Rangers History Today: Texas' Last Game In 1994 Due To Players Strike

On this date in Texas Rangers history, Texas played its final game of the 1994 season — and the Rangers were in first place in the American League West.

That moment came on August 10, 1994, as the Rangers lost to the Seattle Mariners, 3-2, in 10 innings. That loss concluded a six-game losing streak and dropped the Rangers to a 52-62 record. But, somehow, the Rangers were in the lead in the AL West, one game up on Oakland. Yes, all four teams were under .500.

But we never saw how the season ended. The next day, August 11, the Rangers had an off day. The following day, August 12, the season went on hold as the players went on strike. And the players and owners were unable to come to an agreement. Consequently, the 1994 World Series was eventually canceled, and the parties didn’t reach an agreement until April of 1995.

The Rangers became the eighth team in the history of the four major professional sports to finish a season in first place with a losing record. They were also the first to do so in Major League history. The Rangers were an awful 8-22 against the AL West that season. Yet, the Rangers took control of first place on May 29 and never gave it up.

The strike made that meaningless. To that point, the Rangers had never won a divisional crown, and they would have to wait two more seasons to finally reach the top of the division.

Also on this date …

August 10, 1993: Nolan Ryan won his final game at Arlington Stadium, defeating the California Angels, one of his former teams.

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