The Rangers may have avoided a sweep in Kansas City on Sunday, but it did little to alter their big, bleak picture.
No way around it, 2014 is on pace to be the team’s worst season since its arrival to Arlington in the early ‘70s.
Despite yesterday’s victory over the Royals, the Rangers are 50-79. That’s the worst record in baseball by two games over the Rockies, and it’s accented with a staggering minus-139 run differential (no other team is as bad as minus-100).
Without a late push, the Rangers will flirt with the franchise’s worst record since 1972-73, when guys named Frank Howard, Joe Lovitto, Rich Hand, a manager named Ted Williams and an outfielder named Tom Grieve flubbed their way to 54 and 57 wins. The worst season since that hideous debut was in ’85, when manager Bobby Valentine’s team went 62-99. That win percentage of .385 is just a smidge ahead of this year’s .388.
With 33 games remaining, it would take a catastrophic collapse (something along the lines of going 4-29) to set the franchise’s worst all-time record. But unless the Rangers finish 13-20 or better down the stretch, they’ll earn their infamous place in history with only the third 100-loss season in the franchise’s existence.
A native Texan who was born in Duncanville and graduated from UT-Arlington, Richie Whitt has been a mainstay in the Metroplex media since 1986. He’s held prominent roles on all media platforms including newspaper (Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Dallas Observer), radio (105.3 The Fan) and TV (co-host on TXA 21 and numerous guest appearances, including NBC 5). He currently lives in McKinney with his wife, Sybil, and two very spoiled dogs.
