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Can the Texas Rangers Be “That Team”?

By Ben Davila

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On the cusp of September, baseball is still relevant in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. As a matter of fact, it’s alive and well at Globe Life Park in Arlington for your Texas Rangers.

Their improbable surge to take over the second wild card spot in the AL has captured the imagination of a very loyal fan base. “Baseball town” it may not be, but we fiercely ally ourselves with this team, even taking back and embracing former turncoats.

It got me to thinking about a notion that gets discussed occasionally on KTCK’s “The Hardline” afternoon drive radio program.

The best team doesn’t always win

Mike Rhyner, Corby Davidson, and Danny Balis often refer to a team that gets hot at just the right time as “that effin’ team”.  

It’s a team that typically consists of a group of players that just seem abjectly mediocre for long measures of a season, but then catch fire and seriously contend for a championship.

And as the Rangers continue to stay in the picture, all I keep thinking to myself is “why not them?” It happens from time to time in pro sports. The best team doesn’t always win. It’s often the team that’s playing the best at the right time that claims the spoils of victory.

On-the-field chemistry clicks. Players return from injury. Teams find that intangible “It” and ride it for all it’s worth. For fans, it’s a wonder to watch. It makes you pine for the next game. And it’s a bummer when your team has the night or week off.

It’s a phenomenon more prevalent in the NFL’s age of parity. The 2011-12 New York Giants spent the first three quarters of their season navigating the realm of ordinary before winning three of their last four regular season games.

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That late push enabled them to win a weak NFC East that year with a 9-7 record. No one really expected them to do much in the post season tournament, but the Giants had other plans, as they rambled through the NFC bracket and captured the conference championship en route to upsetting the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI.

The 2008-09 Arizona Cardinals came within a hair of winning a championship coming off a 9-7 regular season record, too. But despite Santonio Holmes never getting his right foot down before being pushed out of bounds, the NFL gifted the Pittsburgh Steelers yet another title.

In the NHL, the Los Angeles Kings pulled it off in 2011-12 when they won the Stanley Cup despite entering the tournament as the eighth seed. Goaltender and Conn-Smythe trophy winner Jonathan Quick stood on his head so many times, he may as well have bolted a skate blade onto his helmet.

It also didn’t hurt that the Kings became road warriors and amassed the most road wins in the playoffs that year. Outlandish goaltending, and finding ways to steal home ice time after time, allowed them to be the best team at the right time.

The Rangers have been jelling in similar fashions as they’ve made their push. Shin-Soo Choo has finally turned into the on-base machine he was supposed to be. Elvis Andrus is showing defensive focus he sorely lacked earlier in the season, and he’s thrown in some pop at the plate as well.

If Cole Hamels and Derek Holland are rounding into the form they displayed on Friday night and Sunday afternoon respectively, I can’t imagine any American League team being eager to face off with them in a play-in game or opening round series.

The Rangers are playing some exceptional baseball right now. The pitching rotation and bullpen barely resemble anything they trotted out to begin the season. The batting lineup is simply the embodiment of clutch right now. The guys are having fun and seem to know deep down that they’re, that effin’ team.

Being the Rangers homer that I am, I can’t help but dream. There’s nothing quite like cool October night baseball when you’re living and dying on every pitch.

So why not these guys? Why not “us”?

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