The Buck Doesn’t Stop With Showalter

It should come as little surprise that the Texas Rangers are struggling to stay in the American League West Division race.

Since moving to Arlington from Washington, D.C., 35 seasons ago, the franchise has finished first in its division only three times and has never won the AL pennant.

Still, owner Tom Hicks raised a few eyebrows during a recent radio interview when he took a few barely disguised swipes at the team and Manager Buck Showalter.

Ken Rosenthal of Foxsports.com says Hicks should have known what he was getting when he hired Showalter.

“Showalter is not the main problem with the Rangers,” according to Rosenthal. “But no one should be surprised that he’s becoming an issue, just as he did with the Diamondbacks and Yankees. Nor should anyone be surprised that Showalter is almost certain to remain manager: Hicks, in another burst of baseball insight, signed him through 2009.”

Trivia time: Who holds the longest standing NFL record?

Flag alert: The games NFL referees probably hated to work last season for fear of throwing out a shoulder?

Those involving the Oakland Raiders, Arizona Cardinals, New York Giants, Baltimore Ravens and New Orleans Saints. According to the NFL and World Features Syndicate, those were the five most penalized teams in the league in 2005.

It should also be noted that among those teams, only the Giants made the playoffs.

Makes sense: New York Giants defensive end Michael Strahan is one of pro football’s well-known talkers. But during the team’s preseason stay in Albany, N.Y., Strahan did not speak to reporters, except for one television interview and another for a magazine.

Was this in response to frenzied reporting of his divorce over the summer? No, said Strahan, who resumed talking this week.

“It was only training camp,” he told the Star-Ledger. “There was nothing to say.”

Bucking the Texas trend: Not everyone in Austin, Texas, will be pulling for the No. 2 Longhorns in their showdown against No. 1 Ohio State on Saturday.

There are about 8,300 Buckeyes alumni and 10 alumni organizations in town, according to Austin’s newspaper, the American-Statesman. One of those is middle-school counselor Carrie Proctor, 36, who says that although her students don’t quite understand why she won’t root for the Longhorns, the situation could be worse.

“It hasn’t been that bad, because people recognize Ohio State has a strong football program,” Proctor said. “They tell me, at least I’m not from Texas A&M;, or at least I’m not from Oklahoma.”

Trivia answer: Ernie Nevers. On Nov. 28, 1929, while playing for the Chicago Cardinals, Nevers scored 40 points -- six touchdowns, also a record, and four extra points -- against the Chicago Bears.

And finally: From Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News: “Click over [to his blog] for my full apology to Cal fans for picking the Bears to win the national title. If you want me to curse some other school, just let me know.”

mike.terry@latimes.com