Commentary: Rangers are a habit hard to break

As a boy in the 1970s whose dad would put him on a tractor around 8 a.m. on a long summer day and often not get him off until a 9 p.m. sunset, a tractor radio broke up the monotony. It was a godsend.

Even then, the Starland Vocal Band and Seals and Crofts began to wane as the day wore on in the Texas Panhandle. Just get me to 7:15. Not only did it start to cool by then and the end of the day was in sight, but the Texas Rangers pregame show would come on KGNC in Amarillo.

At 7:30 p.m., Dick Risenhoover, a one-time Amarillo sportscaster, and Bill Merrell would transport me to old Arlington Stadium, Comiskey Park, Kansas City, and stadiums across the country. I was easily hooked on Rangers baseball even though by the time I was plowing up wheat stubble in late June, the Rangers were usually 10 games out of first place.

So it is for kids especially of a certain generation. Maybe they saw the Cardinals once on vacation, or they liked the blue on the Dodgers uniform, or the Cubs and Braves were always on cable superstations, but there are reasons, usually unusual ones, why we become fans of certain baseball teams.

David Stevens – perhaps you’ve heard of him – has been a hard-core Astros fan back to the time there were actually astronauts in Houston. His older cousins were Astros fans. In the late 1960s/early 1970s, Houston had the wonderfully nicknamed outfielder Jimmy “The Toy Cannon” Wynn. And, for Stevens, Houston was the only Major League team his transistor radio could pick up until KGNC ditched them for the Rangers in 1972.

I too remember those Astros on the radio on the John Deere 4020 with Gene Elston and Loel Passe, but I wasn’t as loyal as Stevens. I ditched the Astros for the Rangers about the time KGNC did. Besides, Dallas-Fort Worth was closer than Houston, and my relatives would take me to a game when visiting.

The Rangers have always stubbornly been my professional team. It’s never taken too much toughness to be a Cowboys fan. Back in the day, they usually won, and just about everyone was a Cowboys fan, including me. As for pro basketball, I was only a fan of whoever was playing the Celtics.

The Rangers were always the redheaded orphan. I like redheaded orphans. The most noteworthy thing about Texas was its unnoteworthiness. The Rangers were a complete afterthought nationally, but, by golly, they were my afterthought.

Few games were televised then, and obviously seldom were the Rangers. One summer evening in 1979, Texas was going to be on ABC’s Monday Night Baseball. You mean I could actually see them? I bargained with my dad if I jumped on the tractor at 6:30 a.m., could I quit at 7 p.m. and watch the game? He gave me a quizzical look and then agreed.

The game got national attention only because a live microphone clearly picked up a Rangers bat boy saying, “Howard Cosell, the whole state of Texas hates your guts!”

Texas went more than 20 years of my fandom before even making the postseason for the first time in 1996, the first of three trips in four years under manager Johnny Oates. The Yankees quickly dispatched Texas all three times.

That was followed by yet another fairly long drought of losing, but then an out-of-body experience. The Rangers, under manager Ron Washington, won consecutive American League titles in 2010 and 2011. The World Series, are you kidding?

Rangers fans know where they were for Game 6 of the 2011 World Series when, on two occasions, Texas was one strike away from winning the Whole Enchilada against the Cardinals. In cruel fashion, they lost and my wife had to pull my head out of the oven in the game’s gut-wrenching aftermath. Other than a division title in 2016, nothing has really happened of note since.

Coming into this year, they had six losing seasons in a row, and not by just a little bit. The Rangers have finished a combined 165 games out of first place in that span, which is hard to do unless a team is truly bad.

But here’s the thing. They may not be bad any more. Ownership seems serious. They’ve spent money on free agents and beefed up the farm system. They’ve cleaned part of the house that needed cleaning. Future Hall of Fame manager Bruce Bochy was coaxed out of retirement. Mike Maddux, maybe the game’s best pitching coach, is back.

As of this writing, the Rangers are 20-13 and in first place in the AL West by two games. Their 221 runs scored through Sunday are a team record through the first 33 games, and two shy of the Major League record.

The starting pitching could be a strength. But potential ace Jacob deGrom is hurt, the bullpen is leaking badly, and there’s still 80% of the season left to remind fans the Rangers are still the Rangers.

Yet I will still follow. Those old John Deere tractors are long gone, my dad has passed, and the farm has been sold. But my Rangers fandom marches on.

Jon Mark Beilue writes about regional sports for The Eastern New Mexico News.