Way to call out your entire clubhouse and piss off your leader, Michael Young. Buck constantly changing lineups, making questionable managerial and strategical decisions and our continued lack of quality pitching couldn't have anything to do with it, could it? Maybe if Adam Eaton hadn't been out until the end of July, it might be a little bit different and we'd still be contending, but still. There's a reason Buck flamed out with Arizona and New York after 4 seasons, both going on to become World Series champs the next season, and there's a reason why the Rangers seemed visibly tense and like they were pressing down the stretch. Maybe if he quit being a tightwad (I believe the Rangers are about middle of the pack in payroll) and shelled out some money like he used to when we were a Top 5 or 10 payroll team and were winning the AL West in the late 90's we'd see better results. We'll see soon enough this offseason if Mr. Hicks has the leadership skills he talks to much about. Shell out some $$$ and get us more talent, maybe even some guys who are "tough" and have "leadership skills" so we get this thing right. What a doosh.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/stories/090606dnsporangerslede.2f1a2d7.html

I'm generally convinced that the players the Rangers have right now ought to be able to win. Yeah our rotation has some issues, and the bullpen scares me when we aren't either behind already or up by 15 runs (ten obviously isn't safe) I just don't think that Buck is capable of managing them to it.

If the rangers ditch him they can do almost anything. Unfortunately during the offseason Hicks won't introduce Mr. Door to Buck's hindparts, and he won't shell out the cash to keep the guys they should or bring in the guys they should.

I really wish Cuban would buy the rangers

I don't see why Hicks thought this team would be any different than last year. Yes they went out and got a high $ pitcher, but on the mound Milwood isn't a huge improvement over Rogers. Then you trade away you second best pitcher. Essentially all the Rangers did in the offseason was replace what they were losing on the mound. No real upgrades... And they gave away one of their best hitters. At the beginning of the season most everyone outside of the DFW Metroplex were picking the Rangers to be around .500 and in third place in the West, and that's exactly where they are.

[This message has been edited by AustinAg2K (edited 9/6/2006 7:39a).]

As usual, my man JD handles the situation well:

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Daniels said the comments should not be interpreted as a management vs. players issue. Daniels said the entire organization, starting with himself, is accountable for what has happened this season.

"If the team is lacking in leadership, it starts with me," Daniels said. "Anything pertaining to a lack of performance or a lack of success starts with me and everybody else in the organization. Everybody who wears the 'T', whether it's on a uniform or not, is fully vested. There's a lot I'm proud of this year, but at the end of the day, I take accountability if we come up short of our goals."

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The Rangers have only won the West once under Hicks, and he had about as much to do with that as Barry Switzer had to do with the Cowboys winning their last Super Bowl.

Hicks is a proven liar and will say anything he feels like saying at the time. When he bought the Rangers in 98, he vowed to spend enough to win a pennant. Then later, he stated that "we don't have the fan base to support a $100 million payroll".

But it's not just a matter of how much you spend, it's how you spend it. The Rangers have over 10% of their payroll tied up in Rod Barajas and Brad Wilkerson.

Srop supporting Sip Hicks. Don't you realize how much money that guy gives to the tu athletic program?

BTHO, that's pretty juvenile. I'm not going to stop supporting my favorite team in my far-and-away favorite sport, the team I've been a fan of since birth, simply because their owner is "an evil tea-sip."

At least we know where your priorities are, 2%er.

You can love the Rangers passionately and want the best for them and still not support the way Tom Hicks does things. Kinda live loving your wife and detesting your mother in law. But I'm single, what would i know.

I'm a life long Rangers fan as well, and I am sick of Hicks running a subpar MLB team while making certain his precious horns don't go without in any area.

stupid fawking comment by Hicks. but I expect nothing less from him.

The guy is a cancer to the organization........ I wish he'd sell the team to Mark Cuban!

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I'm a life long Rangers fan as well, and I am sick of Hicks running a subpar MLB team while making certain his precious horns don't go without in any area.

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What about the previous 30 years of Rangers baseball before the Hicks era where we played sub-par baseball?

While I would like to get a new owner & manager in here, to blame "sip Hicks" for all of this club's problems when the Rangers have traditionally been one of the most disapointing franchises of the expnsion era is a little much.

i agree with chip. while i cant stand hicks, to overlook the prior 30 years of horrible baseball in arlington and say he is the problem now is pretty dumb.

he is willing to spend money and apparantly doesnt overly butt in on the baseball decisions (some exceptions, of course). in my book, what more should an owner do?

if you dont like showalter, then thats your opinion. i am not sure he's the right guy for the job anymore either, but plain and simple, we didnt have a good enough team to win the West this year. we didnt have the talent, on the mound OR in the lineup.

some of you are confusing your hatred for tu and turning this into why Hicks is a bad owner, because he has a strong affiliation to them. id like to hear how it effects his role as owner of the Rangers.

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he is willing to spend money

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WAS... keyword... WAS.

With the opening of TBIA, this entire organization was headed in the right direction. But then came along Kneejerk Tom and it all went to sh*t. He's changed the direction of this ship so many times that all of the passengers are leaning over the side puking.

He needs to shut the F up. Every time this clown has opened his mouth over the past 3-4 years, he sticks his foot in it. I thought Jerry Jones had perfected the art in his first year or two as the Cowboys owner, but Tom has taken it to a new level. Tom needs to hire some PR people that have the cajones to stop him from talking to the media - no matter how bad he may want to.

[This message has been edited by Bob the Enzyte Guy (edited 9/7/2006 3:42p).]

It amazes me how this guy became a billionaire.........!

