How 'Bout Them Rangers?

So, how ‘bout them Texas Rangers? World Champions in their 52nd season in Arlington, Texas, where the wifey and I lived for 18 years and raised our kids. Living in Arlington for that many years, I couldn’t help developing an attachment to the team, especially since we moved there in October, 1987, the year before Nolan Ryan joined the Rangers.

Matter of fact, I even worked for the Rangers for two seasons - 1989 and 1990. We were flat broke when we moved to Arlington, after I had had the blessing to land a job at a company called Meridian Oil, which later became Burlington Resources. That was the most impactful event of my professional life from several perspectives, but it’s another story for another time.

We had gone through bankruptcy the year before due to a series of unfortunate events, and our kids were 5 and 2 when we moved from Austin to North Texas. We needed more income, so an old high school friend and I took jobs working as ushers for the 1989 season, Ryan’s first year with the team. The money wasn’t much - about enough to make a car payment and pay the electric bill on our little rent home - and the work was often brutally hot during day games at the old heat box that was Arlington Stadium.

But there were perks. We got to watch every start Nolan Ryan made those two seasons, got to interact with a lot of good people - and some bad ones - who lived in the area, and many who came in to root for the visiting team. Those were mainly Yankees fans, who travel amazingly well. I can’t tell you how many folks I met from the five Burroughs in those seasons.

Another perk was getting to witness some historic events. I saw Ryan record his 5,000th strikeout. I was there when he wrestled and punched Robin Ventura when the guy charged the mound after Ryan had pinged him with a curve ball. I watched Ryan strike out Bo Jackson three times as he worked on a shutout against the Kansas City Royals one night. Then, when Jackson came up in the 9th, I watched him demolish a Ryan fast ball for a homer to dead center field that almost left the stadium. As Jackson rounded third and looked up towards the mound, Ryan made a show of tipping his cap to him.

Greatness.

By the end of that two-year run, our money situation had begun to improve, and the company had moved me into a job that required some travel, so my ushering days were over. But I was hooked as a fan, and so were my kids, who loved going out to night games and sit in the cheap seats in the outfield, which were the only seats I could normally afford.

But May 1, 1991 was what the Rangers organization called Half Price Arlington Night, which meant those of us lucky enough to live in the town at that time got in for - you guessed it - half the regular price. I found out Ryan was scheduled to be the starter that night, so I sprung for tickets about 20 rows up along the first base line for all of us, including the wifey. But she was never much of a baseball fan and begged off, so the kiddos and I were on our own.

As luck would have it, that was the night the great pitcher threw the 7th no-hitter of his career. I have a lot of mementos from that night, including one of about a dozen un-used tickets to it in existence. It isn’t worth much in terms of money, but it’s worth a fortune to me.

Being a Rangers fan has always been a hard thing since the team has never been much good for too long. For example, never in its 52-year history has a Rangers team recorded a 100-win season, something my other favorite team, the Dodgers, seem to do almost as a matter of course. Being a Dodgers fan is pretty easy, except when the playoffs come around and their bats go silent.

The Rangers had their best run from 2009 through 2016, when they appeared in the World Series in 2010 and 2011. In 2010, they were dominated by a great Giants team that was managed by - guess who? - Bruce Bochy. They appeared to have it cinched in 2011, leading 3 games to 2 over the Cardinals, and ahead 7-4 with two outs in the 9th of Game 6. But David Freese stepped up to the plate and cleared the bases with a triple off the outfield wall, sending the game into extra innings. The Cardinals won that game and then Game 7 against a deflated Rangers team.

It was a real pleasure watching this year’s team, a combination of high-priced free agents who kept getting hurt and a bunch of young guys who were too naive to ever doubt themselves. It turned out to be a perfect combination, all managed by the great Bruce Bochy, who was the right guy at the right time to bring into the organization.

I’ve also been a lifelong Dallas Cowboys fan, because, well, I grew up in Texas. You were either a Cowboys fan or an Oilers fan, and no one in their right mind in the town where I grew up wanted to be an Oilers fan other than the years when Earl Campbell played for them.

The Cowboys last won a Super Bowl in February of 1996, 27 years ago. It was their third in four years. If you had told me then that every other major sports franchise in the DFW area would win at least one championship before the Cowboys ever sniffed another Super Bowl, I’d have laughed and bet you everything I owned on that proposition.

But the Dallas Stars won the Stanley Cup, the Dallas Mavericks won an NBA Championship, and now, finally, the Texas Rangers won their first World Series, and the Cowboys haven’t even managed to play in an NFC Championship game in all those years.

Amazing.

So, how ‘bout them Rangers? Lots of happy people in North Texas today. I’m one of them.

That is all.