The way the Texas Rangers have been playing, people, both on a local and national scale, are inevitably going to take notice. This includes the national media, casual fans and, apparently, criminals as well.
In the wee hours of Sunday morning, burglars broke into the uptown location of the Texas Rangers Pro Shop, absconding with nearly $9,000 worth of merchandise.
The party (or parties) responsible also damaged a glass door valued at around $2,000.
The list of items taken is fairly prodigious: Two Rangers hooded sweatshirts ($128), forty Rangers hats ($1200), four Rangers jackets ($540), and 28 Rangers jerseys ($6,786).
Either those responsible are just huge Rangers fans, or they see in the team’s recent hot streak a pecuniary, albeit underhanded, opportunity.
The case is certainly strange enough.
But then, Texas just ended a month in which they had the second-best ERA, and tied for the second-best fielding percentage in the American League.
They were dead-last in both of these categories in 2008, so that, too, is pretty strange.
Possibly the most intriguing question to arise from this regrettable situation is the degree to which the burglary was motivated by Texas’ considerable on-field success in 2009.
Winning equals money within the context of professional sports; this, unfortunately, is a universal truth, that extends further than legitimate business endeavors.
And it would be fairly safe to imagine that the Oakland Athletics Pro Shop, if such a place exists, is safe and sound, at the moment.