Chick Bob

You'll appreciate this article:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/jon_heyman/09/07/scoop.thursday/1.html

Efffffff Tom Hicks, stupid ass tsip. That SI article has completely pissed me off.

Sadly, the public outrage will be minimal b/c of the upcoming Cowboys season.

Thanks buck and tom for ruining the team i've loved since i was 6 years old.

I guess the most effective way to protest would be with our wallets, but that's been done and it just results in hicks calling us bad fans.

This (chat board) too is an effective protest. What we say gets back to Newberg, and you know he has the organization's ear one way or the other.

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I guess the most effective way to protest would be with our wallets, but that's been done and it just results in hicks calling us bad fans.

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So what, he is just taking the money he makes in Arlington and sending it back to the 40 acres!

[This message has been edited by Swabbie02 (edited 9/8/2006 7:48p).]

Good point.

speaking of tu, was anyone else as humiliated as i was to be a Rangers fan when the 'horn football team was celebrated on OPENING DAY?!

Don't forget the pathetic pandering and brown-nosing to Clemens (i'm surprised he hasn't legally changed it to Klemens) during the game.

I'm convinced Hicks was in the process of changing the Dallas Stars, to the Dallas Horns.

They moved to a sweater like this:



And then, he tried this one...



What a piece of garbage. Add a little Red... add a cow head with short horns... 4-5 years later, the Red becomes orange... the horns grow a little longer...

I can guarantee you one thing... He has the NHL All-Star game coming in the Spring, and after that, if the team sucks ass... you are going to see season ticket holders run for the doors.

The bull logo has been completely abandoned. As far as I know it was only actually worn in games for a few years. Despite your fanatical anti-Tom Hicks attitude, that will never be the team's sweater.

DFW is a top 5 media market. Does anyone think the Rangers will eve3r be top 5 in spending?

If they ever find a way to increase their revenue into the top 5, they will. The Rangers don't have as large an income as the market size would indicate, and winning has little to nothing to do with their income over the past decade.

BTHOthaguy, Mike Hindman covered this in some detail a couple of weeks back as a preface to one of his morning farm reports. Randy Galloway tried to make the same point you are, saying "We live in what is now the fourth-largest media market in the country. The Rangers' payroll is... 22nd among the 30 major league teams. That is not acceptable for our market." Here is Hindman's response:

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Here, specifically, is why I accused Galloway of "distorting facts."

According to the Associated Press, the Rangers do not have the 22nd highest payroll in baseball. They had the 18th highest payroll coming into the season. But that’s not the big fib.

Somehow this fact escaped Galloway’s attention, but the Rangers are not among the top four (or even the top seven) revenue-generating clubs in baseball, as his argument would seem to imply. In fact, the Rangers ranked 16th among baseball's 30 clubs in revenues generated last year (and ticket sales are actually down this year, according to at least one published source).

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Salaries follow revenues, not "market size." And really, while there is some loose correlation between salaries and wins, it's not a great one. The Twins are last in revenue, but seem to do okay on the field. We all know about Billy Beane's success in Oakland. Two words: Florida Marlins. The Orioles have had a huge payroll in recent years, but haven't sniffed contention. The Angels are spending FAR MORE than they did win they won the World Series in '02, and don't have anything to show for it.

Good managing does far more, IMHO, than throwing wads of cash around.

Maybe the reason that the revenue so badly trails the market has something to do with the quality of the product?

Maybe the quality of the product has something to do with the owner's non-spending on pitching and reckless over spending?

Maybe if the owner had hired a decent GM and Coach a few years back both the team and the revenue would perform at market capacity?

All in all DFW has supported a third, and at times, a fourth rate product very well. What would they do for a regular contender?

You're partially right, Class of 75, but the fact is that regardless of what goes on at The Ballpark in Arlington, the Cowboys still DOMINATE this market. There is a huge percentage of fans that see baseball as something to kill the time during the Cowboys' off-season. A string of consecutive World Series appearances might make a dent in that, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

The Cowboys are still living off of the Landry & Johnson years.

The Rangers have absolutely nothing comparable.

However, the market has supported the Stars and the Mavericks.

If the Rangers were at least winning their division on a semi-regular basis I suspect that revenues would be much stronger. A Series would be great, but how about at least regularly making the post-season?

Actually it really amazes me how much support a team with their absolutely pathetic record gets.

They regularly fade after the All Star break and summer weather is tough on the fans. Yet people still show up - only to be disappointed as the team crawls to yet another third place finish. I mean we are talking decades of futility here.

If this team put a better product on the field the revenue would increase significantly.........

Or maybe revenue sucks because they built the f-ing stadium in Arlington. Most assinine decision ever until Laura Miller made Jerry build the new Cowboys stadium there.

These both are huge mistakes. Why does almost every other city get an urban stadium except narrow minded DFW?

I don't want to hear wait for the revenues to come up to spend money arguement. If there is one thing Dallas has shown it is that it will support a winner and ignore a loser.

See the Mavs, Stars, and yes I think we can all remember Cowboys games being blacked out. If you win, Dallas fans will show up. This isn't Florida we are talking about.

Market size does matter. The fact that Minnesota and Oakland win doesn't make that the best way to win. If it was the Red Sox and Yankees wouldn't spend so much money.

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The bull logo has been completely abandoned. As far as I know it was only actually worn in games for a few years.

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As of when?! I know of at least 5 games they were worn last season

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Despite your fanatical anti-Tom Hicks attitude, that will never be the team's sweater.

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I really was excited when he bought the Stars. But, he has completely eroded my excitement. I don't know that I'm "fanatical," but I certainly don't have too much positive to say about him as an owner.

It may never be the team's sweater. But, it wasn't without an attempt.