​A Friend of Unfair Park who knows of my affection for local relics, myself included, sends word: The Texas Rangers are selling off the outfield bleachers pulled out of the Ballpark in Arlington to make way for those $11.5-million renovations set to debut in a matter of weeks. And, turns out, those bleachers actually date back to Arlington Stadium. Karen Morris, executive director of the Texas Rangers Foundation, tells Unfair Park "you can even see the paint from the old ballpark underneath" some of the sections.

Morris says there are about 150 finished-out sections of bleachers being made available; they've been "cut down and finished with caps put on the end, then mounted so they can be placed in a room -- because they'd look nice in a man cave." Those sections are going for $540 each, with all proceeds going to the foundation. And, Morris says, there are longer, unfinished sections going for less: A 10-foot piece of bleacher sells for $300, while a 24-foot-long section is available for $500. Morris says you can call the Rangers' offices at 817-273-5030 if you're interested.

Morris tells Unfair Park the team had originally considered melting down the whole lot, but after seeing how well the Dallas Cowboys did when selling off every last scrap of Texas Stadium before its implosion, they figured they'd give this a go. And so far, she says, "we've sold some," but there are plenty of pieces left. But time is of the essence: The bleachers are being stored in a ballpark tunnel entrance: "We have by the end of the month to get the bleachers out of storage," she says. "And when the players get back, they need a place to park." The sale ends Friday.

Via.

​As I've noted a few times, Mike Shropshire's Seasons in Hell, about the "worst team in baseball history" (the '73-'75 Texas Rangers), is my favorite sports book; probably has something to do with being raised on the '73-'75 Texas Rangers. Anyway.

On a very related note, a Friend of Unfair Park sends word: On Thursday Stage West in Fort Worth will debut Dallas playwright Larry Herold's latest, The Sports Page, set during Dallas Cowboys training camp in 1966. As Herold writes, he's been workshopping the piece for two years, and it's about "a young man desperate to be a big-time sportswriter [as he] heads for a showdown with a couple of crusty scribes, an attractive female TV reporter and a player who refuses to speak to the press."

To market the piece, says our Friend, Stage West has cut a series of chitchats with Shropshire as he recounts, among other things, boozin' it up on the sports beat during The Good Ol' Days and how the modern-day scribe's too buttoned-up and not havin' any damned fun. The whole collection follows, including the fifth and latest clip, which contains a very casually dropped bombshell about the first woman ever let into the Rangers' locker room in '75. Shropshire goes on to talk about the subsequent rise of the "talking doll" (as he refers to female sports journalists) and reveals how little has changed amongst some of the old guard.More >>

Photo by Greg Howard

Josh Hamilton at his press conference today: "Once I do drink, I can be very deceptive, very sneaky in a lot of ways."

​An hour and a half after Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton met the media to address the fact that, yes, he did have a few drinks earlier this week, team general manager Jon Daniels hopped on the phone with local media. Hamilton took no questions; Daniels had no choice. And almost immediately, a reporter asked the inevitable: Will revelations that Hamilton has once more succumbed to his addiction affect his future as a Texas Ranger?

"I just want to be clear on something: This is not a baseball story," Daniels said, his voice clear and firm. "This is something that is real, that Josh deals with -- an addiction." The GM said that for now, at least, the team is separating Hamilton's relapse from any talks of a contract extension.

"You can't completely do that, I understand," he allowed. "But we have more important things to deal with."

It's Hamilton's second public relapse in three years, the last occurring in January 2009 in Arizona. Daniels acknowledged the parallels of the two relapses, as January is generally the most unstructured part of the year for baseball players.

Still, Daniels was both fiercely loyal and coy through the conference. Although he admitted speaking to Hamilton on Tuesday about his star's Monday relapse, he didn't divulge whether the Rangers would take disciplinary action, saying it largely depended on Hamilton's trip to New York to be evaluated by the MLB's substance abuse program.

Earlier, at a packed-house press conference at the Ballpark, Hamilton called his relapse "a moment of weakness" that happened because of a "personal reason with a family member." He would expound on the drinking, but not what led to it. And he took no questions.

More >>

Photo by Sam Merten

​Several Friends of Unfair Park have asked: Why nothing about Josh Hamilton's alleged "relapse"? Well, because for now, we don't know much, just that the recovering (and re-recovering) addict may have had something alcoholic (not sure what or how much) at Sherlock's (no shit) on Monday and that Ian Kinsler may have tried to stop him from having more of whatever that something was.

