By Joey McGraw
The Texas Rangers are experiencing something they haven’t felt let alone seen in quite some time. Below .500 in the middle of May. A serious lack of power and run production. A pitching rotation that is filled in with minor league call ups and relief pitchers. There is seriously bad mojo going on and Jon Daniels is looking for reasons. We think that the split up with the great Nolan Ryan is to be blamed. Here’s our proof that there really is a “Nolan Ryan” curse with this Top 10 list:
10. You lose someone who has PLAYED and knows baseball pretty well. 5,714 career strikeouts, 7 career no-hitters, and 324 wins.
9. Their second best pitcher somehow was tripped by his dog named Wrigley and is out for half of the season.
8. The chances of seeing President George W. Bush are slim to none since his bud is no longer with the team.
7. The pitching injuries are the cause of not going through an offseason of the “Nolan Ryan Express Camp.”
6. The Rangers fans get a reminder of the good times when they see the statue of Nolan Ryan, kind of like a grown man seeing his trophies of when he was a kid.
5. Nolan Ryan can no longer call the pitches and relay them to Mike Maddux and then to the catcher.
4. The players are eating too many Nolan Ryan hotdogs in between innings causing fatigue and a slow bat.
3. The Rangers and Ranger fans can no longer get pumped up after watching Nolan Ryan pummel Robin Ventura on the jumbotron.
2. The pride of having Nolan Ryan as the President of the ball club is gone.
1. The Rangers don’t have that “Dad” like figure giving them the stink eye after a bad play.