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"Oh this is sure stirring up some ghosts for me..."

Jun/14/2008 12:09 PM Filed in: HSOs from a Bitter P1


I would submit to you that poor season tickets sales, a lack of wins, and a "history" of eight losing seasons, are all symptoms of a long-term, debilitating, disease that afflicts this team. Like Type 2 Diabetes, it doesn't kill you on day one. It doesn't even change your life that much. But year after year, the symptoms become more pronounced, certain conditions become irreversible, and eventually you lose the patient.

The Song Remains the Same
A few years back, I wrote a blog called "Why I Can't Afford to Love the Rangers." In fact, almost two years exactly. Nothing has fundamentally changed since then.

Well, that's not entirely true. The names have changed. The new, exciting players are now named "Bradley" and "Hamilton." But it's the same old story: Great hitting. No pitching.

Year after year after year...after year...after year...it's the SAME story.

Jeez, this is not rocket science. Attendance is down, season ticket sales are down, because the Rangers are genuinely losing fans. They are losing some of them forever. Heck, as I wrote two years ago, they've pretty much lost me.

When I wrote two years ago, Kevin Sherrington was the DMN staff writer, bemoaning the fact that Ranger fans were not falling in love with Michael Young.

The gist of his story then was: What does Young have to do for you to love him like you loved Pudge, Rusty, and Raffy?

The answer for me was: there nothing Young can do because it's not about him. It's about one, very simple problem, that the Rangers had then....that the Rangers had a decade before that...and that the Rangers have now:

PITCHING, PITCHING, PITCHING!!!!

Sorry for shouting.

It's just that we've been here before. The incredible bats. The amazing offense. Come-from-behind heroics. Young, exciting offensive and defensive players that, cruelly, offer hope to the weary fan.

We were here two years ago. We were here four years ago. We were here a DECADE ago.

It's the same damn story. Year after year after year.

So, nothing has changed and I still can't afford to love the Rangers. They've broken my heart for 30 years. They know what they have to do to make it better and they still haven't done it.

So, I'm no longer going to show up at the park. I broke my string of attending "Opening Day" games back in 2007. I have not been to a single game since I wrote that blog in July of 2006.

I know that many other fans will slam this decision as impatient or fair-weather.

But look...this SAME ISSUE has been THE issue for a DECADE (probably longer...). It's THE issue.

So, it seems to me that my reaction is not impatient. In fact, I would argue that to continue to go to support this team --knowing that the same issue is still THE issue-- makes me a masochist.

Insanity, as Einstein once said, is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. The Rangers organization appears to be insane, and I will no longer help them if they will not help themselves. Haven't we learned, from Hamilton's story this year, that an addict must sometimes hit rock bottom before they get help? People who go to these games are simply enabling Tom Hicks.

The second claim --that it's being "fairweather" to stay away from games-- is also bogus.

Look, ultimately the only power a fan has is the power of the pocketbook. Sure, we can boo lustily at a game or two. But so what? The only thing that really gets an organization's attention is the almighty dollar.

So, Rangers Fans: Join me.
Stay home. Stay home until management finally gets the depth of this crisis. Stay home until management realize that this is why season ticket sales are off. Stay home because hitting management in the pocketbook is the only real leverage you have.

In spite of how very cool the Josh Hamilton story is, the whole organization is based on a kind of insanity that has not changed in decades.

And until it does, I still can't afford to love the Rangers.







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