World Series champion Rangers are no longer futility posing as a sports team

Soh that’s what it feels like. Leaping across the infield, hugging in the dugout, arms raised, cameras clicking, commemorative T-shirts on with the speed of a Nathan Eovaldi fastball. Now the Texas Rangers finally know.

A World Series full of rare achievements ended with the biggest novelty of all: the Rangers are Major League Baseball champions for the first time in the 63rd attempt, just 51 years into a franchise that began when the Washington Senators moved to the Dallas area.

The Rangers are no longer a festival of futility masquerading as a sports team, and the festering wound has finally been cauterized from their previous World Series appearance, when they lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in 2011 after falling one strike away twice of victory.

Texas’ four-to-one victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks in the best-of-seven series, capped off with a 5-0 victory on Wednesday at Chase Field, continues the Lone Star State’s streak of success following last year’s victory for the Houston Astros, who also won the title in 2017 and finished second in 2019 and 2021.

The Rangers’ media-shy majority owner, Ray Davis, a gas pipeline magnate, was even willing to speak publicly.

“This franchise has waited 63 years to lift that trophy,” he said during the presentation on Fox Sports. “I’m a man of faith and I had to hope that one day we would lift this trophy. We always had that vision and we never gave up that hope.”

In 2021, the Rangers lost 102 games during the regular season; in 2022, they lost 94. In this campaign, they won 90 times and lost 72 times, clinching a wild-card spot in the American League and toppling the Tampa Bay Rays and Baltimore Orioles without losing a game before defeating the Astros with defeated 4-3. They won all 11 of their postseason games and won three straight in Phoenix after Arizona tied the series with a 9-1 win at Texas last Saturday.

Dallas is the kind of city that expects some flash and flair. The Rangers infamously gave Alex Rodriguez a 10-year, $252 million contract in 2000, which at the time was the largest individual contract in sports history, and paid him more than the full roster of the Minnesota Twins.

It was a signing statement, albeit one that said: We have more money than sense. A-Rod was great, but was traded to the New York Yankees after Texas finished at the bottom of the American League West division three years in a row.

This time a more strategic one $800 million Free-agent spree propelled the Rangers into the top tier of MLB spenders and helped turn around their on-field fortunes, although top pitcher Jacob deGrom, who signed last winter for $185 million over five years, suffered a season-ending elbow injury that did too. no playing after April.

Perhaps the most crucial acquisition was the manager. A year ago, Rangers general manager Chris Young persuaded Bruce Bochy to come out of retirement in Tennessee after three years out of MLB. “I was sitting there in Nashville on an armchair just enjoying myself when he called me,” he told Fox. Young, a former pitcher, played for Bochy in San Diego.

The French-born 68-year-old has won 15 of his past 16 postseason series and this is his fourth World Series ring after three titles with the San Francisco Giants, including a win over Texas in 2010. Bochy is one of the few six administrators having won at least four World Series titles. He praised the toughness and resilience of his players; they have reason to be grateful for his wise judgment and moderate personality.

Just over a year ago, he kept in touch with the sport by leading France in the World Baseball Classic qualifiers in Germany – and hammered by Great Britain and the Czech Republic – Bochy was the eye of the storm for a streaky team with explosive offensive potential.

“He was the perfect guy for this team,” Rangers catcher Jonah Heim said told reporters. “His baseball IQ, his knowledge and his poise at the helm. We have been fortunate that no matter the situation, he will always have that calm, stoic look on his face and we know that everything will be fine.

Corey Seager, a shortstop on a streak that was baseball’s equivalent of asphalt in Maricopa County on a sunny July afternoon, was named Series MVP. In a pitchers’ duel between Eovaldi and Arizona’s Zac Gallen, Seager broke off a no-hitter with a leadoff single in the seventh, albeit coincidentally when the ball whizzed off the end of his bat.

The 29-year-old, whose 10-year, $325 million deal is the largest in team history, became the fourth player to win multiple World Series MVP awards; after receiving the award with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2020.

Despite Gallen’s excellence, Arizona began to resemble the inconsistent wild-card team that went an unremarkable 84-78 in the regular season, rather than the jaunty newcomers who stunningly and confidently swept aside the Dodgers and then came from behind to win the more fancied Philadelphia Phillies in seven games. games in the National League Championship Series.

The Diamondbacks faltered repeatedly after earning chances to score Wednesday night. They went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position. It started to look like the Rangers were playing rope-a-dope when they reached Gallen in the seventh inning and secured the win for Eovaldi with four more runs in the ninth thanks to a glaring fielding error and a two-run home run. by second baseman Marcus Semien, another crucial and costly free agent acquisition.

At least Arizona played better defense when it came to protecting the Chase Field pool. It was reportedly surrounded by guards to prevent the ecstatic Rangers from jumping in.

This was a series where apparent momentum shifts were just snippets of misdirection. The Rangers won game one 6–5 with an 11th-inning walk-off homer from star slugger Adolis García, but were bumped the next night. They lost García and starting pitcher Max Scherzer to injuries in Game 3, but still won 3–1.

The next day, Texas defeated the Diamondbacks 11–7, scoring their first 10 runs near the end of the third inning. Disheartened fans threw paper airplanes. Perhaps someone fluttering onto the field and poking Seager in the eye would have been the only way to stop him, with Arizona manager Torey Lovullo determined not to deliberately let him out. Or maybe the Diamondbacks could have tried to destabilize the Rangers by having a Pride Night.

The final outcome was deserved: the Rangers were erratic but effective, their power ferocious and their bullpen, suspect during the regular season, a source of solidity. “They were the better team and they deserved it fair and square… They can operate in any conditions,” Lovullo said. “Nobody expected us to be here. It’s been rapid growth and we still have more work to do, but we’ll be proud of what we’ve accomplished.”

Simply reaching this stage was a remarkable achievement for a young Arizona team with a payroll in the bottom third of the MLB, which lost 110 games in 2021 and 88 last season. Not that the television viewing public was fascinated by the underdog bounce-back story. Despite teams being based in two of the largest metropolitan areas in the US, the second and third meetings were the best least watched World Series games ever.

That was a somber note at the end of a year in which MLB implemented rule changes that made games faster and more exciting. However, the Rangers were essential to watch. They weren’t always the best team in baseball over the course of the season, but they were unstoppable when it mattered most.