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IF YOU’RE THE TYPE to take the long view on things, what could be the biggest series in Texas baseball history starts today at Globe Life Field, and the moment is more than a century in the making. The buildup began before the American League — in which the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros now play — even existed. After all, they’ve been playing baseball in The Lone Star State for a long time. A very long time.
The three-game series between the Rangers and Astros has 135 years of baggage behind it, dating back to the first incarnation of the Texas League, which began play in 1888.
Now, in September 2023, all eyes in baseball will be on Arlington. And why wouldn’t they be? The breakout Rangers led the division for most of the season behind a potent offense and an experienced rotation of veterans brought in via trades and free agency. Then the Astros, who overcame a so-so, injury-laden start, emerged into a three-way turnstile atop the West with the Rangers and upstart Seattle Mariners. This week, the last regular-season meeting between the two Texas teams this season, will be the last time we can be sure to see the in-state rivals go toe-to-toe with the stakes sky high.
• Winning the division is going to be huge for the postseason chances of the team that accomplishes it. The division flag in this year’s AL West means a first-round bye, as the AL Central champion is going to be the No. 3 seed. Thus, first in the West is the difference between a bye and division series home advantage, or ending up in a wild-card encounter as the road team.
• In the dugouts, you have two future Hall of Fame skippers: Texas’ Bruce Bochy, looking for his fourth title, and Houston’s Dusty Baker, coming off his first. And the pair have plenty of personal history to boot. They first squared off as managers in 1995. As players, they faced each other on Sept. 7, 1978, when Baker homered for the Los Angeles Dodgers in a 3-2 win over Bochy and Astros.
• If the pitching probable schedules hold, we’re headed for an epic matchup in the series finale, featuring two Cooperstown-bound aces. Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander began this season as teammates with the New York Mets but joined this rivalry, on opposite sides, at the trade deadline. This is a best-case scenario, though, and one that may be in jeopardy after Scherzer had to leave his last start early with forearm tightness.
• There is bad blood brewing. The last time the teams met, benches cleared. There weren’t any punches thrown, but Semien and Martin Maldonado were ejected after their back-and-forth preceded the near melee.
There’s no shortage of storylines. And so despite 135 years of history, it’s easy to make the case that, until these two teams meet someday in October, this series is the crescendo for the sport in Texas.
IN THE TEXAS LEAGUE starting in the 19th century, Dallas and Houstonbattled in different versions of the circuit over the decades. As the cities grew in size and national influence, and Major League Baseball turned its gaze westward in the late 1950s, it was inevitable that Texas would be on the docket. And so, the Houston Colt 45s joined the National League in 1962. Three years later, they were redubbed the Astros when baseball’s first indoor venue, the Astrodome, opened to much fanfare.
Up north, baseball fans in the Dallas-Fort Worth region had to wait until 1972, when the second incarnation of the Washington Senators moved into Arlington Stadium for big league ball.
At last, Texas had two major league clubs. But for the first two decades of their mutual existence, the Rangers and Astros existed more on parallel tracks than intersecting ones.
The origins of the Lone Star Series, or the Silver Boot Series as many still like to call it, traces back to a series of popular end-of-spring-training exhibitions that began in 1992. The highlight of the exhibitions was 1993, when more than 53,000 fans turned out at the Astrodome for the return of Nolan Ryan, once an Astro and then a Ranger, and forever the connective tissue between the two franchises.
The Silver Boot Series moved to regular-season play when the Astros and Rangers began meeting in interleague games beginning in 2001. That’s when the winner of the series began receiving — you guessed it — a Silver Boot Trophy. The bragging rights contests continued in that vein for more than a decade.
During the 42 seasons the Astros and Rangers played in different leagues, they made the playoffs in the same season just twice — 1998 and 1999 — but neither team won a playoff series in those Octobers. That’s the closest we ever came to an All-Texas World Series, a possibility that ended when Houston was moved to the AL West in 2013.
Instead of that ultimate Lone Star October moment, we got a brand-new intrastate division rivalry. With the Astros and Rangers now in the same division, competing for the same championships, the pieces were in place for the Lone Star Series to become one of baseball’s marquee matchups.
