What an incredible difference between current Rangers GM Jon Daniels and his predecessor in the position, John Hart.

Hart seemed almost afraid to pull deals after some of his earlier moves had proven incorrect. Daniels just keeps pulling the trigger. In fact, you almost begin to think that he lives with his finger on the trigger.

Friday’s whopper of a trade netted the Rangers a player coveted by several teams—Carlos Lee. Lots of teams wanted him, but the Rangers got him.

The price really doesn’t seem all that steep. Lee in about 2/3 of the season has already put up numbers that the Rangers were hoping to get from Kevin Mench in the entire season. The Rangers had apparently grown tired of the streakiness of Mench and his overall, average production for a corner outfielder. Nix simply had disappeared from Ranger thinking. Cordero’s the player Texas may find difficult to replace even though he’d been spotty in performances this season, he remained a relief pitcher with some value. And, in fact, was the key puzzle part he for Milwaukee.

Who will replace Cordero as the 8^th inning setup man remains Texas’ biggest question at this point.

The Rangers may have Lee for only 2 more months before he flies off to free agency. He wants 5 years and $65 million. One doubts the Rangers would get involved if that remains Lee’s bottomline request.

But the key to this deal, for me is without question the young outfielder Nelson Cruz. He’s absolutely Major League ready. Cruz was on a pace to put together a 30/30/30 season in Triple A…30 Homers 30 Doubles 30 steals. He’s an excellent outfielder capable of playing centerfield. Were he in the Texas system he would have absolutely been this club’s best offensive prospect at any position.

Long after Lee has taken the money and run, Mench has been moved on to someone else by the Brewers, Nix struggles to regain the form that once made him a top prospect and Cordero fights to regain a closer job somewhere, Nelson Cruz will be hitting for power in the middle of the Rangers lineup.

Lance Armstrong’s reputation just took another hit…

With the revelation that recent Tour de France winner Floyd Landis may be disqualified for improper testosterone levels merely increases the broad-brush thinking that the whole Tour must be on something.

There may be some plausible explanation for what happened in Floyd Landis’ body. There’s some wacko story out there about him drinking Jack Daniels the night before his heroic rally that pulled him back to the lead in The Tour.

We are now being given gobbledegook information about ratios between testosterone and epitestosterine levels in Landis’ body. We’re told his testosterone wasn’t all that high but his epitestostirone was low thus causing the red flag levels that resulted in a positive test.

Give me a friggin’ break!

With all that’s gone on, we may be asked to believe that some innocent, momentary, weirdo bodily reaction caused a positive test. Hey, this Tour has been full of drugs for years. There’s no way innocent, momentary, weirdo bodily functions that “just may have happened” should happen.

This Tour, with all of its problems should know all about what’s happening in the body and what can and cannot be put in there. Landis’ doctor says someone emailed him 5 articles about how alcohol may , in certain circumstances affect such levels.

That’s the leavings of a large farm animal. If they don’t know what does or doesn’t affect such critical levels by now, they should all quit or be fired! With all the drug problems this Tour has had, you know that they know what’s happening.

And that brings us back to Lance Armstrong. Never has he tested positive thus creating a disqualifiable offense. But with Landis situation in the court of public opinion it’s harder and harder to believe that anyone who has won the Tour de France in the last 20 years or more wasn’t cheating.

Even when they are winning, marketing the Texas Rangers is not an easy task. Even thought the D/FW Metroplex is among the top 5 markets in the country, there are precious few truly hardcore baseball fans. And lately the ball club hasn’t done anything to help the marketing department.

For the most part, I believe that Rangers attendance is a product of a couple factors…

1) Day of the Week—Regardless of the opponent, Saturday games at the Ballpark will be well attended

2) Weather—nice weather brings crowds…heat keeps them away.

The Rangers marketing department has spent the better part of the past 2 months trying to determine how to increase attendance. They’ve moved start times. They’ve attempted to make ballpark navigation more friendly by opening up roads that were previously closed. They’ve come up with some great promotions for kids and adults alike.

But, the one thing that the Ranger marketing department cannot do is put a winning product on the field. And, when you get right down to it, that’s the real problem…

This team needs to prove that it can win…This team needs to build a tradition of winning…This team needs to build some serious equity with the mainstream baseball fan in the Metroplex.

