In 2020, we are seeing athletes, sponsors, and fans ask their teams and universities to make a real change to their image across the sports landscape. One easy, simplistic way to begin that change is through language. More specifically, the names we use to refer to schools, mascots, and team names carry weight. Changing them may be a tangible step in moving in the right direction. As seen last week, the Washington Racial Slurs are planning on changing their name. The Cleveland Indians have debated their own name, (and we have some ideas to help!). But another team that could use a makeover? The Texas Rangers.
The Texas Rangers baseball team plays their games in Arlington, Texas, in the middle of the DFW Metroplex. The club moved to Texas in 1971 and shifted their name from Senators to Rangers in an effort to tie themselves to their new home. While they took a while to get going, the Rangers made the postseason eight times between 1996 and 2016 and played in two World Series. They have retired numbers of some of the most iconic names in baseball, from Pudge Rodriguez to Nolan Ryan (both of whom have a Rangers hat on their Hall of Fame plaque). Since 2017, the club has been rebuilding and hopes to launch a new decade of prominence in their new indoor stadium, Globe Life Field.
While that history is fun, the history of the actual Texas Ranger Division is not. The Texas Rangers were unofficially created in 1823 by Stephen F. Austin, the “founder” of Texas. A decade into their existence, they were sent to protect the border Texans wanted to create between Texas and the rest of Mexico. After the Texas Revolution, under the guidance of Texas’ second President Mirabeau Lamar, 56 Rangers were sent to fight indigenous nations, namely the Cherokee and Comanche. The Rangers group grew in the Mexican-American War and annexation of Texas in 1848, but was initially disbanded afterward.
But ten years later, bands of Rangers went out to take on the Comanche in Little Robe Creek and Antelope Hills. Since the Comanche were on their own land, federal troops were not allowed to provoke violence. But the Texas Rangers? They ain’t the feds.
The warring between Rangers and indigenous peoples in the later 1850s was bloody. Estimates are that over 1,000 Comanches, on their own land, were killed at the hands of the Rangers between 1856 and1858. The saving grace for the Comanche may have been the onset of the Civil War in the 1860s… Because many of the Texas Rangers enlisted to fight for the Confederate Army. Their talent, shooting guns and riding horses simultaneously, became vital for the Confederates as they led the attacks.
In the late 1800s, the Texas Rangers became the police force they are better known as today… which has its own issues. The Rangers were known to use excess and illegal force upon suspects. They became well known for using torture to force confessions, taking part in summary executions, and racially biased patrolling. One of the last chapters in a Texas Rangers history book would include the Porvenir Massacre of 1918, in which the Rangers pulled 15 unarmed men and boys off of a ranch in southwest Texas and murdered them because they looked like the suspects in some recent thefts in a nearby town.
Yes, the Texas Rangers had their high points. They did save President Taft and President Porfirio Diaz from assassination. They did catch some famous criminals, from Sam Bass in 1878 to Bonnie and Clyde in 1934. But if we’re trying to weigh out the pros and cons… The list is skewed. Should we have this type of representation as a mascot?
Luckily for DFW area baseball fans, we at Belly Up Sports are here to help. We know Texas and the Metroplex have a strong passion for baseball, and we’ve come up with some ideas for a new team name. Check out what we’ve got, and at the bottom let us know which one you think they should run with!
Parker’s Idea: Texas Big Rigs
What is one thing in common in Friday Night Lights, Dallas, King of the Hill, and any other television representation of Texas? There is some tie to big oil money. And when I say big, I mean everything-is-bigger-in-Texas big. The DFW Metroplex has each of its professional teams tied to some part of the public image of Texas: the Cowboys, the Mavericks (aka the horses), and the Stars (at night, are big and bright….). If those teams are to paint a picture, what’s missing? Texan Oil. And how do you get oil? A big, Texas-sized oil rig. Hence, the Texas Big Rigs.
Texans have known about the oil beneath the soil since the land was considered Spain. However, until the late 1800s, it was a nuisance. It was the guck in the way when digging a well for drinking water, something every farmer needed in the hot Texas sun. But when the oil started turning huge profits, the guck became gold.
