Top ten moments as a Texas Ranger for Juan Gonzalez

Not many players personify the 1990's-era Texas Rangers more than outfielder Juan González. Don't get me wrong, though. Rusty Greer still stands as my all-time favorite, and Iván "Pudge" Rodríguez might be the greatest player this franchise has ever produced, but few could match the way "Igor" played the game and the excitement he brought to every at-bat. The Rangers honored Gonzalez prior to Friday night's win over the Seattle Mariners, so what better time than now to look back at the highlights from his career with Texas?

For the sake of simplicity, these are listed in chronological order. However, feel free to debate with your friends about the order or even insert other favorite moments.

#10 -- September 14, 1989: Juan's first multi-hit (and multi-RBI) game

The date was September 14, 1989. Believe it or not, Juan had already played in 11 games prior to this one, and had started in seven of them. He'd begun his MLB career by going 0/9 with a walk, four strikeouts and a GIDP over four games before earning his first big league hit. Despite the talk about his potential coming into the big leagues, González struggled upon his arrival to "The Show."

But on this Thursday evening at Kauffman Stadium (known then as "Royals Stadium" and covered with AstroTurf instead of real grass), Juan showed just what his bat could do. Starting in center field and batting eighth ... yes, eighth ... remember, he struggled for a bit and this particular roster already featured the heavy bats of Rubén Sierra, Rafael Palmeiro, Pete Incaviglia and Julio Franco. Entering play that night, González had a batting average of just .154 and a slugging percentage of .192.

He led off the top of the second by striking out and would come to bat again in the third with runners at the corners and one out. Texas had already jumped out to a 4-0 lead on the Kansas City Royals that night and had just chased the starter from the game after 54 pitches in just two innings. Jumping all over the second pitch, he lined a single into left field to drive in Franco.

He would return to the dish again in the fourth. By this point, the Texas offense had extended the lead to 8-0 and now González stepped in with runners on first and second with two outs. On the fourth pitch of the at bat, he roped a 1-2 offering into the left field gap for a double, driving in Incaviglia for this second RBI of the game, and his second hit. The Rangers cruised to a 10-4 victory that night, and Juan had played his part with two hits, driving in two runs and also scoring once.

#9 -- September 18, 1989: Juan's first career home run

So, this moment did take a while for Igor. Although he was regarded as one of the team's top prospects prior to his arrival, it took until his 16th big league game and his 11th MLB start before he launched the first bomb of his career. Timing is everything, however.

Hosting the Seattle Mariners in the first game of a four game homestand, the legendary Nolan Ryan would toe the rubber for Texas. The interesting thing about this ballgame, is that it was actually a makeup of a rained-out meeting from July 2, earlier in the season. Because of the scheduling change, the game took place at Arlington Stadium in front of a meager 4,654 fans. It was by far the least-attended home game for the Rangers that season.

Although they sat 13 games out of first place when play started, the Rangers were still fighting to earn just the seventh .500+ season in team history since moving to Arlington 17 years earlier. While the powerhouse Oakland Athletics would go on to win the West and the World Series with ease, each September game still carried a lot of weight for the Rangers.

In the top of the fourth, superstar and future Hall of Fame outfielder Ken Griffey Jr. gave the M's a 2-0 lead with a double off Ryan. In the next half inning, shortstop Jeff Kunkel got on base with a one out single. Hopping into the box as the tying run at the age of 19 years and 333 days, González put the ball into the aluminum bleachers in Arlington Stadium for his first big league big fly, making him the youngest Ranger at the time to hit a home run. Just two years later, Pudge would break that record. But at the time, it was a pretty big deal. Texas would go on to win the game 5-2 and they would finish with a respectable 83-79 record.

For Juan, it was the only homer he would hit that year, but it certainly wouldn't be his last career highlight. In fact, it was simply a foreshadowing of an entertaining tenure with the Rangers.

#8 -- September 14, 1990: Juan walks it off against the Brewers

Fast forward one year to the date after Juan's first career multi-hit game. Once again, Nolan Ryan took to the hill for Texas at home, and once again, the Rangers were on their way to another 83-win season. This time, they faced the Milwaukee Brewers, who actually resided in the American League at that time.

Igor entered play with a .300+ batting average and had already belted three longballs in the month of September. Although he was certainly making a name for himself, he was still simply late-season call-up and not a regular in the lineup. This was partly because he was still just 20 years old, and partly because Ranger management preferred getting him regular at bats with AAA Oklahoma City where hit 29 homers that year.

On a warm Friday night with a legend pitching, this battle went to extras. While he wasn't taking a no-hitter that late, Nolan did enter the 6th inning with a shutout in-tact. Meanwhile on the other side, Milwaukee's Jaime Navarro had a shutout going of his own.

