Year 7 (2014)
OffseasonAfter making a near clean sweep of last season's awards, I went back and forth on whether to declare for free agency or to sign another one year deal with the Rangers. My current agent, Darryl King, was pushing me to go free agent in order to get the most money. I had him negotiate with the Rangers initially, but got very frustrated when Darryl came back with a one year $14.5 million offer. With the year I had and being eligible for free agency, I really expected the Rangers to bring more to the table than a 38% raise over last year. Maybe this organization is getting a little too arrogant about taking care of its players since we've won the World Series 5 years running. I guarantee they'll never win another WS in my career if I go somewhere else.
I sent Darryl back to negotiate some more, and the Rangers came back with $16.6 and then $17.1. Darryl really wanted me to declare for free agency, so I asked him to scope out some informal offers from other teams to see what we were looking at. He told me that the White Sox were offering 5 years x $18 million, the Phillies were suggesting 5 x $17.5 million, and the Mets were tossing around numbers like 6 x $16.7 million. The Rangers said if I went free agency they'd only offer the original $14.5 million, but for 5 years. I was so mad at the situation that I fired Darryl and went back to Matthew, who pushed the Rangers for a couple of weeks and got me a one year deal at $19.5 million. I had gone into negotiations originally expecting $20+, but in the interest in getting a deal done I went ahead and signed. Emma wasn't pushing me in one direction or another, but I knew her preference was to stay with Texas. We had just had our first child this last year, and had bought a new $10 million house that we moved into over the summer. She wouldn't object if we needed to move on, she understands the realities of my career. But all things being equal she'd rather stay put, and that's fine with me. I'm not going to get caught by surprise in contract negotiations next year though.
Once the contract was done, the offseason was fairly routine. I actually didn't spend as much time practicing alone as usual, instead choosing to spend more time with the family and focusing on improving my mental/concentration skills by playing a lot of chess, and puzzle and RPG video games. I'm hoping that I'll be able to sharpen that edge to my game, and not struggle as much with low motivation and not being able to hit consistently when I'm going through those times. Emma has me listening to more music as well, with the baby around it seems like there is always some weird "ocean sounds" or "forest sounds" or similar CDs playing. I guess it is supposed to be soothing, and I do think I'm more relaxed than I have been. I listened to a new rock CD the other day and got a headache from it, which is kind of freaking me out. I'm too young to get old man music disease.
Spring TrainingKnowing how our stupid manager is, I've gotten pretty good at just tuning out his commentary either way, and not letting it get to me. It took me a few games to get it going in spring training, probably because I was a little more rusty than usual from not practicing as much in the offseason. So the manager was griping at me a lot. After the 3rd game he was going off on me, and I finally asked how many f'in MVP awards in a row did I need to win before I earned the benefit of the doubt on my preparation. He got so furious he couldn't hardly respond, which was hilarious because the guys within hearing distance were dying trying not to crack up in front of the manager. Afterwards Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Adrian Gonzalez were ragging on me for big timing the manager, getting away with saying things that would get a regular guy sent down to AAA or cut outright.
We had the last exhibition game a few days later, and I went 4-5 with a pair of doubles. It was great after the game, as the manager walked through the clubhouse I could tell he was intentionally avoiding me, so I shouted out "hey, should I say 'I told you so' now, or wait until later?" He glared at me and just said he was relieved that I finally showed up. I think he must have taken note of who was laughing the other day, because when we broke camp Saltalamacchia got shipped down to AAA even though he was the everyday catcher the last couple of years, and the rookie Oliveros we're keeping on the MLB roster is less skilled. I told Jarrod that I'd see him in a couple of weeks once he had served his sentence -lol-
My scouting report this year looks like this:
AprilI hit the ground running, and won the Player of the Week award each of the first 3 weeks, and the Player of the Month award. My power game has picked up where it left off end of last year, and I'm just ripping the cover off the ball. I got my 1500th career hit on the 14th.
It's become commonplace and I'm trying not to take it for granted, but the team has continued being the class of the majors. We're off to a 23-3 start to the season as April draws to a close. With the unbalanced schedule we've taken advantage of playing our division rivals heavily at the start of each season, and have already put 2nd place Oakland at comfortable distance in the rearview mirror. I slept on the flight to Detroit last night and haven't looked at the current standings, but we were up 8 games the other day.
MayI promised myself in the offseason not to get caught offguard in contract negotiations this year, so I've already started working the agent channels and privately scoping out other teams. If the Rangers GM low balls me again I'm just going to walk. I'm spending a lot of my free time talking to people, inviting agents and players over for video games or chess, or for a golf outing or going out for meals. I'm playing great, so I'm not real worried about practicing on my own as much as I have in the past.
