Tuesday Newsletter time: It's OK to admit season has been a failure, Chris Woodward says, but Rangers must learn from it
The manager wants players to recognize where they fell short and make sure it doesn't happen again.
Many of you heard this Friday night on the game broadcast, but it’s worth repeating here for those who might not have wanted to watch two of baseball’s worst teams have at it.
Judging by the stands in once baseball-proud Baltimore, not many wanted to watch the Orioles and Texas Rangers, either.
Manager Chris Woodward is embracing the suck.
Maybe he’s not embracing it, but he’s accepting it. Yes, the Rangers are a bad baseball team this season and are one loss way from 100. They can reach triple digits tonight at Globe Life Field against the came-up-short-yet-again Los Angeles Angels.
Nothing short of a 6-0 season-ending homestand can keep the Rangers from 100 losses. Even if that were to happen, 99 losses still stinks, and there’s nothing the Rangers can do about it.
They can learn from it, though.
“I’m not afraid to admit this has been a failure,” Woodward said. “It’s OK to admit that. As players, it’s OK to accept that and say, ‘You know what? We don’t want this to happen again. We want to win. … ‘
“… It’s OK to accept the negative and say we sucked this year. It’s OK to say that out loud and say we weren’t good, this is a failure on everybody’s part, and how do we fix it? If you don’t identify that and you’re always trying to find a positive in everything, it’s, unfortunately, going to keep you from accepting what reality is and say, ‘Hey we’ve got to improve.’ Each individual player has a role in that.”
The hope, Woodward said, is that players have already learned what they need to do to be better and can address it in the offseason. If they haven’t, the Rangers are going to point it out during the season-ending exit interviews.
“There’s physical things you need to work on,” Woodward said. “There’s mental things you need to work on. There’s a lot of little things you can identify and say, ‘This is going to make me a more consistent player, which in turn is going to make us a better team, a winning team. And how do I become a winning piece to a championship team?’”
Attention NFT fans
In the interest of full transparency, I didn’t know what NFT stands for until looking it up — non-fungible tokens.
NFTs are a digital thing. They come in a variety of forms, including baseball cards, and they are collectible. There is a 1-of-1 NFT of Globe Life Field, from digital designer S. Preston, now available at auction.
The GLF NFT is part of the MLB Stadium Series in a venture between MLB and Candy Digital. The winner of the 1-of-1 will also receive:
Four Lexus Club seats and a parking pass to a Rangers game; a private tour of Globe Life Field; field passes for batting practice; throwing out the ceremonial first pitch; an inning in the booth with PA man Chuck Morgan; and a meet and greet with general manager Chris Young.
Bidding opened Monday morning and runs through 6 p.m. Thursday. Visit candy.com to bid.
There is also an open edition version of Globe Life Field available for $100.
A nice run
For whatever reason, and I have some theories, the Texas Rangers Newsletter is in the midst of a subscription surge, both free signups and paid subscriptions.
It’s appreciated, especially those of you who have ponied up for the low, low price of $5.99 a month or $60 a year.
The timing might seem off, with the season about to end, but just because the Rangers are going on vacation doesn’t mean the Newsletter is. We’ll still be cranking out the content, from T.R.’s Memoirs to the Texas Rangers Baseball Podcast to the Sunday Read.
Don’t miss out on offseason content. Hop on the bandwagon. You won’t regret it.
Doggy video!
No Rangers jokes, please. Enjoy. See you Wednesday.
Wonderful update on your successful venture. Happy for you and yours. Remember, luck had nothing to do with it! Preparation, product knowledge, skill and presentation together are always successful. Congrats.