Every great sports movie has a speech. 

“Forget about the crowds, the size of the school, their fancy uniforms, and remember what got you here. If you put your effort and concentration into playing to your potential, to be the best that you can be, I don’t care what the scoreboard says at the end of the game. In my book, we’re gonna be winners.”

“Sometimes when the team is up against it and things are wrong and the breaks are beating the boys tell them to go in there with all they’ve got and win just one for the Gipper.”

“Great moments are born from great opportunity. And that’s what you have here tonight, boys. You were born for this. You were meant to be here tonight. This is your time. Now go out there and take it.”

After yesterday’s 5-3 loss to the Astros which resulted in a four-game sweep and in the team’s seventh loss in a row, Rangers manager Chris Woodward decided it was time for a speech.

MLB.com’s Alyson Footer said the Rangers clubhouse was closed for thirty minutes after yesterday’s loss. Woodward wanted to address his team.

His message was simple, it’s do or die time. “This is the moment when, from a cultural standpoint, teams go one way or the other,” Woodward said. He told them that teams either rise to the challenge or say the season is over and fold. “But I’d like us to come even more inward, to keep us strong.”

Will this speech have the same impact as Coach Dale’s in Hoosiers or Herb Brooks’s in Miracle. Who knows. But one thing is for certain. The timing was right.

If you are going to make a motivational speech, do it before you play Seattle. 

Here are the best movie speeches of all time.

*****

TODAY’S GAME:

Adrian Sampson (6-6, 4.92) vs. Marco Gonzalez (10-8, 4.48)

Game time: 9:10