I can't root for snakes

 

It's World Series time starting tonight, what's sure to be my least-watched World Series since probably the late '90s.

I'm not one of those "it's baseball, I'll watch no matter what" fans anymore, not at this time of the year. The game's changed too much for me to be in love with it that much. I will let "I was at work" be my excuse for not watching, but even on off days, like this weekend, I'll tune in for maybe a few innings.

I still need to have a rooting interest, that's always a given. This year, it's easy. I have no allegiance to the Rangers at all -- they have three ex-Dodgers on their team, that's the most appeal they have for me -- but at least they're not snakes.

I don't like the Diamondbacks, I never will, they've done so many things as an organization that makes me not take them seriously and even if they win the World Series, I still won't take them seriously. Put them in the NL West with my favorite team and they've got zero chance with me. I've said a few times, that if we were contracting teams and I got to make the decisions, the D-backs would be the first to go.

So, picking sides is easy. And, there is a little bit of fondness for the Rangers in my fan history. Sure it goes way, way back and there's been a whole lot of disinterest since, but I'll revisit the nostalgic kid days a little bit.

 

Of course, it has to do with the cards.

The Rangers cards from 1975 Topps -- which appeared on store shelves the first year I collected -- were instant favorites.

It didn't seem like it was a conscious decision, both me and my brother really liked them. All four of the above were favorites. No, I can't explain why the Foucault card was although I probably could give you kid reasons for all of the above four (and may have on my '75 Topps blog).

Some more and that's not even all of them (there was Tovar and Lovitto and Hargan). The Burroughs card was a flat-out favorite among the boys in our neighborhood. David Clyde was practically a legend for starting a major league game barely two weeks out of high school. That was in 1973, but we were still thrilled about it in 1975.

I am certain that in '75 there were more favorite Rangers cards than even Dodgers cards for me. The big three that year were the Dodgers, Rangers and Mets.

The following year there weren't quite as many Rangers cards I liked -- my allegiance for the Dodgers was growing. But the two above were two I liked a lot. The red-and-blue at the bottom was just like the Dodgers cards. It didn't even bother me that Toby Harrah's name was in black, unlike the rest of the other Rangers cards.

But this was easily my favorite Rangers card that year, one of the best I saw that year. I recall being fascinated with Hargrove and also remember the disappointment when his other cards from around that time couldn't match this fantastic one.

 

Moving on to 1977, the Rangers still had some hold on me, thanks to this great card, which is still one of my all-time favorite All-Star cards. Toby Harrah looked like a Texas Ranger and some sort of outlaw at the same time. Just a great card. The Rangers could still do it (Both Harrah and Hargrove had birthdays yesterday and both were teammates on the Rangers and Indians).

The Rangers really didn't mean much to me by the late 1970s but they were still churning out individual favorites like these. Man, I liked Bump Wills a lot and especially this rookie cup card. He'd go on to card fame the very next year with the Rangers-Blue Jays variation, but I knew his cards were special the year prior.

That was basically it for the Rangers for a long time. They were not even a passing interest through the 1980s for me. When Nolan Ryan arrived with the team in the late 1980s, he was a sensation and a lot of collectors from that time bring up his Rangers days, but Ryan for me is mostly an Angel and an Astro.

During the 1990s, the Rangers were mashers, probably aided by some enhancers. They added a couple guys I didn't like, like Will Clark, but mostly I only thought about them when their games were 14-11 and lasting three-plus hours and I couldn't wait for them to end so I could get the write-up in the newspaper.

The Rangers finally reached the World Series in 2010 and 2011. I jinxed them by rooting for them each time. Like this year, I didn't much care about the team, I just didn't want the other team to win (St. Louis one year and San Francisco the other year). Also there were a couple of friendly bloggers -- both long-gone now -- who were Rangers fans.

 

And how couldn't you root for Beltre and Darvish? (Though now that I think of it, I don't think Darvish was on those WS teams).

So that's where we are now -- me jinxing the Rangers. Congrats, Diamondbacks on your weird World Series win! Icccccccck.

But that's me thinking negatively! It's anybody's game right now!

For those of you who watch purely for the baseball, my hat's off. Maybe if it was the Brewers against the Orioles, I could, too. But postseasons aren't built that way no more.