After 50 years Washington D.C. won the “trade” between the Texas Rangers and Senators
It is only too fitting that on the same week the Texas Rangers celebrated a milestone they continue their charge toward their worst record ever.
Entering Thursday’s game at Baltimore, the Rangers were but three defeats from hitting the magic 100-loss mark for the first time since 1973.
The good news — they have 10 games remaining to tie their record for losses in a season: 105 set in that ‘73 season.
It was 50 years ago this week the American League approved the move of the Senators from Washington to Arlington, thus completing the long lobbying efforts of Tom Vandergriff, whose vision was to bring Major League Baseball to Texas.
“Richard Nixon called it the worst thing to happen to the Capitol since the British set it afire in 1814, yet it is one of the greatest days for us down in the Lone Star State,” Vandergriff’s grandson, Parker, wrote in a Facebook post this week.
We got the team and Washington managed to win the trade. The city went without big league baseball from 1972 to 2004, and still managed to win a World Series ahead of the Rangers.
What the Rangers have done since leaving Washington for Texas is karmic payback. There is no other explanation.
Fans around here have given up on this team, and justifiably so. A new park, a roof, and the promise of 72 degrees from first pitch to last pitch can’t bring them in.
It is one thing to rebuild and quite another to execute total annihilation.
Since 2017, the Rangers are 300-398. That’s an impressive .429 winning percentage. It is hard to lose like this.
According to my friends at the Elias Sports Bureau, the Rangers are the fifth-worst team in MLB since the start of the 2017 season.
Those trailing our Rangers are the Miami Marlins, Kansas City Royals, Detroit Tigers and Baltimore Orioles.
What do those four franchises all have in common? They have all won World Series ahead of the Rangers since this club moved from Washington to Arlington.
The Marlins and Royals have two, and the Tigers and Orioles have one.
Depending how the final 10 games of the season play out, the Rangers could potentially catch the Pittsburgh Pirates and move up to sixth worst in the last five years.
That passes for achievement around here these days.
Don’t get too excited at the thought of the 2021 Texas Rangers setting the franchise record for losses in a season. This crew is likely “too good” to set the record of 106 by the Washington Senators in 1963.
And don’t get too excited at watching these September call-ups and think that 2022 will be a competitive year.
The Rangers have made an effort to fill their farm system with talent, but no one knows if those young players can assemble a good major league team.
Until he’s a player, he’s just another prospect.
From Adolis Garcia, to Isiah Kiner-Falefa, to Taylor Hearn, the Rangers have some decent players. Not enough.
The Rangers are just so bad we are looking at another pile of 2021 in 2022.
And maybe 2023.
For the sake of your own sanity, prepare for the reality that this team is not deep enough to push over the mythical .500 mark and make a run at the playoffs before 2024.
This month, the club announced a front office shakeup that included what essentially amounts to is a demotion for assistant GM Mike Daly, who had been overseeing the team’s minor league development.
Daly will retain his title and, the team said, he will “serve a meaningful role in the Rangers’ baseball ops.” Basically, they didn’t want to fire him.
Jon Daniels still oversees all of this, because his boss loves him more than air.
How JD has remained in any role with the club deserves a banner at Globe Life Mall.
Mr. Vandergriff, who died in 2010, would be delighted to see that the team he brought to Texas is still around, with generations of fans and a focal point of development for his beloved Arlington.
He just would be in shock that 50 years since the move was approved that it would be Washington, D.C., not Arlington, with the World Series ring.
This story was originally published September 24, 2021 at 5:30 AM.
