New Dawg Blog

Sir Drink A Lot, Sidney Ponson, pitches for the Yankees tonight against the Texas Rangers.

Ponson was told to leave town after being a first class jerk according to Rangers GM Jon Daniels.  Now he takes the ball tonight against the Rangers at Yankee Stadium.

This is from the the New York Daily News:

Less than a month after being cut by Texas, Sidney Ponson will have a chance to get a little payback Wednesday, when he takes the mound against the Rangers.

Although Ponson didn’t speak to New York media Tuesday - claiming that he doesn’t talk the day before he pitches - he did offer these comments to the Dallas Morning News:

“Look, they are just another team,” Ponson said. “I’ve got to try to get them out, and they are going to try to beat my brains in. I have no problem. If there is any problem, it’s for (Rangers GM) Jon Daniels or (Rangers manager) Ron Washington to answer. I’m not going to sit here and talk about what happened in Texas. That’s the past.”

I hope the Rangers light him up tonight.

For the second time this year a Texas Rangers minor league pitcher has thrown a no hitter.

Dustin Nippert threw a seven-inning no-hitter for Triple-A Oklahoma today. Nippert walked two and struck out five. He is now 6-2 on the season with a 3.98 ERA.

Maybe they really do have some arms down on the farm.  I hope they don’t trade them away.

Just read it and weep.  And curse then assistant GM Grady Fuson who loved Drew Meyer and drafted him.

THE NEWBERG REPORT  

You can’t win ’em all on Draft Day – nobody does – but yeah, June 4, 2002 wasn’t a real good day in Rangersland. 

(Or in Exposland, where Montreal hung out at the correct high school field but chose the wrong guy . . . or in the war rooms of nearly half the teams who had the chance to name their player before the Mets came up):

1. Pittsburgh , Bryan Bullington, rhp, Ball State

2. Tampa Bay , B.J. Upton, ss, Greenbrier Christian Academy , Chesapeake , Va.

3. Cincinnati , Chris Gruler, rhp, Liberty HS, Brentwood , Calif.

4. Baltimore , Adam Loewen, lhp, Fraser Valley Christian, Surrey , B.C.

5. Montreal , Clint Everts, rhp, Cypress Falls HS, Houston.

6. Kansas City , Zack Greinke, rhp, Apopka ( Fla. ) HS.

7. Milwaukee , Prince Fielder, 1b, Eau Gallie HS, Melbourne , Fla.

8. Detroit , Scott Moore, ss, Cypress ( Calif. ) HS.

9. Colorado , Jeff Francis, lhp, U. of British Columbia .

10. Texas , Drew Meyer, ss, South Carolina .

11. Florida , Jeremy Hermida, of, Wheeler HS, Marietta , Ga.

12. Anaheim , Joe Saunders, lhp, Virginia Tech.

13. San Diego , Khalil Greene, ss, Clemson.

14. Toronto , Russ Adams, ss, North Carolina .

15. N.Y. Mets, Scott Kazmir, lhp, Cypress Falls HS, Houston .

16. Oakland (from Boston for Johnny Damon), Nick Swisher, 1b-of, Ohio State .

17. Philadelphia , Cole Hamels, lhp, Rancho Bernardo HS, San Diego .

18. Chicago White Sox, Roger Ring, lhp, San Diego State .

19. Los Angeles , James Loney, 1b, Lawrence Elkins HS, Missouri City , Texas .

20. Minnesota , Denard Span, of, Catholic HS, Tampa , Fla.

21. Chicago Cubs, Bobby Brownlie, rhp, Rutgers .

22. Cleveland, Jeremy Guthrie, rhp, Stanford.

23. Atlanta , Jeff Francoeur, of, Parkview HS, Lilburn , Ga.

24. Oakland (from N.Y. Yankees; Jason Giambi), Joseph Blanton, rhp, Kentucky .

25. San Francisco , Matt Cain, rhp, Houston HS, Germantown , Tenn.

26. Oakland , John McCurdy, ss, Maryland .

27. Arizona , Sergio Santos, ss, Mater Dei HS, Hacienda Heights , Calif.

28. Seattle , John Mayberry, Jr., 1b, Rockhurst HS, Kansas City , Mo.

29. Houston , Derick Grigsby, rhp, Northeast Texas CC.

30. Oakland (from St. Louis ; Jason Isringhausen), Ben Fritz, rhp, Fresno State .

www.newdawg.com

Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton has a lot of fans back in Tampa.  Despite letting the organization down with his admitted use of crack cocaine, he was never looked at as a bad guy.