Ever since I changed the trajectory of my swing last August to get more lift, balls that were previously line drives in the gaps have been carrying out of the park. I hit my 150th career homer last night, which I think is pretty good since I didn't even hit my first career homer until halfway through my second season in the bigs. My doubles and triples are a bit down this year as a result, but no one is complaining about the tradeoff -lol-
I won the Player of the Month award for the second month in a row, and the team went 25-2 for the month. I thought we'd miss Eric Bedard more when he left for free agency, but Jake Peavy and Felix Hernandez have done a great job anchoring the pitching staff.
JuneI'm still raking like crazy, and if anything I've gotten even hotter. I'm on pace to have about 50 homers at the All-Star break if I keep it up. No one has ever had a season like that before! I'm hitting .450 and also on pace to obliterate my own single season hits record. The downside is that I'm hearing the speculation about what illegal performance enhancing drugs I'm on. I guess that's life here in the post-steroids era, that any great accomplishment has to be looked upon with suspicion.
I don't get fans. I'm having a season for the ages, and when the first All-Star voting standing came out I was third behind David Wright and Miguel Cabrera, again. I checked the stats and Wright is having a good season - second to *me* in every major hitting category, plus I'm leading the league in stolen bases and he's not in the top 20! Cabrera is getting votes just on name recognition and the fact the game is being played in Detroit. The guy has no mobility and would be a DH if management had to guts to sit his fat ... uhh ... contract down. I guess being the best player on the best team, a freakin' dynasty no less, doesn't amount to much anymore.
For good measure I won the Player of the Month award for the third consecutive month. Me - 3, Rest of the AL - 0. Frustrated? Check.
JulyI overtook Cabrera when the second All-Star voting update came out, but I was about 50K votes behind Wright. Today the third update came out, and I'm 100K back! Okay, so Wright has taken over the league lead in RBIs, but I'm still ahead of him in everything else!
Sometimes I think I play my best when I've got a chip on my shoulder. After the last AS voting update, I hit 3 homers that night and went on to hit 7 for the week and pickup another Player of the Week award. But damned if Wright didn't extend his lead on me to 110K votes. I griped at the team PR guy today for the first time in awhile, the team needs to make more of an effort to get me some publicity. I've supposedly got a lot of fans, where is the team's effort to promote me and get some ballot box stuffing going on like everywhere else in the league?
The final results came out and Wright easily won the starter vote. He ended up around 6.3 million votes, 150K ahead of me and a million ahead of Cabrera. The coaches selected me as an alternate, but I'm not going. Screw that, I'm going to take the time off and just hang out at home. No sense in wasting my time hanging out in Detroit for a few days just to get a token pinch hitting appearance. My manager told me before this afternoon's game that the league office requested my participation in the home run derby. I told him to tell them they should get David Wright instead, that's who the "fans" wanted anyway. The manager said to take a couple of days to decide and to let him know. Whatever.
So ... I'm going to Detroit for the All-Star game. I was ranting about the situation to the agent Jacob while he was over at the house playing video games with me, and after he left Emma let me have it. She told me I was being a self-centered jackass, vainly concerned more about popularity and personal accomplishments than the success of the team. And that even though I was having an incredible season, I thought entirely too much of myself and I was highly annoying to be around. She said if I talked about myself half as much in the clubhouse as I did at home it would explain why we hadn't been invited out to dinner or anywhere else by my teammates or their wives/girlfriends in a couple of months. Ouch... there's nothing quite like a firey redhead, and when Emma gets going she is every bit the part. Though truthfully it's pretty rare that I see that side of her. After she got done whisper yelling at me (to keep from waking up Flash), she spun around and stormed out of the room without giving me a chance to respond. Knowing when to cut my losses, I didn't bother getting up from the couch and following her. I sat there stewing while my mind raced.
what happened to a wife supporting her husband??? I cut off the game I was playing on the Xbox720, and threw in the DVD the video staff put together for me of tomorrow's starting pitcher. As is my nightly habit, I started studying the pitcher's delivery and looking for pitch selection and location tendencies, but I couldn't concentrate. So I flipped the plasma over to the 1am SportsCenter and knocked back a couple Shiner Bocks while watching the highlights. The Rangers highlights were all Mark Hendrickson, he pitched a 3 hit shutout on a day when the offense barely scratched out a pair of runs (one unearned). We've got a good team, more than just me. While half-watching TV I went from being angry at Emma to accepting that she was right, I've been a jerk all season and was too self-absorbed to realize it. For that matter I've been insufferable going back to the contract negotiations last winter. I heard Flash stirring around 3:30am so I grabbed him before he woke Emma up and got him settled back down. I slipped quietly into our bedroom, where just enough moonlight was coming through the blinds to outline Emma's shape sleeping on the bed. I paused to just watch her for a minute, and reflected on where I was in my career and my life. In my obsession with votes and popularity I had lost track of what was really important. I woke Emma up and told her that she was right, and apologized for how I'd been acting. She began crying in that weird way girls sometimes do when they're really happy. We stayed up a couple of hours before falling off to sleep. Fortunately the nanny takes care of Flash until mid-morning.
