The 1972 Texas Rangers were a culmination of decades of trying to get a major-league team in Dallas- Fort Worth. The area has a long history with baseball, going back to the 1800s, and minor-league teams played in both cities right up until the Rangers arrived with Ted Williams at the helm.

High expectations were quickly dashed. Just how bad were those early Rangers teams? When reporter Mike Shropshire wrote a book about covering the Rangers from 1973 to '75, he titled it Seasons In Hell. Twenty years later, the Rangers still hadn't made the playoffs. Counting the decade when the franchise was known as the Washington Senators, the team did not go to the playoffs for the first 35 years of its existence.

So why write a book about the 1972 Texas Rangers, perhaps the worst team in club history? Because they're the start of that history. Articles in this book cover the effort to bring a team to North Texas and the story of Tom Vandergriff, the man now known as "the father of the Rangers." Biographies of every man to play--or coach--for the 1972 team are presented, including Frank Howard, Larry Bittner, Horacio Pina and Tom Grieve, and broadcasters Don Drysdale and Bill Mercer. Owner Bob Short and Arlington Stadium itself are given full write-ups as well.

This book is the collaborative work of 46 members of SABR-the Society for American Baseball Research.