[外電] Rangers to be featured on TWIB
Rangers to be featured on TWIB
Show will highlight Kinsler, Ryan, Rodriguez
By Alden Gonzalez / MLB.com
09/24/09 11:42 AM ET
Barring a late miracle, this season won't bring a postseason berth for the
Rangers. But 2009 did bring about change -- the good kind.
Long known as a franchise with a vaunted offense but little else, Texas added
a bit of pitching and defense this year to stay competitive in the American
League Wild Card race for most of the season and guarantee a winning record
for the first time since '04.
On Saturday, "This Week In Baseball" will take a closer look.
The longest-running sports anthology show in television history, which airs
at 2:30 p.m. CT on FOX, will take viewers on a tour of the pregame activities
at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington with young star Ian Kinsler, analyze how
Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan has turned back the clock on his pitching staff and
delve into Ivan Rodriguez's celebrated return to Texas.
"They're definitely still a great story," said lead producer Matt Anderton,
whose crew shot most of the footage during the Rangers' series against the
Dodgers from June 12-14. "They're going to have a winning record for the
first time since '04, their pitching staff is really improved and their
offense is still there."
Kinsler, 27, went into Thursday second on the team in home runs (29) and RBIs
(80) while ranking third in hits (132). On Saturday he'll lead the TWIB
camera crews through the clubhouse, then onto the field for pregame batting
practice and throughout the game while being mic'd up.
"The team is getting better and younger, and we're with one of the young
stars on the team," Anderton said. "It's a great look at what happens on game
day and what the players are doing before the game.
"I think it's just more about the interaction with the other guys. That team
seems to have fun together."
Ryan was hardly on pitch counts or innings limits when he played. And though
baseball has become somewhat obsessed with monitoring a starting pitcher's
output throughout the course of the long season, the Rangers' president has
sought to change that by taking it back to his time, in a way.
Ryan, he of 324 wins and 5,714 strikeouts, has practically banished pitch
counts as a measure of how far his pitchers go into games and cites
conditioning as being most important.
Last year, Rangers starters ranked 13th in the AL, with a 5.51 ERA. But going
into Thursday, their rotation -- though not very big in name status -- was
eighth, with an ERA of 4.53.
TWIB will go more in depth on Ryan's theory, thanks to interviews with
manager Ron Washington, pitching coach Mike Maddux, right-hander Scott
Feldman and the man himself.
"He wants pitchers to not feel like they're going five or six and that's a
good night," Anderton said. "He wants them to go longer and go harder, more
along the lines of what he did."
Finally, TWIB will pay tribute to a man who not only handles pitchers but is
one of Texas' favorite sons.
While spending his first 12 Major League seasons in Arlington, Rodriguez not
only garnered the nickname "Pudge," he received 10 consecutive Gold Gloves
and six consecutive Silver Slugger Awards to boot.
After achieving World Series glory with the Marlins in '03, followed by stops
with the Tigers, Yankees and Astros, the 37-year-old Rodriguez returned to
the place he never stopped calling home.
"It has been great," Rodriguez said of his second stint with the Rangers,
which began on Aug. 18. "The organization is good, and the fans have treated
me well. This is my home. We have a chance to win and do good things here. I
want to stay here and finish my career here."
In addition to Rangers coverage, TWIB will feature 1989 Roberto Clemente
Award winner Gary Carter, the former catcher who has volunteered to be a
spokesperson for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
"We have great footage from 1989 of him visiting the hospitals and meeting
with the kids, lifting their spirits," Anderton said. "It's a nice feature.
It really shows players giving back to their community."
Alden Gonzalez is a reporter for MLB.com. T.R. Sullivan contributed to this
report. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball
or its clubs.
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