Fifteen years after the Texas Rangers lost the 2011 World Series in seven games to St. Louis, the two executives who built that team are back in the Fall Classic, working for opposite sides.
Jon Daniels, the longtime head of the Rangers' baseball operations, works as a senior advisor to the Tampa Bay Rays. Thad Levine, his assistant general manager for a decade, holds the same title with the Milwaukee Brewers. The pair led the Rangers' baseball operations together from 2006 to 2017, The Dallas Morning News reported Friday in a feature by longtime Rangers writer Evan Grant.
Milwaukee drew first. The Brewers held on for a 3-2 win in Game 1 on Friday night at American Family Field, finishing it with a strikeout after a replay review wiped out what had been called a game-ending double play, according to The Associated Press. Game 2 is Saturday night in Milwaukee.
A different weight
Neither man described this series as a chance to settle 2011. The Rangers lost Game 6 of that series 10-9 in 11 innings and Game 7 by a 6-2 score, according to Baseball-Reference, and Levine told The News the loss stayed with him for years.
"For probably a decade after 2011, hardly a day went by when I didn't relive something from that series and think that if just one thing, one thing, had gone differently, we might have won," Levine said.
He said that changed after a conversation a couple of years ago with Michael Young, the longtime Rangers infielder, about what those teams had accomplished. Under Daniels and Levine, Texas played beyond the 162nd game in six of the seven seasons from 2010 through 2016, a stretch The News described as the most sustained run of contention in club history.
"It allowed me to view it as an accomplishment and with a sense of pride, rather than any shame," Levine said.
Daniels said he had made peace with it, and that his years in Texas have no bearing on how he views the current series.
A lighter role
The roles are lighter now, and both men said that has changed how October feels. Daniels, in his fourth season with Tampa Bay, told The News that the general manager's job carries a heavy load and that his earlier World Series trips went by in a blur.
He said he has passed along advice to Erik Neander, who runs baseball operations for the Rays, that he once received himself: try to enjoy it.
"This role and this organization has breathed life into me again," Daniels said.
