I am drinking Yellow Label

Anyway.

That is why the Rangers lost.  Because I put a bottle of Yellow Label in the fridge Weds night.  The wife came home the same night, late, "There is," she said, "A bottle of Veuve in the fridge."  So, really, it is her fault.  I said, "No, there is not.  You did not see that."

S'funny, all the crazy superstitions re sports.  I must say, you ne'er see so many people praying outside of church as at a World Serious game.  I changed everything up after game six (what is it about game sixes?) and it still did not matter a whit.  I listened to music on the way home, (my Freakbeat cds that I am sharing with my musically inclined friends.  Would you like one? Tell me.  I am making them for Dylan, Chris Mc, my exquisite Da, Nick C, Jared, and who knows, maybe you) put my ring back on, had a lucky found toy in my bag, took the bridge instead of crossing the street (or, was it the other way around, whate'er), anything I could do to change what I knew was inevitable.

But I am drinking Yellow Label, anyway.  Are you kidding me? Back to back pennants? Hell, even the Giants and Cards did not do that.

Was it a dramatic, fun World Serious? Yes.  Was it a great, yeah, I know it went seven games, World Serious? No.  I know, I know, my team lost.  But, there were too many errors and too many bone-headed decisions (by both managers) and not enough good starting pitching to call the 2011 World Serious a classic.  Oh, I know, the Cards comeback in game six will live forever in history (much to my chagrin), but this was not an all-time classic, as far as I am concerned.  It was a good World Serious, much better than last year's (obv.  Oh, shit, that was my club, too.)

But, hey, I do not follow the Indians.  Or the Mariners.  Or the Cubs.

A dude on BBTiA pointed out something v valuable:  The Brooklyn Dodgers sucked forever, finally got good and it took like four or five World Serious before they got it done.  Or, he went on, consider the second best team in recent history, the Maddux/Glavine/Smoltz Braves.  They lost in '91 and '92, did not make it in '93, were shut oot, like everybody in '94, before finally winning it in '95.  And then the Yankees ruled the world.  (They do not rule the AL anymore.  The Rangers do.)

Think about that for a second.  The Rangers are the class of the American League.  A league that has the Yankees and the Red Sox.  And, that because of stupid Bud Selig's fiat, did not have home field advantage in the World Serious at least once in the past two years.  The Giants won their division last year, and won one more game than the Rangers, okay.  The Cardinals were Wild Card winners on the last day of the season and had fewer wins than the Rangers.  Bud is gone after this season.  He has been one of the absolute, prob worst Commissioners ever.  Please please please abolish this rule, the All-Star game winner getting home field, please.  (And do not do this 10 team playoff idea.)  You have the idiotic inter-league play, already, (get rid of that, too) so, let the Club with the best record have home field.

It is all about Yu Darvish now in Ranger world.  Who is Yu Darvish? Darvish is gonna change baseball one way or the other, no matter what club he ends up with, but that club is gonna be the Rangers.  Everyone in baseball (incl the Yankees and Red Sox) know that the Rangers are going to do every single thing to make Darvish ours.

Unlike other great Japanese pitchers, Darvish is profoundly young.  And unlike Dice-K, the Dodgers guy, and all the others, Darvish is obscenely great.  He has disgustingly good command of four or five pitches and has his own frickin pitch, to boot, that is all his own.

This is what Darvish looks like:

He is tall, looks Western, and is about to blow MLB up, Ranger or not.  But, I believe that the Rangers are mighty prepared to let CJ Wilson go (boy, did he hurt his FA case in this last post-season) and bring this guy to Texas.  (And, I am not the only one.)

Jon Daniels, the Rangers' GM, still does not have that shiny 30 flag trophy, but no one, no one in his job is more prepared or savvy, to get that thing done.

The Rangers are gonna be like the Braves of the nineties (and beyond), I believe.  They are going to win a number of pennants, suffer heartbreak in the World Serious, and win one or two before all is said and done.

And, jeez, I have not even mentioned Martin Perez or Jurickson Profar yet.

I will save that for another time.

Congrats, Cards.

But the mo-fo Texas Rangers are not going anywhere.  We are for real, finally.