Big Gulps, Eh? Well, See Ya Later!

If you've seen the movie, Dumb & Dumber, you know what I'm talking about.

If not, it's kinda hard to describe.

Lloyd Christmas walks out of a 7-11, Big Gulp in hand. He sees a couple of guys and says, "Big Gulps, eh?" A few awkward moments ensue. He concludes the awkward, one-sided conversation with a, "Well, see ya later!"

I, and all die-hard Rangers, feel like the guys standing outside the 7-11. And our once-mighty Rangers play the part of Lloyd.

No one has said it. But I think we all expected to be back in the World Series. That was a given. What we did once we got there depended upon how good our talent really was, how much Wash could put last year behind the team, etc. But to not make it to the World Series? . . . heck, to not even make the real playoffs? We never even imagined that.

Of course the reality is we should not have had to imagine this. To lead a division for the whole year, to be up 5 with 9, 4 with 6. To have to be in this position is ridiculous. It's embarassing.

But the thing that we all no doubt expected it, each and every one of us, without even saying it: the baseball gods owed us one. After last year's "what was that thing Nellie did by doing a ballerina jump out in right field with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th in Game Six" and then the mess that happened during extra innings, we all expected to be paid back, to be given something in return for the pain that we dealt with all offseason, heck all year-long. There was the expectation, that, at the least, we'd return to the Fall Classic. Then it was up to our players to re-do it all, to set things right.

But to not even be in the LDS round? Fugg'it about it, eh?

Well forget about the Rangers. Because they're not even there.

Maybe we can learn from this one, too. Learn to not expect to be in the playoffs every year and appreciate success when it happens and not come to expect it. Learn to appreciate baseball for what it is (though I can't bring myself to watch it again until, at the least, the next round of playoffs).

Or perhaps there is no great lesson to be learned here. Perhaps this is just another part in the long, long history of failure, of the almost but not totally, of the ups and downs of what it means to be a Rangers fan.

How long until pitchers and catchers report?