I hope Darren Oliver retires

When it is stolen, it is stolen!

It was during Spring Training when he learned what had happened to his investments, because the Feds froze his bank accounts. But he said at the time that he personally lost nothing, unlike other investors who became entangled with funds managed by Stanford.

That said, his take from the $3.66M he played for last year (after deducting for agent’s fee and taxes) should be enough to assuage any fears of pauperhood he might have fleetingly felt.

who needs ’em?

I imagine the family spends most of the summer in the O.C., since they’re not in school anyway.

But either way, his financial future was hurt by a Madoff-clone. Maybe another year will help him get there, eh Ollie?

One of those kids could be an Angel someday. You never know if they are like dad and grandpa. Third generation Angel. That’d be something.

*raises hand…hella high.

But this team, and Oliver specifically, still have some things to prove and a window of opportunity in which to prove them.

Oliver signed with the Rangers as a 17 year old in 1988, after graduation from high school. He made his debut with the Rangers as a Sept callup in 2003, but really spent much of the next several seasons bouncing back and forth between AAA and MLB.

While it might be a regret of his that he didn’t make the World Series professionally, it might also be true that he’s sick and tired of airplane travel, of living in hotels, of seeing his kids’ sporting events and school activities only through the home videos of some other parent. If you know anyone who has to travel during much of the year for work, it is quite common that there is a spiritual erosion which takes place, wearing down the enthusiasm of the worker for the job.

He’s not an old man, but by the standards of his fellow workers he’s also not a young man. It is entirely possible that he’s worn out from the life of the last 21 years. It is likewise possible that he’d change his mind as Spring rolls around—Salmon said that he missed reporting to camp for the first few years he was retired, missed the camaraderie and the symbolic renewal of hope with a new season—but I doubt that he is, at age 39, driven by the same forces which propel many of his younger teammates.

have 3 generations come through the franchise. That would be sweet.

 I’ve been that mother twice, for about a year each time. Both times it was because of disasters, one financial and one illness, and I (we) coped and the kids were fine. Mostly.

Financially my experience does not match that of the Olivers or even come close, which is why I’m a bit sanguine about their ability to cope with fatherhood at a distance. If we’d had the kind of bucks they do we wouldn’t have had the long-distance marriage either time.

Honestly, I have mixed emotions about this discussion. Most men (and women) do not retire as millionaires at the age of 39. Most men with children that age are not home all day, and these days neither are most women; heck, my husband’s commute right now would mean that kids that young would be lucky to spend an hour with Dad before being sent to bed.

I can’t know that two more years making money playing for the Angels is going to be a bad thing for the family; he should do what is right for him and them, and we can’t possibly know what that is.

Our youngest was born when I was 32 and my husband was 35.

Bless your black little heart.