Odd Moments: Knocking a hole in the wall.

Late in 1985 the Rangers obtained Pete Incaviglia, shown here on card number 20 of the 1988 Nestle set, from the Montreal Expos. Inky had yet to see Major League action. For Spring Training in 1986 the Rangers would be getting into shape in Florida. Pete was there along with the rest of the team.

During an exhibition game Incaviglia got a handle on a pitch and blasted it into the outfield. The ball rocketed to the wall and appeared to be ready to ricochet off the wall. To everyone's amazement that didn't happen. Instead the ball smashed a hole through the wall. Truly a spectacle of incredible strength!

Later investigation revealed that the wall at Pompano Beach Park was made of wood. That wood was rotting away. Such information didn't keep the Rangers from getting some great mileage out of the story. It would stick with Inky throughout his time with Texas. I can remember my Grandfather talking about it and hearing it referenced during broadcasts of Rangers games. Needless to say, the part about the rotted wood never seemed to make the story.

Best Seasons: Burroughs - 1974.

Another ugly night at The Ballpark in Arlington tonight. This will drop the Rangers down to a mere two games over Anaheim. That with the Angels coming into town and Texas on a skid. Starting to get frustrating. I think I am going to take a break from the 2011 season this weekend. Good time to try and get caught up on T.R. Sullivan's top 50 lists.

Number 5 on T.R.'s list of fifty best seasons is Jeff Burroughs' 1974 performance. I have already covered this season in detail here. To recap just how good Jeff's season was, at the time this 1986 TCMA All Time Rangers card was issued Burroughs was the only Rangers player ever to win the American League MVP award.

Hard to forget a 118 RBI season with a .301 batting average and 25 long balls. Amazingly it seems that a large number of Rangers fans have done just that.

Decisions: Three-for-one.

With the horrendous losses last night and tonight I decided to move on with T.R. Sullivan's Top 50 Decisions list. Two of the next three decisions deal with front office moves and one concerns a manager that I have already posted my only card of. As such I will bunch the three together in this one post with sticker number 450 in the 1989 Panini set serving to provide the Rangers team logo.

Number nine in T.R.'s list is the decision in 1973 to fire Whitey Herzog as manager of the Rangers. The gig was Herzog's first as a manager and he was given just 138 games before Bob Short fired him. Short should have let Herzog develop but he was impatient and committed one of the worst errors in team history. By 1975 Whitey was leading the Royals to a second place finish. By 1976 he was leading them to the first of three straight post-season appearances. Soon after that came his time with the Cardinals. Pure stupidity to let him go after such a short time.

Number ten is the 1994 housecleaning. General manager Doug Melvin and manager Johnny Oates were brought on board. Two years later the Rangers were in the post-season for the first time ever. Additional appearances in 1998 and 1999 followed.

Number eleven is also a housecleaning, this time in 1984 and 1985. Tom Grieve was hired as General Manager in 1984 and Bobby Valentine as manager in 1985. These moves didn't lead to a post-season berth but they did bring the franchise back from the steep decline it was in following the excitement of the mid to late 1970's. That would set the stage for Melvin and Oates to work their magic.

Starting off right.

This week has been and is slated to be incredibly busy. Hectic even. Seems like I have little to no time looking to be empty through early next week. The result will be some short posts at times. For that I apologize in advance.

C.J. Wilson, shown here on an Academy Sports playing card, started off the week nicely last night against the Red Sox in Arlington. In the series opener Wilson went 6.2 scoreless innings as he picked up his 13th win. C.J. walked two while striking out four. Very nice.

Following C.J. the bullpen was perfect as they allowed no hits. Final score: Texas 4, Boston 0. Very encouraging way to start off the homestand. Just gotta keep winning guys.

Minor League Monday - Cris Colon, 1989 ProCards.

Two losses to end the road trip. Anaheim picks up a couple of games in the standings. Ugh. Time for a break from the 2011 season.

Cristobal Colon, seen here on card number 1014 of the 1989 ProCards set, was just 17 years old when the Rangers signed him in 1986. As befitting a shortstop he had been born in Venezuela. In 1987 he started his pro career with the Rookie League Gulf Coast Rangers. He started the 1988 season with Butte in the Pioneer league, also a Rookie level league. After 49 games with Butte he moved up to Single A and the Gastonia Rangers.

Cris would put in a full season with Gastonia in 1989. He would appear in 125 games.

In 500 plate appearances Colon's batting average was an uninspiring .226 and his on-base percentage was an even less exciting .243. Part of the problem was Cris' 95 strikeouts as compared to just ten walks on the season. That's a dangerous ratio at any level of play.

Cris also struggled in the field. In 550 chances at short he committed 47 errors for a .915 fielding percentage.

At just 20 years of age Colon was looking at a career change. If he couldn't get the holes in his bat and glove plugged he was not going to be playing pro ball for very long. He was obviously struggling. Single A is not a good level to start that. Of course the longer than normal stay at Rookie ball may have been a harbinger of what was to come at Gastonia. As it was he would get more time, Cris would be starting the 1990 season at Single A with Gastonia. What he would do with that time remained to be seen.

Bleh.

Having one of those days. You know, just like card number 536 in the 1988 Score set. All yellow bordered mediocrity. I think it's probably the last couple of days at work and then mowing in the heat today.

It's all finally catching up with me. Caught myself snoozing earlier listening to the Rangers game. No motivation for composing a post. With the Rangers loss last night I can't even come up with a decent topic that doesn't take a lot of effort. Of course Score had the same problem in 1988.

That's why Paul Kilgus ended up looking less than motivated himself on a yellow bordered card with a pretty boring design. It's the kind of design that I might come up with on a day like today.

Catching up.

Wow! Seems like a lot going on since I posted on Thursday. I'll try and get up to speed. Since I'm doing some catching up I'll leave you with this 2003 Fleer Tradition card of catcher Ivan Rodriguez and a piece of his jersey.

When I left off posting the Rangers were two games up on the Angels and seemed to be unable to gain any ground. Now they are seven games ahead and winning on the road. Very nice turnaround.

Michael Young is doing well. Well enough that at least one MLB.com writer has mentioned his name and MVP in the same article. Ron Washington is also trying to advance Michael's cause.

On the downside of things the club is now saying that Adrian Beltre is probably out until September. That's a real bummer with the season he was having. Hopefully he is rested and ready to come back for the final push.

Sorry about the lack of a post yesterday. I had intended to get back up and running then but ended up putting in 14 hours at work. Kind of made the day short for posting. Back now though and ready to cheer the Rangers down the stretch.