Decisions: Four in one.

Doing a rare no scan post today. Got busy before work and now I'm trying to get this posted on my dinner break. Due to the Rangers anemic offense and a couple of poor throws by Colby Lewis the Royals came out on top last night. Not much else to discuss so this strikes me as a good time to take another look at T.R. Sullivan's list of the Fifty Decisions that have shaped the Rangers as a franchise. The lack of a scan works out since the next few entries really don't have a specific player attached to them.

Number 24. San Diego. Astros owner Roy Hofheinz convinced the National League to expand in San Diego in 1969. Dallas had also been under consideration.

Number 25. Sorry Charlie. Charlie Finley started looking to move the Athletics out of Kansas City almost as soon as he bought them. In 1964 he tried to take the team to Dallas. The American League turned him down and the team later went to Oakland instead. That meant no Catfish Hunter, Reggie Jackson, or Vida Blue in Texas. As a side note: Mrs. Spiff is particularly grateful for this entry, she has no interest at all in the A's green and gold.

Number 26. Mike Stone. Eddie Chiles hired him as the club president in 1984. T.R. credits Stone with bringing a real sense of professional organization to the franchise.

Number 27. Sandy Johnson. Hired by Tom Grieve to oversee scouting and player development, he helped build the Rangers farm system into a real talent pipeline that eventually included Juan Gonzalez and Ivan Rodriguez.

1976 Topps - Juan Beniquez.

Kind of frustrating last night listening to the ballgame. After playing the Angels hard, the Rangers couldn't score more than one run against the Royals. On top of that, a rare Adrian Beltre error led to two unearned runs to give Scott Feldman the undeserved loss. Time to start through the 1976 Topps team set.

Juan Beniquez appears in an obviously airbrushed uniform on card number 496. Gotta like the buttons and stitches around the collar. The reason for the airbrushing is that Juan came to the Rangers on November 17, 1975. The trade that brought him to Texas also brought Steve Barr and Craig Skok to the Rangers. In exchange Texas sent Fergie Jenkins to Boston.

Moving from a fourth outfielder role with the Red Sox, Beniquez became the Rangers everyday center fielder in 1976. In 141 games he logged 1,169 innings in center. His .986 fielding percentage was five points higher than the league average and his 18 assists were a league best. In fact, they were the most by an American League outfielder since Bobby Mercer managed 21 with the 1974 Yankees.

Juan made 526 plate appearances on offense. His batting average totaled to .255 and his on-base percentage to .315. While Beniquez didn't have a lot of power (he hit no home runs), he did have some speed. He managed to steal 17 bases while getting caught six times.

In retrospect Beniquez's performance in the field had probably been everything that the Rangers were hoping for in 1976. Unfortunately his offense had tailed off significantly from the previous season when he played with Boston. Juan was safe for the immediate future but he needed to get the offense up if he wanted to keep showing off his cannon arm in the outfield.

Walloping on Weaver.

With the series tied at one game apiece, Texas sent Neftali Feliz to the hill last night against the Angels in Arlington. Feliz lasted six innings and gave up two earned runs while striking out five Halos. Not a bad start but several pitchers have found out in the past that a better one is needed against Angels ace Jered Weaver.

Not the case last night though. The Rangers managed to hang eight earned runs on Weaver before he left after 3.1 innings. That was enough to give Feliz the win and hang a rare loss on Jered. Very nice to see the win coming against the division rivals' ace.

Amazingly, Josh Hamilton didn't hit a home run during the game. In fact, the Rangers hit just one long ball as compared to the Angels three. The one Texas homer was a good one though. Nelson Cruz, shown here on card DDC-101 from the 2012 Topps Diamond Die Cut set, hit it in the third inning off Weaver. At the time there were three runners on. Nellie's grand slam made up a major part of the Rangers five run third and helped put them back on top after the Angels briefly led the game 2-1.

The Texas bats kept rolling even after Cruz's blast. Even though reliever Mark Lowe struggled and gave up three runs in his two thirds of an inning pitched, the Rangers managed to stay on top. Final score: 13-6 Texas.

The bombing continues.

Posting Josh Hamilton's 1987 Topps Mini card from this year's Topps set tonight. Texas lost today but Hamilton's home run torrent is continuing as he launched another bomb in the loss.

That gives Josh nine homers in his last six games. Incredible. That's about the only word for it. He's even got Rangers manager Ron Washington expecting something to happen about every time he steps into the batter's box.

The latest onslaught brings Hamilton to 18 home runs on the season. That total leads the Majors. It also puts him on pace to possibly break Barry Bonds' single season home run record. Of course there are those out there who would claim that such a record would be just as tainted as Bonds'. I find that hard to believe with all the extra drug testing that Hamilton is required to undergo by his team and Major League Baseball.

