 image found at mlb.com By Mike Luna It came out over the weekend that lefty reliever Ron Mahay had announced his retirement. Like many of you, I will never forget where I was when I heard the news. Mahay joined the Texas ‘pen in June 2003 and wasted no time establishing himself as a fan favorite, both on and off the field. (Even today you can find countless fans at The Ballpark wearing Mahay’s #32 on their replica jerseys.)  image found at lasordaslair.com By Patrick Despain The long baseball winter is almost over, and if you need a little extra help to push through the last few weeks, a good baseball movie or two is a great way to go. We’ll be counting down the top 20 baseball movies of all time over the next couple weeks. Here is numbers 16 through 20.  image found at zimbio.com By Jeff Johnson David Murphy has avoided the crosshairs of controversy during much of his tenure as a Texas Ranger mostly because of his clean living and the role he has had as the fourth outfielder. But, now as the 2013 season looms David Murphy is a starting outfielder and that has allowed the statistical scribes an opportunity to analyze and churn out metrical theories as to why Murphy will fail in 2013.  image found at goldenerabaseball.com By Peter Ellwood “People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring." - Rogers Hornsby Well, Rogers Hornsby didn’t have Twitter. This quote could use some modernization. Something like this: “People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I waste my time having internet conversations with strangers about baseball, most of which have little value.” - Peter Ellwood  Photo credit: Kevin Jairaj/US Presswire by Sarah Powers In case you haven't had the time/opportunity to check, the World Baseball Classic Rosters were released recently. Here's who the 7 Rangers selected will represent: Derek Holland - The United States, Adrian Beltre & Nelson Cruz - Dominican Republic, Elvis Andrus - Venezuela, Engel Beltre - Spain, Nick Urbanus & Jurickson Profar - The Netherlands. Congrats to these gentlemen. By Dan Allsup The calendar has flipped enough times and my annual trip to a live MLB game has come. I glance at my ticket for the thirteenth time, it has been sweat-fashioned into a semi-circle. The ticket-handler absorbs my ticket and fires a red ray of light towards uneven lines.  image found at features.rr.com By Robert Pike In an offseason that has been filled with what some fans have characterized as disappointments, you would think that signing the 4th best pitcher in baseball in 2012 to a long term deal would be something that would get fans’ attention. That’s what Matt Harrison was last year according to his rWAR of 6.2 that trailed only Justin Verlander (7.6), David Price (6.4) and tied with Clayton Kershaw (6.2).  image found at wikipedia.org By Bob Bland Nelson Cruz seems to be something of an afterthought among Ranger fans these days. There’s so much focus on losing Josh Hamilton, signing Lance Berkman, finding a spot for Jurickson Profar, and pursuing Justin Upton that in all of the chaos (and, in many cases, outright panic) Cruz appears to have become a forgotten piece of the Rangers’ puzzle. | 
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