Uninspired.

No, Tom Paciorek isn't particularly uninspiring, the way the Rangers ended their season in contention was. The 5-2 loss last night allowed Boston to clinch a playoff spot while losing. Not real exciting. Much like the 1988 Score set. Just not much there. Even on card number 531, Tom Paciorek. Leaves me searching for a meaningful post and coming up empty.

In last night's loss Marlon Byrd left the game early with a hip injury. He is listed as day-to-day right now but with only five games left he is likely to join Josh Hamilton on the bench. At least it's September and the expanded rosters make it easier to cover something like that.

Finished.

So the Rangers are eliminated in the AL West as of last night. Their 11-0 loss sent them out of the race with a resounding thump. Ouch! Maybe next year. At least this season has been a fun ride and the team stayed in official contention until the last week or so of the season. That is something that is nice to see.

Josh Hamilton is also out. This afternoon the Rangers made the official decision to shut him down for the last few games of the season. Hamilton, seen here on card UH202 in the 2008 Topps Updates and Highlights set, has been down since the 2nd with a pinched nerve in his back. Hopefully that is something that can be ironed out before next spring. The question now becomes, will Josh's injury trouble this season have any impact on his long-term contract hopes?

Byrd is flying high at end of season.

So the Rangers are down to two on their elimination number and are six games out in both races. Ain't gonna happen boys.

Don't tell that to Marlon Byrd though. Marlon, pictured here on card number 181 of the 2008 Upper Deck First Edition set, was named AL player of the week for last week. During that time Marlon pushed in 11 RBI and had three home runs. Ron Washington has already said that he would like to have Byrd in the outfield next season and Marlon seems intent on proving to everyone the wisdom of the choice.

In other news, Ian Kinsler cranked his 30th home run over the weekend to get into the 30-30 club. Nice to see a good mix of speed and power in a player.

The 2009 Benchie awards have started over on The Bench. I have entered my Jon Matlack and Texas Rangers collections. In the first round Matlack has a comfortable lead but my Rangers collection is getting hammered by a pretty impressive Red Sox collection. Make sure to head over and lend your support. First round voting ends October 4th

Word from the management.

I will be unable to post tomorrow and Saturday. Should be back on Monday to resume regular posting. Sadly, I have run out of time to pre-write and schedule posts.

To tide you over until then I will leave you with the Rangers team card from the 1979 Topps set, number 499 in the set. Pat Corrales graciously assented to affix his moniker to the card for me. Since Topps didn't feature the managers on their own cards in 1979 that was the best I could do for a Pat Corrales card from that year.

How 'bout them A's?

Nolan Ryan looks unimpressed on card number 659 of the 1990 Donruss set. Why? He's probably trying to figure out how the A's can be such a problem for the Rangers in the last couple of weeks of the season. A 72-79 team that is 17.5 games out shouldn't be much of a problem. At least not enough of one to cost a team a potential post-season spot.

Nolan's incredulous that such a team could be a problem when he had no problem with a much better team. He's likely recalling his sixth no-hitter, tossed against Oakland in 1990. Of course he has in mind the reason for the card, his 5,000th strikeout. That came against Rickey Henderson in 1989. Rickey's cap said "A's" but the scorecard said "K". The poor A's couldn't even show Nolan up when they weren't playing against him. When Rickey passed Lou Brock as the all-time stolen base leader, Nolan tossed his seventh no-hitter the same night. Possibly some overshadowing going on there.

Nolan knows the A's. At least how to beat them. Well, the early 1990's A's. The good teams. This cellar-dwelling team is a tougher nut to crack apparently.

Rangers find bats in Oakland.

Texas scored a big 10-3 win over the A's last night in Oakland. There were a lot of high points for the Rangers in the win as their offense put on a much delayed appearance.

First, Kevin Millwood went seven innings and only gave up one run to pick up the win. That gives him an 11-10 record on the season. To be fair, he suffered from a serious lack of run support on a couple of those loses that should have been wins. As he walked off the mound Millwood had reached 182.2 innings pitched. That is enough to lock him into a contract next year. Unfortunately I have posted all of the Topps cards of Kevin Millwood I have.

The second big night belonged to David Murphy. Murph went 3-for-4 at the plate with two walks. His hits included his 21st double and he had two RBI while scoring twice himself. A strong showing by David as the end of the season looms. Sadly, I have no more Topps cards of David Murphy either.

Julio Borbon also had a big night as he went 3-for-5 at the plate with a walk. Julio stole his 16th base of the season, scored two runs, and had a pair of RBI. As may be foreseen, I have no Topps cards of Julio Borbon either.

I do have a Topps card of Hank Blalock, number 85 in the 2006 set. The Hammer had a pretty good night at the plate as well as he went 3-for-5 with his 19th double of the year. Hank also scored a run and picked up his allotted two RBI as well.

All in all it is good to see the bats back. Even if the post-season is all but out of the picture it would be good to see the team finish strong.

Early endings.

The Cubs have suspended Milton Bradley for the rest of the 2009 season and are apparently not planning on him being back. The suspension follows an interview where Milton refused to answer questions and then a follow-up interview where he went out of his way to bash the Cubs. Following the second interview the Cubbies GM suspended Bradley. A bad situation to be sure. When Bradley played for the Rangers, as shown here on card 484 of the 2008 Upper Deck First Edition set, there were concerns that he would act out this way. Texas dodged the bullet but it seems that Milton just couldn't hold it together for more than a season at a time.

Michael Young's season might also be over. He is now saying that he tried to come back too soon from his injured hamstring and re-injured it. There is no timetable for his return. Next season perhaps?

It is also looking more and more likely that Josh Hamilton will not put on an appearance again until next season as well. Real bummer.