The most perplexing puzzle in the Texas Rangers’ spring training camp took on a second part in the second week of the season. After the Rangers’ two principal owners (Part I) stripped Nolan Ryan of one of his two titles, why did Ryan (Part II) opt to remain with the Rangers as their chief executive officer?

None of the principals (Ryan, Ray Davis, Bob Simpson) is talking except for making meaningless statements) so it leaves lots of room for speculation and theories.

The most intriguing theory I have heard involves the other Texas major league team, the Houston Astros. Ryan, this theory goes, would stay with the Rangers until his son, Reid, could put together a group to buy the Astros, then move to the Astros, for whom he pitched for nine years (1980-88).

An immediate problem with that idea:

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A tisket, a tasket, I’ll spend eternity in my Red Sox casket.

If I can’t see the Yankees win forever as I yearn, I can spend eternity in a pinstripe urn.

OK, enough of that, but those weird rhymes fit the subject of this column, which itself is sort of weird. You will find no balls and strikes in this one, nor are there home runs and runs batted in.

Last week Eternal Image Group of Novi, Mich., announced the availability of a line of memorial products licensed by Major League Baseball. Fans have credit cards adorned with their favorite teams’ logos; now they can be buried in caskets with team logos, cremated and have their ashes placed in urns with team logos and have memorial monuments with team logos. Once a Cubs’ fan, forever a Cubs’ fan.

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Stephen Strasburg had a brilliant season-starting performance for the Washington Nationals, and it prompted an interesting but debatable reaction from USA Today, which called it “the first step in vindication for general manager Mike Rizzo, who took much of the heat for shutting down the right-hander in the year after elbow surgery.”

Lest there be any doubt that Rizzo should endure criticism or receive credit for ending Strasburg’s 2012 season prematurely, the general manager himself made it clear last year that the decision was his. He most likely sought input from others – manager Davey Johnson for one –but the final decision was his.

It was a controversial decision made more controversial by the Nationals’ loss to St. Louis in the division series of the playoffs.

But whether or not you agreed with Rizzo’s decision – I disagreed – how could Strasburg’s April 1 performance vindicate it?

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