1989 Texas Rangers season

The Texas Rangers 1989 season involved the Rangers finishing fourth in the American League West with a record of 83 wins and 79 losses. Nolan Ryan would achieve his 5,000th career strikeout during the season. He would finish as the American League leader in strikeouts.

1989 Texas Rangers
LeagueAmerican League
DivisionWest
BallparkArlington Stadium
CityArlington, Texas
OwnersGeorge W. Bush
General managersTom Grieve
ManagersBobby Valentine
TelevisionKTVT
(Bob Carpenter, Steve Busby)
HSE
(Greg Lucas, Norm Hitzges, Merle Harmon)
RadioWBAP
(Eric Nadel, Mark Holtz )
← 1988 Seasons 1990 →

This season, the Rangers were sold to a new ownership group; the managing partner was future United States President George W. Bush.

Offseason

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Regular season

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  • June 16, 1989: Sammy Sosa made his major league debut in a game against the New York Yankees.[9] In four at-bats, Sosa appeared in 4 at-bats and had 2 hits.
  • August 22, 1989: Against the eventual World Champion Oakland A's, Ryan became the first pitcher ever to record 5,000 career strikeouts. He struck out Rickey Henderson in the fifth inning to break the 5,000 barrier.[10]
  • September 12, 1989: Nolan Ryan threw 164 pitches before he was replaced on the mound by Kenny Rogers in the ninth inning. The Rangers lost the game, 6–5, to the Kansas City Royals.
  • Rubén Sierra had a career year as he led the AL in triples and RBI but ranked 6th in home runs (29), third in runs scored (101) and 5th in hits (194). He set the club record for most total bases in a season (344), which also led the league.

Season standings

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AL West
Team W L Pct. GB Home Road
Oakland Athletics 99 63 .611 54‍–‍27 45‍–‍36
Kansas City Royals 92 70 .568 7 55‍–‍26 37‍–‍44
California Angels 91 71 .562 8 52‍–‍29 39‍–‍42
Texas Rangers 83 79 .512 16 45‍–‍36 38‍–‍43
Minnesota Twins 80 82 .494 19 45‍–‍36 35‍–‍46
Seattle Mariners 73 89 .451 26 40‍–‍41 33‍–‍48
Chicago White Sox 69 92 .429 29½ 35‍–‍45 34‍–‍47

Record vs. opponents

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Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]
Team BAL BOS CAL CWS CLE DET KC MIL MIN NYY OAK SEA TEX TOR
Baltimore 6–7 6–6 6–6 7–6 10–3 6–6 7–6 4–8 8–5 5–7 6–6 9–3 7–6
Boston 7–6 4–8 7–5 8–5 11–2 4–8 6–7 6–6 7–6 7–5 5–7 6–6 5–8
California 6–6 8–4 8–5 5–7 11–1 4–9 7–5 11–2 6–6 5–8 7–6 6–7 7–5
Chicago 6–6 5–7 5–8 7–5 4–8 6–7 10–2 5–8 5–6 5–8 7–6 3–10 1–11
Cleveland 6–7 5–8 7–5 5–7 5–8 8–4 3–10 5–7 9–4 2–10 6–6 7–5 5–8
Detroit 3–10 2–11 1–11 8–4 8–5 6–6 6–7 5–7 6–7 4–8 4–8 4–8 2–11
Kansas City 6–6 8–4 9–4 7–6 4–8 6–6 8–4 7–6 6–6 7–6 9–4 8–5 7–5
Milwaukee 6–7 7–6 5–7 2–10 10–3 7–6 4–8 9–3 8–5 5–7 7–5 5–7 6–7
Minnesota 8–4 6–6 2–11 8–5 7–5 7–5 6–7 3–9 6–6 6–7 7–6 5–8 9–3
New York 5–8 6–7 6–6 6–5 4–9 7–6 6–6 5–8 6–6 3–9 8–4 5–7 7–6
Oakland 7–5 5–7 8–5 8–5 10–2 8–4 6–7 7–5 7–6 9–3 9–4 8–5 7–5
Seattle 6–6 7–5 6–7 6–7 6–6 8–4 4–9 5–7 6–7 4–8 4–9 6–7 5–7
Texas 3–9 6–6 7–6 10–3 5–7 8–4 5–8 7–5 8–5 7–5 5–8 7–6 5–7
Toronto 6–7 8–5 5–7 11–1 8–5 11–2 5–7 7–6 3–9 6–7 5–7 7–5 7–5


