As the final strike was looked at by the Diamondbacks Spark Plug Ketel Marte, reliever Josh Sborz spiked his glove into the grass and was soon swarmed by his fellow teammates, player and coaches alike, near the pitchers mound in Chase Field. Meanwhile, the National League champions looked on in shock, disappointment, and ultimately pain. For the first time in 52 years, the Texas Rangers were World Series champions.
With an achievement so special, it is absolutely necessary to get something that will be immortalized. That something final game ball used. Catcher Jonah Heim grabbed it, then said after the game: “That ball means something to the state of Texas and to Rangers fans. I wasn’t going to let it get away”.
This isn’t the first time the Rangers have been in the Fall Classic. They notoriously faltered in 2011 while being one strike away from what would have been their first in St. Louis, yet David Freeze had other ideas. Tripling in the 9th to tie it then hitting a walk-off solo home run in the 11th to send the series to game seven, warranting one of Joe Bucks’ most famous calls of all time: “We will see you tomorrow night” with two minutes of crowd noise after. Post 2011, the Rangers would make the wild-card round in 2012 then not appear again until back to back seasons in 2015 and 2016, the latter adding onto the history of Texas being on the wrong side of iconic playoff moments. Facing the Blue Jays, OF Jose Bautista hit a moonshot, paused, looked straight forward, then threw his bat resulting in one of the most famous images in sports history.
Texas would then miss the playoffs for seven straight years, until this year where they had to endure one of the hardest paths to the postseason in the league. First, they faced off against 99-63 Tampa Bay Rays in the wildcard, whom they swept in two games. After that, they faced one of the best teams in all of baseball, the 101-61 Baltimore Orioles. To everyone’s shock, however, they swept the first seed O’s to have a date with their state foes, the Houston Astros. It took game seven to decide the AL Pennant, but the Rangers got it done. Star Shortstop Corey Seager was named World Series MVP, having a batting average of .286, three homers, six RBI and six runs scored. Seager now becomes the fourth player to ever win the honor multiple times, the first time being in the 2020 World Series with the LA Dodgers. Now, Seager and the Rangers have their name etched in baseball history books.
