WACO, Texas — The Texas Rangers reached the mountain top of the baseball world when they won the World Series. At the Texas Sports Hall of Fame, fans arrived to see the team and the trophy up close.
Players and coaches like former Baylor Bear Cody Bradford, Josh Smith, Tony Beasley, Brett Hayes, and the voice of the Rangers Eric Nadel, sat with fans and gave them a behind the scenes look at their historic season.
"Love sharing our experiences with the fans because it's kind of like we get to relive those experiences for the first time again," Bradford said.
"For me, you know, 46 years of frustration erased and especially thinking back to the heartbreak of 2011 to finally finish off a world series and win was just so gratifying," Nadel said.
"And then to see the response of the fans when we came home, you know, over 500,000 people at the parade. It was really very emotional for me," he said.
The Texas Sports Hall of Fame also unveiled the newest exhibit, an entire display dedicated to the Rangers first world series win that is forever enshrined.
"Just to kind of be here and see all these things kind of reminisce on, on the world series to go back in a couple months ago and just kind of dream about it again. It's a really cool opportunity and then to just to have all this stuff here is, it's pretty special," Josh Smith said.
"When you're in the moment you don't really appreciate little things like this. It's fun to look back and even seeing like a jersey or a base, it just brings back a lot of those vivid memories that, you know, maybe have slipped your mind," Rangers bullpen coach Brett Hayes said.
"It's really fun to see the pictures and the excitement of the champagne bottle, you know, that brings back some, some joy," Hayes said.
History made a stop in Waco as the Texas Rangers are now a forever part of the Lone Star State.
