by Kevin Burton
Futility, barren and bleak as it gets, has been the hallmark of the Texas Rangers.
But Wednesday, with the Yankees and Dodgers on their couches at home, The Rangers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-0 to finish off a four-games-to-one, World Series win.
World Series win. Texas Rangers? Yes indeed, finally. Believe it.
One Rangers fan was at work when the last out was recorded. He called in to ESPN radio saying he cried like a little kid, called his wife but was not really able to speak for the joy of it all.
For some reason, that’s what sports does to us. I cried like that when Wichita State made the Final Four.
For most of their existence, the tears of Texas have been of another variety entirely.
In 1972 Major League baseball came to the Metroplex, sort of. The Washington Senators pulled up stakes and moved to Arlington, Texas and renamed themselves the Rangers.
The Senators were 63-96 in their last season in Washington, saved from last place only by a 60-102 Cleveland team that was even worse.
The franchise moved from the East Division to the West after relocation, and had the worst record in all of baseball, 54-100.
It’s Major League baseball if the Yankees come to town twice a year, right? But the Rangers looked anything but major league.
The next year club management, to boost attendance, essentially sacrificed the career of David Clyde, a promising young left-handed pitcher. They brought him to the major leagues, straight out of high school. Here is that story via Wikipedia:
“Billed as the next Sandy Koufax, Clyde had a stellar high school career at Westchester High School. He was drafted with the first overall pick in the 1973 MLB draft.”
“The Rangers planned to have Clyde pitch his first two professional games in the major leagues before moving him down to the minor leagues, but Rangers owner Bob Short decided to keep him in the roster for monetary purposes, where he had a 5.01 ERA in 18 starts.”
“Journalists criticized the Rangers for promoting Clyde too soon, and after an uneventful 1974 campaign, he developed shoulder trouble and was sent down to the minor leagues in 1975, where he pitched three seasons. He was traded to Cleveland in 1978, and played two seasons before being demoted. Clyde attempted to make a comeback with the Houston Astros but was unsuccessful.”
“Clyde’s career made him the poster-boy for bringing up young players prematurely and dealing with arm injuries. He was named by journalist Randy Galloway as among the worst cases of mishandling a young player in baseball history.”
“He is considered by many as a savior of the Texas Rangers franchise because of the significant attendance boost that Clyde’s hype brought to the team, preventing it from a possible bankruptcy or American League takeover.”
Clyde has carved out a career as a pitching instructor and 50 years after his star-crossed debut with the Rangers, told an interviewer how much he loves to work with young pitchers, “to give them some of what came to me so naturally.”
I wonder what Clyde thought Wednesday, when the Rangers clinched their first championship.
My other Rangers thoughts were of the late Frank Howard. The slugger died Oct. 30, age 87, from complication of a stroke. It was just two days before the Rangers reached the baseball summit. What a shame he couldn’t see it.
Howard was among the most feared hitters in baseball but also earned the nickname “Gentle Giant. He played seven years with the Senators and moved to Texas with the franchise.
“Howard hit the final home run for the Senators at RFK in 1971 and the first at Arlington Stadium in April 1972 after the team moved,” wrote AP reporter Stephen Whyno. “The Rangers called Howard ‘a bigger-than-life personality who was very popular with his teammates and the fans.’”
“At 6-7 and 255 pounds, Howard was a massive, imposing figure as an outfielder and first baseman. He was also often the Senators/Rangers’ best hitter during times the team had six losing seasons out of seven,” Whyno wrote.
“He was the ultimate teammate, always,” said Dick Bosman, a pitcher who played six-plus seasons with Howard with Washington and Texas and remained friends with him for decades.
Howard finished his major League career with a .273 batting average 382 home runs and 1,119 RBIs.
“Growing up a baseball fan in Washington D.C., Frank Howard was my hero,” Washington Nationals owner Mark Lerner said in a statement. “The towering home runs he hit into the stands at RFK Stadium gave him the nickname ‘Capital Punisher,’ but I’ll always remember him as a kind and gentle man. “
“Playing with Frank Howard was one of the best experiences I had, and the reason I say that is because he taught us how to be big leaguers,” Bosman said.
And who can doubt the Rangers are big leaguers now?
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