The Team That Couldn't Hit: The 1972 Texas Rangers

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