By Woodrow Carroll
When the Texas Rangers won the World Series championship last season, the number of Major League Baseball (MLB) franchises without a World Series championship was reduced to five among the 30 MLB teams, Colorado Rockies, Milwaukee Brewers, San Diego Padres, Seattle Mariners, and Tampa Bay Rays.
Keep in mind that name identification and franchise history are not the same. In 1957 the Milwaukee Braves defeated the New York Yankees in a dramatic seven games series to win the World Series. The Braves are still around, however, the franchise is0 in Atlanta having departed Milwaukee after the 1965 season.
The expansion Seattle Pilots proved to be a poor fit and lasted one campaign in 1969 before relocating to Milwaukee as the Milwaukee Brewer. Greener pastures always will be there and pro sports is always attuned to the situation.
How did the Texas Rangers arrive? After the 1960 campaign the Washington Senators, long an American League fixture, made their way to Minnesota Twin Cities as the Twins.
Not having a Major League team in the Nation’s capitol was not popular. So an expansion franchise, operating as the Washington Senators, came into existence in 1961.
The reconstituted Senators floundered both on the field and at the gate. This second version of the Senators ended up as the Texas Rangers in 1972.
The Rangers came ever so close to winning the World Series in 2011. Leading three games to two, Texas twice was ahead by two runs late in game six in St. Louis. The Texas lead did not last. The St. Louis Cardinals came back from the brink of disaster before winning 10-9 in 11 innings.
In Game seven of the 2011 World Series, the Rangers scored two runs in the top of the first inning before the Cardinals came to bat. The two runs the Rangers scored in the first inning ended their scoring The Cardinals came on to win the game, 6-2, and claim the World Series championship.
Among the five MLB franchises never to have won a World Series, the Seattle Mariners are the lone organization without a World Series appearance. The Colorado Rockies have fared little better than Seattle. Neither Seattle nor Colorado has won a World Series game. Colorado did reach the World Series in 2007 only to fall in four straight games to the Boston Red Sox.
The Brewers played the Cardinals in 1982 in their only World Series. Milwaukee was ahead three games to two after five games only to see the Cardinals win games six and seven to win the World Series.
The San Diego Padres twice have played in the World Series with little success. In 1984, the Padres lost four games to one to the Detroit Tigers. In 1998 the New York Yankees showed the Padres little mercy in sweeping them in four straight games.
Tampa Bay made it to two World Series. It took the Philadelphia Phillies,
Tampa Bays’ foe in the 2008 World Series, only five games to wrap up the championship. Tampa Bay was was only marginally better in 2020 when the Los Angeles Dodgers beat Tampa Bay, four games to two for the World Series championship.