And sure enough, in 2015, the Astros and Rangers both made the playoffs in their third season as division rivals. That campaign featured a pair of key September series, including a four-game sweep by the Rangers in the middle of the month in Arlington that turned a 1½-game Texas deficit to a 2½-game lead. Texas never relinquished the lead. Yet, as with the clubs’ other concurrent postseason appearance, their seasons ended in the division series round and neither team reached the 90-win plateau during that campaign.
Since then, the rivalry has been more of a slow burn, mostly because the teams haven’t been in prime contention at the same time since that 2015 prequel.
Both teams were over .500 in 2016, when the Rangers won the division with a 95-67 record. But the Astros took a step back that season and weren’t really in the division race after early August.
After that, Houston went into dynasty mode. They’ve played in every ALCS since then, winning four pennants and two World Series. The Rangers, though, entered a prolonged rebuild, landing well under .500 six seasons in a row and finishing an average of 29 games out of first place, all while their cross-state rival was running roughshod over the American League.
Alas, as we know, you can’t force these things. The best rivalries happen organically, through a sequence of contentious encounters that, preferably, feature a little rancor, memorable personalities, and — most importantly — real stakes. For the Lone Star Series, the convergence of all those factors is this week.
Texas’ two teams, as mutually strong as they’ve been at any time since they became division foes, are meeting for the last time this season. They are in a neck-and-neck battle for the division race and crucial playoff position. The Rangers have been struggling of late, but they enter the matchup on the momentum of Garcia’s game-winning homer against Minnesota on Sunday.
You have two teams that don’t like each other, representing the two biggest metroplexes in the biggest state of the continental U.S. You have forecasts for scorching, 100-degree weather. And we get to finish it off hopefully with a showdown between two generational aces with a combined 467 career wins between them.
Given the status of the playoff races and the strength of these teams, it’s possible even bigger clashes lay in the offing — maybe even the first-ever Silver Boot playoff showdown. They might have to get a second boot for that.
For now, this is what we’re guaranteed. Astros and Rangers, for the last time this season. If all the pieces fall into place, it just might turn out to be the biggest series in Texas baseball history, 135 years in the making.
Jeff Legwold covers the Denver Broncos at ESPN. He has covered the Broncos for more than 20 years and also assists with NFL draft coverage, joining ESPN in 2013. He has been a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Board of Selectors since 1999, too. Jeff previously covered the Pittsburgh Steelers, Buffalo Bills and Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans at previous stops prior to ESPN.
BOULDER, Colo. — For the horde of NFL talent evaluators and some bleachers full of fans, Colorado coach Deion Sanders said Friday that they all got to see the top two players available in this year’s NFL draft.
Quarterback Shedeur Sanders and Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter were among the 16 Colorado players who took part in the school’s showcase event for scouts, coaches and personnel executives from every NFL team. And Deion Sanders said the two marquee players confirmed what he has known for a long time.
“It’s tremendous,” Sanders said. “… They should be going 1-2 [in the draft], that’s the way I feel about it. They are the two best players in this draft. … The surest bets in this draft are those two young men, and I didn’t stutter or stammer when I said that.”
Neither Shedeur Sanders nor Hunter took part in most of the position drills or physical testing, but Sanders had a throwing session for just under an hour and Hunter was one of the wide receivers who participated. Neither player worked out at the scouting combine earlier this year, so it was the first time Sanders had thrown in such a setting since the end of the season. He showed some full seven-step drops and play-action from the shotgun and under center.
“I think I did pretty good, to my expectations,” said Sanders, who set the career FBS accuracy mark in his two years at Colorado (71.8%) to go with his 4,134 passing yards and 37 touchdowns last season. “I know I did the best in college football right now, for sure.”
Asked after the throwing session whether he believed he was the best quarterback in the draft, Sanders said: “I feel like I’m the No. 1 quarterback, and that’s what I know. But at the end of the day, I’m not stuck on that because it’s about the situation, so whatever situation, whatever franchise believes in me, I’m excited to go. … I’m comfortable in any situation.”
Players Hunter, who did not speak to the media after the workout, and Sanders met with the Cleveland Browns contingent, including team co-owner Jimmy Haslam, on Thursday night in Boulder.
“They got me really full,” Sanders said. “I definitely needed to go to the sauna after that. … It was a good vibe.”
