Demise of Spring Blooms and a Baseball Season

It's never too early in the season for another entry in my longstanding website devoted to the futility and weirdness of the Texas Rangers baseball club. The newest item:

The 2008 season already was turning into a thudding clunker by the end of April, with the Rangers firmly cemented at the bottom of the standings. Seeming somewhat indignant at this development with which we fans are quite accustomed, some national sports writers made the following observations in their respective rags in the same week:

Sports Illustrated (Who's Not column): "A familiar scene in Texas: The Rangers (9-17 through Sunday) were dead last in the AL West. Who to blame? Hitters like Ben Broussard (.173 batting average)? Pitchers like Jason Jennings (above, 7.46 ERA)? Team president Nolan Ryan, explaining a 2-8 slide: '[We] had a total breakdown in all aspects of our game.'"


The Sporting News (Bob Hille's Starting 5): 'May. It's my favorite month, but it does make me sad that spring blossoms curl up and die so quickly .. kind of like optimism in the Texas Rangers' clubhouse."