Retired Numbers - Texas Rangers
The Texas Rangers began life in 1961 as the Washington Senators. In 11 years in the nations capital, they had exactly 0 jerseys to retire. The Senators weren't exactly known for being good. For that matter, the Rangers before the late 1990's were pretty bad too. The franchise finally won a World Series in 2023, so there's no one here that was apart of that accomplishment. The aforementioned 90's, however, have a couple notable names.
#7 - Ivan Rodriguez
Pudge debuted in 1991 where he made a run at the Rookie of the Year award. He came up short, but that wasn't a trend for his Rangers career. From 1992-2001 he went to every all star game and won every Gold Glove award. From '94-'99 he won every Silver Slugger. In 1999 (covered by the original Showdown set) he was the MVP. If there was one guy you absolutely NEEDED behind the plate to throw out the fastest runners trying to steal, it was Rodriguez and no one else compared. 7 times in his Rangers career he led all Catchers in Caught Stealing Percentage, often times throwing out over half of his runners. He only needed one try to make the Hall of Fame.
#10 - Michael Young
Michael Young was a 7 time all star, most notable in my memory was the 2008 all star game that went deep into extra innings and just didn't want to end until Young hustled around 3rd to score the walk off run for the AL. The was also the year he brought home a Gold Glove award. Starting his career as a 2nd Baseman, he moved to Shortstop after the ARod trade to make room for Alfonso Soriano. Years later, he moved to 3rd to give a shot to their new SS prospect Elvis Andrus. Young played where he needed to because his bat was so valuable to the team. Despite not being apart of the offensive heavy Rangers teams of the 90's, when Young's time with the Rangers came to an end, he left as the teams all time leader in multiple offensive stats, including Games, Doubles, Triples, Hits and Runs.
#26 - Johnny Oates
As mentioned before, the Rangers weren't very good until their run in the 1990's. The man in charge of those teams was Johnny Oates. As manager, he led the Rangers to their first playoff appearances, winning the AL West in 1996, 1998 and 1999. Unfortunately, his teams ran into the Yankees each time in the middle of their dynasty run. He was co-Manager of the Year in 1996.
#29 - Adrian Beltre
Recent Hall of Famer Adrian Beltre had made a name for himself in LA, Seattle and Boston before he came to Texas, but it was with the Rangers where he put together sustained success and get his 3,000th Hit. With the Rangers, he made 3 all star games, won 3 Gold Gloves and 2 Silver Sluggers. He is the only 3rd Baseman in history with both 3,000 Hits and 400 Home Runs.
#34 - Nolan Ryan
Nolan Ryan played for four different teams and three of them retired his number (look away, Mets fans). When he arrived to Texas in 1989, he still had some gas left in the tank as he made his final all star team, and led the league in Strikeouts 2 more times. In 1990 and 1991, he tossed his 6th and 7th career no-hitters, which along with his 5, 714 Strikeouts are all time records.