Said Deion Sanders said: “[I] spoke to the owner, truly delightful. He was engaging. … I think one of those guys is going to be there [at No. 2].”
Hunter, the No. 1 player on Mel Kiper Jr.’s Big Board, did not do any defensive drills Friday, but he ran a full assortment of routes.
Colorado safety Shilo Sanders, Shedeur’s brother, offered plenty of encouragement, shouting commentary and clapping after each throw, including “not a lot of quarterbacks can make that throw” after one deep completion.
The highly attended event — by NFL representatives as well as fans packing small bleachers — had a festive atmosphere. Deion Sanders named it the “We Ain’t Hard 2 Find Showcase,” complete with a large lighted “The Showcase” sign next to the drills.
Hunter, who has said he wants to play offense and defense in the NFL, won the Chuck Bednarik (top defensive player) and Fred Biletnikoff (top receiver) awards in addition to the Heisman. He said whether he will primarily be a wide receiver or a cornerback in the NFL depends “on the team that picks me.”
On Friday, Deion Sanders said “ain’t nobody like Travis.”
Hunter had 96 catches for 1,258 yards and 15 touchdowns as a receiver last season to go with 35 tackles, 11 pass breakups and 4 interceptions at cornerback. In the Buffaloes’ regular-season finale against Oklahoma State, he became the only FBS player in the past 25 years with three scrimmage touchdowns on offense and an interception in the same game, according to ESPN Research.
He played 1,380 total snaps in Colorado’s 12 regular-season games: 670 on offense, 686 on defense and 24 on special teams. He played 1,007 total snaps in 2023.
Shilo Sanders, who hoped to show teams more speed than expected, ran a 4.52 40-yard dash after he measured in at 5-foot-11⅞, 196 pounds. He did not participate in the jumps or bench press that opened the workout, citing a right shoulder injury.
With all NFL eyes on the Colorado campus to see Shedeur Sanders throw, one player who made the most of it was wide receiver Will Sheppard. Sheppard, who measured 6-2¼, 196 pounds, ran the 40 in 4.56 and 4.54 to go with a 40½-inch vertical jump and a 10-foot-11 broad jump.
Henderson has been sidelined with a right intercostal strain and missed the first seven games of the big league campaign.
The 23-year-old Henderson will lead off and play shortstop against the host Royals.
Henderson was injured during a spring training game Feb. 27. He was fourth in American League MVP voting last season when he batted .281 and racked up career bests of 37 homers and 92 RBIs.
Henderson completed a five-game rehab stint at Triple-A Norfolk on Wednesday. He batted .263 (5-for-19) with two homers and four RBIs and played four games at shortstop and one as the designated hitter. He did commit three errors.
“I think everybody’s looking forward to having Gunnar back on the team,” Baltimore manager Brandon Hyde said Thursday. “The rehab went really, really well. I talked to him a couple days ago, he feels great swinging the bat. The timing came, especially the last few days. He just had to get out there and get some reps defensively and get some games in, and it all went well.”
Baltimore optioned outfielder Dylan Carlson to Triple-A Norfolk to open up a roster spot. The 26-year-old was 0-for-4 with a run and RBI in two games this season.
ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the Washington Wizards from 2014 to 2016 and the Washington Nationals from 2016 to 2018 for The Washington Post before covering the Los Angeles Dodgers and MLB for the Los Angeles Times from 2018 to 2024.
When New York Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns attempted to assemble the best possible roster for the 2025 season this winter, the top priority was signing outfielder Juan Soto. Next was the need to replenish the starting rotation and bolster the bullpen. Then, days before pitchers and catchers reported for spring training, the lineup received one final significant reinforcement when first baseman Pete Alonso re-signed.
Acquiring a player with a singing career on the side didn’t make the cut.
“No, that is not on the list,” Stearns said with a smile.
Stearns’ decision not to re-sign Jose Iglesias, the infielder behind the mic for the viral 2024 Mets anthem “OMG,” was attributed to creating more roster flexibility. But it also hammered home a reality: The scrappy 2024 Mets, authors of a magical summer in Queens, are a thing of the past. The 2025 Mets, who will report to Citi Field for their home opener Friday, have much of the same core but also some prominent new faces — and the new, outsized expectations that come with falling two wins short of the World Series, then signing Soto to the richest contract in professional sports history.
