1972 Texas Rangers season

The Texas Rangers 1972 season involved the Rangers finishing sixth in the American League West with a record of 54 wins and 100 losses. This was the Rangers' first season in Texas, as well as the club's first year in the AL West, after playing their first 11 seasons in Washington, D.C., and from 1969 to 1971 in the American League East. 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]

1972 Texas Rangers
Major League affiliations
Location
Other information
OwnersBob Short
General managersJoe Burke
ManagersTed Williams
Local televisionKDTV
Local radioKRLD
(Don Drysdale, Bill Mercer)
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Offseason

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
  2Lenny Randle2B
  1Dave Nelson3B
  5Don Mincher1B
15Hal KingC
33Frank Howard   LF
  4Larry Biittner   RF
35Joe LovittoCF
11Toby HarrahSS
27Dick BosmanP[8]

Season standings
AL West W L Pct. GB Home Road
Oakland Athletics 9362 0.600 — 48–29 45–33
Chicago White Sox 8767 0.565 5½ 55–23 32–44
Minnesota Twins 7777 0.500 15½ 42–32 35–45
Kansas City Royals 7678 0.494 16½ 44–33 32–45
California Angels 7580 0.484 18 44–36 31–44
Texas Rangers 54100 0.351 38½ 31–46 23–54

Record vs. opponents
1972 American League record

Sources:
Team BAL BOS CAL CWS CLE DET KC MIL MIN NYY OAK TEX
Baltimore —7–116–68–48–1010–86–610–56–67–66–66–6
Boston 11–7—8–46–68–75–96–611–74–89–99–38–4
California 6–64–8—7–118–45–79–67–57–84–88–1010–7
Chicago 4–86–611–7—8–45–78–99–38–67–57–814–4
Cleveland 10–87–84–84–8—10–86–65–108–47–112–109–3
Detroit 8–109–57–57–58–10—7–510–89–37–94–810–2
Kansas City 6–66–66–99–86–65–7—7–59–97–57–118–6
Milwaukee 5–107–115–73–910–58–105–7—4–89–94–85–7
Minnesota 6–68–48–76–84–83–99–98–4—6–68–911–7
New York 6–79–98–45–711–79–75–79–96–6—3–98–4
Oakland 6–63–910–88–710–28–411–78–49–89–3—11–4
Texas 6–64–87–104–143–92–106–87–57–114–84–11—

Notable transactions

Roster
1972 Texas Rangers
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

 Outfielders Manager

Coaches

Player stats
= Indicates team leader

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
CDick Billings13346941119.2545581
1BFrank Howard952872870.2449311
2BLenny Randle742492348.1932214
3BDave Nelson14549968113.22622851
SSToby Harrah1163744797.25913116
LFTom Grieve641421229.2043111
CFJoe Lovitto1173302374.22411913
RFTed Ford12942943101.23514504

[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 Biittner1373823499.2593311
Elliott Maddox982944074.25201020
Don Mincher611912345.2366392
Vic Harris61186826.1400107
Dalton Jones721511424.1594191
Jim Mason461471029.1970100
Hal King501221222.1804120
Bill Fahey39119820.1681104
Ted Kubiak46116526.224070
Jeff Burroughs2265412.185130
Tom Ragland2558310.172020
Marty Martínez264136.146030
Ken Suarez253325.152040
Jim Driscoll151800.000000

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 Bosman29173.18103.63105
Rich Hand30170.210143.32109
Don Stanhouse24104.2293.7878

Other 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
Pete Broberg39176.15124.29133
Mike Paul49161.2892.17108
Bill Gogolewski36150.24114.2495
Jim Shellenback2257.0243.4730
Gerry Janeski412.2012.847

Relief pitchers

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

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Horacio Piña6027153.2060
Paul Lindblad665892.6251
Jim Panther585904.1344
Casey Cox353544.4127
Steve Lawson130012.8113
Rich Hinton50102.384
Jim Roland50008.104
Jan Dukes30003.860

Farm system
See also: Minor League Baseball
Level Team League Manager
AAA Denver Bears American Association Del Wilber
AA Pittsfield Senators Eastern League Joe Klein
A Burlington Rangers Carolina League Frank Gable
A Greenville Rangers Western Carolinas League Rich Donnelly
A-Short Season Geneva Senators New York–Penn League Bill Haywood

Notes
  1. "Team Batting Game Finder: In the Regular Season, from 1920 to 2021, requiring Extra Base Hits = 0, sorted by most games". Stathead. Retrieved April 13, 2021.
  2. "Bernie Allen Stats". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
  3. "Del Unser Stats". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
  4. "Paul Casanova Stats". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
  5. "Denny McLain Stats". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
  6. "Tim Cullen Stats". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
  7. "Lew Beasley Stats". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
  8. Kissell, Robert; Poserina, Jim (2017), "Statistics in Baseball * *The information used here was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by Retrosheet. Interested parties may contact Retrosheet at 20 Sunset Rd., Newark, DE 19711.", Optimal Sports Math, Statistics, and Fantasy, Elsevier, pp. 277–295, ISBN 978-0-12-805163-4, retrieved February 18, 2021
  9. "Brian Doyle Stats". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
  10. "Jim Sundberg Stats". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
  11. "Vic Harris Stats". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
  12. "Frank Howard Stats". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
  13. "Rich Hinton Stats". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
  14. "1972 Texas Rangers Statistics". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved February 18, 2021.

References
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