The 2013 baseball season is upon us, but unlike previous seasons this one apparently doesn’t have to be played. Many, if not most, people are conceding the season to the Los Angeles Dodgers, and if they must play the World Series, the team most popularly viewed as their American League opponent is the Toronto Blue Jays.

I wish, Alex Anthopoulos, the Blue Jays’ general manager, said in reaction to that thought (which I happen not to agree with).

The Blue Jays occupy that position of lofty expectations because young Anthopoulos was the busiest general manager of the off-season, just as his Dodgers’ counterpart, Ned Colletti, has been the busiest general manager of the past eight months.

As has been said often, however, teams don’t win pennants in the winter. The games are played in the summer, and teams need to win games to win pennants.

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The words practically leaped off the computer screen:

Hall of Fame president Jeff Idelson says Jobe’s work is a testament to the positive role of medicine in baseball’s growth.

That sentence appeared in a news release from the Hall of Fame last week announcing that the Hall will honor Dr. Frank Jobe at its annual induction ceremonies in Cooperstown in July.

In case the name is not familiar to you, nearly 40 years ago Dr. Jobe developed the elbow operation that is commonly known as Tommy John surgery. It should be known as Frank Jobe surgery, but John was Jobe’s first ligament transplant patient. It was an experiment that worked so well hundreds and hundreds of pitchers have had the transplants and have lived not only to tell about it but to resume pitching and extend their careers.

So what does all of this have to do with the Hall of Fame?

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We have seen it happen before, wealthy entrepreneurs feeling less appreciated than they think they should be while one of their employees gets credit for their company’s success.

I’m not talking about General Motors or Google or Microsoft. This is about the Texas Rangers, and jealousy is the best reason I can come up with to explain and understand the organization’s bizarre developments this month with the greatest icon in Texas baseball history.

Earlier this month the Rangers’ co-owners Ray Davis and Bob Simpson cut Nolan Ryan’s legs from under him by adding stilts to two executives to whom he had been superior. With the club’s March 1 news release announcing the promotions of Jon Daniels and Rick George, Ryan was no longer the club president.

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