10 reasons why Red Sox fans should root for the Rangers in the World Series

OK, we now have our World Series match up. I personally was hoping for a Tigers and Phillies World Series so we’d have a Verlander vs. Halladay.

Then I wanted Tigers vs. Brewers...
So naturally I got Rangers vs. Cardinals.

Now my fellow Red Sox fans might be wondering who they should root for... those who can bring themselves to watch baseball in the post on field and off field collapse of the Red Sox.

Well, one thing is for sure, you should root for a seven game series, which baseball needs more than a resolution to the Dodger and Met mess.

But what if it comes down to a 7th game and a tie score in the 9th?
Who should Red Sox fans root for?

It's an easy call.
Root for the Rangers... let me count the ways.

10 Reasons Why Red Sox Fans
Should Be Rooting For The Rangers

1. Not one member of the Rangers 25 man roster has a World Series ring

OK, that's not a Red Sox related reason, but it is pretty cool when you think of it.

If the Rangers win the World Series, every single player in the pile would be celebrating their first title. Having a whole team where it is the greatest moment in their life for ALL of them? That's pretty awesome. (The Molinas, Pujolses, Carpenters and LaRussas all have theirs.)


2. If the Rangers win, would Nolan Ryan’s “Let them pitch” style would be the direction of the new Red Sox.

The Red Sox need to rebuild their pitching staff and it will take more than banning fried chicken from the clubhouse to do it.

I fear coddling of pitchers more than the Colonel's secret recipe. I think it has already claimed Clay Buchholz and the old Sox management hasn't exactly produced the 1995 Braves... or the 2011 Rangers for that matter.

Ryan has let the pitchers PITCH and lo and behold the depth of their staff is one of their strengths. Win or not, the Red Sox should emulate them. Hope the Rangers win do the Sox will have to notice that Ryan has delivered much better results than copying Moneyball.



3. How often do you bump into a taunting Rangers fan?

If you are a Red Sox fan, no matter where you live, you will inevitably live or work near a Yankee fan who will give you crap about the great collapse.

Same with a Phillies fan or a Mets fan (although Met fans should keep their traps shut.) And maybe a Cardinal fan too.

When was the last time you uttered the phrase "I work with the most OBNOXIOUS Texas Rangers fan"? I am guessing never. That's a good thing. You don't want taunters to have the ammo of "And MY team won the World Series!"


4. Texas can become a free agent destination instead of the Yankees

Let's face it, Sox fans. This is going to be a lousy off season with the change in management and all. I don't know how many free agents are going to be running to Boston. And frankly the Red Sox have been spending too much on free agents recently. They need to develop their own players.

But we also don't want to see the C. J. Wilsons et al sign with the Yankees, do we? Well as Cliff Lee showed us, players are allowed to turn down Yankee money. And maybe if the Rangers keep winning and show they have a stable organization, maybe people will be heading to Texas instead of the Yankees.

Besides, can't you get a big huge mansion in Texas with low property taxes? DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXAS!!!


5. Hey! Adrian Beltre is a former Red Sox All Star!

Shouldn't we be rooting for former Red Sox All Stars?

OK, so Beltre was only a Red Sox for one season and he wasn't exactly beloved... but it would be easier rooting for him to win a ring with the Rangers than say Clemens or Boggs with the Yankees... or Eckersley and Hendu with the LaRussa A's.

Go Adrian! Represent the 3rd place 2010 Boston Red Sox!


6. Come on… you can’t root for LaRussa or McGwire!

Isn't there something you don't like about Tony LaRussa? I could never figure out why I don't like him. It has nothing to do with him being a lawyer or doing that Glenn Beck thing. There's something about him that rubs me the wrong way. Seeing the Red Sox clobber the Cardinals in 2004 made it a little bit sweeter.

And McGwire, forget about it. Some steroid guys I have some sympathy for. This guy? He would have had Ron Kittle's career if not for the juice.

And together they massacred the Red Sox in the 1988 and 1990 ALCS. Seriously, you want THEM to be happy?

7. We can’t have the Cardinals also winning 2 World Series in the last 10 years!

The last few months have been so brutal to us Sox fans that it feels like everything positive of the past 10 years is getting more and more blurry. There's not a lot left for us to brag about.

Well since 2001, the Sox are the only team to win multiple World Series. That's still cool... except the Cardinals will spoil the fun if they win this year to go along with their 2006 title.

We need the Rangers to win for our own pettiness.

