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Wilson to collect AL championship ring

Wilson to collect AL championship ring

ARLINGTON -- Angels starter C.J. Wilson will get his American League championship ring from the Rangers on Sunday, but none of the usual pomp and circumstance will come with it. He'll simply walk over to manager Ron Washington's office and pick it up.

Why no on-field ceremony? That's a silly question.

"Yeah, I'm sure that'd go over really well," Wilson said, tongue firmly placed in cheek. "I mean, yeah, [the fans are] really, like, so positive. I think that's why it rained yesterday. ... Yeah, that's probably why it rained, just because of all that negativity."

Wilson was expected to get booed in his return to Texas; he probably wasn't expected to get heckled as viciously as he did.

Wilson called the crowd reaction "colorful insights."

"You guys should stick a microphone out there and listen to it," he said. "It'd be very interesting. And you should make a transcript of that. ... It's just weird, you know. It's just weird. You do everything you can to de-personalize it. You're not going to go out there and pitch with headphones on. You hear it. But you just tune it out."

Wilson was greeted with hecklers as soon as he began warming up in the left-center-field bullpen for Friday night's start. The game then featured chants of Booooo! for Wilson and Yuuuuu! for his opponent and replacement, Yu Darvish.

When Mitch Moreland homered in the seventh, long after a rain delay had halted Wilson's start after just five batters, Rangers fans began chanting, We want C.J.! We want C.J.! And when Wilson took the mound for his Saturday start -- eventually hurling 5 2/3 innings of two-run ball in a 4-2 win by his club -- the boos were still there.

"I'm about being positive, and I'm just moving forward," Wilson said. "That chapter of my life is closed, and I'm happy for everything I experienced over there, and all the players and stuff. I respect them all."