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ARLINGTON, Texas -- There are Major League Baseball playoff games Thursday and Friday in two different leagues with one major connection.Bengie Molina spent half the 2010 season as the starting catcher for the San Francisco Giants, who are one game away from the World Series entering Thursday's Game 5 of the National League Championship Series in San Francisco.
And Molina is the starting catcher now for the Texas Rangers, who are one win away from the World Series as they play the New York Yankees at home in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series Friday.
What does that mean? Well, for one thing, if the Giants and the Rangers both advance, Molina is guaranteed a World Series champion ring for having played a substantial role for both clubs.
Molina says he tries not to think about it, but as close as the two teams are to their goal of making it to the World Series, the thought creeps up in from his subconscious with the stealth of a burglar when he's not looking.
"I just don't much like the thought (of playing the Giants in the World Series)," Molina said at Thursday's workout in Rangers Ballpark. "But we're both in good position, and if we get there, it'll be good. I just want to make sure we (the Rangers) get it done first before anything else.
"For sure it would assure me a World Series ring, and that would be a happy note if I was to retire."
The Rangers, who won three straight games before losing to the Yankees Wednesday in New York, were in the air when the Giants scored in the bottom of the ninth later that night to beat the Phillies for the third time in four games. When the Rangers' plane landed, he quickly got caught up on his old team's progress through text messages and tweets.
"It feels really good to be seeing them do well," Molina said of the Giants, who traded him to Texas to give rookie Buster Posey more playing time, a move that has worked well. "I have a lot of family and friends there, guys who feel like family. These are guys I like and I care about. These are guys who will be friends for a long time, maybe forever.
"It was a good relationship. I was like a father figure for many of them."
He's been that way in Ranger clubhouse, too.
The pitchers say he's like an extra coach and manager Ron Washington suggests he doesn't know where the Rangers would be without Molina."He's been a tremendous addition," Washington said. "Once he got to the point where he began to feel like he was a part of things around here, his experience began to show up.
"At this time of the year, having guys with his type of experience (comes) into play, tremendously. We were very fortunate to pick up a guy of Molina's stature."
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