Maybe hosting a ‘Pride Night’ will reverse the Texas Rangers’ putrid offense | Opinion
The Texas Rangers in 2025 have, or will, host a ‘night’ for Whataburger, Glizzy, Star Wars, Harry Potter, All Elite Wrestling, Barbie, Funko Pop, Stranger Things, Pokémon Go, Margaritaville, bobbleheads, Jackie Robinson, Asian Heritage, First Responders, Military, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Daddy Daughter, Mexican Heritage, Healthcare Heroes and Down Syndrome.
Those who have “Pride” didn’t make the list. For the however many years in a row, there will be no “Pride Night” during Pride Month at Globe Life Mall. They are the only team in MLB not to host such an evening for a home game.
As long as the Texas Rangers are owned primarily by Mr. Ray Davis, don’t expect this to change.
Ray is 83, and from the generation that is not going to “get” all the fuss about a Pride Night. He remains very active with the club, and he writes the checks. If he wants the Rangers to host an Asian Heritage Night, a Down Syndrome Night or a MAGA Night, that’s the way it’s going to be even if the lack of a Pride Night generates negative headlines every year.
What the Rangers should host is a “We’ve Got the Runs Night.” The pregame giveaway is a roll of toilet paper combined with a bottle of laxatives, and during the game Rangers players actually touch home plate.
In lieu of that, they should reconsider their firm stance on Pride Night. Not because ownership has had a change of heart, but rather as a way to address their pathetic offense. Nothing else has worked.
Rangers’ offense plunging toward bottom
We are one-third into the season, and the only thing preventing the Rangers offense from securing its spot as the worst in baseball is the existence of two awful teams stuck in the bottom of a toilet: The Chicago White Sox and the Colorado Rockies.
The Rangers won the World Series thanks in part to a collection of blistering bats that punished quality pitchers. We are less than two years removed from that memorable October, and most of these same players now can’t hit a beach ball much less a baseball.
GM Chris Young tried the desperate, cliche solution of firing the hitting coach, which never works. On May 5, Young announced the team dumped the man who held that job when they won the World Series, Donnie Ecker.
At the time, the Rangers ranked 25th in slugging (.359), 26th in batting average (.228), 28th in on-base percentage (.285), and 29th in runs (113). They were one game under .500.
New offensive coordinator Brett Boone has been on the job for a little more than a month, and you decide. The team is currently 28th in slugging (.356), 28th in batting average (.222), 29th in on-base percentage (.283), 27th in runs (209).
After allowing three runs in the ninth inning at Tampa Bay on Thursday night in a 4-3 loss, the Rangers are now five games under .500.
Name the batter, from Corey Seager, Marcus Siemen, Wyatt Langford to Josh Jung, and no one is doing what he should.
It’s never the hitting coach. A batting coach may have some tangible effect on one, maybe two hitters if that. It’s on the pros to do what they are paid to do: Hit.
Pitching keeps the Rangers ‘around it’
This team is wasting one of the best pitching staffs in baseball. When have the Rangers ever been known more for their pitching than their hitting?
Going into Thursday’s game, the team’s ERA of 3.17 is the third best in baseball. It has surrendered 444 total hits, the third fewest in the league.
And yet the Rangers are the only team ranked in the top 10 in ERA with a losing record.
They’ve been shutout eight times. They were shutout 10 times all of last season. And in 29 games, the offense has produced two or fewer runs.
The Rangers are 29-34, and the optimism about returning to World Series contender status has been replaced by the unnerving fear that they’re just the same ol’ Rangers. That the World Series they won in 2023 wasn’t a fluke, but rather a one off.
It’s still early-ish, and there is plenty of time for a reversal, but the Rangers are on pace to have their eighth losing season in the last nine years.
No sport celebrates players who will do anything to break a slump more than baseball. In 1976, Cincinnati Reds shortstop Davey Concepcion was so frustrated at the plate he put himself into the industrial dryer at Wrigley Field. A teammate hit the “ON” button, and Concepcion ended up with some burns.
The next day he went 4-for-5.
The Rangers can’t jump into a dryer. They fired their batting coach.
Maybe it’s time to try Pride Night.
This story was originally published June 6, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
