“It is a true baseball blessing that the Rangers brought us,” the former columnist and radio host told WFAA.
FORT WORTH, Texas — Randy Galloway had four scheduled TV or radio interviews by lunchtime Thursday.
A decade after his retirement, he suddenly finds himself in high demand once more.
The day after the Texas Rangers won the first World Series title in the franchise’s history, Galloway can’t even grab a bite to eat without someone coming up to him and wanting his thoughts on the milestone.
“I told my wife and my good friend, ‘I wish I could hear Randy Galloway talk on the radio about the Rangers [today],'” a self-described fan told the 80-year-old while the two were standing inside JD’s Hamburgers in Fort Worth.
“It’s mainly because I’m so damn old,” Galloway told a waiter after that encounter. “People want to know, ‘Well, how was it 52 years ago?'”
Before he became an immediately-identifiable radio host, Galloway was the Texas Rangers’ first beat writer. The Dallas Morning News tapped Galloway to cover the team in 1972 — the year the Washington Senators moved from Washington, D.C. to Arlington.
Today, he is among a small group of DFW residents who’ve intently watched the Rangers since their arrival.
“To borrow a line from the Grateful Dead, what a long and strange trip it’s been for 52 years,” he said Thursday. “If you were consumed by winning, it was not an enjoyable trip.”
That all changed Wednesday night, he said, when the Texas Rangers defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks.
“It erased all the baseball evil that we’ve seen for 52 years,” Galloway said. “You don’t have the Hoodoo Voodoo — the bad vibes — anymore about the Rangers.”
As far as how the team got here, Galloway credits Rangers general manager Chris Young for hiring Bruce Bochy, whom Galloway said got Texas “back to fundamental baseball.”
“He’s not into the geek world of baseball,” Galloway said of Bochy. “So many are into the geek world. But Chris Young, an Ivy Leaguer himself, who could be a geek, hired a true baseball guy.”
Perhaps that’s why the Texas bullpen, shaky in the regular season, converted every save opportunity in the playoffs. Perhaps only a “baseball guy” could manage a team to 11 consecutive road victories in the post-season.
Still, Galloway white-knuckled through the playoffs like everyone else.
“I never felt comfortable,” he said. “Not one game. Not one inning. Not at all. That’s based on the Rangers history.”
Galloway said there are moments when he misses writing about truly special teams like this year’s Rangers squad. But, humbly, he said he wouldn’t have more to add to current journalists’ coverage of the Texas Rangers.
It’s nice, he said with a laugh, to have a beer an let others worry about print deadlines and show rundowns.
This time, he said he was happy to enjoy the game like a fan.
“It is a true baseball blessing that the Rangers brought us,” Galloway said. “It’s like a ‘thank you’ to the fan – those of us who rode it out for 52 years.”
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