Editing Texas Rangers (baseball) (section)

====First division titles (1995–2000)====
[[File:Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.jpg|thumb|left|[[Globe Life Park]] opened in 1994.]]

[[Johnny Oates]] was hired as the Rangers' manager in 1995. Oates and company helped to bring home the 1996 AL Western Division Championship, the first division championship in franchise history. The first playoff series, 24 years after the franchise came to Texas, saw the Rangers lose to the New York Yankees, 3 games to 1. Oates was named AL Manager of the Year and [[Juan González (baseball)|Juan González]] was named AL MVP. The team featured a powerful lineup of hitters including González, [[Iván Rodríguez]], and [[Rusty Greer]], but continued to struggle with pitching despite having [[Rick Helling]] and [[Aaron Sele]] on their roster. Oates led the team to consecutive AL West championships in 1998 and 1999. Neither of Oates' last two playoff teams could win a single game, losing all six in back-to-back sweeps at the hands of the Yankees, a team that won three World Series in the 1990s after defeating Rangers teams in the first round. The 1999 team was to be the last playoff-bound team until 2010. En route to a second-straight last-place finish, Oates resigned his position 28&nbsp;games into the 2001 season.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}

In 1998, venture capital billionaire [[Tom Hicks]] bought the team for $250&nbsp;million.<ref name=test>[http://static.espn.go.com/mlb/bush/timeline.html George W. Bush and the Texas Rangers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190405024330/http://static.espn.go.com/mlb/bush/timeline.html |date=April 5, 2019 }}, Espn.com. Retrieved on March 4, 2009.</ref>