The Agony and The Ecstasy of The Texas Rangers

You can’t have one without the other.

And while this is true of most teams, it’s gospel for your Texas Rangers. The agony stretches back to 1972, when they went 54-100 under Ted Williams, who never managed again. I won’t bore you with the 80s, when the best action on the field were postgame concerts in the summer. Or the 90s, when they finally made the postseason only to get rolled by the Yankees. I refuse to mention the 2000s.

Decades of futility are relatively painless compared to a moment so pure it became shorthand for all that could ever go wrong.

Game Six.

For baseball fans, Game Six of the 2011 World Series is considered one of the greatest ever played. And it’s tough to argue. What happened in Busch Stadium that night will be talked about forever. But Rangers fans can’t talk about it at all. The words are cursed and should never be spoken out loud. Because the Texas Rangers were one strike away from winning the World Series. Not once but twice.

And I recorded it all.

My parents had come to the house to watch history with their young grandsons and I was determined to document everything. I haven’t watched a second of this footage until now and seeing it brings surprising things back. Like how tight Game Six was. All knotted up at four until the seventh when Adrian Beltre and Nelson Cruz went back to back. Here’s the Beltre bomb, a moment of triumph that so didn’t matter.

The joy would not last.

In the bottom of the eighth, Allen Craig hit a solo shot to bring the Cardinals within two. Manager Ron Washington brought in Neftali Feliz to close out the ninth and give the Rangers their first world championship. It was never easy with Feliz and sure enough, he gave up a double to Albert Pujols then walked Lance Berkman to put the tying run on first.

With two outs, up stepped David Freese.

The moment has been replayed endlessly but you haven’t seen it break the heart of my family. Watch the video twice, there’s a lot going on. Me repeating, “that’s it,” as the ball soars toward Cruz, the shock of recognition on my father’s face and the physical manifestation of disgust at the end.

This is the agony.

And it lasted twelve long years.

On Wednesday, November 1, 2023, I woke before sunrise and started driving to Austin.

My plan was to meet my sons and a buddy at Little Woodrow’s to watch Game Five of the 2023 World Series. Somehow the Rangers had exceeded every expectation in the postseason, manhandling the Rays and the Orioles then winning the ACLS in a seven game classic against the hated Astros. And just like that, they were up three games to one against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

One win from glory.

Little Woodrow’s wasn’t all that crowded. Austin is Astros country for the most part, though there were some Rangers faithful on hand. The game was a pitcher’s duel with Diamondback ace Zac Gallen not allowing a hit through six. The tension seemed to inch us ever closer to the inevitable, another Rangers heartbreak. Game Six meant we didn’t deserve nice things.

But you deserve anything in baseball. You earn it or you don’t. And this time, we damn sure did.

Corey Seager broke up the no-hitter in the seventh with an opposite-field single proving once again that Rangers ownership got what they paid for. He went on to score off a Mitch Garver single. Rangers 1, Diamondbacks 0. Plenty of reason to worry. The bullpen ERA for the 2023 Texas Rangers was 4.77, an absolute abomination. The number had come down a little in the postseason but not enough to feel good about holding the lead. We needed all the runs the baseball gods would allow.

Turns out that number was four. With two on and nobody out in the eighth, Jonah Heim ripped a single up the middle that was badly misplayed by centerfielder Alek Thomas. The single turned into a triple and the Rangers added two more.

And that’s when I knew we would win.

I didn’t dare say this out loud but the feeling was undeniable. When Marcus Semien murdered a Paul Sewald fastball the feeling erupted into absolute certainty. Josh Sborz stayed on to close out the ninth and three batters later we were one strike away from winning the World Series. Again.

Past is not always prologue and I tempted fate by shouting, “One Strike Away,” which drew the appropriate looks. But I could feel it in my baseball-loving bones. This wasn’t 2011. This wasn’t the same team. This was really happening.

I thought of my father, watching from his easy chair in Denton, and all the times we met at Arlington Stadium to watch yet another ridiculous loss. I thought of how every April I signed my sons out of school for Opening Day, the greatest day of the year. They were pacing beside me now, hopeful yet hesitant, the pain of Game Six deep in their DNA. I thought of every fan in that moment, watching with fathers and sons of their own, not quite able to accept what was happening, that decades of devotion were about to pay off, that Game Six couldn’t hurt them anymore, that all the hopes and dreams of their beloved Texas Rangers were about to come true. Then they did.

This is the ecstasy.

I hope it lasts forever. Or at least until next season.

Let’s Go Rangers.

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