I did end up participating in the home run derby, getting to the 2nd round before getting knocked out by the last hitter - David Freakin' Wright. How comical is that? Evan Longoria ended up winning it though.
In the All-Star game I got my token pinch hitting appearance, hitting a soft flare over short off Brandon League for a single leading off the 8th with the AL down 2-1. I got gunned down trying steal 2nd after Mauer had popped out, and we went quietly in the 9th against the ancient Jason Isringhausen. Looks like the NL will be hosting the Rangers for game 1 of the World Series this year -lol-
I finished up July with my streak of Player of the Month awards intact, I've still got a monopoly on the award for this season.
AugustAs usually happens this time of year, the Texas heat in the dog days of August really beats down my motivation. Hitting is not coming easy, and I'm having to just focus on making good contact at the sacrifice of power. I've been able to keep my average up around .425, and it seems like a foregone conclusion that I'll be the first major leaguer to hit over .400 since Ted Williams 70something years ago. Quite a season since barring a major injury Barry Bonds' record of 73 home runs in a season will fall to me as well.
Because of my unprecedented offensive season and the media fervor around it, the commissioner's office approached the player's union about me voluntarily submitting to additional drug testing. The union chief was adamant that I didn't agree to it because it wasn't collectively bargained and because of the precedent it would set, but given the circumstances I felt it was in my best interests to just lay the rumors to rest. I've got nothing to hide anyway, I'm not on anything other than Protein Max when I'm training, Powerin Max to keep up my energy level, and the occasional multivitamin. So I agreed to participate in the WADA continual testing program, which includes just about daily blood tests. As expected, the results are coming back clean. And as expected, some people still want to think I'm cheating and am just on something currently undetectable. Whatchagonnado?
Even with my power outage for most of August, I passed 200 hits on the year early in the month and 250 hits in the last week as we wrapped up the division. Matt Cain threw a shutout in the clincher. We actually had our worst month of the season as a team, we "only" went 20-7. I picked up Player of the Month again. One more time and it is a clean season sweep!
SeptemberThe September callups are here, and with them the team finally brought Salty back up from the minors. I can't believe they made him toil in AAA all season. Oliveros has done a decent job as our catcher, but he's not the same player at the plate that Saltalamacchia is. In any case, Salty has been playing just about everyday, and other AAA guys are getting looks at different positions. One of my new friends this year, Ronny Cedeno, isn't real happy about being bumped off of 2B and having his playing time diminish, and I can't blame him for that. Even if it is September and we've already wrapped up the division, we still need to be sharp for the playoffs. Instead we're playing inconsistently and guys don't know from one game to the next whether they'll be playing or not. Strangely enough I've been an exception this year, I've stayed in the lineup at 3B every game. The last few years I've spent a lot of September DH'ing.
My magical season has continued, and I hit homerun #74 on the 10th to set the all-time record. That was also the 300th homer of my career. A couple of days earlier I got hit #274 to break my own single season record. I won't catch David Freakin' Wright in the RBI race, but I'm also leading the league in stolen bases. On the 17th I stole my 50th base of the season, becoming the first ever 50-50 player in major league history.
I don't know if it has made much of a difference, but for years I've been endorsing Mizzoto equipment and using it exclusively. Earlier in the year I got turned on to a high-end master craftsman who was said to make the "ultimate" bats, gloves, and spikes, tailored to the specific player. It set me back $7 million, but after meeting with the guy I went ahead and ordered a complete set. It feels like my abilities have been advancing faster with the new bats and glove (I can't run faster than I already do), but I could be imagining things. The only thing I haven't liked about the new equipment actually is the color. Years ago when I started going steady with Emma I switched from black bats to red, one of those goofy little romantic things you do when you're in love that makes people around you want to puke -lol- Well, that happened around the time my power game started to take off, so I've just stuck with the red bats through the years. I have also always used a blue fielder's glove, going back to high school when my dad gave me his Rawlings Mike Schmidt model glove after I made the varsity team as a freshman. Anyway, the master craftsman of this "ultimate" line is an older guy and is a very old school traditionalist. Every bat he makes is natural wood color, and every glove is natural brown leather. I know it was just mental, but I had a mini-slump both at the plate and in the field after switching to the ultimate equipment. After a handful of games with them though I was back on track, better than ever.
