Houston Chronicle

Rangers blow chance at compassion

- JENNY DIAL CREECH

Until Monday afternoon, the outpouring of support and genuine empathy from our neighbors up north had been really touching.

The Cowboys have graciously hosted the Texans. TCU is taking good care of the Rice football team. The city of Dallas has been phenomenal in its in efforts to reach out and help Houstonian­s.

Then, there are the Rangers.

The Astros were scheduled to play the Rangers in Houston this week, but because of the destructio­n and devastatio­n to the city from Hurricane Harvey, the games needed to be relocated.

The Astros were in the Dallas area after being in limbo after their road series in Anaheim. Calif.

The teams play again in late September in Arlington, so there was an easy solution for all of this. All they had to do was switch the home-andhome series and call it a day.

Instead, the Rangers refused. The organizati­on didn’t want to give up September home games, so the teams had to play in St. Petersburg, Fla.

This is a shameful and classless move by the Rangers organizati­on.

Astros starting pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. said exactly that in a sarcastic tweet Monday evening.

“Classy as always, should be absolutely ashamed. Greed never takes off days, apparently. Stay strong #Htown! We hope to be home soon,” McCullers tweeted.

An entire city is going through one of the worst disasters imaginable.

Just step up and help in some small way — like by switching your schedule around and making life convenient for a team from Houston. Several folks from the Houston area have evacuated to the Dallas area. A baseball game in the midst of of all of this devastatio­n could have been a nice distractio­n, but because the two parties couldn’t agree to a fair solution, the games were in Florida. It’s a real disappoint­ment that the Rangers organizati­on couldn’t step up and make this easy on Houston. Thanks to all the other sports teams and universiti­es — Baylor hosted the Rice volleyball team, UT in Austin hosted UH football — who did step up to be good neighbors. The Rangers could learn a thing or two from the other organizati­ons who found ways to help.

 ?? Jason Behnken / Getty Images ?? The Astros got some fan support in St. Petersburg, Fla., but it was a long way to go to play the Rangers when a simpler solution was a possibilit­y.
Jason Behnken / Getty Images The Astros got some fan support in St. Petersburg, Fla., but it was a long way to go to play the Rangers when a simpler solution was a possibilit­y.
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