8. For Rangers fans, this could be THEIR 2004!

Remember that wonderful feeling we all felt in 2004? That great sense of relief! We had gone our whole lives thinking "Man, I'm never going to see the Red Sox win the World Series." Then suddenly they did. It made everything a little better.

Even seeing the Yankees win in 2009 and the Red Sox collapse in 2011 doesn't hurt the way it used to.

Now imagine you are a lifelong Rangers fan. The franchise had NEVER won the World Series. Hell, until last year they had only won one playoff GAME! The idea of being a World Series champ seemed pretty far fetched. If they win, then the die hard Ranger fans... the one that loved Pete O'Brien, Dean Palmer and Rusty Greer... would have THEIR moment they had waited their whole lives for.

Someone else deserves that kind of happiness.


9. A Rangers World Championship would George W. Bush happy and occupied

I am not going to get political here. All I am going to say are two things that I don't think anyone can deny.

1. George W. Bush would probably be happier if he were the Commissioner of Baseball rather than the former President of the United States.

2. He seems very happy being out of the political fray.

There might be pressure for him to be more vocal in the scrum that will be the 2012 election. For his sake and ours, I hope he is just going to sit back and savor another summer watching the Rangers defend their title.



10. SPIKE OWEN WOULD GET A WORLD SERIES RING

This is the BIGGEST reason for the Red Sox to root for the Rangers. He is the manager of the Texas Rangers AAA affiliate, the Round Rock Express. If the Rangers win, he would get a World Series ring as a member of the organization.

Spike was of course the starting shortstop of the 1986 Red Sox. He came along with Dave Henderson from Seattle in an August trade and greeting Hendu at home plate when he hit the go ahead homer in Game 6 of the World Series... the homer we all thought would clinch the World Series.

Owen was a typical Red Sox infielder from the Yawkey years. Not flashy, got his uniform dirty and whiter than the Bushwood Country Club directory.

Also Spike Owen's real first name? Spike! It was his mother's maiden name.

Every time a member of the 1986 Red Sox gets a ring, an angel gets their wings. I think that's how it goes.


So there you go, Red Sox fans... it might not get you all gung ho like 2004 or 2007... but there's reason to watch this World Series.

Say it with me! Let's go Rangers!
(Just don't yell that at a Bruins game.)

There's a Bush playing for the Rangers?

I suppose I realized intellectually that Dave Bush was a pitcher for the Rangers. But I found it to be odd when I saw the Rangers pitcher with the name "Bush" on his back.

I guess a generation ago, I would have assumed it was nepotism.
It's odd that he isn't #43.

Nice to see you Mr. President. Thanks for building a stadium without a roof in Texas!

The Rangers won the series against the Angels and still have a 7 game lead in the AL West.

Call me crazy, but I am standing by "Wake me when it is Labor Day and the Rangers are in first place" stance when it comes to Texas.

The heat is going to be murder and the Angels essentially swapped out Joe Saunders and his mediocre numbers for Dan Haren and his potential All Star numbers.

Don't count out the Angels yet.

They'll make the Rangers sweat... as if they won't be sweating enough as it is.

Girardi's quandry

Man I am glad I am not Joe Girardi today.

It looks like we’re going to have thundershowers in New York today and the chances of the game being played are thinner than that airbrushed picture of Filippa Hamilton.

So if the series is to resume on Sunday, what the hell should Girardi do?

Should he go for the jugular and start C. C. Sabathia on 3 days rest?

Should he start Andy Pettitte on his regular rest and have Sabathia ready to go in either Game 7 of the ALCS or Game 1 of the World Series?

Jeez when I write them both out like that, they both make a lot of sense.

The Angels’ confidence is running high right now going into New York. They have a new lease on life… and the two guys who are credited with lightening up the Yankee clubhouse (Nick Swisher and A. J. Burnett) are wearing goat horns.

But the Angels haven’t figured out Sabathia… who is 2-0 with a 1.12 ERA in the ALCS and has an awesome WHIP and strikeout to walk ratio… and is a stud.

It would all but certainly put an end to the series.

It would pull the rug out of any momentum and erase any relevance of the two Angels losses.

Remember how the A’s and the Mariners extended their 2000 series against the Yankees with big wins? Remember how the Indians pushed the Yankees in 1998? Or the Red Sox played the Yankees tough in 1999?

OF COURSE YOU DON’T! The Yankees went on to win the World Series those years… and the Angels grittiness would be thrown into the pile of forgotten playoff series.

