Texas Rangers Baseball
The Washington Senators moved to Minnesota in 1960, Major League Baseball awarded a team to Washington, D.C., giving it the name of the old franchise. It was in 1972 that the team moved to Arlington, Texas, and changed their names to the Texas Rangers. The team played its first game on April 15, 1972, a 1-0 loss at the California Angels.
The Rangers and Angels are the longest running AL franchises still waiting to win their first pennant. The Rangers have never even advanced to a League Championship Series. The Rangers have won four American League West Division titles (1994, 1996, 1998, and 1999).
The year 1995 saw the beginnings of the most promise for the Texas Rangers. With a brand new ballpark that hosted its first All-Star Game, Johnny Oates was hired as the Rangers' manager and promptly led them to an AL West division title in 1996. Oates again led the team to AL West championships in 1998 and 1999.
Alex Rodriguez signs a 10-year, $252 million contract with Texas at the age of 25. The Rangers enjoyed a dramatic turnaround in 2004 by winning 89 games and finishing just three games back in the American League West. Buck Showalter engineered the Texas renaissance and was named AL Manager of the Year. The Rangers had five All-Stars: shortstop Michael Young, third baseman Hank Blalock, second baseman Alfonso Soriano, starting pitcher Kenny Rogers and closer Francisco Cordero. First baseman Mark Teixeira and Soriano picked up Silver Slugger Awards and Rogers earned his third Gold Glove.
Ameriquest Field
On April 1, 1994, a new start for the Texas Rangers began with the opening of Ameriquest Field in Arlington. Outside the park, visitors can wander up Nolan Ryan Expressway and stroll along the Rangers Walk of Fame, reading about each team in franchise history on the brick path beneath them.
Ameriquest Field features a granite and brick facade, exposed structural steel, an asymmetrical playing field, and a home run porch in right field. Texas architecture is featured throughout, from the outer facade to the Lone Stars in the concourses and on the seat aisles.
This unique complex also includes a baseball museum, a children's learning center, and a four-story office building within the ballpark and a youth baseball park, a 12-acre lake, and parks and recreation space on the perimeter. The field
has modern innovations like an infield tarp that is mounted on hydraulic lifts and stored below ground level along the left-field line.