But now, there is something to report: Hamilton himself will weigh in with his account of what happened this afternoon at 1 at the Ballpark in Arlington. In the words of Texas Rangers spokesman John Blake: "There will be no further comment at this time."

Dallas Mavericks

Shawn Marion's defensive versatility, combined with ball-hawking guards, means a surprisingly tough Mavs' defense.

​The Mavericks -- like virtually every other team during this bizarre, lockout-shortened NBA season -- are nearly impossible to pin down. A combination of odd scheduling, injury adjustments and minimal practice time seemingly puts a different Maverick team on the floor every night out; in one game they'll settle in comfortably against a capable defense, and in another they'll struggle to create any kind of sustainable offensive rhythm whatsoever.

Every NBA regular season has its natural ebbs and flows, but this one seems to lack a trustworthy anchor for evaluating team performance. Dallas, in particular, has been all over the place, leading Mavs owner Mark Cuban -- who has long looked to the quantitative world for a leg up on the competition -- to express a rare distrust in this season's statistical data.

"It's a complete aberration," Cuban told Brian Gutierrez of Mavs.com. "It's dirty data." Cuban went on to say that advanced stats this season are "pretty much worthless for everybody," and he specifically warned against using this year's data as a means to evaluate those in the upcoming free agent class.

To an extent, Cuban's right; this season's numbers should be laced with asterisks before they're used as a predictive tool. But this season's stats do at least show what teams are capable of at both ends of their performance spectrum, even if the swings between high and low are more extreme and more frequent than they might otherwise be. Advanced stats may not tell you who will win tonight's game, but they can still give us a decent read on the holistic performance of a team to date, and what we can generally expect from that team's play going forward -- so long as the proper context is applied.

With that, here's a look at three worthwhile statistical angles on the Mavs' performance this season, with a side of explanation and logical hedging:

More >>

Sometimes all you can do is take the win and move on.

The Mavs were at home Monday night against the Suns, winning 93-87 in an ugly game in front of a seemingly disinterested crowd. It was the Mavs' second straight game without Dirk Nowitzki, who is sitting out at least four games (and maybe more) to rehabilitate a sore right knee and to improve his conditioning. Without Nowitzki, the Mavs are 2-0.

But let's not imply that the Mavs are a better team -- or even a particularly good team -- without Nowitzki. It just that the Suns, like the Hornets on Saturday, and like their upcoming opponent the Minnesota Timberwolves, are worse. The four-game stretch happens to be a pretty navigable one for Dallas, even without Nowikzki and Vince Carter, who is out indefinitely with a sprained ankle.

The awfulness of those opponents is no coincidence, of course.

More >>

Photos by Greg Howard

​Late into the evening yesterday, the sun was sinking over Arlington, but it was still warm out -- 77 degrees, far more spring than winter, perfect first-pitch weather. And the Ballpark in Arlington was open too, of course, to introduce the score of the off-season: Yu Darvish, the 6-foot-5 would-be ace just in from Japan, now a Ranger for six years at a lump sum of more than $110 million. A legion of news vans lined the curb, the locals and out-of-towners, some who'd come a little further than most.

​There were scores of Japanese-speaking journalists here. They awaited Darvish's debut by smoking outside, snapping pictures of the Nolan Ryan-Johnny Oates Rangers Hall of Fame case on cell phones we've never seen before.

There weren't any fans or Rangers employees around, so reporters from local outlets began interviewing their Japanese counterparts; they returned the favor. Even after I explained to a reporter from TV Asahi America's New York bureau that I'm new to town and not the paper's go-to Rangers guy, that didn't matter: They kept me on camera for two minutes while they asked about Darvish's impact on the Rangers roster as well as the overall MLB playoff landscape. Writers were passing out business cards like speed daters. Off-camera, a FOX Sports anchorwoman asked a Japanese journalist how realistic it was to expect sake at the ballpark now.

More >>

​With a 4 p.m. deadline on the horizon, T.R. Sullivan wasn't hopeful at daybreak: "The word Wednesday morning was that the Rangers' optimism has waned a bit." Sources have been saying in recent days that Japanese pitching sensation and magazine cover boy Yu Darvish wanted a five-year deal, the Texas Rangers six, lest he become a free agent a season too soon. But then, throughout the day, came rumors and reports like this one from FOX Sports: The Rangers, who paid $51.7 million just for the right to negotiate with the Ham Fighter, and Darvish are this close to signing the paperwork.

