A player from the original 1972 Texas Rangers team has died. Ted Ford, who spent four seasons in Major League Baseball, died on Monday, the Rangers announced.
John Blake, who is the senior advisor and historian for the Rangers shared the news on X Monday afternoon.
“The Rangers send their condolences to the family of former MLB outfielder Ted Ford, who passed away this morning at age 78,” Blake posted.
Ted Ford played for the Cleveland Indians in 1970 and 1971, before being traded to the Rangers in 1972. He led Texas with 14 home runs and 50 RBIs that season.
The Rangers played their first season in Texas in 1972 after the franchise was previously the Washington Senators.
Ford then finished his career back with the Indians for the 1973 season.
A native of New Jersey, Ford also excelled at football, basketball and track as he was growing up, according to the Society for American Baseball Research.
However, baseball was his best sport, and he was drafted by the Indians in the first round of the 1966 MLB Draft.
He finished his MLB career with a .219 batting average, 26 doubles, 17 home runs and 68 RBIs across 240 games.
While he played four seasons of Major League Baseball, by far his best year came in 1972 when he was a member of the Rangers original team.
Ford was traded back to the Rangers ahead of the 1974 season but was set to play in the minors and decided to move on from the team, instead. He continued to play baseball afterwards but not at the Major League level.
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