Angels–Rangers rivalry

When the original Washington Senators announced their move to Minnesota to become the Twins in 1961, Major League Baseball decided to expand a year earlier than planned to stave off the twin threats of competition from the proposed Continental League and loss of its exemption from the Sherman Antitrust Act. As part of the expansion, the American League added two expansion teams for the 1961 season–the Los Angeles Angels and a new Washington Senators team. The new Senators and Angels began competing to fill their rosters with American League players in an expansion draft. Following an apathetic fan response in Washington, owner Bob Short would relocate the Rangers to Arlington in 1972, while the Angels managed to move into a new ballpark in 1966. Both teams struggled mightily in their first 2 decades as expansion teams, though both would tie for second place in 1978. The Angels would not appear in the postseason until 1979, while the Rangers would not make a postseason appearance until 1996. Both teams were tied for second place of the division in 1998, however; the Angels would lose 2/4 games against the Athletics and find themselves swept by the Rangers for the final two games of the season, eliminating them from playoff contention. The Rangers would find themselves swept in both 1998 and 1999 by the Yankees, then fail to make a playoff appearance from 2000 to 2010, eventually making back-to-back appearances in both the 2010, and 2011 World Series.^[7][8][9] Meanwhile, the Angels managed a shocking appearance in the 2002 World Series, beating the San Francisco Giants and securing the franchise's first and only World Series title, though they would begin to struggle mightily under new owner Arte Moreno as the team found themselves losing three times to the Boston Red Sox in 2004, 2007, and 2008. Though the Angels would also manage an appearance in the 2009 ALCS, they would fall to the Yankees in six games. In 2012, then-Angels' pitcher C.J. Wilson played a practical joke on his former Rangers teammate Mike Napoli by tweeting his phone number. Enraged, Napoli began to exchange words with Wilson during the pregame warmups on May 19.^[10] The feuds go back to two incidents between Angels second baseman Adam Kennedy and Rangers catcher Gerald Laird trading insults, leading to benches clearing in a brawl between both teams.^[11][12][13] The Rangers managed two more appearances in the ALDS, but lost both times to the Toronto Blue Jays.^[14][15] The Angels have not posted a winning record or appeared in the postseason since they appeared in the 2014 ALDS in which they were swept by the Kansas City Royals, meanwhile the Rangers managed a return to the postseason in 2023 after seven years out of contention. In 2023, the Rangers won their first World Series, ending a 63-year drought total and 52 years in North Texas.^[16][17][18]

• Cowboys–Rams rivalry
• California–Texas rivalry