So my favorite baseball team won the American League pennant last night. The Texas Rangers started off as the new Washington Senators in 1961. Ten years later the franchise moved to Arlington, Texas and were renamed the Texas Rangers. During that (nearly) 50 year period the franchise had never won a post season series. That has all changed this year. Not only did the Rangers win a post season series, they have now won two post season series. They finally defeated the New York Yankees in a post season series. They won their first home game in a post season series. And now they are going to the World Series.

When I was 3-4 years old my family lived in Houston, Texas. Before I started kindergarten we moved to Tucson, Arizona. Tucson had an interesting connection to Houston as Tucson, at that time, had the Tucson Toros which was the triple A affiliate of the Houston Astros. Up until 1988 Houston was the only city I had lived in that had a major league ballclub. Naturally I latched on to them as my baseball team. Even after my family moved to the Dallas area in 1988 I continued to be a big Astros fan. However, slowly, I started to become a Rangers fan. By the early 90's I was completely converted. Despite having not lived in the Dallas area for more than 10 years (except for one brief period of 9 months in 2005) I have continued to follow the Rangers. For years now I have subscribed to MLB Gameday Audio which is a service that provides the local radio feed for your team via the internet. While at work I listen to the games. So many years of mediocrity. The Rangers were never the worst in the league, and they were never counted among the best.

Last night made that investment of time meaningful. They have won the American League pennant and will be playing in the World Series.