Larry L. King is at work on a novel about minor league baseball in Texas in the fifties. Breaking Balls is a fictionalized account of his experiences covering the “miserable 144-game schedule” of the Midland Indians as a $55-a-week reporter for the Midland Reporter-Telegram in 1951. “I went to all
Hot hurdling in Giddings, super six-man football in Gordon: Ten towns that got game.
Dear Jim Crane, new owner of the Houston Astros: Please don’t screw things up as badly as the last guy did.
After the Texas Rangers' outfielder publicly relapsed, fans and columnists alike had opinions about Josh Hamilton the Player. But what about Josh Hamilton the Recovering Addict?
The Texas Rangers shelled out $51.7 million for the exclusive opportunity to sign the 25-year-old pitcher. Today, they either enter into the baseball convenant, or the Rangers get their money back.
Sports blog's audio leak of Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington’s clubhouse speech reveals that—news flash—managers like to curse.
With two chances to win the World Series with a single strike, the championship slipped away from the Rangers for the second year in a row.
Should the Astros join the Rangers in the American League West?
The Texas Rangers may not have won the World Series, but it was a year fans will never forget.
What’s different about this Rangers team that earned them their first trip to the World Series? Everything.
A manager who admitted using cocaine? Owners who declared bankruptcy? Something about Claws and Antlers? No, the craziest story line of the season is that the Rangers have finally earned some respect.
“People are going to hit, or they’re not going to hit. Some guys are going to have a better season than they had before, and some aren’t. There’s not a whole lot I can do except put the right players in the right positions and expect them to perform.”
Milo Hamilton on calling a baseball game.
The miserable lives of Texas Rangers fans.
If Josh Beckett is the next Roger Clemens, this six-foot-three-inch lefty with the 96-mile-per-hour fastball could be the next Josh Beckett. After going 13-0 with a 0.77 ERA and 139 strikeouts in 64 innings as a senior at Highland Park High School, in Dallas—including a perfect-game mercy-rule victory in which
With this year’s induction of Seguin native Smokey Joe Williams, one fourth of the Negro Leaguers in baseball’s hall of fame are Texans. Unfortunately, there may not be any more.
Why he was a hit running the Texas Rangers.
Out of uniform, in his own words, Texas icon Nolan Ryan on baseball, ranching, values, and his love for his native state.
Hello, good buy.
For years Houston native Chuck Knoblauch took his cues from his high school baseball coach, who also happened to be his father. Then Alzheimer’s disease changed their relationship forever.
BASEBALL’S ROGERS HORNSBY was a success right off the bat. In 1916, at age twenty, he became the leading hitter for the St. Louis Cardinals. His 1924 batting average of .424 is still the best of the modern era (and his lifetime .358 is second only to Ty Cobb’s .367).
To say he’s the strong, silent type is something of an understatement. Unlike most baseball stars, Texas Ranger Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez is all action and no talk—and that makes him one of the game’s real gems.
Can a wunderkind pitcher—the youngest player in the majors this season—lead long-suffering Chicago Cubs fans to the World Series? Maybe, but if 21-year-old Kerry Wood is flattered by the hope, he’s weary of the hype. “I wasn’t expecting to be moved up so quickly,” says the Irving native, who was
Jimmie Lee Solomon went from working a small Texas ranch to running big league baseball’s farm system. Now he may be up for one of the game’s top jobs.
Whether playing for the luckless Houston Astros, running the world-champion New York Yankees, or confronting racism, Bob Watson has always stepped up to the plate.
Houston’s new team player.
Growing up in Austin in the fifties and sixties, I couldn’t play baseball in certain places. In Clarksville, a mostly black area where there were no paved streets, I could usually find a pickup game. In West Lynn, which was whiter, I kind of had to push myself into one.
Oilers owner Bud Adams is hightailing it to Nashville; Drayton McLane may move the Astros too—or sell. In Houston and across the country, rooting for the home team is quickly becoming a thing of the past.
Baseball season is here at last, and for the Texas Rangers and their fans, it’s a whole new Ballpark.
At play in the fields of Mexico, onetime major leaguers find beisbol is an entirely different game.
Even after his baseball career is over, Nolan Ryan will continue to be a role model for my kids—and me.
The only thing scarier than facing a great pitcher is facing a hothead like Roger Clemens.
If throwing a spitball is an art, Gaylord Perry is Michelangelo.
In the bush leagues, rooting for the home team can be a humbling experience.
When Billy Martin takes his Texas Rangers on the road, the games are among the least of their worries.