But with one out in the top of the 6th, another future Hall of Fame hitter took Nolan deep. Center fielder Robin Yount broke the scoreless tie with a long drive to center field. But late in the game, the Rangers played small ball and tied the score in the bottom of the 8th.

That would remain the score until the bottom of the 10th when González was due to bat 2nd. After the hitter before him struck out, Gonzalez would push Brewers reliever Chuck Crim to a 2-0 count. That third pitch would fly deep into the Arlington sky and land in the left-center field seats, clinching a 2-1 win for the Rangers and growing a throng of Texas players at home plate to mob him upon his arrival.

Believe it or not, the author of this article was at the ballpark the next night, missing the dramatic finish by one game, as well as missing getting to see Ryan pitch by one game. However, he did see that game happen on TV, so he was still quite thrilled by it.

The homer was González's fourth and final home run of the season, where he would finish batting a not-too-shabby .289 and driving in 12 runs.

#7 -- October 6, 1991: Juan walks off the season

It's kind of funny. Many Ranger fans have looked back at the early 90's teams with the all-white home unis and the Rangers script across the chest with disdain. Common comments include "reminders of bad baseball" and "there were some terrible Texas teams back then." They must be talking about the Houston Astros, because the Rangers had a stretch of three straight .500+ seasons from 1989-91 and broke .500 yet again in '93. But let's break that all down a bit further for a moment, just for the sake of creative reminiscence.

In the old playoff format, the American League and National League each consisted of two seven team divisions. Furthermore, only teams that won the division would go onto the playoffs. Despite other professional sports leagues awarding "wild card" playoff berths for years, Major League Baseball took their sweet time joining the others with it. That all changed in 1994, though. But we're not there, yet. So, let's continue looking at 1991, but we're going to pretend that the 1994 playoff format was inserted that year. Doodly doo, doodly doo, doodly doo ...

Entering the final game of the season, the Rangers and A's stood with identical records at 84-77, tied atop the newly-designed American League West Division. The winner of the game would go onto the postseason to face the winner of the brand new American League Central Division, the Minnesota Twins. Thus, the losing team would stay home to watch as the American League East champion Toronto Blue Jays faced the Chicago White Sox, who clinched the upstart American League Wild Card berth just a few days before.

(Editorial note -- Some might point out that the #1 seed would have gone to the Twins and they'd face the Sox. However, the 1994 rules stated that two teams from the same division would not meet in the first round. So, the #2 seed would then face the WC winner while the #1 took on the #3.)

So this was it. The Oakland team that had dominated the AL West for years faced missing the playoffs yet again, but this time at the hands of a franchise that had never quite made it. And of course, on the mound for Texas stood "The Express," himself, Nolan Ryan.

Oakland didn't waste much time, though. They scratched an early run in the first. It didn't take terribly long for the Rangers to respond though, as they manufactured a run of their own in the bottom of the second.

The score would remain 1-1 until the bottom of the fifth when Palmeiro would drive in Franco to put the Rangers out front. But like the Athletics' earlier lead, this one didn't last long, either. In the top of the sixth, a throwing error would gift them a run on a steal attempt. The contest remained knotted at two until the bottom of the ninth.

With two outs and a man on first, González would step to the plate with a chance to clinch the franchise's first AL West title. And after taking the first pitch, he did just that. He pounced on a 1-0 offering from Rick Honeycutt, sending the ball deep into the cheap seats, earning the 85th win of the season for Texas on his 27th deep blast that year.

Ok, so they didn't win the West that year. However, the rest of the story was true. But coming against the Oakland team that had broken so many hearts previously, it still felt that big. It felt especially big to close the season in walk-off fashion.

#6 -- The 1992 season: Juan breaks the team home run record

The 1992 Texas Rangers season stands as the breakout year for Igor. Although his '91 numbers were fantastic, his power came on in full force the following year.

Playing primarily in center field, which is historically known as a "defensive" position, Juan brought some extra "pop" to the outfield along-side Sierra in right and Kevin Reimer in left. Together, they formed one of the most powerful outfields in baseball that season.

The other issue for the Rangers that season was that they had a lot of power, but struggled getting men on base. As a team, they batted nine points below the American League batting average of .259, and fell seven points below the league average OBP of .328. So despite hitting the fourth most home runs as a team that year, they scored 18 runs fewer than the league average.

González was not immune to that, belting an MLB-best 43 taters that year, yet 27 of them came with nobody on base. Another 11 came with one man on and the remaining five came with two runners on board. He had no grand slams that season.

But looking back at that 43rd homer, it came in somewhat dramatic fashion. Having battled back-and-forth with Oakland slugger Mark McGwire for the majority of the year, González entered the final game of the season tied with McGwire at 42 long balls. The A's slugger had gone yard the day before to tie it up with González.

