Texas Rangers
The Texas Rangers are a professional baseball team located in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, based in Arlington, Texas. The Rangers franchise are currently a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League, and are the reigning A.L. Western Division and A.L. Champions since 2010, although they lost consecutive World Series appearances against the San Francisco Giants in 2010 and the St. Louis Cardinals in 2011. Since 1994, the Rangers have played in Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Texas. The team's name is borrowed from the famous law enforcement agency of the same name. The franchise was established in 1961 by the name of the Washington Senators, an expansion team awarded to Washington, D.C., after the city's first ballclub, the original Washington Senators, moved to Minnesota and became the Twins. After the 1971 season, the new Senators moved to Arlington, Texas, and debuted as the Rangers the following spring. The Texas Rangers Baseball Club has made five appearances in the MLB postseason, all following division championships, in 1996, 1998, 1999, 2010, and 2011. In 2010, the Rangers advanced past the Division Series for the first time, defeating the Tampa Bay Rays. Texas then brought home their first American League Pennant after beating the New York Yankees in six games. In the 2010 World Series, the franchise's first, the Rangers fell to the San Francisco Giants in five games. Their lone victory made them the first Texas MLB team to win a World Series game, the Houston Astros having been swept in their 2005 World Series appearance. They repeated as American League champions the following year, then lost the 2011 World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games.