The Rangers arrive in Minnesota with a lot more at stake than the Twins do. Texas is tied with Houston for the final AL playoff spot, though the Astros hold the tiebreaker, which means no Game 163 this time around.
Jacob deGrom gets the ball for Texas, and even in what’s described as a down season at age 38, he’s still carrying a 3.86 ERA, a 3.11 FIP, and 11.12 strikeouts per nine innings. The fastball still sits in the upper 90s and averages 97, and the slider remains a weapon.
Beyond the standings, the piece also runs through the latest round of public-money stadium pursuits around baseball. Compared with last year, the list is shorter, but that’s mostly because several teams already secured their funding. The teams still on the list include the Guardians, the White Sox, the “Vegas team,” the Royals, and the Cardinals, with the Royals expected to seek about two billion dollars.
One of the most eye-catching examples comes from the Rays, where a county commissioner said he drew inspiration from The Giving Tree when voting to hand over taxpayer money. He said, “I have a 12-year-old daughter, when she was very young, I used to read her this book called The Giving Tree.
If anyone has a child, you know what that book is about: You have a seed, and you let it grow, and it gives back over time, and it does all these things. And in a way, this park is like the Giving Tree.“
The article pushes back hard on that reading of the book, noting that the story is about a boy who takes from the tree over and over while giving nothing back, and that the tree remains “very happy” even as it is eventually cut down. The commissioner, the piece says, was not exactly proving himself a deep reader.
Texas, meanwhile, is not asking for a new stadium anytime soon after getting its second since 1994. But the club still has room to seek renovation money, and one of the recent examples of that impulse is the decorative statue the Rangers moved to Globe Life Field this March while the team was in Arizona for spring training.
The statue, called “One Riot, One Ranger,” was presented by the team as a generic tribute, but the reporting makes clear it was actually modeled after Jay Banks, who posed for it. The piece traces the statue’s history back to artist Waldine Tauch, who finished it in 1961 before it was donated to Dallas Love Field airport. It was removed in 2020 after a book brought renewed attention to some of the uglier parts of Rangers history.
The story also notes why Banks’ name carries baggage. A photo that made him famous appeared in Life magazine in 1956, and the image showed him standing near an effigy being hung while he was there to make sure the school would not be integrated. That detail, the article says, is not exactly the kind of thing the team would want highlighted in a press release about a statue.
As the piece puts it, if that was the photo attached to his name, the Rangers probably should have left it out.
In Other News...
Twins Just Turned Their Final Two Games Into A Bigger Debate
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Jeff Hoffmans trip to the injured list, this time because of right forearm inflammation, only adds to the uncertainty around the closing stretch. Even with the postseason picture and the final games still to sort through, the Twins are now weighing health, depth and the very real question of how much they want to see from Culpepper before the year is done. [Read more 🡒]
Former Twins Catcher Is Suddenly At Center Of A Tough Red Sox Decision
Mickey Gaspers rise has become one of the more interesting side stories for a former Twins catcher, but the Red Sox are now facing a difficult postseason call because of it. Gasper has been a meaningful part of Bostons season, batting .251 with 10 home runs in 67 games and carving out a real role after arriving as a depth option. For a player who once belonged to Minnesotas catcher mix, the leap into that kind of value has been a notable development.
Now, though, a right biceps injury suffered against the Cubs is expected to keep Gasper out of the American League Wild Card Series against the Yankees, leaving Boston to sort through a hole at exactly the wrong time. The Red Sox finish their regular season against Chicago at Tropicana Field, but the bigger focus is what comes next and whether they can account for losing one of their more productive surprise contributors when the games start to matter most. [Read more 🡒]
Twins Fans Got The Jacob deGrom Start They Never Expected
Jacob deGroms latest trip to the mound in Minneapolis turned into the kind of matchup Twins fans could hardly have imagined, even with one of baseballs biggest names on the other side. Texas came in expecting a normal night from its ace, but Minnesota jumped on him early and kept building from there, turning a marquee start into a lopsided 10-2 win.
The damage was mostly done by the second inning, when the Twins broke through for six runs, then added two more in the fourth to chase deGrom through four rough innings. Luke Keaschall kept the pressure on with four hits and three RBIs, while Joe Ryan gave Minnesota exactly the sort of steady outing that made the rest of the night feel even more surprising, working six innings and allowing two runs. [Read more 🡒]