Friday Newsletter time: DFW media's Texas Rangers award winners all deserving. My ballot was a tad different.
Adolis Garcia is the first player in team history to win Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year in the same season.
A few things were lost Wednesday in the season-ending news conference, including the annual Texas Rangers award winners as voted by media who regularly follow the team (including me).
Drum roll, please.
Player of the Year: Adolis Garcia.
Pitcher of the Year: Dane Dunning.
Rookie of the Year: Adolis Garcia.
Good Guy: Jose Trevino.
Richard Durrett Hardest Working Man: Taylor Hearn.
My voting was a tad different, thought I went with Garcia for top player and rookie. He’s the first player in team history to win both awards in the same season. However, I selected Hearn for top pitcher, massage therapist/translator Raul Cardenas for the good guy, and Andy Ibanez for the Durrett award.
Dunning was in the rotation from the start of the season and, aside from an ankle injury and a COVID-related hiatus, he was active all season. The Rangers treated him with kid gloves, but there are signs he will pitch well without them in 2022.
Hearn was at his best when Dunning was dealing with COVID. Hearn’s development into a rotation candidate is one of the biggest developments of the season for the Rangers.
Cardenas is just a good guy who was thrown into the role of translating for the Spanish speakers. It got him a trip to the All-Star Game with Garcia. When he’s not making a player feel better or translating, he always takes time to chat up reporters.
Ibanez wasn’t the rookie of the year, but he was really good and deserving of an award. He made his MLB debut his season after five seasons in the minors are at the alternate site. It took a lot of work (and bus rides) to get to this point, and he played four positions this season.
Hearn put in work in transitioning from the bullpen. Trevino is, indeed, a good guy. No arguments there.
Congrats to all of the winners.
Clubhouse tour
The Rangers announced Wednesday that they will begin offering tours of the Rangers’ clubhouse to fans, who will get a glimpse at how the players navigate their day at the ballpark.
That prompted a few of use media types to ask for our own tour. Because of COVID, none of us had been allowed in the clubhouse. The Rangers obliged, and Jon Daniels and Chris Young were our tour guides.
When the Rangers talk about Globe Life Field being an advantage, the clubhouse and other player amenities are what they are referring to. The weight room, training room and kitchen are all first class. The clubhouse itself is massive.
Inside one of the many corridors is a Rangers logo mounted on a wall. Surrounding it are autographs of every Rangers player who has been on the roster for a game at Globe Life Field. The white autographs are from the inaugural season.
Everything a player could need during a game is just steps away from the dugout.
(I know this will come as a surprise, but I encountered a snarky reply in my Twitter notifications attempting to throw shade on the idea that the ballpark is a tool to woo free agents. To Mr. Snark, it’s not just the air conditioning.)
So, back to the tours for fans. They start Sunday. Tickets start at $25 with discounts for seniors, military and first responders. Group rates for 20 or more guests are available by calling 817-533-1833 or emailing tours@reventertainment.com.
For a full schedule of when tours are available, visit texasrangers.com/tours. That’s also where fans can purchase tickets.
Anyone who takes the tour is going to be wowed, especially anyone who also toured the home clubhouse at Globe Life Park. That clubhouse very nice. This one blows it out of the water.
Card of the Week
The evening news was on Wednesday night at the Wilson residence, instead of the usual Garfield or Henry Danger rerun, and much to my surprise Newy Scruggs was doing a live report from American Airlines Center.
There was a basketball court behind him.
Apparently, the NBA’s preseason is under way, and the Dallas Mavericks beat the Utah Jazz as Luka Doncic scored 19 points in 16 minutes. He enters this season, his fourth, with 5,115 points — 26,445 off the Mavs record held by Dirk Nowitzki, who is 1998-99 Topps rookie card is the Card of the Week.
Nowtizki, of course, played 21 seasons with the Mavericks and now has a street named after him. He won an MVP, which Doncic is likely to do, and an NBA championship, which fans hope Doncic can do.
He needs a strong supporting cast, like Nowitzki had, and that’s on the owner.
If Doncic’s career averages of points per game (24.0) and games per season (66.33) were to hold, he could catch Nowitzki in his 20th season. Mavs fans can only hope that happens.
Doggy video!
Sliding into the weekend like these happy pups. Enjoy. See you Monday.
That doggie video may be my most favorite yet.