Friday, May 23, 2008

We need pitching

Texas needs pitching. If they had a couple of good starters to follow up Padilla and Ponson they might be able to seriously contend.

On card number 191 of the 1993 SP set, Jose Canseco demonstrates the kind of pitching the Rangers don't need this year. Or any year as a matter of fact.

This picture was taken fairly early in the 1993 season during a game in Boston. Texas was getting blown out and Jose convinced manager Kevin Kennedy to pitch him to save the bullpen during the massacre. Apparently Jose was just as egotistical then as now. Kennedy put him in; whether to save the pen or quiet Jose is a matter of conjecture.

Canseco lasted all of one inning. He gave up three walks and got no strikeouts. The three runs he allowed give him a lifetime ERA of 27.00. Worst of all he injured his arm and missed about half of the season as a result. Perhaps the saddest part of the whole episode is that when Texas traded Canseco to Boston a year and a half later they didn't get a single pitcher in return.

2 comments:

--David said...

Hmm... Well, I guess they could have let Billy Crystal play, huh? :-)

Spiff said...

Might have been as effective and not caused an injury...