But there’s a question surrounding this year’s team that you can’t put a price tag on: Can these Mets rekindle the magic — the vibes, the memes, the feel-good underdog story — that seemed to come out of nowhere to help carry them to Game 6 of the National League Championship Series last season?
“Last year the culture was created,” Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor said. “It’s a matter of continuing it.”
For all the success Stearns has engineered — his small-market Milwaukee Brewers teams reached the postseason five times in eight seasons after he became the youngest general manager in history in 2015 — the 40-year-old Harvard grad, like the rest of his front office peers knows there’s no precise recipe for clubhouse chemistry. There is no culture projection system. No Vibes Above Replacement.
“Culture is very important,” Stearns said last weekend in the visiting dugout at Daikin Park before his club completed an opening-weekend series against the Houston Astros. “Culture is also very difficult to predict.”
Still, it seems the Mets’ 2024 season will be all but impossible to recreate.
There was Grimace, the purple McDonald’s blob who spontaneously became the franchise’s unofficial mascot after throwing out a first pitch in June. “OMG,” performed under Iglesias’ stage name, Candelita, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Latin Digital Songs chart, before a remix featuring Pitbull was released in October. Citi Field became a karaoke bar whenever Lindor stepped into the batter’s box with The Temptations’ “My Girl” as his walk-up song. Alonso unveiled a lucky pumpkin in October. They were gimmicks that might have felt forced if they hadn’t felt so right.
“I don’t know if what we did last year could be replicated because it was such a chaos-filled group,” Mets reliever Ryne Stanek said. “I don’t know if that’s replicable because there’s just too many things going on. I don’t know if that’s a sustainable model. But I think the expectation of winning is really important. I think establishing what we did last year and coming into this year where people are like, ‘Oh, no, that’s what we’re expecting to do,’ makes it different. It’s always a different vibe whenever you feel like you’re the hunter versus being the hunted.”
For the first two months last season, the Mets were terrible hunters. Lindor was relentlessly booed at Citi Field during another slow start. The bullpen got crushed. The losses piled up. The Mets began the season 0-5 and sunk to rock bottom on May 29 when reliever Jorge Lopez threw his glove into the stands during a 10-3 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers that dropped the team to 22-33.
That night, the Mets held a players-only meeting. From there, perhaps coincidentally, everything changed. The Mets won the next day, and 67 of their final 107 games.
This year, to avoid an early malaise and to better incorporate new faces like Soto and Opening Day starter Clay Holmes, players made it a point to hold meetings during spring training to lay a strong foundation.
“At the end of the day, we know who we are and that’s the beauty of our club,” Alonso said. “Not just who we are talent-wise, but who each individual is as a man and a personality. For us, our major, major strength is our collective identity as a unit.”
Organizationally, the Mets are attempting a dual-track makeover: Becoming perennial World Series contenders while not taking themselves too seriously.
The commemorative purple Grimace seat installed at Citi Field in September — Section 302, Row 6, Seat 12 in right field — remains there as part of a two-year contract. Last week, the franchise announced it will feature a New York-city themed “Five Borough” race at every home game — with a different mascot competing to represent each borough. For a third straight season, USA Today readers voted Citi Field — home of the rainbow cookie egg roll, among many other innovative treats — as having the best ballpark food in baseball.
In the clubhouse, their identity is evolving.
“I’m very much in the camp that you can’t force things,” Mets starter Sean Manaea said. “I mean, you can, but you don’t really end up with good results. And if you wait for things to happen organically, then sometimes it can take too long. So, there’s like a nudging of sorts. It’s like, ‘Let’s kind of come up with something, but not force it.’ So there’s a fine balance there and you just got to wait and see what happens.”
Stearns believes it starts with what the Mets can control: bringing positive energy every day and fostering a family atmosphere. It’s hard to quantify, but vibes undoubtedly helped fuel the Mets’ 2024 success. It’ll be a tough act to follow.
“It’s fluid,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “I like where guys are at as far as the team chemistry goes and things like that and the connections and the relationships. But it’ll continue to take some time. And winning helps, clearly.”