The Team That Couldn't Hit

The 1972 Texas Rangers were a culmination of decades of trying to get a major-league team in Dallas-Fort Worth. The area has a long history with baseball, going back to the 1800s, and minor-league teams played in both cities right up until the Rangers arrived with Ted Williams at the helm.High expectations were quickly dashed. Just how bad were those early Rangers teams? When reporter Mike Shropshire wrote a book about covering the Rangers from 1973 to '75, he titled it Seasons In Hell. Twenty years later, the Rangers still hadn't made the playoffs.

Counting the decade when the franchise was known as the Washington Senators, the team did not go to the playoffs for the first 35 years of its existence. So why write a book about the 1972 Texas Rangers, perhaps the worst team in club history? Because they're the start of that history.

Articles in this book cover the effort to bring a team to North Texas and the story of Tom Vandergriff, the man now known as "the father of the Rangers." Biographies of every man to play--or coach--for the 1972 team are presented, including Frank Howard, Larry Bittner, Horacio Pina and Tom Grieve, and broadcasters Don Drysdale and Bill Mercer. Owner Bob Short and Arlington Stadium itself are given full write-ups as well.

This book is the collaborative work of 46 members of SABR--the Society for American Baseball Research.

CONTENTS

Prologue: The Washington Senators: 1961-71 by Joseph Wancho

Major-League Baseball Comes to Arlington by Greg Chandler

PLAYERS

Larry Biittner by David E. Skelton

Rich Billings by Steve West

Dick Bosman by Dale Voiss

Pete Broberg by Gregory H. Wolf

Jeff Burroughs by by David E. Skelton

Casey Cox by Alan Cohen

Jim Driscoll by Charlie Grassl

Jan Dukes by Clayton Trutor

Bill Fahey by Steve West

Ted Ford by Chris Holaday

Bill Gogolewski by Gregory H. Wolf

Tom Grieve by Steve West

Rich Hand by Raymond Rossi

Toby Harrah by Frederick C. Bush

Vic Harris by Paul Hofmann

Rich Hinton by Mark Sternman

Frank Howard by Mark Armour

Gerry Janeski by David E. Skelton

Dalton Jones by Maurice Bouchard

Hal King by Chris Holaday

Ted Kubiak by Rory Costello

Steve Lawson by Chris Holaday

Paul Lindblad by Paul Hofmann

Joe Lovitto by Charlie Grassl

Elliott Maddox by Gordon Janis

Marty Martinez by Joseph Gerard

Jim Mason by Steve West

Don Mincher by Marc Z. Aaron

Dave Nelson by Rick Schabowski

Jim Panther by Chad Moody

Mike Paul by Wayne Strumpfer

Horacio Pina by Rory Costello & Francisco Rodriguez Lozano

Tom Ragland by Bob LeMoine

Lenny Randle by Charlie Grassl

Jim Roland by Gregory H. Wolf

Jim Shellenback by Paul Geisler

Don Stanhouse by Maxwell Kates

Ken Suarez by Bo Carter

MANAGER

Ted Williams by Bill Nowlin

COACHES

Joe Camacho by Charlie Grassl

Nellie Fox by Robert W. Bigelow & Don Zminda

Sid Hudson by John Bennett

George Susce by David E. Skelton

Wayne Terwilliger by C. Paul Rogers III

OWNER

Bob Short by Bob Whelan

BALLPARK

Arlington Stadium by Will Osgood

Players who Homered at Arlington Stadium as Both Minor and Major Leaguers by Alan Cohen

MEDIA

Dallas-Fort Worth Baseball Media in 1972 by Steve West

Bill Mercer by Bo Carter

Don Drysdale by Joseph Wancho

Randy Galloway by Norm King

OTHERS

Tom Vandergriff ("father of Rangers") by Greg Chandler

Joe Burke (general manager) by Steve West

Hal Keller (dir. player development) by Chip Greene

Bill Zeigler (trainer) by Charlie Grassl

along with recaps of ten significant games from the 1972 season