Oil rigs, for you northerners who’ve never seen the beauty that is Texas, can take on several different shapes. But the most common landbound oil rig in Texas functions similar to a see-saw. Formally called a pumpjack, the beam across the top teeters back and forth. One end is attached to a crank and motor (to keep it see-sawing), and the other is attached to the oil well and is pulling the oil, slowly, out of the ground. These rigs can be seen all over oil-rich areas in Texas.
The logo and mascot would be simple. You could have a simple pumpjack (again, think “see-saw”) style oil rig as the logo. You could keep the red, white, and blue coloring, the “T” on the hats, and the Texan themed marketing they currently don. The in-person mascot would be some form of Texan cowboy or rancher that would be monitoring his oil rigs… It all doesn’t have to be that big of a jump. And further, it remains true to the Texan identity
Now, as a Texan, I’d be remiss if I. a.) didn’t tell you I was a Texan and b.) didn’t point out the oil is something all over Texas. (and c.)point out that Texas is the best.) If anything the rest of the state has more access to it than the DFW. But the team does identify with Texas, not with Dallas, Arlington, or any other more specific location. Oil is a Texas thing, and thus a Texas oriented baseball team should be called the Texas Big Rigs.
Chaka’s Idea: Texas Walker, Texas Rangers
I’ll let you all in on a dirty little secret; Parker has been itching to get in on this name change because he is a HUGE fan of the Houston *tros.
Any chance to dig at the other Texas baseball club is one he will jump on without hesitation!
And, as we look at mascots, the history of the Rangers could make it a change worth considering.
I’m anticipating some of the arguments: “This is PC garbage and cancel-culture!” “All Texas Rangers aren’t bad!” “Are we going to throw out the name and not honor the good Texas Rangers?!” (The little question mark/exclamation point thingy is called an interabang- there’s your lesson for the day from this teacher. #dontflunkwithus)
Calm down snowflakes!
Rather than naming an organization after an entire force that has questionable incidents in their history, let’s pick the best of them and name the team after him!
The reasons are almost too numerous to name:
- No one questions the honor and greatness of Walker, specifically, as he couldn’t have been involved in the past atrocities and has shown us week after week that he is a true American hero, even in syndication!
- The Texas Rangers get a double honor as their name is still a part of the title AND they are connected to Chuck Norris!
- Keeping Texas Rangers in the name should make the marketing spend much less impactful for the pitiful billionaires, Ray Davis and Bob Simpson, that own the team and will, almost assuredly, complain about it!
- Rougned Odor plays for the Rangers and he is the closest thing to Chuck Norris in the MLB, today!
- Frankly, we don’t honor Chuck Norris enough in this country and that is a red-blooded American tragedy!
I mean, how hasn’t this happened already, now that I think about it?
Joey Gallo is going to roundhouse kick 173 homeruns in the season Texas does the obvious, right thing!
Congratulations on the infinite number of championships about to come your way, Texas baseball fans! I mean, no one can beat Chuck Norris! By naming your team after his most famous character, this means no one will beat you!
I think that’s the lesser known sixth postulate of Euclidean geometry- like I said, #dontflunkwithus!
Kev’s idea: Texas Peacemakers
When you think of Texas, what do you think of? Is it guns? It should be because Texas has the highest number of registered guns in the country at a whopping 725,368. Texas sure loves its guns.
So when you think of Texas, you’re damn sure going to be thinking about guns. What’s the most iconic American gunmaker in the world? Colt, specifically the Colt Single Action Army Revolver. The Colt SAA (dubbed the Peacemaker) has been in service since 1873 and is an iconic firearm. The saying should be “as American as apple pie, baseball, and Colt.” So, why not name the baseball team in America’s heartland after the epitome of America?
Colt .45 was the obvious choice here, but Houston used to call themselves that. It doesn’t matter though, “Texas Peacemakers” rolls off the tongue better.
VOTE:
Vote below for which of the names is your choice. Have a better idea? Respond in the comments to let us know what you’re thinking and why!
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