1972 Texas Rangers season

1972 Texas Rangers
1972 Texas Rangers
League	American League
Division	West
Ballpark	Arlington Stadium
City	Arlington, Texas
Owners	Bob Short
General managers	Joe Burke
Managers	Ted Williams
Television	KDTV
Radio	KRLD; (Don Drysdale, Bill Mercer)

The 1972 Texas Rangers season was the 12th of the Texas Rangers franchise overall, their 1st in Arlington as the Rangers, the 1st season at Arlington Stadium and the team's first year in the AL West, after playing their first 11 seasons in Washington, D.C. The Rangers finished sixth in the American League West with a record of 54 wins and 100 losses. The Rangers were dead last in batting in the major leagues with a .217 team batting average. They failed to record an extra-base hit in 38 of their 154 games, the most of any team in the live-ball era (1920 onwards).^[1]

Offseason

December 2, 1971: Bernie Allen was traded by the Rangers to the New York Yankees for Terry Ley and Gary Jones.^[2]
December 2, 1971: Del Unser, Gary Jones, Terry Ley, and Denny Riddleberger were traded by the Rangers to the Cleveland Indians for Roy Foster, Ken Suarez, Mike Paul, and Rich Hand.^[3]
December 2, 1971: Paul Casanova was traded by the Rangers to the Atlanta Braves for Hal King.^[4]
March 4, 1972: Denny McLain was traded by the Rangers to the Oakland Athletics for Jim Panther and Don Stanhouse.^[5]
March 7, 1972: Tim Cullen was released by the Rangers.^[6]
Prior to 1972 season: Lew Beasley was acquired by the Rangers from the Baltimore Orioles.^[7]

Regular season

On April 15, 1972, the Rangers played their first American League game against the California Angels on the road at Anaheim Stadium. The Angels' Andy Messersmith hurled a complete-game, two-hit shutout, and the Rangers fell, 1–0. Toby Harrah and Hal King had their only hits, both singles, but catcher King made two errors. His second miscue led to the Angels' winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning. Dick Bosman was the hard-luck loser.^[8]

The first game in Texas

On April 21, 1972, the Rangers' first game in Texas came six days later at Arlington Stadium against the Angels before 20,105 spectators. This time, Bosman emerged triumphant as the Rangers built a 6–1 lead and hung on to win their home opener, 7–6. Frank Howard and Dave Nelson each homered for Texas, while Lenny Randle and Harrah each collected three hits. Harrah scored three runs, and Randle notched four runs batted in.^[8]

Opening Day starters, April 15, 1972

2	Lenny Randle	2B
1	Dave Nelson	3B
5	Don Mincher	1B
15	Hal King	C
33	Frank Howard	LF
4	Larry Biittner	RF
35	Joe Lovitto	CF
11	Toby Harrah	SS
27	Dick Bosman	P^[8]

Season standings

v
t
e
AL West
Team	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
Oakland Athletics	93	62	.600	—	48‍–‍29	45‍–‍33
Chicago White Sox	87	67	.565	5½	55‍–‍23	32‍–‍44
Minnesota Twins	77	77	.500	15½	42‍–‍32	35‍–‍45
Kansas City Royals	76	78	.494	16½	44‍–‍33	32‍–‍45
California Angels	75	80	.484	18	44‍–‍36	31‍–‍44
Texas Rangers	54	100	.351	38½	31‍–‍46	23‍–‍54

