Texas Rangers Brief History
The era of the Texas Rangers started in 1972. The team played its first game under this name on April 15, 1972, a 1-0 loss to the California Angels. The next day, the Rangers beat the Angels 5-1 and that was the team's first victory. In 1974, the Rangers finished the season 84-76 and in second place and yielded to the eventual World Series champion Oakland Athletics. In 1974, the Rangers are still the only MLB team to finish above .500 after two consecutive 100-loss seasons.
Through 1977-1979 the team had excellent seasons and came very close to clinching a playoff spot in the first half of 1981, but lost the game. When Bobby Valentine became the Rangers manager in the mid 80s, the team had a couple of winning seasons, which also became possible thanks to rookies Ruben Sierra and Pete Incaviglia. However, the team never improved over second place, and Valentine was fired in 1992.
Starting from the mid 1990s, the team saw some light at the end of the tunnel. They got a brand new ballpark and Johny Oates as the manager who quickly led them to an AL West division title in 1996.
From 2007 up to now, the team continues battling their way to a World Series. The team has had some wins and losses through the 2007 season. The Rangers have won a total of 3,491 games and lost 3,976 over their history, equating to a .468 lifetime average. The team is 1-9 in individual playoff games, and 0-3 overall for postseason series.