Those pesky negatives (revisited)

[Laurence Horn]

3 negatives = 1 positive?

larry
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The New York Times
August 10, 2004, D3
HEADLINE: Showalter Builds Another Team Into a Contender
by JACK CURRY

  Buck Showalter is doing it again. He is breathing and he is building
a contending baseball team, so he has his priorities covered. He can
keep them covered by constructing and cajoling the Texas Rangers, and
trying to go to a World Series, someplace he has never been.

  The Rangers are already in a rarefied place, where they were not
supposed to be: they are challenging for first place in the American
League West and for the wild card. After the Rangers unloaded Alex
Rodriguez to the Yankees for Alfonso Soriano in an embarrassing
salary dump, they were expected to crawl to a fourth straight
last-place finish. No A-Rod? No way.

  But the Rangers have performed like a revived team, a team that
Showalter said was looser, a team that is not centered on one special
player. Rodriguez has left. But Showalter, whom Rodriguez has called
a former manager but not a friend, has not. There are no power
struggles this season. Showalter's all-consuming style has the
Rangers winning and dreaming.

  ''We have a thing with the coaching staff where we say, 'Let's go
out and see what the boys have in store for us tonight,''' said the
48-year-old Showalter, who is in his second season with the team.
''They've never ceased to let us down.''