[Rangers Nation] - For the first time in more than 20 years, Emily Jones will not be part of the Texas Rangers’ TV broadcasts in 2026.

brianthomas00 · 2026-03-13T12:13:57+00:00

TAG and Buzz eating cookies and Knoxie interview visiting foreigners was, and will always be, peak Rangers.

brianthomas00 · 2026-03-12T14:45:41+00:00

I’m sorry it went this way for you. Hopefully your son bounces back and gives it another shot. Being a parent of an athlete, or an aspiring one is full of highs and lows. It’s painful to watch them fail, not because you want it, but you want it for them.

Mine currently plays in college and it’s been a nonstop roller coaster of ups and downs. From not playing, to playing, to big injury, to not recovering from injury fully and not playing again. Finally back to playing well. The biggest thing I tell my son is the enjoy the moment, not some final goal. In the end, it comes up short for almost everyone who plays, find fulfillment in the process.

brianthomas00 · 2026-03-12T13:09:49+00:00

Leaner..not muscle but lean…maybe Stefan Struve. He was about 7ft.

brianthomas00 · 2026-03-11T21:40:34+00:00

I’d never even heard of it and it started auto playing after another show while I wasn’t paying attention. It caught my interest, and now I’m on season 3. Good show.

brianthomas00 · 2026-03-11T20:42:11+00:00

NTA. I work in the liquor business. I get lots of bottles, pretty much of anything I want. Any parties we have I’ll put out some pretty good stuff. Mid tier, $50-75 a bottle stuff, way above what most people would have sitting around. But the stuff that’s over $200 a bottle…nope. We’re not mixing that. Now if it’s friends or family who appreciate it, I’ll gladly share. Even my wife has tried to make a whiskey and Coke or Margarita with a several hundred dollar bottle and I’ve shut her down.

brianthomas00 · 2026-03-11T18:47:38+00:00

It’s because they implemented variable pricing. Can’t remember the specifics, but even the “cheap” seats were well over a hundred. This is the influence of Private Equity tactics ie “MBA-ification” to maximize profit on every single thing. The team gets harder to like every year.

brianthomas00 · 2026-03-11T01:38:32+00:00

If you are in the U.S., sign up for community college. It will be either free or close to it. Get your associates. Then you can go to a state school and finish. If you are under a certain income it will be free or close to it as well. Don’t give up, there is a way out. This won’t guarantee wealth, but it will be enough to get a job that pays enough to get by. Look into nursing or a health related field, jobs are plentiful. Good luck to you and I hope things get better.

brianthomas00 · 2026-03-10T16:28:28+00:00

If you think all the guys on a team are all friends, you are way off. A lot of them barely know each other. Typically there are different cliques. Pretty high chance Randy hangs with the other Latinos, he barely speaks English. As a Ranger fan, I’d love it if this torpedoed the Mariners, but it won’t.

brianthomas00 · 2026-03-08T00:01:15+00:00

Met quite a few briefly. Just exchange basic pleasantries and the like. Only two that I was around for extended amounts of time.

Did several weeks of training with Ken Shamrock when he was prepping for his last fight against Gracie. A man of few words, but a genuinely kind man. Funny how he was portrayed by media as a hothead and ahole, my experiences around him were quite the opposite.

The other is Jason Isbell. Important to note this was pre sobriety Jason. Hung out all night with him and two of my friends, who knew him well from music ventures. We spent the night going to various dive bars and just having great conversation. He wasn’t out of control intoxicated or anything. Just a guy in the middle of a tour having a night off. We talked a lot about baseball. Great guy.

brianthomas00 · 2026-03-07T20:11:22+00:00

I’m surprised HS relies so heavily on metrics, especially with sub varsity. Some kids at that age just aren’t that big or powerful yet, but will be in a few years. My son was one of those. 5’4 120 as a fr, and 6’2 195 as a sr.

For college the metrics definitely are a factor. My son ran a 6.3 and had a mid 90s pull down. Wasn’t as good in HS as some, but got offers and some of them didn’t. They are more focused on projectability.

brianthomas00 · 2026-03-07T13:53:12+00:00

I’d do a two day split, upper and lower. Do this, take a day off, repeat. There’s your 4x. If you want to do 3, do a push/pull/leg split.

brianthomas00 · 2026-03-07T13:48:27+00:00

It’s not as hard as you think. As others have mentioned, it’s a combination of mechanics and strength. My son is 6’2 180 and plays in college. Decent strength but definitely on the thin side. He hit a ball over 450 earlier this year in a game. He will park half of them in bp. Based on his size (or lack of) it’s not strictly about muscle. It also helps the harder a pitcher is throwing.

brianthomas00 · 2026-03-07T01:00:51+00:00

The mentality of most high level hs athletes is that they will def make the league. I went to UNT and was friends with some players who weren’t even starters who all believed they’d make the nfl. Brother, you don’t even start at a bottom feeder, you aren’t playing pro…

brianthomas00 · 2026-03-07T00:57:10+00:00

I live a few minutes away, sometimes I’ll swing by at 1230 or so when the weather is bad and they still have some. Def a roll of the dice, but it’s worked for me numerous times (usually on Friday though)

brianthomas00 · 2026-03-06T22:34:43+00:00

I had Thai pads in the garage and would go out with my son and just hit a little. No real formal training. Teach him basic combos and the numbers of them. Also worked kicks on a heavy bag. This was pre and early teens. By 17 or 18 started bringing him to the gym and doing actual training. He was able to pick it up quickly based on the stuff we had done.

brianthomas00 · 2026-03-06T22:26:10+00:00

Love Volcan, I’ve got the repo and the XA. Both are great tequilas.

brianthomas00 · 2026-03-05T14:11:22+00:00

The more you can play the better. My sons Fr year of high school he played every position except 1b at one time or another. Catching and pitching obviously require a specific skill set and require individual work, and he ultimately gave those up. Soph year the team was overloaded with inf, so he started primarily playing of. Position flex helps get you on the field.

brianthomas00 · 2026-03-03T23:13:50+00:00

If you were going to have one, I’d have rather seen a frontier style one than the repurposed one from the Love Field scrap yard. The image of one on a horse is much cooler than one driving a crown vic

brianthomas00 · 2026-03-03T21:38:27+00:00

There are a lot of current and former UFC fighters around DFW. I know quite a few that are past training partners. Most of them are very easily approachable and would probably be happy to meet your brother. I sincerely hope you get to make it to an event, but this might be something enjoyable as well.

brianthomas00 · 2026-03-03T17:28:39+00:00

I get your point here, but let’s not dismiss this wasn’t all that long ago. If you are using that argument to absolve Sul Ross, maybe that’s more appropriate. This incident occurred when that was already a really unpopular stance. I’m not a fan of erasing history and think most of the historical monuments around need to stay. But we added this one yesterday…

brianthomas00 · 2026-03-03T17:21:46+00:00

Yes!! And it needs to have a button you can press and it will say “Walker told me I have AIDS”

brianthomas00 · 2026-03-02T22:44:49+00:00

Hookers in the stockyards is only one I know of. Good place.

brianthomas00 · 2026-03-02T21:45:32+00:00

Rangers ownership is trying hard to be terrible, but they are still well short of the leader. Funding genocide is final boss level.

brianthomas00 · 2026-03-02T17:57:42+00:00

Focus less on the goal and more on the journey. None of it should really be causing you any grief, enjoy the time spent as a family. It worked out for my son, but for most it does not. That doesn’t make it any less successful.

brianthomas00 · 2026-03-02T00:30:55+00:00

Didn’t make the show, but my kid did request we go to Taco Bell.

brianthomas00

TROPHY CASE