Arlington to MLB: This ain’t Big D

The Texas Rangers deserve great thanks, and not only for bringing Arlington and Tarrant County a happy surprise of October baseball.

When Major League Baseball sent West Division championship T-shirts reading “The West Is Ours,” but mistakenly showing a certain city skyline to the east, the Rangers immediately canceled a shirt order and asked baseball officials to discontinue the design.

Major League Baseball officials issued an extraordinary formal apology for associating Dallas’ skyline with the Rangers, Tarrant County-based since then-Arlington Mayor Tom Vandergriff spirited them away from Washington in 1972.

Baseball spokesman Matt Bourne said: “We made a mistake in using this design.” He said baseball would stop shipping the shirts.

Since then, MLB.com has even removed the shirts from its own online store.

Arlington and the Rangers share a long, proud and successful partnership. The Rangers give us many reasons to be proud.

This story was originally published October 6, 2015 at 6:38 PM with the headline "Arlington to MLB: This ain’t Big D."