The year 1977 was Corbett’s banner year. We won 94 games that year, the most in our history and un-matched until the 90’s. Two of our opening day players are associated with the team today. Tom Grieve and Jim Sundberg. More amazingly we did it after arguably the most bizarre week in club history as we had four different managers, one (Eddie Stanky) for just one game. We were actually featured in a Tonight Show with Johnny Carson monologue. That made me proud and embarrassed at the same time.

Brad Corbett brought winning baseball to Texas
(Photo credit: Boston Globe)

Having his hand in everything, Corbett played a role in a four team eleven player trade the following year.  The trade netted us Al Oliver and Jon Matlack. We won 87 games but finished only five back of the Royals. We had Jon Miller in the radio booth and listening to games was a blast. My favorite Ranger moment (still) was opening day that year when Richie Zisk homered off Goose Gossage as we defeated the hated Yankees. They weren’t even called walk-offs yet.  We finished five games out again in 1979 and Corbett was done. While he was partially responsible for a lot of free agents and quite a few trades, on paper only one huge mistake happened that year, trading away Dave Righetti.  But oh yeah, Corbett hired Eric Nadel to join Miller in the booth and he’s still here.

It was all too much for Corbett. He was a homer. He hated to lose. He sold the team to oil man Eddie Chiles and we waited and waited to be competitive again.

We know now, meddlesome owners make bad GM’s (Same goes for football Jerry). But as a fan ready to leave my high school years and take on the world, Bradford Gary Corbett, from the Bronx, gave us a taste of big city baseball we wouldn’t see for another thirty years.  Thanks Brad.

When the steroid era began, the league was coming off arguably one of the lowest points in its history. The strike of 1994 sent fans packing. Fans quit going to the ballpark in droves. One of the most exciting things about a ballgame is the long ball. With the introduction of steroids the balls were flying out of the park at a record pace. There was no finer example of this at its peak than the Texas Rangers. With Juan Gonzales, Rafael Palmiero, Pudge Rodriguez and Jose Canseco all allegedly taking part in adding a little performance enhancement. The league was complicate in the growth of its use. Turnstiles were turning in record numbers and the money was flowing.

Juan Gonzales
(photo credit: philly.com)

Flash forward a few years and suddenly the office of the Commissioner decides that it has to go. Even Congress (with so much more to worry about than this) stepped in to ask how it could happen. I’ll tell you how it can happen. Greed.

IF these players are going to be on a HOF ballot, the league office needs to come clean like so many players had to. If they were to do that I would support their names on the ballot, even their entry into the hallowed halls of Cooperstown. I am not a big believer in adding an asterisk in the record books. I think any person who loves the history of baseball can find context in any record book. Babe Ruth was still the greatest player of all time to me, because he did everything that was opposite of performance enhancing. The league was steadfast in its refusal to do anything with Roger Maris and Hank Aaron’s numbers and that I understand. But something as epic as our steroid era screams for a disclaimer.

As it is, I don’t support them getting in, much less than on a ballot.