The definitive Top 10 Texas Rangers games of the 2010s

The 10 best Texas Rangers games of the 2010s

#1: 2010 ALCS Game 6: Rangers 6, Yankees 2 (October 22, 2010)

Enough World Series PTSD.

On the very day that I turned 14 years old, the Texas Rangers advanced to the World Series for the first time as Neftali Feliz hung Alex Rodriguez out to dry with a nasty curveball called for the final strike. Poetic justice. Not just for myself, but for the millions of fans throughout Texas and beyond, who had sat through years of torture, letdown, and mistakes. The largest contract in sports history given to a player who stayed here for 3 years and didn’t make a postseason appearance. The Yankees dominance of the late 90s Rangers teams. The years of having great hitting but awful pitching, or vice versa.

This game has a very bittersweet aftertaste for Rangers fans. It marks the high point of the franchise, yes, but it also is just that – the high point. We can talk about the disappointments of that era of Rangers baseball all day long.

We can continue to harp on what could’ve been, those 2009-2012 years being nothing but continuous joy and excitement for all fans of the sport in the DFW metroplex. Rangers baseball meant something. There was an electricity throughout North Texas that I can’t wait to feel again. I’ve been happy plenty of times with the results of many Rangers successes since. I was elated to cheer them to another pennant in 2011. I was pleasantly surprised when the 2015 club overachieved and won the division. I absolutely adored the emergence of Joey Gallo as one of the game’s most unique and lovable players.

But nothing has come close to the pure thrill of that final strike from Game 6 of the 2010 ALCS.