The inevitable September Collapse of the Texas Rangers

He forgot one.....

Being 1 strike away from winning a World Series twice and not being able to finish.

 

Might change the title from September to April the rate they are going...

 

My son just sent me a screenshot of a tweet from a baseball writer saying the Rangers already have a trade partner for Hole Camels. It's April 10.

 

It is approaching Dodgers level hate for me from the NL West days.

 

I'm in the minority, but less. I'm slow, though: I still hate each of the Dodgers and Braves more than the Cards and Rangers combined. (but not the Cubs. I hate the Cubs.) Now that the Rangers are irrelevant again, I can't even hate on them. It's like stomping a piss ant. Why bother?

 

The fact that many here still hate the Rangers, and are reveling in their irrelevance, makes it even more of a true rivalry.

When the Astros were irrelevant... not a single team (or fan of another team) cared.

 

I never hated the Cardinals....they were like the Colts in the NFL for me....I just respected them. Now all the years of battling for the WC and 2nd place in the division with the cubbies.....that is the team I despised. I think the Rangers are approaching that level now....

 

For me, I have more interactions with Ranger fans than I've had with Cubs, Cards, Dodgers, and Mets. It was weird how Ranger fans really didn't exist that long ago. Also, Ranger fans have a lot of overlap with Cowboy fans, and Cowboy fans have been obnoxious pricks for longer than I can remember.

 

A local sportscaster here made a joke...that might be prophetic. He asked whether or not Gallo would hit more home runs than the Rangers get wins. it might be a good race.

 

Ya, Dallas is big on bandwagon fans (I live there). Those and people who relive the Cowboys glory in the 90's, as if the previous 20 years didn't happen.

 

What is unique about the Rangers rivalry... unlike with the St. Louis Cardinals..... is that there is a non-sport city rivalry between Houston/Dallas as the two biggest cities in Houston with one located in the north and the other the further southeast...

I disliked the Cardinals a lot but I hate Dallas (just generally) and now that we are in the same division I hate the Rangers a lot.

 

I don't disagree - except it's never really fueled a robust Mavericks-Rockets rivalry, which is odd. I think it's the nature of the sport, where conference is more important than the division, especially when the 4-8 seed are mostly interchangeable fodder for the top 3 (as it was much of the Rockets-Mavericks joint hey day).

What ignited this rivalry, I think, is the Rangers dominance over the Astros in '15 & '16 - stole a division in '15 and essentially eliminated the Astros from postseason contention in '16. Rivalries spark when one team has something the other wants. And the ball is now clearly in the Rockets' court.

 

The World Champion Houston Astros saw a rise in value of $200 million, from $1.45 billion to $1.65 billion. In the process, the team leapt over the Texas Rangers and Atlanta Braves to finish the rankings as the 11th-most valuable team this year.
http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...york-yankees-mlb-most-valuable-team-4-billion

 

Pretty much exactly this. I always respected the Co-Ardinals, and they did the same towards us. LaRussa was a prick, and some of their players annoyed the hell out of me (Edmonds, Vina, Pujols, Eckstein, etc...) But I couldn't really hate 'em, they were just really good. Same with the Braves. Now the Cubs, much different story.

The Rangers have replaced them since the AL move, because there's gotta be somebody.

 

Now Elvis is down...it might just happen

 

6 weeks-3months according to dallas radio