Tonigtht he returns to Tropican Field in St. Pete, Florida.   Hamilton was drafted #1 overall by the Rays in 1999.  Former teammate Carl Crawford is happy to see him tearing it up in a Rangers uniform.

The Tampa Tribune picks it up from here:

ST. PETERSBURG - Tampa Bay LF Carl Crawford and Texas Rangers OF Josh Hamilton are forever linked in Rays history as the franchise’s top two picks in the 1999 draft.

Hamilton, the No. 1 overall pick, is set to play today against the Rays for the first time since he was selected by the Cubs and traded to the Reds in the 2006 Rule 5 draft. It will be Hamilton’s first game as a major-leaguer at Tropicana Field.

Crawford, the Rays’ second-round pick in ‘99, is glad to see Hamilton, 27, excel after an offseason trade sent him to Texas. Having apparently overcome the drug and alcohol problems that cost him most of the 2002-06 seasons, Hamilton leads the majors in RBIs with 53 and is among the AL leaders in batting average at .333 and home runs with 12.

“It’s refreshing to see,” Crawford said. “Everybody’s happy for him. Wish he was over here.”

Crawford and Hamilton were minor-league teammates from 1999-01 at rookie ball Princeton, Single-A Charleston and Double-A Orlando. Injuries and the aforementioned substance-abuse problems derailed Hamilton, even as Crawford became a major-league All-Star and the face of the Rays franchise.

Still, Crawford said he’s not entirely surprised Hamilton has begun to fulfill the massive potential he showed in the late ’90s and early 2000s.

“I didn’t never really count him out, because I knew the talent that he had,” Crawford said. “I figured if he could ever get clean, if there was a person that could do it, he definitely was the one that you think could get it done, that could do it. You just always said that if he could get clean, who knows what could happen?”

Richie Whitt of the Dallas Observer has a new sports blog called Sportatorium.   He comes out swinging.

Whitt says the Rangers have a plan in place to ax skipper Ron Washington and replace him:

“The Dallas Observer– via this here The Sportatorium sports blog – has learned from separate sources that the Rangers have held preliminary – if not more serious – talks with Don Baylor, Mike Hargrove, Jim Tracy and Jackie Moore about being Washington’s successor. At least one version of the inevitable overhaul, temporarily put on pause by the team’s recent uptick, includes the firing of all assistant coaches other than hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo and third base coach Matt Walbeck.”

Man, the New York Daily News is on Roger Clemens.  They have tracked down ol boys affairs, and more than the one with country singer Mindy McCready.

This story is…..wow.  “He had chicks stashed in every city - like every athlete, you play golf, you go get drunk and [have sex],” says one source close to Clemens. “In some ways, it’s a lonely life.”

I’d hate to be him right now.  Trying explaining this stuff to your kids and wife Debbie.

Former and I do mean former, because no team in their right mind would hire Roger Clemens to pitch for them now, expect the Texas Rangers.

Clemens apparently hasn’t been the most faithful husband or teammates through the years according to the New York Daily News.  The Rocket is saying he’s sorry:

On the eighth day, Roger Clemens apologized.

Following a week in which the Daily News reported his affairs with several women, Clemens released a statement Sunday night apologizing for “mistakes in his personal life,” while again denying he ever used performance-enhancing drugs.

“I know that many people want to know what I have to say about the recent articles in the media. Even though these articles contain many false accusations and mistakes, I need to say that I have made mistakes in my personal life for which I am sorry,” Clemens said in a statement handed to the Houston Chronicle, a favorite outlet for Clemens and his lawyer Rusty Hardin.

“I have apologized to my family and apologize to my fans,” Clemens said. “Like everyone, I have flaws. I have sometimes made choices which have not been right.”

Click here for the rest.

I wonder if all those Republicans on Capitol Hill are still behind Clemens.  He’s making those who did look real dumb.

Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover gal, Marissa Miller, threw out the 1st pitch at a Cubs game recently. She makes pinstripes look very good.

Since the Rangers are living in last place again, it’s time to give hard working folks a reason to come out to the Ballpark.  

Dollar hot dog days are nice, but I’d say having Ms. Miller throw out the first pitch would be a very nice gesture to the long suffering Ranger fans.