Long-time great Texas sports write, Jim Reeves, of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, cranked out a great column today that sums up what and how Tom Hicks has stolen from Rangers fans. Interestingly, his column parallels many of the items discussed here at Rangers or Robbers. Not saying that Revo’s taking ideas from my blog – although it would be awesome if he was – but am saying that what I’ve been feeling for years and writing about for months is finally becomming obvious – that Hicks is to blame for the depressing state of the Rangers organization and MLB team.
Read Revo’s column: http://www.star-telegram.com/sports/story/125733.html – it’s the equivalent of a slam-dunk closing argument to the “trial” I’ve been authoring on this blog – if you factor in that almost every mistake Hicks made was motivated by a money’s more important than winning mindset.
Thoughts on some of Reeves’ points:
“Hope, that most precious of commodities, is what Hicks has stolen from these fans, and without it, the Rangers are fast becoming a joke and a national embarrassment.”
Is it poetic justice that Hicks loses the very thing he’s so often used to string us along into August or September with? Even last season, he used the horrible July trades to get us fans hopeful for another month and thus keep tickets selling and ratings higher than they would have been. Then when he was done stringing us along for the tail end of last year, he showed his true Robber spirit by not resigning Carlos Lee – making that trade an absolute waste – and instead pursuing (and failing to find) cheaper ways to anchor the lineup and the rotation.
As frequently as Hicks has fleeced fans with false hopes, wouldn’t it be something if the loss of hope throughout Rangers fandom sinks his business plans for the Rangers? May what comes around really does go around!
I must take issue with one aspect of Revo’s article – his defense of Jeff Cogen. Cogen has made significant contributions to the degredation of the Rangers. The Gold Club was his baby during his first stint here as the Rangers and Stars VP of Marketing, and he’s as much to blame for the over-kill advertising and over-commercialization of the Ballpark (and, I suspect, the departure of John Blake).
But the bottom line is that the bottom line drove Hicks to ruin our Rangers. And with Jerry Jones moving in next door, the positive outlook for the Ranger’s bottom line through development opportunities and increasing franchise value is what will have Hicks continuing to ruin the Rangers for years to come…
… unless we all stand up and demand better!
Rangers or Robbers? 