European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 6, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 26 the stars and stripes sunday april 6, 1986a Fae of free baseball losers indians rangers mariners share 16 years of frustration by Hal Bock a sports writer it is the eternal lament of losers bad things always seem to happen to bad teams. Example the inside the Park Home run credited to Oakland s Carney Lansford in a Spring training game against the Cleveland indians. Lansford made his triumphant tour of the bases with no resistance because Cleve land outfielder Mel Hall chasing the Ball caught his shirt in the wire Fence. The More he fought to get free the More trapped Hall became. Shortstop Julio Franco was the closest Indian to the Ball but was too Dou bled Over in laughter to make the play. Example Why Charlie Hough will not be Texas starting Pitcher tuesday night when the rangers open their season. Hough has started three of their last four openers and functions As the Ace of the staff. He would have had the assignment except for the broken Little Finger on his pitching hand that he suffered while engage ing in a Tricky Spring training handshake with a Friend. A handshake Texas Cleveland and the Seattle Mari ners Are the Only teams that have never won anything since baseball began division play in 1969. The losers Are at their Peak on the eve of the season with their won loss logs at 0-0. They arc for the moment tied with everybody and behind nobody in the stand Ings. This is expected to change rapidly. It always has. Toby Harrah has been a Quality major league infielder since 1971. All that time except for a single frustrating season with the new York Yankees has been spent with Tail end teams the Washington senators rangers and indians. The closest Harrah has come to a world series has been his television set. There is however no frustration. Not at All not really he said. I m playing baseball doing something i love. I m playing a game for a living. The Guys on the Assembly line they re working. When i put on the uni form the frustration ends. A lot of players never get to the world series. Maybe 85 or 90 percent never make  the constant losing has t beaten Harrah psychologically either. That s All in the past he said. These kids Aren t losers. Are you Gonna Tell Young players like Oddie Mcdowell or Pete o Brien they re not Gonna win they All come Here with the idea of winning. Anybody who thinks they can t win should t be  if the rangers win it will be with the Mcdowells and o Briens not retreads imported for Short term gains. General Man Ager Tom Grieve promises that. We re not going to do anything that will sacrifice the future for wins right now he said. Our primary concern is to show improvement and develop a winning team Over a period of time that stays a winning team through scouting and player development. We re not going Short term at the expense of Long term. If you have mediocre Talent maybe you could say let s sacrifice it for Quick gains. But these Are frontline prospects. Just being Young does t sacrifice the season. There s a Chance for rapid improvement. It s a possibility and a  and until that goal is achieved the rangers will take their lumps. So will Toby Harrah who shrugs off the despair saying somebody s got to play on these  Andre Thornton did t have to. He chose to. Thornton is the designated hitter for the indians. He had spent eight years