Texas Rangers Michael Young warms up in the batters circle beofre facing the Oakland A's at the Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Tuesday, May 11, 2010. The Rangers lost 7-6 in 13 innings. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News)
On the afternoon of Oct. 3, 2001, in a game that had been rescheduled after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Rangers surrendered back-to-back bottom-of-the seventh homers to the Moneyball Oakland Athletics.
By the time of their 86th loss, a team of veterans (including pricey newcomer Alex Rodriguez) just wanted the season to be done. They'd already seen their manager resign, fallen 40 games out of the race in the AL West, been stranded on the West Coast after the terrorist attacks and still had to make one more flight to Seattle to face a team flirting with the all-time record for wins in a season.