The Texas Rangers are set to unveil their new City Connect uniforms, a lot to the chagrin and pleasure of enthusiasts. However, upon nearer inspection of the design and accompanying expose video, it turns into transparent that the uniforms pay tribute to the baseball historical past of North Texas, a historical past that will not be well known to informal enthusiasts.
Pro ball has been performed within the Dallas-Fort Worth house for relatively a while, with the Rangers handiest arriving in 1972. The City Connect uniforms in particular reference one of the crucial house’s long-forgotten minor-league groups, together with the Dallas Eagles, Fort Worth Panthers (later renamed the Cats), and the DFW Spurs. The Peagle, a mix of a panther and eagle, used to be even created for the uniforms as a nod to this historical past.
The Dallas Eagles date again so far as 1888, after they had been referred to as the Dallas Hams. After a sequence of brand adjustments, the staff used to be ultimately purchased through Dick Burnett in 1948 and renamed the Eagles. The Eagles boasted a robust presence as a minor-league staff, with Burnett going to nice lengths to create sellout crowds. This integrated bringing in large league gamers for exhibition video games, corresponding to Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Mickey Cochrane, and Dizzy Dean, all of whom performed in a gap day gimmick recreation in 1950 on the Cotton Bowl. The recreation set a Texas League file with over 53,000 enthusiasts in attendance.
The Fort Worth Panthers, alternatively, had been Fort Worth’s model of the Dallas Eagles, whole with affiliations to major-league golf equipment such because the Brooklyn Dodgers. The staff began because the Panthers within the early 1900s sooner than ultimately being renamed the Cats within the Nineteen Forties. Duke Snider, Carl Erskine, and Maury Wills, all long term large league stars, performed for the Panthers sooner than making it to the majors.
Lastly, the Dallas-Fort Worth Spurs had been the primary professional baseball staff to play in Arlington, albeit for a little while between 1965 and 1972. The staff performed their video games on the newly-built Turnpike Stadium, which might later be expanded into the Rangers’ Arlington Stadium.
In brief, the City Connect uniforms function a reminder of the wealthy historical past of baseball in North Texas, tying in combination the other layers of groups and arenas that performed a a very powerful position in bringing the large leagues to Dallas-Fort Worth.