Our friends on the West Coast are barely waking up….and the Texas Rangers are already getting their ass kicked by the Cleveland Indians. The Dallas Morning News’ Evan Grant reports on happy-go-lucky Buck Showalter’s clubhouse :
The cavalcade of meetings between Rangers players and representatives of management plowed into its second straight day Wednesday.
Hours before the Rangers ended their eight-game losing streak with a 3-0 win over Cleveland, director of player personnel Dom Chiti, in Cleveland to evaluate the team, convened a meeting of five players to discuss the club’s state of mind.
The five-man group representing a cross-section of the team “ Michael Young, Mark Teixeira, David Dellucci, Francisco Cordero and Mark DeRosa “ met for about 30 minutes with Chiti to air gripes.
The meeting came a day after manager Buck Showalter convened his own clubhouse get-together following the team’s eighth straight loss. Showalter used the 10-minute post-game session on Tuesday to challenge his team. The meetings also followed a report in Wednesday’s Dallas Morning News in which Young, Teixeira, Dellucci and Hank Blalock questioned management’s commitment to winning.
The day began with owner Tom Hicks saying he’d not get dragged into any players-management debates.
Hicks acknowledged the players’ frustration but said his feelings were no different than his players about losing.
“They are on a long road trip, and the losing is frustrating,” Hicks said in between rounds of Major League Baseball ownership meetings. “I’m sure they are frustrated. Let’s just keep playing baseball.”
Hicks refused, however, to respond to the comments that appeared in Wednesday’s Dallas Morning News. The players questioned whether management had the ability to return the club to contention for 2006.
Hicks said he would see the team play Tuesday in Arlington when it returns from the 13-game road trip but didn’t indicate if he planned to meet with any players.