With one of the most conservative fanbases in Major League Baseball, there could only be one choice to throw out the ceremonial first pitch as the Texas Rangers returned to the World Series for the first time since 2011.
The toss from the Dallas librarian and former Rangers co-owner was so low that not even a hall-of-famer, former catcher Iván ‘Pudge’ Rodríguez, could grab it before it scuffed the dirt.
Still, George W Bush radiated confidence and good cheer. “I think we’re going to prevail in six games,” he told Derek Jeter on Fox Sports before adding a note of caution: “but we’ll see.”
Wouldn’t want to prematurely declare victory, after all. But Texas accomplished the first mission on Friday night, eventually and thrillingly, as Corey Seager drew them level at 5-5 in the bottom of the ninth inning with a two-run home run before another mighty swipe, from Adolis García, won the night in the 11th inning.
Prompting joyous celebrations, and the first in a World Series since 2018, it was not so much a walk-off homer as a saunter, dance, jump, hug, helmet-twirl of a homer from the borderline inevitable 30-year-old Cuban outfielder who is compiling one of the greatest postseasons by any slugger.
After six years with one or both of the Houston Astros and Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series, this match-up between sides who endured dismal losing campaigns as recently as last year felt fresh and fun: short on star power but full of excellent fielding, youthful energy and late drama as an Arizona Diamondbacks’ strength, their bullpen, cracked.
Arizona, a National League wildcard team, were aggressive on the bases and defensively solid as they took a 5-3 lead against the veteran Rangers starting pitcher Nathan Eovaldi, who had won all four of his previous postseason fixtures this month.
They were also resilient, as against the Philadelphia Phillies in the previous round – until closer Paul Sewald served up a crushable fastball to Seager, the shortstop on a 10-year, $325m contract, and reliever Miguel Castro was taken deep by García. The franchise’s only prior World Series appearance came back in 2001, a victory over the New York Yankees in seven games.
Bush threw out a ceremonial pitch in that series, too. He sold his stake in the Rangers while he was Texas governor in 1998, two years before he was elected president. The current majority owner, Ray C Davis, is an energy tycoon who donated over $100,000 to the failed 2016 presidential campaign of George’s younger brother, Jeb; under his tenure the Rangers are the only MLB team never to have held an LGBTQ Pride Night.
In search of their first title, the Rangers also qualified for the playoffs as a wildcard and beat Houston over seven games in the American League Championship Series. They were World Series losers in 2010 and 2011: the first time to a San Francisco Giants side coached by the current Texas manager, Bruce Bochy, and the second via one of the most torturous implosions in American sporting history, as they blew two-run leads in the bottom of the ninth and 10th innings in Game 6, then also lost Game 7.
This time the climax was kinder as Seager smashed his fourth home run of the postseason to level the score and deny Arizona starting pitcher Zac Gallen a win. “It’s hard to hit a bigger home run than what he did there. He saved us,” Bochy said. “He got everybody fired up.” Then García cleared the fence for the fifth successive game. He now has 22 RBI in these playoffs, a record for a single postseason.
This is the first World Series between two teams with retractable-roof ballparks; on a rainy night in north Texas the game might have been delayed or postponed but for Globe Life Field’s covering.
Opened in 2020, the $1.2bn venue – $500m of the cost was contributed by taxpayers – hosted the World Series between the Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays that same Covid-battered year.
This is its highest-profile moment yet, though the most attractive aspect of Globe Life Field is its view of the Rangers’ adjacent, old-timey, open-air, former ballpark through the windows. Given the hangar-esque exterior, on first approach the uninitiated might wonder whether they’re about to witness a sporting event or a fuselage repair.
Inside, a shiny tangle of corrugated metal and exposed ducts awaits; it might have worked as a design concept if the place really was a lovingly repurposed warehouse in a reclaimed industrial district, rather than a clinical new building constructed in a parking lot and surrounded by parking lots. There is a small irony, or perhaps a large disconnect, in building a new stadium to withstand the heat and rain of the climate crisis era and making it almost impossible to reach except by car. Arlington, with 400,000 residents, is often cited as the largest city in the US without a mass public transportation system.
At least sealed stadiums hold the noise in while they’re keeping the weather out. The stands crackled and roared as the Rangers staged their sudden comeback, and the psychological damage to the Diamondbacks may be considerable ahead of Saturday’s second game in Arlington.
Before Friday, Sewald had not allowed a run since 15 September nor blown a save since 26 August. “The shock factor was very high,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo conceded to reporters. “There’s no worse feeling in this game than being the closer and blowing the save opportunity at the last second,” Sewald said.
Then again, Byung-Hyun Kim infamously blew two saves in the 2001 World Series yet the Diamondbacks prevailed. “I don’t think any of these players were old enough to possibly remember what was going on at that time,” Lovullo said. “I don’t think anybody is connecting those dots.” Better to make history than to relive it.