The team closed out the season with a sick 144-18 record, shattering the previous mark for wins in a season. Hernandez, Peavy, Willis, and Cain all had over 20 wins, the first time 4 or more pitchers on a team have done that since the Orioles staff of the 1970s. I ended the season riding a 41 game hitting streak, and finished up with a .437 average, 81 homers, 158 RBI, 317 hits, and xx stolen bases. I led the league in average, hits, homers, and stolen bases, setting major league records for homers and hits. I also completed my season sweep of the Player of the Month award! We're looking at a first round playoff matchup with Boston.
OctoberI think a lot of guys on the team started to let all of the accolades we've received go to their heads, especially the ones who haven't been with us for previous playoff runs. While we were feeling great about ourselves, Boston came in and kicked our tails in game 1, 8-1. We couldn't get anything going at the plate against Ian Snell, and Felix Hernandez really struggled with his command. It didn't help that on defense we seemed a step slow. We only made two errors that showed up in the box score, but we had some mental mistakes and mishandled a couple of would be DPs that extended innings. I went 1-4 at the plate, leading off the game with a single and then doing nothing after that.
Game 2 started off shaky, as we got down 3-0 after Iwamura lifted one over the left field wall in the top of the 4th. As we came off the field at the end of the inning I noticed the crowd noise was different, the buzz was one of nervousness and anxiousness. That mood seemed to be going through the dugout as well, the guys looked tight and there was a palpable tension. I was leading off the inning since we'd been no-hit to that point, so I stood at the top of the dugout steps and looked back at the dugout and said loud enough for everyone to hear "alright, alright! I'll go up there and hit one 500 ft. for you guys, then ya'll can lighten up and we'll get this show back on the road!" I took a first pitch changeup from Lester, then he hung a curve on 1-0 and I hit it a mile .... straight up. I'm not sure that the catcher Halter had to move other than standing up. When I got back to the dugout and sat down on the bench you could practically hear the crickets chirping it was so quiet. "I just said I was going to hit it 500', I didn't say in which direction!" I quipped, and the guys all started cracking up. If the TV cameras were on the dugout at that point they must have thought we were crazy. My "prediction" had the desired effect anyway. Cedeno drew a walk, Gonzalez singled him over to third, and then with two outs Young doubled them both home to get us back to 3-2. We exploded for 5 more in the 5th and 4 in the 7th, and survived Clay Meredith's 9th inning meltdown to hold on for a 11-8 victory.
We headed out to Boston after game 2, and continued our offensive roll. I lead off games 3 and 4 with homers, and we smacked around their starters to put them in a big hole each game. We took the series 3-1, and are heading back home to face the Yankees, who swept Cleveland in their first round series.
The Yanks don't match up very well with us, mainly because their starting pitching staff is mostly young soft tossers. Their offense is good, but we've got great starting pitching. Ubaldo Jimenez, our #5 starter, held them scoreless in game 1 over 6 innings, and the bullpen finished up in our 5-1 win. Hernandez was inconsistent for a second start in a row, but he battled and we won 7-4. Peavy gave up a pair of solo homers to A-Rod, but shutdown the rest of the lineup as we took game 3 6-2. Cain finished up the sweep with complete game shutout. So it's hang out and practice and rest time until the Milwaukee-New York series wraps up.
We got the Brewers for the third year in a row in the World Series. Brandon Webb shut us down as they took game 1 from us in our yard, but we bounced back in game 2 to even things up. We dropped game 3 at their place, mainly because we arrived but our gloves and bats apparently didn't get shipped from Texas. It was an ugly game where we didn't hit or field, losing 7-0. Hernandez had another rough outing, I think he's pretty much out of gas. In game 4 I went 5-6 with 4 RBI as we got the series back to 2-2, and then in game 5 Cain had another strong start. We needed it, the offense did just enough to win 2-1. In game 6 back home in Arlington, Willis kept us in the game, giving up 4 runs over 5 innings as the offenses went back and forth. Down 6-5 in the 7th, I came up with 2 outs and men on 2nd and 3rd. I was so shocked they didn't intentionally walk me that I took a fastball right down the middle for strike 1. I got down 1-2 in the count before lacing a single up the middle to plate the two runners and give us the lead. Milwaukee responded with a run in the top of the 9th to tie it up, then I tripled with one out in the bottom of the 9th and scored the winning run on a sac fly by Salty, who pinch hit for Cedeno. World Series champs again!
The post-season awards got announced the next day, and I took home the MVP for the 4th consecutive year, along with the Hank Aaron award and Hitter of the Year award.