the Texas Rangers - there's an inevitability about it isn't there?

I should have known better: the Texas Rangers always break my heart -- Marla Hooch
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MOJO

I am very, very fortunate to have a ticket to today's game (many thanks to the Sullivan's).

To borrow a phrase from Darren Oliver's post-game comments - I am "finding some good MOJO" and bringing it to the Ballpark today.

Go Rangers! -- Marla Hooch

P.S. Here the link to some more playoff goodness from Jim Reeves on ESPN.com
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