TEXAS RANGERS
One of two baseball teams formed in 1961, the Texas Rangers began their Major League Baseball days far away from their current home. The initial creation of the club sent them to the nation’s capital, as the Washington Senators. Despite housing one of the American League’s finest hitters in Frank Howard, the Senators would only manage 1 winning season in 10 years. With ownership almost constantly changing hands and fortunes flailing in their early years, then-owner Bob Short decided to pack up his bags and ship the franchise to Arlington, and the Texas Rangers were born!
In Texas, the Rangers’ hopes began to improve. 1974 was a strong year featuring key players like Jeff Burroughs, Ferguson Jenkins, and a young Mike Hargrove. They would still finish outside of the playoff picture though. The rest of the decade featured an up and down period, with any hope of reaching a World Series far out of sight.
In the 80s, the Rangers amassed a strong squad of talented players. People like Ruben Sierra, Edwin Correa, Mitch Williams, Nolan Ryan, Juan Gonzalez, Kenny Rogers, and Julio Franco brought great hope to the club, but they would still not manage to win their own division, thus a first appearance in the MLB playoffs continued to elude the franchise.
The 1990s saw the first real success for the Texas Rangers. A new stadium (now titled Globe Life Park in Arlington) would help push the team forward. Great hitters like Gonzalez, Ivan Rodriguez, and Dean Palmer then brought an AL West division title to Texas and paved the way for a first playoff appearance, though they would lose to the New York Yankees. Nevertheless, two more playoff appearances would follow in the decade, in the 1998 and 1999 seasons. Unfortunately, those magical seasons would end in playoff sweeps at the hands of the Yankees, who would go on to win the World Series in each of those 3 Rangers’ playoff seasons.
While 2001 would see he arrival of superstar hitter Alex Rodriguez, his bat couldn’t help the team overcome their struggles, and another postseason appearance would remain out of reach until 2010. By then, a talented squad was amassed led by the strength of hitter Josh Hamilton. During the season, a trade for Cliff Lee greatly improved their pitching, while players like C.J. Wilson, Neftali Feliz, and Colby Lewis kept opponents bats fizzling out. Nelson Cruz also became a key hitter for the Rangers.
Fans that season saw their beloved club defeat the Tampa Bay Rays and avenge their previous playoff losses to the Yankees as the Rangers would reach their first World Series. Unfortunately, the strong San Francisco Giants’ pitching would dominate the series and the Rangers would lose.
The Texas Rangers would again reach the World Series in 2011, and even came within a single strike of winning it all on several occasions. But this time it would be the St. Louis Cardinals breaking the Rangers’ hearts, winning a dramatic Series in 7 games. Since then team fortunes have been mixed. There was an epic collapse in 2012, which saw the year end in the AL Wildcard game, and they haven’t been back to the playoffs ever since. A great ace pitcher has emerged in Texas, with Yu Darvish getting strikeouts and wins on a regular basis, but the ultimate glory of a World Series championship remains out of sight. Perhaps one day the Texas Rangers will take that next step!
AAA Sports Memorabilia has a great selection of Texas Rangers autographed memorabilia both online and offline. Collectors go to great lengths to find and acquire collectibles that have significance to them. Autograph collectors are always looking for that unique autograph, a game-used item, or an autographed collectible that depicts a great moment in sports history. Since 2006, AAA Sports Memorabilia has been helping sports collectors in finding these great collectibles. All of our autographed sports memorabilia, including our autographed Texas Rangers collectibles, are guaranteed for life to be authentic or your money back. Our autographed memorabilia is obtained during private sessions with the athletes and a representative is there to watch each signature being applied to the collectible.
Visiting our Texas Rangers autographed sports memorabilia section often is best if you are looking for that next valuable Texas Rangers collectible to add to your collection. We have even more autographed Texas Rangers memorabilia in stock then what is on our website, so if you can’t find that collectible that you really want on our site, please contact us at cs@aaasportsmemorabilia.com to see if we have it in stock.
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