The impossible is now possible, for the Texas Rangers are World Series champions
You now can say, write, text, Tweet, direct message, emoji and scream what previously was never possible: The Texas Rangers are World Series champions. They finally did it. After authoring irrelevance, and pain, like few other sports franchises in North America for decades, the Rangers are at long last losers no more. If you haven’t “come down with something,” you will soon. A parade is coming. Think Friday.
Adjust your budget for “Texas Rangers: 2023 World Series Champion” gear. Because Christmas is also coming, although you’re probably not going to wait ‘til Black Friday to splurge. On Wednesday night in Phoenix, the Rangers defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-0 in Game 5 of the World Series. The Rangers won the series, 4-1. The Rangers finished the 2023 postseason with two wins in Arlington, and were 11-0 on the road.
Somewhere high above, the late former Arlington mayor Tom Vandergriff was smiling, laughing and probably crying, too. He was the man who was the key figure in landing the Rangers from Washington D.C. in 1972. For so many people in North Texas and beyond, what the Rangers did here is the one event they were only too positive they would never see in their lifetime. For some of those people, they will surely say, “I can die happy now.”
After the final out, watching the Rangers players stream out of the dugout, and the relief pitchers from the bullpen, toward the mob scene in the infield was surreal. These things don’t happen to the Rangers. Of the final out, Rangers third baseman Josh Jung said in a clubhouse drenched in Budweiser and champagne, “I just wanted to hug somebody.” “This is baseball nirvana,” pitcher Max Scherzer said.
Not only do the Rangers not make the playoffs, or the World Series very often, they don’t win in them. That futility is as much a fabric of their identity as the T on their cap. This franchise previously was 0-2 in the World Series, the last coming in 2011 that will forever be remembered as one of the most painful conclusions any sports team has ever suffered.
“I’d say ‘23 makes up for ‘11,” said Rangers pitching coach Mike Maddux, who was with the club when they lost that painful series in St. Louis. In a lifetime spent in baseball, this is Maddux’s first World Series winner. The Rangers lost 100 games two seasons ago, and in 2022 completed their sixth consecutive losing year. That is the Texas Rangers we all know and love.
“I am so happy for so many people,” Rangers general manager Chris Yong said, soaked from head to toe in champagne and beer. “There are so many people who have waited a long time for this. We changed the history of the Rangers. “You have to give (owner) Ray Davis (former team GM and president of baseball operations) Jon Daniels a lot of credit. This was their vision.”
After the Rangers finally managed to get a hit off Arizona starting pitcher Zac Gallen, they broke through with a precious run in the seventh inning. Rangers starting pitcher Nathan Eovaldi didn’t have the stuff that Gallen had on Wednesday night, but he did not allow a run in six innings. At one point the Diamondbacks left nine runners on base in the first half of the game.
The Rangers offense eventually gave their staff breathing room by scoring four runs in the top of the ninth inning to blow open what previously was a tight game. “I’m probably babbling right now,” Eovaldi said on the field after the game, “but this is very special.”
Seldom has there been a more tense blowout of a World Series than the one we just witnessed. Games 1, 3 and 5 were full of drama while 2 and 4 were not. Once Corey Seager hit his game-tying two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 1, the series changed. The Rangers won the game, and Arizona had blown a game it could not lose. The Rangers were better than Arizona, and the series played that way. “It’s been a great ride with them,” first-year manager Bruce Bochy said, who now has won four World Series as the manager. “They did this.” The event you thought would never happen just did. “I don’t know if I fully grasped that we did it,” Jung said. “We got No. 1.”
Between making the playoffs, winning the wild card round, the American League Division Series, A.L. Championship Series and now the World Series, the Rangers had a total of five champagne celebrations. All beer and champagne parties are not the same. “This is definitely different, isn’t it?” second baseman Marcus Semien asked, shortly after teammates poured champagne and beer all over him. “I mean, this is it.” So say it, scream it, write it, text it, DM it, however you need to express yourself go ahead. The Texas Rangers are World Series champions.
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