Whether you’re at the end of your coffee, your day, your week or even your rope, welcome to Whitt’s End …
- As I watched Rangers’ catchers Jeff Mathis and Isiah Kiner-Falefa meander through another punchless week, it prompted me to ponder: Have they had a good catcher since Pudge Rodriguez? Answer: Nope. In 68 combined games, the undynamic duo of Mathis/Kiner-Falefa is hitting a whopping .189. It’s the continuation of a trend that started when Pudge left for Florida and a World Series in 2003. While he was here, Pudge won Rookie of the Year as a 19-year-old in 1991, an MVP in 1999 and 10 consecutive All-Star seasons punctuated by Gold Gloves. Since his departure, the Rangers have had one All-Star catcher, and Mike Napoli in 2012 deserves an asterisk (*) because he caught only 72 games. The best way to illustrate the Rangers’ post-Pudge catching futility? How about I just list the players – all 53 of ’em – to catch at least one inning in the last 17 seasons? Get comfy, this will take a minute …
Mark Parent. Ray Stephens. Russ McGinnis. Doug Davis. Junior Ortiz. John Marzano. Dave Valle. Kevin Brown. Henry Mercedes. Jim Leyritz. Chris Tremie. Gregg Zaun. B.J. Waszigis. Randy Knorr. Doug Mirabelli. Mark Jensen. Mike Hubbard. Hector Ortiz. Todd Greene. Einar Diaz. Gerald Laird. Ken Huckaby. Danny Ardoin. Rod Barajas. Sandy Alomar Jr. Jarrod Saltalamacchia. Taylor Teagarden. Guillermo Quiroz. Miguel Ojeda. Kevin Richardson. Tomas Telis. Chris Stewart. Adam Melhuse. Max Ramirez. Bengie Molina. Matt Treanor. Yorvit Torrealba. Brett Nicholas. Luis Martinez. A.J. Pierzynski. Geovany Soto. Robinson Chirinos. Isiah Kiner-Falefa. Chris Gimenez. Jose Trevino. Carlos Corporan. Bobby Wilson. Bryan Holoday. Jonathan Lucroy. A.J. Jimenez. Juan Centeno. Carlos Perez. Jeff Mathis.
- Watching the Warriors try to win a third consecutive title without Kevin Durant was fascinating. Watching them attempt to do it also without Klay Thompson is just futile. Add starting center Kevon Looney to the injured list, and suddenly Golden State is playing the Raptors without two of its best three players and three of its five starters. Two of three. Think about it. Would the Showtime Lakers have been as dominant without Kareem and Worthy? How about the old Celtics without Parish and McHale? The Spurs without Parker and Ginobli? You get the point. The Finals isn’t a fair fight.
- Those grumbling about the NFL schedule, be wary. Four preseason games may feel too long and 16 regular-season games too short, but in the early 1970s the Cowboys went 5-2 in the preseason. Yeah, seven exhibitions.
- The Rangers are retiring Adrian Beltre’s No. 29 Saturday. I wrote it before and I stand by it: Because of brevity of service and percentage of production, he’s barely a Top 10 Ranger. Let’s salute Beltre but don’t give him the full Dirk farewell. Deal?
- Visited my family roots in Johnson County recently and stopped behind a pickup at a red light. Its bumper sticker: “Badass Ladies Don’t Drive Mercedes!” Surely, she wasn’t hoping to pick a fight because I’m pretty confident the Mercedes femmes in University Park will turn up their noses and ignore rather than acknowledge what they consider her irrelevant existence.
- In the wake of yet another ridiculously bad ceremonial first pitch in baseball and a pretty decent one by Dirk Nowitzki at the Rangers game Wednesday night, isn’t it time basketball and football borrow that bit? Imagine a celeb shooting a free throw before the Mavs’ tipoff, or trying a 20-yard field goal before a Cowboys game. I’d be in my seat on time for those.
- Need a carrot of motivation to survive summer? Only 94 days until the Cowboys kick off the 2019 season against the Giants.
- More proof that baseball is the most inexact science of all the sports: The Rangers’ top two picks in this week’s draft were both third basemen. Both similar ages with similar skill sets and from Big 12 schools, the Rangers know all too well that Texas Tech’s Josh Jung and Baylor’s Davis Wendzel will develop very dissimilarly. One might make it. One might change positions. One might be traded. Draft two, increase your chances of being correct on one.
- I get up when my alarm goes off, then drive 60 mph in a 60. My wife hits snooze eight times, then drives 80 mph in a 60. Somehow, the consistent tortoise and the erratic hare peacefully coexist.
- If you’re a tennis geek like me, you’ve been searching — pining for — the next American star since, oh, 2000. Last American man to win a Grand Slam was Andy Roddick in 2003. Last American woman not named Williams to win a Slam was Sloane Stephens in 2017, but she’s 26 all the sudden and that win looks more and more like a one-hit wonder. Before her? Jennifer Capriati in 2002. We want a player – preferably younger than 20 – who we can identify now and celebrate multiple Slams with for a decade or so. No one fits that bill on the men’s side. But we have that star: 17-year-old Amanda Anisimova. Born in New Jersey and raised in Florida, she won the 2017 U.S. Open Juniors and is the youngest player ranked in the Top 100. She also – cue the trumpets – reached this week’s French Open semifinals. She hasn’t lost a set, and romped defending champion Simona Halep in the quarters. Anisimova has the game – and the looks – to be America’s next tennis darling. Better late than never.
- What does it say about the world’s Master Planner that He/She/It installed a Highway to Hell, but only a Stairway to Heaven?
- Next time you wanna call one of your family members “crazy,” consider the state of mind of Aretha Franklin. Turns out the “Queen of Soul,” who was worth an estimated $80 million at the time of her death last year, wrote her will … in spiral notebooks. While trying to divvy up her estate among four children, they literally found one of the “wills” stuffed between couch cushions.
- Basketball “scores” should be “baskets,” not “field goals.”
- Until we correct the absurdity of a pair of pants being one item of clothing and a pair of socks being two, I refuse to call English the world’s greatest language. Hieroglyphic cave etchings make more sense.
- This weekend? Welcome to summer, where we have nowhere to go and all day to get there. As always, don’t be a stranger.