Sabathia would be the exclamation point. Plus he is capable of throwing 8 or 9 innings, thus making sure the suddenly ineffective Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain don’t have to come into a big game.

But then again…

Wouldn’t that be a desperation move?

The YANKEES are in the lead, not the Angels. The Yankees are throwing Andy Pettitte and save for a Vlad Guerrero homer in Game 3, he pitched well.

And what if… and bear with me on this… the Angels BEAT Sabathia in Game 6? It’s possible. Sabathia lost 8 times this season.

He was dreadful in the post season prior to this year.

There could be a pitchers duel… or a battle of the bullpens.

So let’s say the Angels win a Game 6 started by Sabathia. They would have insane confidence going into Game 7… the Yankees would be pressing and the Game 7 pitching match up of John Lackey vs. Andy Pettitte would favor Los Angeles… or California… or Anaheim… or Los Angeles of Anaheim.

And isn’t this over managing exactly what has Girardi in the crosshairs of the fan base’s ire?

And if Sabathia DOES win Game 6 on Sunday, he would not be ready to throw in the World Series until Game 2… and he’d only have 2 starts. Which means the Yankees would be forced to start either Chad Guadin or the artist formerly known as Joba Chamberlain.

Can you imagine how Girardi would be crucified if Chad Gaudin is forced to pitch a critical Game 4 of the World Series?

But then again… how will he be slaughtered if he DOESN’T start Sabathia and he’s blamed for letting the Angels stay alive…

What I am saying is, I’m glad I’m not him.

But his job is to make decisions… and as George W. Bush said “My job is a job to make decisions. I'm a decision.. if the job description were, what do you do.. it's decision maker.”

Use those pearls of wisdom when you make your decision Joe.

The Bush years were kind to Red Sox fans

Barack Obama is taking the oath of office in a matter of hours.
It is a time for renewal, hope for some, resignation for others but undeniably a time for great change.

As a Red Sox fan, let's hope two things remain from the Bush years:

1. Great luck for the Red Sox.
2. Rotten luck for the Yankees.

Massachusetts clearly isn't Bush country. He never came close to winning Massachusetts. And being from Massachusetts is such poison in the Republican Party that Mitt Romney had to distance himself from the Bay State and talk like he was a Michigan boy.

And yet an unprecedented amount of joy happened to Red Sox Nation and uncharacteristic failures befell upon the Yankee Empire that took some (if not all) of the sting of the last 8 years.

In Bush's 8 years:

- The Red Sox won Two World Series.
- The Yankees won no World Series.

That should be enough... but it gets better.

- The Red Sox would be the first team to ever come back from a 3-0 hole in a best of 7 series.
- The team that blew the 3-0 hole to the Red Sox was the Yankees.
- The Yankees would out bid the Red Sox for Alex Rodriguez... only to see A-Rod become a Hindenberg-esque flop in four straight post seasons.

Then there is the Angels factor.

- The Red Sox would win 2 Division Series against the Angels on walk off hits... one a homer by David Ortiz and the other a single by Jed Lowrie.
- The Angels would stun the Yankees twice in the Division Series... first in 2002 and then in 2005.

Then the Mariano Factor

- Mariano Rivera would blow two series where he was three outs from clinching.
- One of those series was the 2004 ALCS against the Red Sox.

Then the pick ups.

- In the Bush years, the Red Sox picked up two World Series MVPs (Manny Ramirez and Mike Lowell) two ALCS MVPs (David Ortiz and Josh Beckett), a classic Yankee killer (Curt Schilling) and an idiot in his prime (Johnny Damon.)
- In the Bush years the Yankees picked up a slew of post season flop artists (A-Rod, Jason Giambi, Kevin Brown, Javier Vasquez, Randy Johnson) and an idiot in decline (Johnny Damon.

More?

- The Red Sox won a best of 5 series where they were down 0-2 with three heart stopping games against the A's.
- The Yankees lost to a badly outmanned Tigers team.
- The Red Sox won another series when they were down 3-1, this time to an Indians team where they had to beat the eventual Cy Young winner on the road.
- The Yankees lost a best of 5 series because their star reliever got covered in bugs.
- The Red Sox won a game when they were down 7-0 and facing elimination.
- The Yankees missed the playoffs with a $200 million payroll.


So do well, President Obama.
Guide this country through troubled waters.

But that karma from the Bush years concerning the Red Sox?
Don't change THAT, OK?

Now go take that Oath of Office!