Notable transactions

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Roster

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1989 Texas Rangers
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Other batters

Manager

Coaches

Player stats

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Batting

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= Indicates team leader

Starters by position

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Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
C Chad Kreuter 87 158 24 .152 5 9
1B Rafael Palmeiro 156 559 154 .275 8 64
2B Julio Franco 150 548 173 .316 13 92
3B Steve Buechele 155 486 114 .235 16 59
SS Scott Fletcher 83 314 75 .239 0 22
LF Pete Incaviglia 133 453 107 .236 21 81
CF Cecil Espy 142 275 122 .257 3 31
RF Rubén Sierra 162 634 194 .306 29 119
DH Harold Baines 50 172 49 .285 3 16

Other batters

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Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
Jeff Kunkel 108 293 79 .270 8 29
Rick Leach 110 239 65 .272 1 23
Fred Manrique 54 191 55 .288 2 22
Geno Petralli 70 184 56 .304 4 23
Jim Sundberg 76 147 29 .197 2 8
Mike Stanley 67 122 30 .246 1 11
Jack Daugherty 52 106 32 .302 1 10
Sammy Sosa 25 84 20 .238 1 3
Buddy Bell 34 82 15 .183 0 3
Juan González 24 60 9 .150 1 7
Scott Coolbaugh 25 51 14 .275 2 7
Thad Bosley 37 40 9 .225 1 9
Jeff Stone 22 36 6 .167 0 5
Dean Palmer 16 19 2 .105 0 1
Kevin Reimer 3 5 0 .000 0 0

Pitching

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= Indicates league leader

Starting pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Nolan Ryan 32 239.1 16 10 3.20 301
Bobby Witt 31 194.1 12 13 5.14 166
Kevin Brown 28 191.0 12 9 3.35 104
Charlie Hough 30 182.0 10 13 4.35 94
Mike Jeffcoat 22 130.2 9 6 3.58 64
Jamie Moyer 15 76.0 4 9 4.86 44
Wilson Álvarez 1 0.0 0 1 inf 0

Other pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
John Barfield 4 11.2 0 1 6.17 9

Relief pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Jeff Russell 71 6 4 38 1.98 77
Kenny Rogers 73 3 4 2 2.93 63
Cecilio Guante 50 6 6 2 3.91 69
Gary Mielke 43 1 0 1 3.26 26
Drew Hall 38 2 1 0 3.70 45
Craig McMurtry 19 0 0 0 7.43 14
Brad Arnsberg 16 2 1 1 4.13 26
Darrel Akerfelds 6 0 1 0 3.27 9
Paul Wilmet 3 0 0 0 15.43 1
Jeff Kunkel 1 0 0 0 21.60 0

Awards and honors

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All-Star Game

Farm system

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Level Team League Manager
AAA Oklahoma City 89ers American Association Jim Skaalen
AA Tulsa Drillers Texas League Tommy Thompson
A Charlotte Rangers Florida State League Bobby Jones
A Gastonia Rangers South Atlantic League Orlando Gómez
Rookie GCL Rangers Gulf Coast League Chino Cadahia
Rookie Butte Copper Kings Pioneer League Bump Wills

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Charlotte

References

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  1. ^ Guy Hoffman at Baseball Reference
  2. ^ Paul Kilgus at Baseball Reference
  3. ^ "Bobby Beacham: Career Statistics". Baseball Reference. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
  4. ^ Julio Franco at Baseball Reference
  5. ^ Nolan Ryan at Baseball Reference
  6. ^ Cecilio Guante at Baseball Reference
  7. ^ Jim Sundberg at Baseball Reference
  8. ^ Rick Leach at Baseball Reference
  9. ^ a b Sammy Sosa at Baseball Reference
  10. ^ "The Nolan Ryan Express | The Strikeout King". smackbomb.com/nolanryan. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved July 28, 2008.