Record vs. opponents

1972 American League record v t e Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]
Team	BAL	BOS	CAL	CWS	CLE	DET	KC	MIL	MIN	NYY	OAK	TEX
Baltimore	—	7–11	6–6	8–4	8–10	10–8	6–6	10–5	6–6	7–6	6–6	6–6
Boston	11–7	—	8–4	6–6	8–7	5–9	6–6	11–7	4–8	9–9	9–3	8–4
California	6–6	4–8	—	7–11	8–4	5–7	9–6	7–5	7–8	4–8	8–10	10–7
Chicago	4–8	6–6	11–7	—	8–4	5–7	8–9	9–3	8–6	7–5	7–8	14–4
Cleveland	10–8	7–8	4–8	4–8	—	10–8	6–6	5–10	8–4	7–11	2–10	9–3
Detroit	8–10	9–5	7–5	7–5	8–10	—	7–5	10–8	9–3	7–9	4–8	10–2
Kansas City	6–6	6–6	6–9	9–8	6–6	5–7	—	7–5	9–9	7–5	7–11	8–6
Milwaukee	5–10	7–11	5–7	3–9	10–5	8–10	5–7	—	4–8	9–9	4–8	5–7
Minnesota	6–6	8–4	8–7	6–8	4–8	3–9	9–9	8–4	—	6–6	8–9	11–7
New York	6–7	9–9	8–4	5–7	11–7	9–7	5–7	9–9	6–6	—	3–9	8–4
Oakland	6–6	3–9	10–8	8–7	10–2	8–4	11–7	8–4	9–8	9–3	—	11–4
Texas	6–6	4–8	7–10	4–14	3–9	2–10	6–8	7–5	7–11	4–8	4–11	—

Notable transactions

June 6, 1972: 1972 Major League Baseball Draft
- Brian Doyle was drafted by the Rangers in the 4th round.^[9]
- Jim Sundberg was drafted by the Rangers in the 8th round, but did not sign.^[10]
July 20, 1972: Don Mincher and Ted Kubiak were traded by the Rangers to the Oakland Athletics for Marty Martínez, Vic Harris and a player to be named later.^[11]
August 31, 1972: Frank Howard was purchased from the Rangers by the Detroit Tigers.^[12]
September 7, 1972: Rich Hinton was purchased by the Rangers from the New York Yankees.^[13]

Roster

1972 Texas Rangers

Roster

Pitchers

Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Manager

9 Ted Williams

Coaches

Player stats

= Indicates team leader

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; R = Runs scored; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; SB = Stolen bases

Pos	Player	G	AB	R	H	Avg.	HR	RBI	SB
C	Dick Billings	133	469	41	119	.254	5	58	1
1B	Frank Howard	95	287	28	70	.244	9	31	1
2B	Lenny Randle	74	249	23	48	.193	2	21	4
3B	Dave Nelson	145	499	68	113	.226	2	28	51
SS	Toby Harrah	116	374	47	97	.259	1	31	16
LF	Tom Grieve	64	142	12	29	.204	3	11	1
CF	Joe Lovitto	117	330	23	74	.224	1	19	13
RF	Ted Ford	129	429	43	101	.235	14	50	4

^[14]

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; R = Runs scored; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; SB = Stolen bases

Player	G	AB	R	H	Avg.	HR	RBI	SB
Larry Biittner	137	382	34	99	.259	3	31	1
Elliott Maddox	98	294	40	74	.252	0	10	20
Don Mincher	61	191	23	45	.236	6	39	2
Vic Harris	61	186	8	26	.140	0	10	7
Dalton Jones	72	151	14	24	.159	4	19	1
Jim Mason	46	147	10	29	.197	0	10	0
Hal King	50	122	12	22	.180	4	12	0
Bill Fahey	39	119	8	20	.168	1	10	4
Ted Kubiak	46	116	5	26	.224	0	7	0
Jeff Burroughs	22	65	4	12	.185	1	3	0
Tom Ragland	25	58	3	10	.172	0	2	0
Marty Martínez	26	41	3	6	.146	0	3	0
Ken Suarez	25	33	2	5	.152	0	4	0
Jim Driscoll	15	18	0	0	.000	0	0	0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Dick Bosman	29	173.1	8	10	3.63	105
Rich Hand	30	170.2	10	14	3.32	109
Don Stanhouse	24	104.2	2	9	3.78	78

Other pitchers