Friday Newsletter time: TCU baseball sought refuge from Texas Rangers’ roof, but needed roof over roads, too
The Horned Frogs, snowed out at home, could try to practice Friday in the cozy confines of Globe Life Field.
TCU baseball coach Kirk Saarloos, the former major-league pitcher, said Wednesday that the Horned Frogs had a plan for the winter storm that was on its way to North Texas.
They were headed to Globe Life Field, home of the Texas Rangers.
It makes a ton of sense. A $1.2 billion facility with a retractable roof that is sitting idle, at least to major-league baseball players during the lockout, is a great spot for a baseball team that was in its first week of practices.
While Lupton Stadium would be covered in ice and snow, Globe Life Field would be ready for baseball.
And it was. The roads weren’t.
The Rangers kindly asked TCU to not come to Arlington on Thursday so that club employees wouldn’t have to drive on the icy streets to get the ballpark ready. The hope is that enough sunlight will prevail Friday for the Frogs to practice there.
Globe Life Field was offered up after TCU and Rangers baseball operations discussed the matter. Other colleges have inquired, as well, but so far only TCU has made plans to use the ballpark.
“The colleges were looking for dry, warm spots to practice,” amateur scouting director Kip Fagg said. “It’s good to show off Globe Life Field when you have availability.”
TCU is familiar with Globe Life Field, having played last year in the inaugural State Farm College Baseball Showdown. The Frogs will return to Globe Life Field this month for a three-game series against Nebraska.
Lockout standstill
After two months of the lockout, the latest move by the owners is an appeal for help.
MLB has requested the assistance of a federal mediator to get the owners and players moving toward a new collective bargaining agreement, a move that one player called a “publicity stunt” to USA Today under the condition of anonymity.
San Francisco Giants pitcher Alex Wood didn’t stay anonymous. The left-hander took to Twitter to express his exasperation at the thought of a mediator.
Maybe it is a P.R. stunt. The union is reportedly set to reject the offer of a mediator. Neither side has really given much in the way of concessions, though there seemed to be some hope last week.
But if the owners really wanted to pull a P.R. stunt, couldn’t they just end the lockout and continue play under the rules of the previous CBA? The ill-fated 1994 season was played under an expired CBA after owners did not lock out the players, who eventually went on strike as negotiations never gained traction even with the help of a mediator.
Do it again. The owners can say, “You know what, guys? The lockout was a mistake. Let’s play ball. Let’s all make a bunch of money under the rules of the past five years and come up with an agreement along the way through good-faith negotiations. We’re all reasonable people here.”
The union basically said on the first day of the stoppage that the lockout was a P.R. stunt, or a negotiating ploy done in bad faith.
There are players, including Rangers second baseman Marcus Semien, who have said that the players didn’t want to be locked out and wanted to continue bargaining for an agreement.
An end to the lockout would be their chance, right? Or they could strike.
Good luck with that P.R. mess.
Card of the Week
This is a special edition of Card of the Week, as for the first time a reader has submitted his favorite card to be featured.
The reader is Joe Siegler, who many of you might know from his writing at rangerfans.com. He became a Rangers fan upon moving to the Metroplex in the 1990s and became a bigger fan of manager Johnny Oates.
The two of them shared a deep religious faith, and it struck a chord with Joe. So, he believes he has since collected every Oates card and had many of them autographed, but the 1977 Topps card is his favorite.
Why is it Joe’s favorite? Oates played for Philadelpha, where Joe lived and watched Phillies games in the 1970s. But there’s more to it, as Joe explains here.
We all have reasons for our favorite cards. Mine is the 1962 Topps Roger Maris, the first card in the set. I picked it up at an indoor flea market in the 1980s, and I swear it would have graded as a 9 or 10 had I held onto it all these years. I’ve replaced it, and it’s still a great card, but I wish I could get that first one back.
But never mind me. If you have a card that means a great deal to you, as the ‘77 Oates means to Joe, by all means let me know and it can run as a Card of the Week.
Doggy video!
I hope he ate every last one of them. Enjoy. See you Monday.
