February 14 - The Thursday List: The Day of Yin and Yang

“The yin-yang is a symbol for cosmic duality and balance, a synthesis of mutually dependent polar forces. Each force exists only in relationship to its opposite, each is "completed" by its opposite, and each gains life and expression through the patterns generated by the perpetual interplay with its opposite. The two fundamental principles, one is negative, dark (yin) and the other (yang) positive, bright, active. The interactions and balance of these forces in nature influence behavior and fate.”

This maybe the only blog where you’ll find the overture to the 2008 Texas Rangers season defined in terms of Eastern Philosophy.

Here’s the Yin and Yang for this week:

February 14th:  The Yin is that today is a holiday I absolutely scorn.

The Yang is that the best day of this baseball year falls on that loathsome date. Most are waiting to hear from their sweetheart – I’m waiting read and hear the sweetest words of 2008: “Pitchers and Catchers reported to the Rangers Spring Training camp in Surprise Arizona today.”

Who was that guy? The Yin:  Alejandro did a very good job as no one recognized the Rangers 1995 5th round draft pick Shawn Gallagher – although I did get a couple of e-mails asking why I put a picture of Charlie Sheen on the blog.  I don’t see the resemblance.  My good friend Mike Hindman checked up on Shawn’s post baseball career – which included attending MIT – in his 2002 “Hindsights”  article (here's the link) on the Newberg Report.

The Yang: Name That Ranger Prospect #4 might be a little more recognizable – there is a hint in the picture on the right.

Kevin Mench returns: The Yin is a simple question: why?  I meditated, read the Book of Tao, searched the wisdom of Buddha, and even surfed through Baseball Reference.com  to resolve my query, but to no avail. Then as I put another load of towels in the dryer the answer appeared to me from the musings of the Oracle of the Sage and Sand: “There is an institutional inevitability, inexorable expediency and irresistible obsequiousness in the Rangers renewed interest in Kevin Mench.  As St. Thomas Aquinas once wrote in Summa Theologica, ' The more deeply something is impressed upon the soul, the less does it drop out of the soul.'”

The Yang – well, there really isn’t any with Kevin Mench. I had thought the Rangers were moving forward with Nelson Cruz and Jason Botts but they always seem to have one foot firmly planted in their dismal past.

Spring Training in Surprise:  The Yin is called Bell Rd. if you’ve been there you know. If you haven’t –  as they say at the Nebraska Zen Center: “True patience, or endurance, is sitting in and through every moment of our lives, whether we like it or not.”

The Yang is called the White Tank Mountains.  They are a spectacular background as you drive along Greenway Rd (the secret way to happiness and an alternate to avoid Bell Rd) and a majestic back drop as you sit on the backfields watching the Ranger minor league players.  Just west of Surprise where Bell Rd intersects Hwy 303 is White Tank Mountain Regional Park where you can watch the Lunar Eclipse in the desert sky next Wednesday night (February 20th).

KRLD:  Knowing that Michael Ogulnick’s not so good post game show is waiting in the wings in April is Yin. 

Listening to Eric and Victor every weekend in the Spring and every night for the entire summer – particularly the late night West Coast games – is the definition of  Yang.

Warm Summer Nights: If you haven't been to the Ballpark in Arlington since last September let me prepare you for the Yin. There is construction everywhere as the beautiful Ballpark is swallowed up by Greed…er Glory Park and the monument to Jerry Jones that is big enough to block out the sun.  Unfortunately, that  includes same kind of mess along I-30 and the exits right in front of the ballpark.  That is going to get much worse before it gets better. 

However, there is Yang elsewhere, along with plenty of easy to reach parking  in Frisco, where we’ll watch the future blossom while teaching Erin and Mia to cheer “Go Elvis!” There’s also the Yang of  those lovely evenings in Bricktown Ballpark Oklahoma City as we watch Eric, Doug, Luis, AJ, Chirs,  Josh, (maybe) Taylor, Travis, and German as they prepare take the next big step to achieving Nirvana in Arlington. Although there is a little Yin in OKC since they are scheduling night games on Sunday this season – which I imagine makes get away days a nightmare and more importantly deprives me of my beloved Sunday afternoon jaunts to OKC for just one game.

The 2008 Season: Yin means a rebuilding program the Rangers have never fully committed to – until now – maybe – I hope.  At times it is hard to watch.  Ask a Rockies or Tigers fan what it was like the two years before their teams went the promised land of the playoffs.  Detroit had a record of 72-90 in 2004 then 71-91 in 2005.  Colorado fans endured seasons of 67-95 in 2005 and 76-86 in 2006.  The Rangers  had similar  records the last two years at 80- 82 (2006) and 75- 87 last season.  Young pitchers and young hitters often struggle before finding the path to enlightenment, higher batting averages and lower ERAs.   It will be a season of high expectations as well as uneven results,  but as the Buddha has often reminded us: the obstacle is the path.  The question is: will the owner and the GM be able to find their way to that path and through that obstacle? Will they find the patience to understand that DFW fans are only interested in buying tickets to see winners, which could mean empty seats? Wll they find the inner peace and fortitude to withstand constant harangues from the ink stained wretches and electronic wailers?

The Yang  is if JD, the fans, and especially Mr. Hicks can practice Zen and The Art Of Not Knee-Jerking every time this young team loses a few games in a row or there's an injury or a slump by young player. They must remember what the voice in the field said: “if you build it, they will come.” –  the voice wasn't talking about buildings, streets and video boards. The voice was talking about laying a foundation of homegrown players who will grow together and I fervently believe will start a winning tradition that this franchise so desperately needs on the field. 

Finally: If you love baseball as much I do, you know that every season there will be winning streaks and losing streaks, players who break out and players who break down.  As a fan there are days you want to give up on your team  and nights you don’t want the game to end – the season is a long road. You have to go with the flow, take the good with the bad – the most important thing is to enjoy every day, every game, every inning, every pitch and at-bat as it is happening, I know I will.

Happy Pitchers and Catchers Day everyone, let’s play ball.

Namasté. –- Marla Hooch