But in the third inning with the Rangers already up 2-0, Igor would break the game open with a two-run blast. Texas would win the game, but finish with a modest 77 wins. But Juan took home his first home run title, also becoming the first Rangers player ever to do so, and he won his first Silver Slugger award.

#5 -- July 12, 1993: Juan wins the Home Run Derby

Growing up a Texas Rangers fan, to this point there hadn't been much about the All-Star game to get excited about. Sure, Major League Baseball has historically done a good job of guaranteeing every team representation for the Mid-Summer Classic. But at the end of the day, the players still had to go out and actually put on an All-Star performance.

Before the rules changed about the uniforms, there was always something special about watching the lineups announced and seeing the guys representing the Rangers in their home whites or road grays, depending on the host city's league affiliation. But not many Texas players had performed well enough to remember prior to the 1993 All-Star week festivities. But Igor changed things that Monday afternoon at Camden Yards.

Excitement began building the week before. Word trickled out that Gonzalez had accepted the invitation to participate in the Home Run Derby, four years after Rubén Sierra had tied Eric Davis in the 1989 contest. González had his work cut out for him, too. He faced a lineup that included Ken Griffey Jr., Barry Bonds and Cecil Fielder. In fact, Griffey had already recorded seven long balls in his first-round entry to set the high water mark for the group.

Things started out slowly though, for Gonzo. He'd gotten two outs (out of a possible 10) before belting his first shot over the fence in left. It was a rocket, too. It bounced off the facade of the second deck and left the bat with a crash, traveling approximately 445 feet.

His second blast didn't come until he'd already recorded his fifth out. But this one looked like an even bigger blast than the first. You could just feel that something big was coming.

One out later (now at six) he would sneak one over the center field wall for his third homer. His fourth came immediately after, with much more authority than the other, bouncing off the second deck facade in left yet again. Now, Juan was cookin'!

His next piece of contact barely slid foul into left. But then came the signature shot of the round. Yes, Griffey later reached the right field warehouse, which is the one that most remember from this derby. However, Igor sent his fifth rocket into orbit, 473 feet into the upper deck of left field, igniting the Baltimore crowd.

He then popped up for his eighth out of the round, leaving just two to go and standing at five home runs. Number six, like number three, would skim over the wall, but this time to left field on a frozen rope. He followed that up with his ninth out of the competition. He then uncorked a round-tying exclamation point shot to dead center, landing above the ivy on the batter's eye that stood several feet behind the wall. He then recorded his final out of the round to finish tied with Griffey at seven home runs, setting the stage for a five out playoff between the two.

Griffy posted four on his turn, the final one being the infamous "warehouse shot." But Juando started with an out and then two quick, long blasts to cut Griffey's lead in half. He followed that up with out number two and then a deep blast to left center field that hit the rear wall in center field towards the bottom for his third homer. His competition-tying fourth tater came right after that. He then recorded two more outs, followed by a blast that just didn't quite make it far enough to end the round in a tie.

Both men would take to the dish again for a second playoff round, only this time each one would get just three outs. And despite having just left the batter's box, Gonzo would go right back in to lead things off.

He lined a rope to left, which would have likely been a solid single in a real game but counted as an out in the derby. Then, he hit a deep blast to the upper deck in left that traveled further than most of his first-round shots. One out later, he almost hit a second, but it fell just short, ending his round with one.

However, one would be all he needed to take down a clearly-gassed Griffey. Junior hit three solid line drives to right, but they just didn't have the "oomph" needed to even contend as homers and Ranger fans across the Metroplex celebrated as Juan González became the first and only Rangers player to win the Home Run Derby outright.

#1 -- June 5, 2002: Juan returns to Texas for a milestone homer

Following the 1999 season, the Rangers made the decision to part ways with Juan González. Honestly, it was hard to see. In a massive November trade with the Detroit Tigers, the legendary slugger would be moving on.

He later signed with Cleveland and prior to the 2002 season, Gonzo re-joined the Rangers as a free agent, needing just three home runs to reach 400. Batting cleanup in a mid-season matchup, he led off the second inning and pounced all over the first pitch he saw that day from Jarrod Washburn.

His career with the Rangers would end about as quietly as that first year started for Juando. Between 2002 and 2003, he would play a season's worth of games, hitting a combined 32 homers and driving in 105 runs in 152 games. Which honestly, that would be one solid season altogether.

He would finish his career as one of the Rangers' most-decorated players of all-time. Amongst the franchise leaders, the slugger currently ranks 10th in batting average (.293), sixth in games played (1,400), second in slugging (.565), fifth in at bats and plate appearances (5,435 and 5,925, respectively), fourth in runs scored (878), fifth in hits (1,595), fourth in doubles (320), second in total bases (3,073), and the leader in home runs (372), extra base hits (713), and runs batted in (1,180). For those reasons, "Señor Octubre" personifies the 1990's Texas Rangers teams.

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