DFW Sports MIX by Don Arnick

If you went to the Texas Rangers Winter Carnival last weekend, there is a air of excitement and anticipation. New ownership is a welcome change for the Rangers, compared to the last few seasons with owner Tom Hicks. Hicks drove the francise into financial ruins due to bad free agent deals and his company going through financial trouble. The Chuck Greenberg ownership with Nolan Ryan as President won’t fling the new money around like the Yankees. And that’s a good thing. But if the Rangers are in the playoff hunt in September, they have the finances to get a extra arm or bat. So you will see a competitive Rangers team come April.

Here’s some NBA All-Star Game updates for you. Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki is on the Western Conference All-Star Team as a reserve. George Carl, who coaches the Denver Nuggets, will coach the Western Conference team. Over 80,000 tickets have been sold for the big NBA All-Star game, a Texas size crowd is expected to be on hand to witness this game.

Danica Patrick has made history being the first woman driver to win a Indy race. Can she do the same in the world of NASCAR? Danica is going to race in the Nationwide NASCAR series, and she makes her NASCAR debut at Daytona. Good news, she is coming to North Texas on November 6. She will be racing in the O’reilly Auto Parts Challenge. We will keep up with Danica’s progress as the season goes along.