Putting the ALCS to bed

I spent the weekend with a big goofy grin on my face. The Rangers winning the ALCS on Friday night had a lot to do with that.

I didn't spend much time on the computer this weekend, but I did read the blogs via my phone. It was nice to see so much positive Ranger talk. There were probably more Rangers posts by non-Rangers fan this weekend than in the cumulative history of the blogosphere. That's ok, it's good to have all the support.

I started looking back over the stats for the ALCS tonight. I was going to break it down by player, but the team stats are more revealing.

Rangers: 38 runs, 63 hits, 9 homers, 9 steals, .304 average.
Yankees: 19 runs, 38 hits, 6 homers, 2 steals, .201 average.

Something that doesn't show up in the stats is the Rangers taking extra bases and moving up on fly outs. The Rangers hustle all the time. It comes down what Ron Washington calls respecting the game. You play hard all the time. It pays off with an extra base here and a run there.

I like it.

The only pitching stat you need to see is the ERAs. Texas pitchers managed a 3.06 ERA overall, compared to the Yankees 6.58 ERA. That's a good thing.

For those of you who haven't had much of a chance to see Texas play this year, I hope you enjoy the World Series. You should see a team that has a good time and plays fairly loose. Of course, they've never been to the World Series, so we'll see.

Is it Wednesday yet?