Two big things are going to stand in the way of Hamilton continuing his tear. One is the opposing pitchers. They have already started to intentionally walk him - he leads the league with five intentional free passes so far. Of course the fact that Elvis Andrus is doing well getting on base ahead of him and that he has protection behind him will help minimize that trend.

The second thing that could derail Josh is injury. Hopefully that is a non-issue but with the way he plays all out it is always a possibility. Of course, if he didn't play 110% he wouldn't be Josh so having him back off is not really an option. I do wish that he would do something about his head first slides. They make no sense going into first base and I cringe along with Ron Washington every time he does it.

What was that?

Well, Texas split the double header yesterday in Baltimore. The Rangers and Orioles ended up playing the twin bill to makeup for the rain out on Wednesday. I got to listen to the Rangers take game two. I missed game one due to work.

Apparently I missed a very interesting game in spite of the Rangers losing. Colby Lewis, shown here on 2011 Topps 60th Anniversary Factory Set card number 634, made the start for Texas. By all accounts he felt good while he was warming up.

Seven innings later Lewis said he still felt fine. In fact he felt like he hadn't thrown much at all. He had though. Enough to strike out 12 O's. Very impressive. With a strikeout total like that one would expect a win. Colby lost though. That was due to the five home runs he gave up. With a home run total like that one would expect that he was being hammered all over the park. Nope. Lewis only gave up five hits in seven innings. All five were long balls though.

12 strikeouts and only five hits over seven innings for a 6-5 loss? Even Colby didn't know what to say about that. He told MLB.com, "It was just a weird game. I don't know how to justify that game." That about sums it all up I think.

Hamilton's home run derby.

There isn't much to be said about Josh Hamilton's Tuesday night performance other than that it was simply a thing of beauty.

Josh, shown here on card 274 of the 2009 Allen and Ginter set, went 5-for-5 against the Orioles. That in and of itself is noteworthy. Of those five hits one was a double and four were home runs. That is historical. I believe that Hamilton is now one of 17 players to ever hit four home runs in a single game.

That is one of the most exclusive groups in baseball history. To help put it in perspective, more players have pitched perfect games than have hit four home runs in a game.

Of course the radio talk shows are all abuzz with speculation that Josh's performance is going to drive up his asking price as he goes into a free agency year. Perhaps. It's a long season though and Hamilton has a hard time playing full seasons. If he misses too much time on the Disabled List it could counter Tuesday night's performance. In the end though the ongoing contract negotiations will have to run their course. I will be surprised if a deal is announced before Josh gets to talk to other teams.

The second thing that folks are talking about following Tuesday night's game is Hamilton's legacy. Talk of the Hall of Fame, the single-season home run record, and a possible Triple Crown are in the air. As premature as contract speculation might be, this type of talk is even more so. Josh is dominating when he is healthy. Hopefully he remains healthy and can continue to dominate. However there have been many promising careers cut short by reasons as varied as the ballplayers who played them. The thing is, we may well be watching our generation's Willie Mays. We won't know for several more years though. What we do know right now is that Hamilton is something special with the potential to become something legendary.

Odd Moments: Mangers and Sportswriters.

Extremely busy day today. Going to have to leave you with this pre-scheduled installment from T.R. Sullivan's list of the Top 50 Bizarre Moments in Rangers history. Today we see two involving managers and one a sportswriter.

Number 24. Help for Oates - T.R. doesn't give a date for this incident but he does recall that it happened at the Ballpark in Arlington. An irate Johnny Oates left the dugout to argue a call with third base umpire Jim McKean. The argument was barely started when a young man hopped out of the stands to join the confrontation. Apparently he agreed with Oates. That didn't make any difference to the security guards though, he was still hauled off.

Number 25. Valentine suspended - September of 1986. Another confrontation between a manager and umpire. This time the players were Bobby Valentine, shown here on card number 1 of the 1991 Mother's Cookies set, and Larry Burnett. Valentine went way beyond being tossed however, he ended up suspended for four games. That was because he moved from arguing the call to accusing umpire Burnett of having bet on the game. Surely Bobby V. would never say such a thing.

Number 26. Do Ya Wanna Dance? - One of the reoccurring post-game concerts for the Rangers in the 1980's were the Beach Boys. Lots of fun and even some dancing. One particular night Star-Telegram writer Jim Reeves danced on the ledge in front of the press box, all the way down to owner Eddie Chiles' box. Not sure if that occurred during Little Deuce Coupe or California Girls.