The morning sun yawned and stretched, softening the cloudless skies over Ohio and peeking in on the dozens of lakes spread around Geauga County. Temperatures were in the 60s, the largemouth bass were biting and a couple old friends shoved out on a small flat-bottom boat, looking forward to a quiet morning of powering down and catching up.



The two men spent close to four hours that morning on the water, a half-hour outside Cleveland; one a former Ranger and the other a current Ranger. They wouldn’t finish the excursion that way, however.



And neither man in the boat knew it.



Mark Teixeira was traded while he was out casting lines with his ex-teammate David Dellucci early in the day on July 30, 2007. The deal, once all the details were hammered out, would send him from Texas to Atlanta for at least four prospects. It would be the signature transaction, one way or the other, of 29-year-old Jon Daniels’ nascent run as Rangers GM.



But...