theCarr Hall of Fame - Texas Rangers baseball

This year - 12-18 (.400) Worst in the AL. This is after a three game winning streak

Overall - 3,503-3,994 (.467)

Bad enough to always stink, but never good enough to do anything else.

Facts:

The Rangers (when combined with the Senators (1961-1971) are the oldest franchise that has yet to appear in a World Series; in fact, they have yet to win any playoff series (0-3).

They are the oldest franchise in the 4 major pro sports to never win a championship.

In their history, the team has only one playoff victory (1-9, .100); Nine straight playoff losses; they have never won a home playoff game. By comparison, the Yankees are 202-137 (.596) in the playoffs with 26 world championships, 44-21 in playoff series.

The Rangers have had 16 winning seasons in 36 years finishing in last place 14 times and next to last eight more times.

Ranger "great" Rafael Palmeiro played 2,831 games in his career never going to a World Series (MLB record).

Ranger great Bubby Bell played 2,405 games while never reaching the postseason.

0 Cy Young awards

2007 ERA leader: Kevin Millwood (5.16). He was the only starter to qualify because he was the only pitcher to pitch more than 162 innings that year (172 2/3 IP)

Baseball reference has a list of the most popular teams of all time (according to site views). The 2001 Rangers are 132 out of 200 on the list. That's it. That team was loaded with talent. IRod, ARod, Palmeiro, Michael Young, Ruben Sierra. But there pitching was Rick Helling, Doug Davis and Darren Oliver (Team ERA - 5.71). They finished last.

Boy do you guys suck.

theCarr Hall of Fame

Inductee #2 - Eddie Van Halen

When David Lee Roth left Van Halen in 1985, it was assumed that it was because of Roth's flamboyant behavior and stage persona, as well as wanting to pursue a solo career. Well since then, the changes in the band include:

Lead Singer
1985-1996: Sammy Hagar
1996: Mitch Malloy
1996: David Lee Roth
1996-1999: Gary Cherone
1999-2003: Nothing
2003-2005: Sammy Hagar
2006-present: David Lee Roth

Bass
1985-2005: Michael Anthony
2006-present: Wolfgang Van Halen

So there were seven lineup changes since DLR left originally, including six lead singers. Methinks the problem isn't with the lead singer, but someone else in the band. That leaves two original members. Alex Van Halen has never played a gig without his brother, so it's probably not him. That leaves our poster child for dysfunction, Eddie Van Halen, as the cancer in the band.

I watched him in an interview with Howard Stern and I think the guy is just straight up nuts. Throw in 35 years of drinking and drugs, a hip replacement and mouth cancer and the train wreck ensues.

So congrats, EVH, you're straight up batty, berserk, bonkers, cracked, crazed, cuckoo, daft, delirious, demented, deranged, dingy, dippy, erratic, flaky, flipped, flipped out, freaked out, fruity, haywire, idiotic, insane, kooky, lunatic, mad, maniacal, mental, moonstruck, nuts, nutty, potty, psycho, screw loose, screwball, screwy, silly, touched, unbalanced, unglued, unhinged, unzipped, wacky, whacko (thanks Thesaurus.com)

theCarr Hall of Fame

For a blog with 44 posts, this may be quite a leap, but what the hell. I'll post a HoF nominee every so often.

tCHoF Nominee #1 - Emmitt Smith (the Wordsmith)

Walterfootball.com did the dirty work for me, but Emmitt Smith is a first ballot HOF. Congratulations, Emmitt, you've successfully removed all of my images of you as a football player and replaced them with this. Can you even remember when Emmitt played football?

Like Ruth or Chamberlain, Emmitt the Wordsmith achieved legendary status in my mind. It could be:

Grammatical - "He turn around and go deep on Dre' Bly"

Factual - Attempting to quote Jimmy V's "Don't give up. Don't ever give up." "Don't quit. Don't ever quit."

Biting analysis - "The leadership definitely have to come from the leaders."

!$)%# - "Eli Manning has been given the rice of passage."

HOF worthy -

"Don't worry about the game you just won or the team that we just blew out... uhhh... blown... blown out... Let's think about what we need to do going forward, and they had... blown out. "

"You cannot change the stripes of a leopard."

"...Go to Arizona, sharp as a whistle, and do some finishing touches, so we can go down in the Super Bowl and play our best football of the whole entire season."

"The strength of the Patriots, their offense, got... DEBACLED."

Congratulations Emmitt, you set the bar high