With the Texas Rangers playing in their second-straight World Series, the question was asked, how many Washington-area fans maintained allegiance to the franchise after it left D.C. following the 1971 season? I can’t say for sure, but I’d be amazed if you needed both hands to count them. It’s safe to assume there are far more Cardinals fans locally.
In the 40 years since the ballclub left — and the 33 years I’ve been doing sports talk radio in the area — I think I’ve spoken with about five people who claimed they never stopped following the team.
In my own case, I followed the ex-Senators’ players once they were traded or sold elsewhere: Casey Cox with the Yankees, Del Unser with Cleveland, Frank Howard with Detroit, Paul Casanova with Atlanta, and so on. I remember being in the WTOP newsroom the night of July 19, 1974, when Dick Bosman — by then a Cleveland Indian — was no-hitting the A’s, and the sense of excitement I felt as he completed the effort on just 79 pitches. Jeff Burroughs winning the ’74 NL MVP was a highlight, as was Jim Mason’s home run in his lone World Series at-bat for the ’76 Yankees. I even followed Bill Madlock’s career. He was the last major leaguer who had originally signed with the expansion Senators, though he never played a game at RFK.
As for the Rangers’ franchise, let’s just say they were never much of an attraction when they came to Baltimore. Their first trip to play the Orioles in ’72 saw owner Bob Short get doused with beer by a disgruntled former Senators fan. It was a photo that made nearly every newspaper sports page coast-to-coast.
Short eventually sold the Rangers in 1974, but left his mark on the ballclub, though not in the way you might think. The linchpin of the deal that brought the Senators to Texas was Short receiving 10-years’ worth of broadcast revenues up front — roughly $7.5 million — that was his to keep regardless of when he sold the team. The entire franchise only cost him $9.4 million in December of 1968. It was an offer he couldn’t refuse, but it also meant the franchise wouldn’t get another nickel for their TV-radio rights until 1982.
The Rangers do little to recognize their first 11 seasons in Washington. There are a couple of pages in the media guide, and the club museum at the stadium has an old Senators jersey hanging in it. It’s the way it should be whenever a team relocates and changes the nickname.
When baseball came back to D.C. in 2005, I softened my stance on the Texas Rangers. As one of the seven big league teams never to have won a World Series, cutting that number by one would be a fitting way to conclude the year.
Examiner columnist Phil Wood is a baseball historian and contributor to MASN’s Nats Xtra. Contact him at [email protected].
