The hope of spring.


You’ve got to love spring training. Everybody feels the best they’ve ever felt. They are in the best shape ever. Their heads are in the best headspace ever. Their new swing has solved the hole in their swing and they will have the best year at the plate ever. Their new delivery solved all their control issues and this will be their best pitching ever. 

Taylor Hearn is no different. After two scoreless innings yesterday, he declared he was “a totally different person.”

Ronald Guzman has a new swing. Rougned Odor has a new commitment. Joey Gallo has a new bat.

Hearn is one guy who could use different. He’s had some bad luck to start out with in Rangers uniform. His first major league start in 2019 lasted one-third of an inning before coming out of the game with elbow issues, then fracturing his elbow later on and not appearing in another game that year. But that was not before he allowed four earned runs in the third of an inning. His ERA for 2019 was 108.00.

But last year he put up an ERA of 3.63 in fourteen games, all out of the pen. So, this year it’s not yet decided whether he will be a starter or a reliever. But one thing is for sure. He is a totally different person.

So, with all the hope of spring training, I am announcing that I, too, am in the best baseball commenting shape of my career. This offseason I worked on my Shakespearian phrasing.

I am a totally different person. This will be a totally different Rangers Rounding 3rd.

That is, of course, until the bell rings and everything goes back to how it was, like it always does.

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TODAY’S GAME: