T.R.'s Memoirs: The disastrous Chan Ho Park signing and a long-range plan that jumped the rails
The Texas Rangers were going to try to out-hit and out-bullpen opponents, but then owner Tom Hicks altered course.
Editor’s note: T.R. Sullivan retired after 32 years over covering the Rangers, the longest tenure of any beat writer in club history. He is contributing his memories exclusively to this website.
“We finally have our No. 1 starter.”
— Rangers owner Tom Hicks on the signing of Chan Ho Park
“The wimps and the pussies will sort themselves out quickly.”
— Pitching coach Oscar Acosta on the Rangers pitching staff during the 2002 spring training.
“T.R., I got screwed.”
— Rangers manager Jerry Narron, on the team he was given in 2002.
Chan Ho Park was the worst free-agent signing in Rangers history, a disaster of epic proportions that dealt a crushing blow to the franchise.
Even today, 20 years later, it’s amazing to look back and wonder how could one free-agent signing go so terribly bad so quickly.
How bad was it? Park, in his 3 1/2 years with the Rangers from 2002 to 2005, had a 5.79 ERA. That is the highest ever for a Rangers pitcher with at least 350 innings pitched. The next highest was John Burkett at 5.19. Only one other major-league pitcher — Joe Mays (5.81) — had a higher ERA in that stretch.
This was not what the Rangers expected from a pitcher who won 75 games and had 3.79 ERA in 1997-2001 while with the Dodgers. During a 1999 game against the Angels, Park got in a brawl with opposing pitcher Tim Belcher. Park wasn’t happy about Belcher tagging him too hard on a bunt play.
When Belcher said something wrong, Park responded by drop-kicking him.
A few years later, Orel Hershiser became the Rangers’ pitching coach in the hopes he could so something about Park. But Hershiser perceived that Park was not the same pitcher he was in Los Angeles.
“This is not the same guy that drop-kicked Tim Belcher,” Hershiser said.
The Rangers signed Park to be their No. 1 starter. Instead, he became one of the symbols of the worst team in club history, a team so bad that guys like Michael Young can only laugh and shake their heads when asked about that team.
The Rangers went 72-90 in 2002. That’s much better than the 1973 team that lost 105 games or the 102 losses suffered this past season. But the won-loss record does not even begin to measure how bad it was in 2002.
John Rocker, Hideki Irabu, Carl Everett, Ruben Rivera …
That’s just the start. The cast of characters the Rangers had that season almost defies description.