The team the redbirds beat, the Texas Rangers, turned 50 this year. This was also their first World Series, so even though they lost, Rangers fans can take some joy in simply getting the pennant for the first time. What’s interesting from a theatrical perspective, though, is that the Rangers began life in 1961 under a different name: the Washington Senators.
That name should ring a bell for you fans of musical theatre. The Senators are the team that beats the “Damn Yankees” in the 1955 musical of the same. The show was the second hit for the songwriting team of Richard Adler and Jerry Ross (their first was The Pajama Game). It was also, sadly, their last as Ross died of chronic bronchiectasis before the show’s opening.
“But wait,” I hear you cry, “how could the Senators appear in a 1955 show if the team has only been around since 1961?” The answer is that there was an earlier Washington Senators team that started out life in Kansas City in 1894, moved to Washington D.C. in 1901 and then, in 1960, pulled up stakes and moved to Minneapolis, where they became the Twins. The revised Senators were set up as an expansion team in 1961 and stayed in our nation’s capital until they, too, up and left for Texas ten years later.
So while I’m happy that our home team copped yet another trophy, I have to admit it would have been somewhat fitting if the name of the hard luck team from Damn Yankees would finally, however indirectly, have been associated with a World Series victory. But, hey: that’s show biz.
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