By Bill Jones
CBS Sports Texas
November 2, 2023
I couldn't wait to call the Texas Rangers office today. I just wanted to hear the receptionist say, "World Champion Texas Rangers."
Fifty-two seasons in the making, Texas Rangers fans woke up this morning as world champions.
No, it wasn't a dream.
But it was a dream season.
Last night when it was all over, when we emerged from the Rangers clubhouse at Chase Field—our ponchos and tennis shoes drenched in celebratory champagne and beer—we ran into an esteemed national media member who is also a longtime friend of CBS News Texas photojournalist Bill Ellis.
He innocently asked, "So, does this championship seem hollow since it came in Arizona and was the least-watched World Series ever?"
We politely said, "What?! Did you not see Game 6 12 years ago in St. Louis? Have you not heard of Nellie Cruz?"
Outsiders haven't lived through what Rangers fans have endured the last seven years, not to mention the last 52 years.
Just two years ago, after posting a 60-102 record in 2021, this club wrapped up a stretch where it had put together the three worst consecutive seasons in franchise history. That's saying a lot when you consider the first Rangers team in 1972 only won 54 games. Its leading home run hitter, Ted Ford, had 14 home runs...the whole season.
When Marcus Semien crushed the game-clinching 2-run homer in the 9th inning last night, this Rangers team extended its major league postseason record to 16 straight games with at least one home run. No team in the history of baseball has a longer playoff streak.
Simply put, this was one of the most amazing playoff runs in baseball history.
The Rangers set a major league record by winning 11 straight postseason road games. And they did it against a Tampa Bay team that went 27-6 to start the season, a Baltimore team that had the best record in the American League and hadn't lost a series at home all season, and the defending world champion Astros, who have played in four World Series the last seven years.
But this world title is not just about all that. This was the culmination of 51 years of trying, but coming up short. Sometimes, coming up well short.
This year, the Rangers put together a team filled with players that resembled so many of the same types of players who endeared themselves to Rangers fans through the years.
For example, 21-year-old rookie Evan Carter, a country kid from Elizabethton, Tennessee—who set an all-time postseason record with nine doubles—is not unlike Mike Hargrove, a country kid from the Texas panhandle town of Perryton, who at age 21 made the jump from Class A Gastonia in 1974 and became American League Rookie of the Year.
But the more I see Carter play left field, maybe he's more like Rusty Greer, a red-headed country kid from Albertville, Alabama, who became one of this club's all-time fan favorites.
No one knocked in runs at the rate that two-time American League MVP Juan Gonzalez, the Puerto Rican sensation, did in 1996 and 1998. That is, until Adolis Garcia came along. The Cuban refugee set a postseason record with 22 RBIs.
The left-handed hitting, North Carolina-born and bred Josh Hamilton had moments that rivaled the left-handed hitting, North Carolina born and bred Corey Seager, but never with the same Hall of Fame level consistency. Seager is what Hamilton could have been.
The Rangers captain for so many seasons—including the previous World Series years—was Michael Young, a Californian who was the model of consistency day in and day-out, both near the top of the batting order and in the middle of the infield. The captain of this team is Marcus Semien, a Californian who was the leadoff hitter and 2nd baseman for all 179 games this team played.
The Rangers have been blessed to have two of the best defensive catchers of their eras in six-time Gold Glover Jim Sundberg and 13-time Gold Glove Hall of Famer Ivan Rodriguez. But Catcher Jonah Heim, who stands 6 feet-4 inches tall and looks more like Pudge Fisk than Pudge Rodriguez, could win his own Gold Glove this year.
Rookie of the Year candidate 3rd baseman Josh Jung sometimes plays defense like he's six-time Gold Glover Buddy Bell, plus he sometimes hits like he's four-time Silver Slugger Adrian Beltre, but he always treats others like he's all-time Rangers good guy 3rd baseman Steve Buechele.
Speaking of good guys, the ever-affable 1st baseman Nathaniel Lowe is nothing like the ever-edgy Will Clark. The former 13th-round draft pick is more like the ever-popular former 15th-round draft pick Pete O'Brien, one of the few bright spots on those mid-1980s Rangers teams.
When it comes to pitching, reliever Jose Leclerc from the Dominican Republic brought back memories of another Dominican closer named Neftali Feliz, who struck out Alex Rodriguez to send the Rangers to their first World Series in 2010. But unlike Feliz, Leclerc was able to close out three World Series wins this year.
And finally, there's Big Game Nate Eovaldi, who won 17 games this season, including a 5-0 record in the postseason. Eovaldi is from Alvin, Texas. He's the 2nd best pitcher to come out of Alvin, behind only the legendary Nolan Ryan, who crafted the most memorable moments in Texas Rangers history...that is until last night.
The stars aligned just right for this club to travel a magical road to a place it had never been before. And, if you gaze closer, you'll see that these stars look a lot like some of the same stars we've seen here before. We just had never seen them all together in the same place before.
For those of us who remember the first Rangers star, the hulking 6-feet-7-inch tall Frank Howard hitting the first home run in the first big league game at Arlington Stadium in 1972, last night brought back more than a half-century of memories. This championship came just two days after Hondo passed away at the age of 87.
When the final out was recorded and the celebration ensued, the people I thought of were Tom Grieve (otherwise known as Mr. Ranger), who is in his first year of retirement after spending the previous 57 years with the organization as a player, front office executive and broadcaster.
Then there's John Blake, the media relations maven, and Chuck Morgan, the voice of the ballpark, who have been here for over four decades. Plus, Hall of Fame broadcaster Eric Nadel, has been with the team since the 70s and just returned to the booth at mid-season after taking a break.
It has been 26 years since Nadel's longtime radio partner, the legendary Mark Holtz, tragically passed away from leukemia at age 51. Holtzie was the one who coined the phrase, "Hello Win Column!" It's been the victory cry for Rangers fans for more than a generation now.
But never before has, "Hello Win Column!," been bellowed any louder or meant any more than on this November night in The Valley of the Sun, which finally shined on the team that never could … that is until last night.
