A Tale of Two Cities (but one Metroplex)

Monday, April 6, was Opening Day for most major league baseball teams. Most baseball fans, and I'm one of them, think it should be a national holiday, and many treat it that way. It's a day for a new beginning and a new hope for every baseball team. A clean slate from whatever happened last year. In the Texas Rangers case, though, their spring training started with an injury to their ace, Yu Darvish. The collective "here we go again" groans from Rangers fans could be heard around the Rangers Republic recalling the epic injury-plagued season of 2014. Couple that injury with the one hit, 8-0 loss the Rangers put forth in Oakland on Opening Day, it could seem that we are in for another long season as Rangers fans.

Now let's juxtapose the boys from Arlington with the hockey team in Dallas. The Stars have been mired in several seasons of just trying to sneak into the playoffs. All but last season they have come up short. Last night, when the Stars took the ice in San Jose, they needed to win their three remaining games, and they needed the teams ahead of them in the standings to lose all of their remaining games. To make things even grimmer, one of the teams that the Stars needed to lose, Winnipeg, was already winning 2-0 in the third period by the time the puck dropped in the Shark Tank. Knowing that their playoff chances were almost nil, the Stars came out and dominated the Sharks in the first period, going up 2-0. However, by the middle of that same first period Winnipeg had won their game in Minnesota, officially eliminating the Stars from the playoffs. No doubt the Stars learned of their elimination during the first intermission, and it would be understandable if they came out flat for the second and third periods. But that's not what happened. In a game that didn't matter to either team, the Stars came out and continued to lay the hammer down on the Sharks, winning the game 5-1. Even when the chance to make the playoffs was off the table, they still went out and played some of the best hockey of the season. Too little too late, sure, but the team and the players didn't want to give up just because things didn't work out. They took to the ice with their pride to play for and got the job done.

In Arlington, the Rangers need to do the same thing. Monday was just one game of 162 games. One of which they met a buzz saw in Sonny Gray, who pitched amazingly. Yu Darvish is just one guy out of 25. Yes, I know he's a major loss to the rotation that could have eaten up a ton of innings leaving the bullpen fresh for the other games he doesn't pitch. But in the words of Derek Holland, what about the other 24 guys on the team? Just because one guy gets injured, should the others just pack it in and say that's it for the season, before a game is even played? Hearing Derek Holland speak, he doesn't think so. Jeff Banister and his #nevereverquit moniker, doesn't think so either.

The Rangers need to take a page out of the Stars playbook from Monday night, when even though they had seemingly nothing to play for and were officially out of it, the Stars came out and played some of the best hockey they've played all season. Sure the Rangers lost 8-0 and only had one hit, "one gd hit."
 
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It looked bad by most standards, and you can start to hear the groans begin to swell again. The last team that got one hit on Opening Day, you ask? Well, for that you'll have to go back to 1991 and look at the Pittsburgh Pirates. They lost their first game 7-0 and went on to win 98 games winning the National League East. And would you venture a guess who was on that team that season? The new Rangers manager, Jeff Banister. (Yes, I know he only played one game that season, but he was still in the organization.).