This explains everything.


Billy Joels plays in Arlington: The Ballpark hasn’t seen this many hits in one night since 2011.

Billy Joel played in hip hop musical show, last night at the Ballpark in Arlington. The Texas Rangers didn’t.

Think about that for one second. 

It’s not November or December. It’s mid-October.

In January, the promoters of the Billy Joel concert put tickets on sale for his show in Arlington on Saturday, October 12.

Something occurred to me when I went to check my phone for the score of the Yankees-Astros games between songs.

This is playoff season. What if the Rangers had made it to the Championship Series? How would they have had a concert and a ballgame in the Ballpark on the same night? Were they seriously going to refund all those tickets?

Then it hit me. They knew they wouldn’t have to. They knew there was no way they would be playing baseball this late in the season. And just to make one hundred percent sure, they came up with a failsafe plan.

They signed Jeff Mathis. And Drew Smyly. And Shelby Miller. And Edinson Volquez. Then, just to make absolutely certain, they kept running out Rougned Odor every game. 

Bad baseball was were no-conflict insurance. The Rangers never intended on refunding all those tickets and reschedule a concert at the risk of losing tens of thousands of dollars. They had their secret weapon: Rougned Odor.

This explains everything.

*****
TODAY’S GAME:

James Paxton vs. Justin Verlander
Game time: 7:08 on FS1