The demonization of Mark Teixeira

This guy puts on a nightly gun show and he's the reason the Rangers stink -- sure

One thing I really hate about sports (and sports commentary, for that matter) is the blatant double standards that are upheld as gospel.

No matter what comes out of an athlete's mouth, many are not able to give them any real credit because athletes get paid too much money to be able to say anything. It's like they waive their right to speech (more or less "free") because they make millions of dollars playing games. So any complaint is ridiculed because any player with that much money must be perfectly happy and have no problems. All the while, we hate the fact that today's athlete merely plays for the money and not the love of the game.

We want athletes to play with a childlike naivete with the sole purpose of playing well and playing to win, for free or, at least, minimum wage despite sports being a multi-billion dollar industry.

This brings us to Texas Ranger first baseman Mark Teixeira. For the last three months, Teixeira has been ridiculed mightily for having a slow start to the season, which is compounded by the fact that A) the team is bad and B) Teixeira is a free agent after next season, his agent is Scott Boras and he's probably going to be traded by July 31.

Then he gets injured and last night in his only rehab game in Frisco, he spews out some opinions:

"Everybody wants to win. I don't know any competitor who doesn't want to win. It gets old. Our fans deserve better, and there are a lot of guys in the clubhouse who want better. We've put our heart and soul into this organization, and it's a tough pill to swallow to be at the bottom of the league every year."

What an asshole!

"We're a big-market team that's playing like a small-market team. Unless you hit with some young players and pitchers, it's tough to play that way. I know the business better than anybody. I go to the union meetings, and I keep up with what's going on in the off-season. I know this is a business. But when the Yankees go out and get all-stars every year and the Red Sox go out and get all-stars every year, it shows you they want to compete and win."

Jerk!

So let me get this straight: Teixeira would like for management to not be in the bottom of the payroll list, to build up a viable farm system with a flow of prospects making it to the Major Leagues and he wants to -- gulp! -- win games? Get this guy out of here now. With that attitude it might seem like we have a real baseball team in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. I much prefer the apathetic, closed-mouth players that we've run through this franchise over the years that are seemingly happy to be in third place in the AL West year after year.

The audacity! For him to question the great owner Tom Hicks who is approving a payroll of $68 million and won't spend more to have an $8 beer and see a Triple A team lose two out of three from the Devil Rays.

Clutch the pearls! How dare he question the general managers and scouts of this great team for not drafting well and developing players who are able to make an impact on this team to get better. Or to find free agents that can be signed for more than a year and can invest themselves in this team to make it better and compete.

This is ridiculous! Teixeira is saying the same thing that columnists, fans, radio blowhards and others have been saying for four years. Teixeira is a Gold Glove first baseman who hits for average and power, wants to win, hardly gets injured or takes games off, and somehow he's become Enemy No. 1 in this town because the management has screwed this ship so much that it's gotten to the point that rebuilding is a definite eventuality and in order to do that trading Teixeira for prospects is the best way to do that.

Now, Teixeira is not a saint, by any means. Maybe he doesn't get along with Buck Showalter or Ron Washington. But you can tell he cares about this franchise that he was drafted by, he shot through the minors and has busted his ass since to win games. He cares about his teammates and he did them a solid by calling out Hicks, Daniels and others for doing a shit job.

I, for one, wish Teixeira could've come up with Hank Blalock and Mike Young and had a solid franchise that won games and brought excitement about baseball to the area. I wish it was all good and he would want to resign with the team and possibly retire a Ranger. But it will not happen and it's not his fault this team is bad.

No matter what he does or what anyone else does, this team was probably going to end up in third place -- at best -- and all that's happened is that they've slipped to fourth place. This was a bad team and nothing short of Murderer's Row and the 1989 Oakland Athletics pitching staff would save this thing.

It needs blowing up and it is far from Mark Teixeira's fault. And at least one athlete has the balls to call out the real problems with this thing.