Yellow Balloon

He's had a long career playing a frickin' game. 
Good for him.

This guy has been passed around the league like a joint at Woodstock. 

Found this gem on Youtube of the Angels 1962 season.  I didn't know they had a training facility in Anaheim while they played at Chavez Ravine.
 

Why did you post a picture of Michelle Obama?

It's all politics and political correctness. Incremental but never ending. 'fundamental change.' Most of the activists don't give a damn about sports, but are supported by the vast majority of mainstream media. Owners are too cowardly to stand up to the media.
Rarely do you see the supposed offended parties making a big issue over what were generally complimentary designations. And often if you do there is monetary or other benefits tied in.You don't name a team to denigrate the subject. A name is intended to represent something positive or inspiring. 
Tearing down staues, rewriting history, renaming long standing teams, institutions  and so on.  Partisan censorship everywhere. The brave new world.

They should change their name to the Redskins. 

It's not, in fact if you were to walk up to my grandparents and call them Native Americans they would give you crap and tell you to call them either Indians or members of the First Nations, and tell you how this whole thing was brought about by white social justice warriors.

The new GM didn't waste any time.  Looks like he's still carrying on Daniels' penchant for acquiring pitchers with alliterative names: Mike Minor, Lance Lynn, Brock Burke, Corey Kluber, Dane Dunning ..... 

I am happy with the turn this thread took. There's nothing I love more than reading about other people's fantasy teams on the internet. It's really what keeps me going.

Hearing this news makes me want to sing...
"Kim Ng and I are getting old
And we still haven't walked in the glow of each others majestic presence"

No, it was Billy Barty in the bathroom with his own salamistick.  (Yeah, sometimes I am that immature)

It is a fact that owners who are more meddlesome are usually less successful.
Jerry Jones is one of the most involved owners in all of North American sports and the 'Pokes haven't won shit in forever. Not since the dynasty built by Jimmy Johnson and Minnesota Vikings' ineptitude that was so strong, any yahoo (yeah, I'm looking at you Barry Switzer) could win with it, petered out.
James Dolan of the Cablevision family empire is the principal owner of both the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers. He fancies himself a basketball aficionado and for him, hockey is an afterthought. He's constantly involved in the affairs of the Knicks but he lets the professionals run the the Rags. It's no mistake that the NHL club is a model franchise with loads of success in the decade and a half Dolan's been in charge and the Knicks are an embarrassment over the same period.
Other meddlesome owners are the bosses at some of my other favorite teams. Robert Sarver fancies himself a genius who must have input on all the basketball decisions his Phoenix Suns make and that franchise has been rudderless since he's owned them. American businessman Malcolm Glazer doesn't know shit about proper football (soccer) but he insists he rules the roost at Manchester United and that his buddy, Ed Woodward, another American that doesn't know jack all, run the operations of the club. Finally. no-one's more interfering and overbearing than Daniel Snyder who may in fact be the worst person in professional sports ownership today.
In short, my point is that Arte is indeed "free to have input whenever he wants in any decision he wants." He's also free to realize he doesn't know thing one about running a professional baseball club and should be smart enough to refrain from being intrusive. After all, I doubt he'd want Jerry Dipoto, Billy Eppler, Tony Regins, etc. telling him how to make and sell concrete. ☝️

Minasian was a Rangers batboy.  His dad was the clubhouse attendant there for years.  He once yelled at me for blocking a doorway, the prick.    

This would make a World Series victory for the Rays over the Dodgers even sweeter. 

Since i was around 10, yes.  Always #1.  Ive liked others mostly local teams such as the Lakers and Rams back before the StL trip.. and dabbled in a few others such as the Galaxy in soccer and whatnot.
At this point i would say they still are, as i no longer watch the NFL or NBA.  I was already down on both for becoming the ESPN show over playing the games... but the recent social agenda garbage killed any remaining desire i had to watch them.  This baseball season is so odd im struggling to take it seriously so even that interest has lessened. 
At this point i watch more soccer than anything, and mostly Euro to avoid the social justice agenda.  The MLS has been an active supporter of antifa for some time now so i i couldnt watch Seattle or Portland due to the giant antifa banners. 
Sport to me is supposed to unify, not divide.. and right now it doesnt do that so i am having trouble supporting it. 

