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5 best Texas Rangers performances at MLB All-Star: Josh Hamilton’s home run derby and more

Hamilton, Michael Young and Nolan Ryan all had memorable All-Star moments.

The Texas Rangers’ All-Star Game history had as inauspicious a start as the franchise on the field. Their first year in Texas, they didn’t even have a representative in the game. Toby Harrah was named as their rep. He was hurt. Nobody thought he needed to be replaced with another Ranger.

Over the next 50 years, they made up for it.

Three MVPs. Two winning pitchers. Two saves. Five homers. And perhaps the single greatest round of Home Run Derby ever. It may be a mere exhibition, but the Rangers have exhibited just fine. Here’s a look at the five greatest Rangers All-Star performances:

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Josh Hamilton takes New York, 2008

Texas Rangers' Josh Hamilton swings at the ball during the Major League Baseball All-Star...
Texas Rangers' Josh Hamilton swings at the ball during the Major League Baseball All-Star Home Run Derby at Yankee Stadium in New York on Monday, July 14, 2008. Hamilton hit a record 28 home runs in the first round.(KATHY WILLENS / AP)

The most memorable moment in Rangers All-Star history didn’t happen during the game, but rather during the Home Run Derby. In what became the most-watched Home Run Derby ever, Josh Hamilton took his baseball rebirth to new heights on the biggest stage. In the final All-Star Game played at the original Yankee Stadium, he slammed a first-round record of 28 homers.

He smacked several balls more than 500 feet, according to the ESPN broadcast and hit a handful more into the upper deck in right field. He had all of Yankee Stadium — and 10 million viewers at home — in his thrall.

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The final round, in which Minnesota’s Justin Morneau outhomered an exhausted Hamilton 5-3, was anticlimactic. The performance goes down not just as a great Rangers All-Star memory, but perhaps one of the most exciting All-Star week performances ever.

Michael Young wins MVP, 2006

Down to his and the American League’s last strike, Young lined an 0-2 fastball from Trevor Hoffman into the alley in right field for a two-out, two-run scoring triple in the top of the ninth to give the AL a 3-2 win in Pittsburgh and become the third Ranger to win the All-Star Game MVP. Young had the game-winning RBI in two All-Star Games. He also had a walkoff sacrifice fly in 2008. Young, Alfonso Soriano (2004) and Julio Franco (1990) are the three Rangers to win the game MVP. Young, Soriano and Rubén Sierra are tied for the club record in All-Star Game RBIs with three apiece.

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Nolan Ryan gets the win, 1989

Texas Ranger veteran Nolan Ryan bites down as he fires one of his 35 pitches to the plate on...
Texas Ranger veteran Nolan Ryan bites down as he fires one of his 35 pitches to the plate on Tuesday night, July 12, 1989 en route to an American League win in the 60th All-Star Game from Anaheim Stadium. The 42-year-old fastballer became the oldest pitcher to win an All-Star game as the AL took their second consecutive All-Star win, 5-3. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)(1989 AP)

Ryan Mania in Arlington was only getting warmed up. The Countdown to 5,000 strikeouts was on. So, too, was a race for 300 strikeouts. The sixth and seventh no-hitters were still not even figments of the imagination.

But at age 42, Ryan entered in relief of starter Dave Stewart and proceeded to strike out three over two scoreless innings at Angels Stadium, which had been his home park for a decade. It was his first pitching appearance there since he left for the Astros in 1980.

Ryan struck out Benito Santiago, Will Clark and Kevin Mitchell and ended up being credited with the win. It would be his final All-Star Game appearance.

Julio Franco wins MVP, 1990:

At Wrigley Field, Franco drove in the only runs of the game with a seventh-inning double off Cincinnati “Nasty Boys” closer Rob Dibble. The first two batters of the seventh inning reached against reliever Jeff Brantley, bringing up Franco for the second time. Because the game was being played under National League rules, he’d entered as a pinch hitter for Dave Stieb in the top of the fifth. His double accounted for the only runs in a 2-0 AL win.

Hank Blalock turns around Eric Gagné, 2003

At what was then U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago, Blalock hit a two-run, two-out, eighth-inning pinch-hit homer in his first All-Star at-bat off eventual Cy Young Award winner Eric Gagné. Blalock got ahead 3-1, then hammered a pitch to right center to score Arlington’s Vernon Wells and give the AL a 6-5 lead. You could make a case for Blalock deserving the MVP for that swing, though Angels outfielder Garret Anderson won it for getting three hits and driving in a pair of runs. The next year was symbolically big, too, though Blalock went 0-for-2 in the game. He had entered as a pinch hitter replacing Alex Rodriguez, who had ditched the Rangers for the Yankees before that season.

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