According to Baxter’s story, which sheds light on the issue of their being no openly gay athletes in the MLB, NBA, NFL or NHL, when he talked to Hunter about his feelings regarding the possibility of having an “out” teammate, he churned out the following statement:

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“For me, as a Christian … I will be uncomfortable because in all my teachings and all my learning, biblically, it’s not right. It will be difficult and uncomfortable.”

While Hunter’s astonishing selfishness and inability to look beyond a teammate’s sexual orientation should be a personal issue for him to deal with, the fact of the matter is that the issue becomes much larger when he says things publicly that could discourage his teammates from being who they are.

As Baxter points out in his article, about 4,000 athletes spent time on the rosters of the four major sports in 2012, so the chances are, in his 16 seasons in the Majors, Hunter has unknowingly spent time with a “closeted” gay or bisexual teammate.

It is easy to understand why those teammates did not come out publicly to their organization. It’s because of players like Hunter. Players like Hunter and Tampa Bay shortstop Yunel Escobar, who was suspended for three games while with Toronto last season for wearing eye black displaying a homophobic slur in Spanish, make it hard for players to come out because they fear being being treated differently.

Like a lot of homophobic people, Hunter blames his intolerance on his religion, which is even more shameful. Your religious choice does not come with a get-away-with-being-homophobic-free card.

While some MLB teams like the Dodgers, Giants, Phillies, Red Sox, Orioles, Mariners, Cubs and Rays have been busy progressing beyond discrimination by making videos for the “It Gets Better” campaign — a program that creates support for LGBT youth suffering from bullying — players like Hunter and Escobar are taking the sport backwards.

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Even Rangers pitcher Derek Holland landed in hot water last season when a homophobic slur was sent out from his Twitter account in response to someone calling him a “pathetic excuse” for a pitcher. Holland denied that he sent out the tweet, claiming that he was on the mound or in the dugout at the time. He blamed the act on a hacker.

Last season the Rangers also created two public service announcement anti-bullying videos, and though it did not address LGBT students specifically, it was a genuine video from the club and is being shown in schools in the DFW area.

Outfielder David Murphy and shortstop Elvis Andrus star in the videos. Murphy’s is in English and Andrus’ is in Spanish.

Like Hunter, Murphy is a well-known Christian in the sport, but Murphy focuses on stopping bullying, rather than becoming a bully himself.

Due to his statements, that’s exactly what Hunter has become. He has discouraged his teammates from being themselves by telling them that it would make him feel weird.

If Hunter wants to remain a fan favorite, he should think about how his actions affect other people, apologize and retract his statements.

Until he does, someone needs to ask him if his uniform is 100 percent cotton.

Yu Darvish & Derek Holland went for the Rangers today; one had a pretty good day, one had a battle to fight.

Darvish went six and two-thirds innings, giving up three runs on nine hits and striking out seven. He gave up one home run and walked one batter as well. The biggest thing is that Darvish is keeping the walks down at an acceptable rate considering where he started the season. He will now get to be tested in the MLB playoffs and we will get to see if his evolution is still going. It will be enjoyable seeing how he carries on through October. Note: Mike Trout hit the one home run in the game. This now makes Trout the youngest player to achieve a 30/30 season.

Holland had his second weird outing today. He went six and two thirds innings as well, but did not have his teammate’s success at keeping the run total down. He yielded seven runs on twelve hits; he also struck out five, walked two and gave up two home runs. For Holland, he fought hard to stay calm and muscle his way through his outing. He was left out a little t0o long and left a pitch up to Howie Kendrick, who hit a three run bomb in the seventh. I believe he will be ok in the playoffs, but he has to just stay focused and pitch the best he can and trust himself to get things done for the Rangers.

The crux of the day centered around an Angel and two Rangers: Torii Hunter, Joe Nathan, & Mike Napoli. 

In game one, Nathan was sent in with a 4-3 lead to work with. He got a ground out, but then surrendered a walk and a single. He struck out Trout to get the second out when Hunter came up to bat. Hunter was already 3-4 and proceeded to double in both base runners to get LA the win 5-4. Hunter ended his day going 7-9 with three RBI and the game wining double. This also marked Nathan’s third blown save of the season. He then answered and redeemed himself in game two with a solid ninth inning performance in much the same situation. The Rangers won game two 8-7.

It may not be another “Year of the Napoli” going into the 2012 playoffs, but it’s certainly Nap-tember for the Rangers. He went 3-3 in game two with six RBI (a career best in a single game) and propelled the Rangers to a much needed victory. His two home runs give him twenty-three on the year now and hopefully this is a sign of a truly great October push for Napoli.

The Rangers officially achieved two of three main goals tonight: they eliminated LA from division contention and secured a playoff berth. Now, they are one win away from clinching their third consecutive AL West Division title and one simple win against Oakland will help them achieve the last of the immediate goals. There will be more in the game preview, which will be up a bit later.

The Rangers started early with Michael Young homering in the first inning for his 13 knock of the year on a fly ball to right field.  The other two runs in the win came on small ball attempts with Josh Hamilton doubling in the bottom of the six to score Vladimir Guerrero.  With Hamilton on second base Nelson Cruz singles and moves Hamilton to third base.  Then during Bengie Molina’s at bat Cruz steals second base.  Molina flies out to center fielder Torii Hunter and Hamilton tagged up and easily scored from third.  It was not a high scoring game, but it was enough runs to outscore the Angels by one run thanks to Lee’s stellar outing and the Rangers picked up a game on the Angels in the division race.

In other Rangers news, as we all know the ownership situation has plagued the Rangers since before the start of spring training and it may finally come to a resolution on August 4th.  Tom Hicks and MLB have approved a bid by a group led by Nolan Ryan and Pittsburgh attorney Chuck Greenberg, but the creditors holding the debt acquired by Hicks have balked at the deal saying that there were higher bidders.

We all hoped the ownership group would be in place by the trade deadline so the they could make a move for a big name player like Cliff Lee, but I guess the Rangers counted their change in their sofa’s and were able to get Lee anyhow.  So as of right now the pending ownership group will not affect any player moves and the Rangers roster has the tools it needs to push deep into October.

Several attorneys for the creditors have tried arguing that the Aug 4th auction is not enough time for the potential bidders to secure financing.  Thankfully the bankruptcy judge overseeing the sale of the Rangers has the team and it’s players interest in mind.  He has refused to push back the auction in order to get the Rangers ownership situation resolved.  I am glad the judge has the team in mind and not the creditors.

One interesting thing that came out today was that Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban who is a billionaire businessman has been approved by MLB to bid on the Rangers.  He is a fiery owner who has been fined millions of dollars by the NBA for his actions.  He attempted to bid on the Chicago Cubs but his bid eventually was not selected.  In some aspects I feel Cuban would be good as the Rangers owner because he has a strong desire to win at all costs pretty much.  I feel the Greenberg group is honestly the best to lead the Rangers with Nolan Ryan at the top.  He knows how to win and knows what he can and cannot expect from his baseball team, where Cuban has no clue.