A little after 1, ESPN's Jim Bowden tweeted: "Arn Tellem & the Rangers have done a terrific job in the negotiations on a deal for Yu Darvish who is expected to agree by the deadline." About an hour later, CBS Sports's Jon Heyman reported: Deal's done, six years, book it. Everyone ran with it. And then Sullivan, at 2:15 p.m., became more hopeful in his official MLB posting on the team's website: "Sources were growing more optimistic as the day progresses that a multi-year contract -- a deal for five years plus a player option -- will be completed before the deadline." Still, to that point it was anyone's guess.

Not anymore. Moments ago, the Rangers sent word: It's a done deal. He's a Texas Ranger till 2017 -- six years, $60 million.

Update at 4:18 p.m.: A second and significantly press release has just been dispatched, which says: "Financial terms were not disclosed, per club policy." It's below.More >>

HKS still has this as "on the boards." And it appears that's where the once-upon-a-time Liverpool FC stadium will stay.

​Seems like forever ago we were getting our first look at the then-£300-million Stanley Park stadium Tom Hicks was promising to build for his, um, beloved Liverpool FC; ah, the good ol' days -- January 2008, before the cracks gave way to the complete cave-in. Back then, though, Hicks gave the gig to McKinney Ave.-based HKS, designers of JerryWorld, the American Airlines Center, Lone Star Park and Pizza Hut Park. The Reds' stadium was to be its own brand of special -- 60,000 seats beneath an opening in the roof, how Texas Stadium.

And while the new ownership, Fenway Sports Group, also hasn't delivered on a new stadium -- John Henry's said to evaluating a £150-million sponsorship deal, not to mention trying to decide where to build -- one thing's for sure as of today: "The futuristic HKS stadium plans, with an estimated cost of £400 million ... have now been consigned to the waste bin." Shocking.

But that reminds me: Whatever happened to Hicks's long-promised lawsuit over that "epic swindle"? Last I heard Hicks and his legal team were going to England to consider the next move, but that was a while back. I've made some calls. I'll update if there's anything to report.

Yu Darvish better be as good as he thinks he is, or else Texas is gonna have a tough time battling the Yankees and Angels this year.

​As Wednesday's 4 p.m. deadline nears in the negotiations between the Texas Rangers and Yu Darvish, the most significant hang-up is reportedly the 25-year-old's request for a five-year contract and the team's preference for a six-year deal, according to Yahoo! Sports' Jeff Passan. Understandably, Darvish aims to become a free agent as soon as possible so he can field offers from the 29 other clubs (and get away from the heat), while Texas wants to maximize its return on the $51.7 million posting fee that's due if a contract is signed.

The Rangers appear to have the upper hand since Darvish can either take their best offer or return to Japan for less dough, but there's tremendous pressure on the organization to ink the highly touted right-hander, so it's in both parties' best interests to meet somewhere in the middle (perhaps a club option for the sixth year). Sources told Passan that the relationship between the club and Darvish is "strong and respectful," and Passan says the probability of Darvish returning to Japan is "minimal."

Even though agreeing to terms with Darvish greatly improves the Rangers' chances of a rare third-straight World Series appearance this season, their path is also far more difficult given the offseason acquisitions of Albert Pujols, C.J. Wilson and Chris Iannetta by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and Friday's big news that the New York Yankees added two significant rotation pieces by trading for Michael Pineda and signing their own former Japanese hurler: free agent Hiroki Kuroda, who turns 37 in February and had a 3.07 ERA and 161 strikeouts last year with the Dodgers. New York is also talking to free agents Carlos Pena and Johnny Damon to fill its opening at designated hitter.

The Angels now feature one of baseball's deepest and best starting rotations with Jered Weaver, Dan Haren, Ervin Santana and Wilson. And Pujols and Iannetta, along with the return of Kendrys Morales from a broken leg, give a major boost to a lineup that scored fewer runs last year than Kansas City, Baltimore and Cleveland. The Angels also signed second baseman Howie Kendrick to a four-year, $33.5 million extension.

And while there are legitimate questions about whether Pineda and Kuroda can successfully move from pitcher-friendly ballparks in Seattle and Los Angeles into hitter-friendly Yankee Stadium, not to mention the increased media attention that comes with it, New York is unquestionably a better team than it was in 2011 as well.

More >>