For the better part of 4 decades the Rangers on field product has been pitiful. It’s real easy for fans and media types in this market to laugh at the Royals, Cubs and Expos (Nationals) when they continue to put up losing seasons. But, Mr. Ranger Fan, you may want to look in your own backyard before you laugh too hard. The Rangers tradition of winning is right on par with that trifecta.

In a couple of weeks, the Rangers will have a 6 game homestand against division rivals Seattle and LAAofA. It is very likely that they will average less than 25K / per game in that homestand. And, I can promise you that Norm and other media types will tell us that people aren’t going to the ballpark because, “…it’s football season in Texas…”

I’ve heard it for years and years…The belief is that all eyes are on the Cowboys once football season starts. And, you know what? For the most part that’s true. The Cowboys have a tremendous following in this market.

But, I just can’t help but believe that if the Rangers could build a tradition of winning they could keep the attention of the Metroplex sports fan. But, up to this point they have a tradition of anything but winning.

The tempest in a teapot regarding the possible restructuring of Avery Johnson’s contract has the potential to make Mark Cuban look bad in the public eye.

The most hailed of all the Mavericks right now is their coach. His transformation from player to head coach has been remarkable. One can only wonder how much better he’s going to get when he has another 100-200 games on his resume. Even Avery admits that he’s regularly learning things on this job.

Add to his accomplishments the fact that his image in the public is fantastic. Is there a player or coach in Dallas/Ft. Worth that would have a higher respect level or positive perception were a public poll to be taken?

Cuban, meanwhile has become famous/notorious for throwing around money. Nothing’s too good for a team playing well. But should this question of a raise or redone contract continue to be an issue in the court of public opinion, Mark Cuban will unquestionably come out the loser.

Hooray for Donnie Nelson!

The Mavs GM pulled off a huge deal Sunday.

Point Guard Anthony Johnson fills an enormous hole on this roster. The departure of Marquis Daniels and the very limited abilities of veteran Darrell Armstrong had left the Mavericks virtually naked at backup point guard. A significant injury to either Harris or Terry could have gutted the coming season.

The Mavericks gave up almost nothing to get Johnson. Youngsters Marshall and Powell have chances to be decent backup players in this league. But the Mavs are going for it NOW.

This new AJ will fit Coach AJ’s system beautifully. He’s a rugged, defensively strong role player. But he’s also capable of playing large minutes when necessary.

Injuries wrecked Indiana last year but Johnson acquitted himself very well while starting. He averaged over 9 points…Over 4 assists…And over 44% shooting while averaging 26 minutes per game. In the playoff series against the Nets, he put up 20 points, 5 assists and 5 rebounds per game. He’s 31 years old with 2 years left on a very friendly contract.

THIS IS A STEAL!

Attention Ranger fans:

Your club is officially “hanging in there”

They went 6-5 on a devilish 11 day, 4 city road trip that included 7 games against teams at least 12 games over .500.

How did they do it?

I don’t have a clue.

But this club is starting to remind me of Rangers of 2 years ago. That team didn’t seem to be as good as Oakland or Anaheim. But they somehow just hung in there right up until the last weekend of the season.

Management did not go out and make a move to bolster that run and unless a deal truly makes sense they shouldn’t here. But apparent help is on the way.

As Terrell Owens arrives in Oxnard next week the question will be, what can he do for the Dallas Cowboys?

But an entirely separate question also exists:  What damage did T.O. do TO the Eagles?

How much damage did he do to the Philadelphia locker room?

How much damage did he do to Donovan McNabb?

For years and years, the Philadelphia Eagles dominated the NFC East.  Last year they went from the Super Bowl down to the cellar of the division.  Is T.O. to blame?  Or, was it McNabb’s injuries? 

T.O. has done significant damage to his last two teams…The stories are well chronicled.  The question now is: how do the Eagles control the latest damage.  And, if they have another disappointing season, who do they blame?

Will they have to reconstruct the team?   The questions on McNabb’s leadership ability are sure to start mounting if the Eagles have another poor season.