1997 Texas Rangers season

1997 Texas Rangers
1997 Texas Rangers
League	American League
Division	West
Ballpark	The Ballpark in Arlington
City	Arlington, Texas
Record	77–85 (.475)
Divisional place	3rd
Owners	George W. Bush
General managers	Doug Melvin
Managers	Johnny Oates
Television	KXTX-TV; KXAS-TV; Fox Sports Southwest; (Mark Holtz, Tom Grieve, Bill Jones)
Radio	KRLD; (Eric Nadel, Brad Sham ); KMRT; (Luis Mayoral, Josue Perez)

The 1997 Texas Rangers season was the 37th of the Texas Rangers franchise overall, their 26th in Arlington as the Rangers, and their 4th season at The Ballpark in Arlington. The Rangers finished third in the American League West with a record of 77 wins and 85 losses. Despite not making the playoffs the club would set an all-time attendance record of over 2.945 million fans, which would be the franchise's best until 2011.

On a somber note, the club would lose long-time radio broadcaster Mark Holtz to leukemia during the season; however, in his final game in May the Rangers won, allowing him to sign off one final time with his trademark "Hello Win Column!".

Offseason

December 10, 1996: Billy Ripken was signed as a free agent by the Rangers.^[1]
December 16, 1996: Scott Bailes was signed as a free agent with the Texas Rangers.^[2]
December 19, 1996: Mike Simms was signed as a free agent by the Rangers.^[3]
March 27, 1997: Dave Silvestri was selected off waivers by the Rangers from the Seattle Mariners.^[4]

Regular season

June 12, 1997: The first interleague game took place as the Texas Rangers hosted the San Francisco Giants at The Ballpark in Arlington (now Globe Life Park).

Opening Day starters

Mark McLemore, 2B

Iván Rodríguez, C

Rusty Greer, LF

Dean Palmer, 3B

Lee Stevens, 1B

Mickey Tettleton, DH

Warren Newson, RF

Damon Buford, CF

Benji Gil, SS

Season standings

v
t
e
AL West
Team	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
Seattle Mariners	90	72	.556	—	45‍–‍36	45‍–‍36
Anaheim Angels	84	78	.519	6	46‍–‍36	38‍–‍42
Texas Rangers	77	85	.475	13	39‍–‍42	38‍–‍43
Oakland Athletics	65	97	.401	25	35‍–‍46	30‍–‍51

Record vs. opponents

1997 American League record v t e Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]
Team	ANA	BAL	BOS	CWS	CLE	DET	KC	MIL	MIN	NYY	OAK	SEA	TEX	TOR	NL
Anaheim	—	4–7	6–5	6–5	7–4	5–6	6–5	7–4	4–7	4–7	11–1	6–6	8–4	6–5	4–12
Baltimore	7–4	—	5–7	5–6	6–5	6–6	7–4	5–6	10–1	8–4	8–3	7–4	10–1	6–6	8–7
Boston	5–6	7–5	—	3–8	6–5	5–7	3–8	8–3	8–3	4–8	7–4	7–4	3–8	6–6	6–9
Chicago	5–6	6–5	8–3	—	5–7	4–7	11–1	4–7	6–6	2–9	8–3	5–6	3–8	5–6	8–7
Cleveland	4–7	5–6	5–6	7–5	—	6–5	8–3	8–4	8–4	5–6	7–4	3–8	5–6	6–5	9–6
Detroit	6–5	6–6	7–5	7–4	5–6	—	6–5	4–7	4–7	2–10	7–4	4–7	7–4	6–6	8–7
Kansas City	5–6	4–7	8–3	1–11	3–8	5–6	—	6–6	7–5	3–8	3–8	5–6	6–5	5–6	6–9
Milwaukee	4–7	6–5	3–8	7–4	4–8	7–4	6–6	—	5–7	4–7	5–6	5–6	7–4	7–4	8–7
Minnesota	7–4	1–10	3–8	6–6	4–8	7–4	5–7	7–5	—	3–8	7–4	5–6	3–8	3–8	7–8
New York	7–4	4–8	8–4	9–2	6–5	10–2	8–3	7–4	8–3	—	6–5	4–7	7–4	7–5	5–10
Oakland	1–11	3–8	4–7	3–8	4–7	4–7	8–3	6–5	4–7	5–6	—	5–7	5–7	6–5	7–9
Seattle	6–6	4–7	4–7	6–5	8–3	7–4	6–5	6–5	6–5	7–4	7–5	—	8–4	8–3	7–9
Texas	4–8	1–10	8–3	8–3	6–5	4–7	5–6	4–7	8–3	4–7	7–5	4–8	—	4–7	10–6
Toronto	5–6	6–6	6–6	6–5	5–6	6–6	6–5	4–7	8–3	5–7	5–6	3–8	7–4	—	4–11

Notable transactions

April 16, 1997: Alex Diaz was signed as a free agent by the Rangers.^[5]
June 20, 1997: Todd Van Poppel was signed as a free agent by the Rangers.^[6]
July 29, 1997: Ken Hill was traded by the Rangers to the Anaheim Angels for Jim Leyritz and a player to be named later. The Angels completed the deal by sending Rob Sasser to the Rangers on October 31.^[7]

Draft picks

June 3, 1997: Mike Lamb was drafted by the Rangers in the 7th round of the 1997 Major League Baseball draft. Player signed June 6, 1997.^[8]

Roster

1997 Texas Rangers

Roster

Pitchers

Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Other batters

15 Mickey Tettleton

Manager

26 Johnny Oates

Coaches

17 Dick Bosman (Pitching)
20 Bucky Dent (Bench)
25 Larry Hardy (Bullpen)
8 Rudy Jaramillo (Hitting)
12 Ed Napoleon (First Base)
5 Jerry Narron (Third Base)

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

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

Pos	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C	Iván Rodríguez	150	597	187	.313	20	77
1B	Will Clark	110	393	128	.326	12	51
2B	Mark McLemore	89	349	91	.261	1	25
SS	Benji Gil	110	317	71	.224	5	31
3B	Dean Palmer	94	355	87	.245	14	55
LF	Rusty Greer	157	601	193	.321	26	87
CF	Damon Buford	122	366	82	.224	8	39
RF	Warren Newson	81	169	36	.213	10	23
DH	Juan González	133	533	158	.296	42	131

Other batters

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

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
Lee Stevens	137	426	128	.300	21	74
Domingo Cedeño	113	365	103	.282	4	36
Fernando Tatis	60	223	57	.256	8	29
Tom Goodwin	53	207	49	.237	0	17
Billy Ripken	71	203	56	.276	3	24
Mike Simms	59	111	28	.252	5	22
Alex Diaz	28	90	20	.222	2	12
Jim Leyritz	37	85	24	.282	0	14
Mike Devereaux	29	72	15	.208	0	7
Henry Mercedes	23	47	10	.213	0	4
Mickey Tettleton	17	44	4	.091	3	4
Marc Sagmoen	21	43	6	.140	1	4
Hanley Frias	14	26	5	.192	0	1
Kevin Brown	4	5	2	.400	1	1
Dave Silvestri	2	4	0	.000	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
Bobby Witt	34	209.0	12	12	4.82	121
Darren Oliver	32	201.1	13	12	4.20	104
John Burkett	30	189.1	9	12	4.56	139
Ken Hill	19	111.0	5	8	5.19	68
Roger Pavlik	11	57.2	3	5	4.37	35
Rick Helling	10	55.0	3	3	4.58	46

Other pitchers