Texas Rangers: Ivan Rodriguez Hall of Fame Election Legitimizes Franchise

It’s official, long-time Texas Rangers catcher Ivan Rodriguez has been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, legitimizing a young franchise in a league of legends.

Major League Baseball cherishes history and legends more than any other professional league. Founded in 1903, MLB is by far the oldest of the four major American sports leagues. 16 teams have origins dating back to 1901 or earlier giving roughly half the league a very storied history.

But with that storied history comes enormous levels of elitism.

It’s safe to say, the Texas Rangers who were founded (as the Washington Senators) in 1961, roughly 80 years after half of the league, don’t possess the same history, accomplishments, or nostalgia that their more-elite counterparts boast. Up until yesterday, they didn’t even have a legitimate Hall of Famer.

As Evan Grant pointed out yesterday, Nolan Ryan wasn’t exactly 100% ours to claim. He came to the Rangers with 20 years of baseball already under his belt, spending most of career with the Houston Astros organization.

Don’t get me wrong, Nolan Ryan is a Ranger. But he’s also an Astro and the elite franchises in MLB are happy to point that out.

But to the pleasure of all Texas Rangers faithful, we have our first homegrown talent going to the Hall of Fame. Ivan Rodriguez, better known as Pudge Rodriguez, got the call yesterday making it official.

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After receiving four votes over the required 75% of the 442 votes, Pudge became only the second catcher all-time to go into the Hall in his first year of eligibility.

In a class that featured Jeff Bagwell and Tim Raines, Pudge was the only member of the 2017 class that was a first ballot Hall of Famer.

And that means something.

With no Hall of Famers or World Series titles under their belts, the Rangers were nearly the Washington Generals of MLB. For a franchise that that has very limited postseason success, churning out homegrown Hall of Famers is the next best way to build up a reputation for a franchise.

Pudge isn’t the first great Texas Rangers player to come to up. But he’s the first to become a Hall of Famer. While he technically did play for other teams at the end, his home team is quite clearly the Texas Rangers.

The Texas Rangers are never going to earn a place next to the New York Yankees in the nostalgia or accomplishments department. Heck, the Yankees have so many great players in their past, they’ve effectively retired every one of their single digit numbers. They may need to use letters and symbols soon because they may run out of numbers to use.

This is a start. Ivan Rodriguez’s acceptance into the Hall just legitimizes a franchise that’s striving for greatness.

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More Texas Rangers to come?

Surely there are more Texas Rangers Hall of Famers to come. When Adrian Beltre retires, he’ll surely go in on the first ballot. While Beltre wasn’t a born and bred Ranger, there’s little doubt he’ll be donning a Texas Rangers cap when the day comes.

Who else do you think will make in the Hall of Fame from the Texas Rangers?