My grandparents lived in Tioga, TX where Gene Autry was born and raised before moving across the river into Oklahoma.  The Rangers hadn't moved to DFW from DC yet so my grandfather followed the Angels because of the Autry connection ... and Nolan Ryan.  So it just kind of rubbed off on me, I guess.  
As a kid I met lots of old timers who knew Gene (or claimed to know him) and few of them had anything good to say about him, or at least about his family. Apparently the town doctor, who was probably the most respected and well-loved guy in town, and was still alive at the time, was never paid for delivering Gene, and that was a really big deal to those people.    
In the mid-70's they tried to get Gene to return for some kind of centennial celebration and he said he'd be honored to -- as long as they changed the name of the town to Autry Springs. They told him to fuck off. 
 
    

I just talked to Jujo Tanasaki and he told me everything Claude just said was "Burrshit".

I pictured him letting out a deep breath as he sent in the pick.....   Hopefully the dude is signable, seems to be well thought of.

Funny story... Tommy Lasorda yelled at me once because of this.  It was early 2003, I was working at Buca Di Beppo in Universal City Walk as a food server and a party of 15 dodger executive came in and management trolled me (as a young man I was a passionate dodger hater) by giving the big party to me. 
Being a professional and HAVING NO CHOICE I took the table in the Pope Room and greeted everyone as they walked in, showing no emotions and just going through motions... and then I see Bill Bavasi (who was working for the dogs at that time) walking up and my  enthusiasm went to another level. 
NO JOKE my exact quote "Dude Bill Bavasi!!"  as I walked up to him and shook his hand and pull him in for a bro hug.  Poor guy thought the other people in the party put me up to this (he actually asked them) and then I started talking about how my enthusiasm and appreciation was real for all that he's done for the Angels. 
I went on a rant TO THE WHOLE ROOM about how most of the players on our World Series winning team were picked by him and how he deserves a lot of the credit for everything.  It was a real awesome moment for me.  So get everything set up during the meal, go extra all out for Bill Bavasi and then get the wrath of Tommy Lasorda at the end. 
Tommy basically said something along the lines of a what makes a great comedian a great comedian is knowing the crowd they're dealing with and that I should've known better being in Los Angeles and not showing the dodgers respect and something about me not being raised right. 
The whole time I'm smiling and laughing cause it was funny the reaction I was getting and Tommy walks out of the Pope Room to our manager standing outside telling the manager to find a better server with better taste in baseball. 
Bill Bavasi and few other guys who walked out last went up to the manager and told him that Tommy was joking and that I was a good server... Bill Bavasi hung out for a few minutes more afterwards and gave me an extra $20 for the service and thanked me for my appreciation.  Bill Bavasi is a cool dude.

I hope we get really good players and send them really crappy ones

Apparently, they're auditioning for a musical.

Thats pretty cool if youre a nats fan and spent money on a harper jersey.

How would you define competitive then? We'll be a 80-85 win team this year. There's almost no chance we'll win the division, but to say we won't be competitive is flat out naive. Solid rotation, half decent bullpen and some bright spots in the lineup. We won't be a great team by any means, but we'll scratch and claw.

It’s much more an indication that the relationship between the pitcher and catcher is more important than fans realize. 

Mike Minor remembers.
After Rangers first baseman Ronald Guzman let a ninth-inning foul ball drop to the ground as Minor was in pursuit of a 200-inning, 200-strikeout season in his final start of the year, then-Red Sox manager Alex Cora questioned the integrity of the play.
"I’m just happy our guys are playing the game the right way,” Cora said after the Rangers’ 7-5 win on Sept. 26.
The Boston Globe’s Pete Abraham would later tweet: “Mike Minor’s 200th strikeout should have a big asterisk. That was bush. Chasing a milestone that way is unprofessional.”
Fast forward to Tuesday -- and one viral ‘Ask me if I care, Pete?’ tweet later -- and Cora is no longer the manager of the Red Sox.
Why? Because the Red Sox parted ways with Cora on Tuesday, a day after MLB commissioner Rob Manfred implicated him in the sport’s sign-stealing scandal.
In light of the news, Minor fired off the 16th tweet of his Twitter career, his first since the response that went viral in September.
“But but he plays the game the right way ... whatcha got Pete?" Minor wrote.