Sunday night was an emotional night in the Meadowlands. To be fair, it felt a bit like the Cowboys and their battered secondary/inexperienced offensive line were running into a buzz-saw. They were. If you listened to the local media today you’d think the Cowboys world as we know had ended. Just SO typical of Dallas media, but that’s for another day.
Professional football is really no different than any of our jobs…often performance can be altered/manipulated just by changing the level of accountability each player (employee) is held to.
The Dallas Cowboys are no different. Last season the Cowboys came into what many picked as a Super Bowl season…swing and a miss. After a miserable 1-7 start Jerruh did the unthinkable by firing Wade Phillips…the first Cowboys coach in history to lose his job mid-season. You saw the glaring lack of focus on the field with SO many penalties.
While soccer flies very much under the DFW sports radar, last nights international friendly vs. hated rivals Mexico had a couple of noteworthy moments for the metroplex. Jurgen Klinsmann took to the sidelines as head coach of the US Men’s National Team last night for the first time after 5+ years of speculation. While the American’s were underwhelming in the first half, they looked like a completely different team in the second half, most notably after the entry of FC Dallas mid-fielder Brek Shea and his Billy Idol-esque hair into the equation in the 60th minute.
I can’t help but sit here and feel that this season in Rangers baseball feels eerily similar to much of 2010…without Cliff Lee, of course. With a couple of walk-off wins in the last week, YOUR Texas Rangers continue to prove they can win in a variety of ways. While you hate to see Derek Holland (pitching tonight for the sweep) or Alexi Ogando yanked after less than three innings, you have to appreciate the mental toughness the rest of the team shows after falling behind. Last night was a prime example of this team picking each other up again after a less than stellar (horrible) outing from the starting pitcher. While we’d like to have seen less of Uehara, Mike Adams and Neftali Feliz, the bullpen has been filthy since their acquisitions. Neftali even showed some confidence in his breaking-ball last night!! Its a festivus miracle. The hitting has been patient and Ron Washington has been his typical Old School Brother self…aggressive on the basepaths and giddy in the dugout.
Last night at the Temple, Mike Young became the first Ranger in club history to record 2,000 hits. The biggest story of the night, however, was the Rangers come back in a 5-run eighth inning to keep the club one game above the streaking Los Angeles de Los Angeles de Anaheim for the lead in the American League West. Elvis Andrus seemed to answer his critics again with a big 2-run single putting the Rangers in for the final time. The three-game set with the Indians was taxing for the club, due mostly to the 11-inning Marathon Friday night which saw a “Major League”-esque finish as Willie Mays Hays, I mean Elvis Andrus scored from second on an infield hit by Josh Hamilton. With all due respect to Jake Taylor, Hambone may have been a few steps quicker down the line. After what could have easily been a 3 game sweep against the surprise team of the American League, the Rangers carry a one game lead into a set with the Mariners and avoid a matchup with King Felix Hernandez….a sweep would be nice.
We don’t have the blockbuster trade for an Ace starter like we did last season, but the Rangers move for Koji Uehara and Padres setup man Mike Adams again displays the front office dedication to this club’s success.
Adams fell to 0-1 in the American League last night after giving a game-winning solo homerun to the Tigers Brennan Boesch giving many front-running Rangers fans worries about the rest of the season.
If you recall, Cliff Lee, who carried the Rangers through the post-season last year was drummed 6-1 in his opener against the Orioles, a team that possessed the worst record in baseball at the time. The AL West playoff race is different this year with the Angels playing great baseball at the moment.
