Texas Rangers History: Tell me about the good old days

For those old enough to remember the heartbreak of the two World Series losses, were you glad you were able to witness October Texas Rangers baseball? Or do you envy those not old enough, or maybe those who were not born yet, because they did not have to live with the failure and disappointment in October?

It was 11 years ago when the Texas Rangers were amongst the best teams in baseball. Competitive and successful baseball was synonymous with Arlington.

Behind the reigning 2010 MVP Josh Hamilton, Arlington hosted one of the best offenses and best teams in baseball. Hamilton drove in 100 RBI’s and crushed 32 home runs that year. Nobody thought that that season would end any other way outside of a championship, but with the Rangers finally capturing their first AL pennant, hopes were finally sky high for a first ever World Series.

The Texas Rangers were once on top of the baseball world.

Sadly, thanks to a SF Giants team that won three World Series in five years, the Texas Rangers would come up short of their ultimate goal in 2010, but the team was destined to be back to the fall classic sooner rather than later.

Flash forward to the next season, 2011. That would surely be the year that the Rangers would finally be able to put all the pieces together and hoist their first Commissioner’s Trophy right?

The Rangers won 96 games that year, and would be facing the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series, a great team, but surely no match for the two-time AL Champs.

That is, until he who shall not be named, crushed Rangers fans dreams harder than he crushed a walk off home run in Game 6. Luckily, there was still a Game 7 to be played, but Game 6 simply took too much of the Rangers’ heart and soul, and seemed to have energized the St. Louis bats, as the Cardinals prevailed sending the Rangers packing, with no parade or championship to bring home to Texas.

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The team did remain competitive for a few seasons after those two magical years, but never made it back to the Fall Classic, and baseball has yet to be as exciting in Arlington since then.

One day, playoff baseball will again be in the Texas Rangers’ future.

A rebuild has been as inevitable as death and taxes, and fans still long to host a playoff game with the Rangers on the field.

But for as long as the rebuild may seem, it simply can’t hurt as bad as the heartbreak of coming up short in the World Series, twice.

Some fans are simply not old enough to remember the glory days of the west, having to ask family about stories of the times when Arlington was supreme in Baseball.

Perhaps they’re the lucky ones. But I think those of us who were fortunate enough to witness baseball greatness in Texas won’t soon forget it, either.