Is someone in Major League Baseball punishing Texas for what happened in Dallas in 1963? Probably not … but something’s not right since 2013 and it makes me grasp for conspiracy theories.
Since 1972, my team has been the Texas Rangers.
But before that, it was the Houston Astros.
I supported the Astros — all the way back to when they were the Colt .45s, in the National League — for four decades. They were the first Major League Baseball team I saw play in person. That was when my dad drove from Irving to Houston so I could swat mosquitos and cheer for the Colt .45s over the Cubs at Colt Stadium.
I was in my teens when my dad and I returned, this time to the Astrodome. We saw the Astros bat against Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, both with the Los Angeles Dodgers — and stayed in town to watch Juan Marichal and his San Francisco Giants defeat the Astros. This was National League baseball.
Houston was my favorite team until the Washington Senators, the worst team in the American League, became MY Texas Rangers in 1972. And then I hoped I could one year see my two favorite teams in the World Series.
Consider:
The World Series can be all Los Angeles (AL-Angels vs NL-Dodgers).
Or all Chicago (AL-White Sox vs NL-Cubs).
Or all New York City (AL-Yankees in the Bronx vs the NL-Mets in Queens.)
A World Series can be all Missouri (AL-Royals vs NL-Cardinals).
Or it can be all Bay Area (AL-Oakland As vs NL-San Francisco Giants).
Or if can be all West Coast (AL-Mariners vs NL-Padres).
And some of those have happened.
While highly unlikely, there can even be an all-Florida World Series (AL-Tampa Bay Rays vs NL-Miami Marlins).
So why did Major League Baseball REFUSE to allow the prospect or opportunity of an all-Texas World Series?
For years Texas baseball fans dreamed of one. They dreamed of the nation’s eyes and national media sharing the AL-Texas Rangers vs the NL-Houston Astros.
Then Major League Baseball destroyed a natural statewide rivalry.
And furthermore, Major League Baseball went so far as to deny the Rangers and Astros the prospect of a potential statewide American League Division rivalry by keeping the two teams in the American League West Division.
There is nothing at all Major League about the Astros-Rangers rivalry any more. In fact, the best they achieve is older brother vs younger brother.
Wishful thinking: If anyone should win the lottery, or make a fortune some other way, might they invest in some way to force the Astros back into the National League?
Bring back the potential for an All-Texas World Series.
Either that, or wait for someone to build or move a new National League Baseball franchise into San Antonio, Austin, Midland, Lubbock or Amarillo.
Having a statewide race for the World Series would be a natural.
The Houston Astros spent 51 years battling in the National League before being moved only seven years ago, in 2013, into the American League West — already the longtime home of a Texas-based baseball team.
Even the Super Bowl has the chance of being an all-Texas showdown between the American Football Conference Houston Texans vs. the National Football Conference Dallas Cowboys.
The National Football League has no problem with Texas.
Can there be anything less than a national conspiracy at play here, with Major League Baseball holding back the potential esteem of Texas baseball? Is it liberals attacking the state for voting Republican? Is it simple jealousy because we’re so awesome? Or does it have something to do with how Big Bend bends?
It’s gotta be something!
So speaking of the Senators … I call (with tongue in cheek) on Senators Cornyn and Cruz to find out why this travesty has been forced on the great Lone Star State.