"John Lackey said he has never met his boyhood hero.

But he might get that chance this winter. With Lackey headed toward free agency, he could find the Texas Rangers- and their club president, Nolan Ryan - knocking on his door as one of his suitors.

In that situation, would Lackey have the guts to tell the pitching icon, "No?"

"I'm not sure who does," Lackey said with a laugh. "It'd be cool, no doubt (to meet Ryan under those circumstances). But I'm not even thinking that far ahead."

Lackey said that "the Rangers were my team growing up" about 150 miles west of Dallas in Abilene, Texas. But he there are "a lot of factors" that will come into play beyond the chance to pitch close to home.

The whole topic of his looming free agency is one Lackey said has not been weighing on his mind.

"At the beginning of the year, I thought about it," he said. "But I've come to a place mentally where I don't even think about it now."

There have been no contract discussions between the two sides since this spring when wildly divergent numbers were exchanged - Lackey using last winter's CC Sabathia contract as his benchmark, the Angels failing to see the correlation.

Lackey has done little to help his cause on the field. After starting the season on the disabled list for the second consecutive year, he is 2-3 with a 5.06 ERA in nine starts.

"There's still a long ways to go," Lackey said to that."