ARLINGTON, Texas – Marcus Semien was told before he saw his first World Series ring how nice it was going to be.
“They weren't lying at all,” said the Texas Rangers' All-Star second baseman.
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Two days after unfurling the franchise's first championship banner on opening day, the Rangers finished the celebrating by getting their rings in another pregame ceremony Saturday night before the second of a three-game opening series against the Chicago Cubs.
The numbers of diamonds, sapphires, rubies and other stones cover a host of significant stats. There's the perfect 11-0 postseason road record, an MLB first, and the 52 points of diamonds in the word “champions” represent the seasons the franchise has been in Texas since moving from Washington.
The stones signifying the road record are inside the “T” logo that is the centerpiece, outlined by 23 red rubies for the year the team won the championship and surrounded by 103 blue sapphires for the combined number of victories in the regular season and playoffs.
The face of the ring flips to reveal another “T” logo, with 49 red rubies inside it representing the number of players on the 2023 roster.
Under the removable face is the 11-0 road record with the words “road dominance.” Each player has his last name and number on one side of the ring, with his signature on the bottom of the inside of the ring.
Texas swept Tampa Bay in a best-of-three AL wild-card series before winning twice in Baltimore to start an AL Division Series sweep capped by Texas' first home victory of the postseason.
The road team won all seven games when the Rangers beat the defending champion Houston Astros in the AL Championship Series. Texas won three times in Arizona in a five-game victory over the Diamondbacks to win the World Series.
There is one diamond in the World Series trophy to represent the first championship in franchise history. The 3mm stone inside the trophy is to call out the number of American League championships the Rangers have won.
“The ring tells the story,” Semien said. “You take looks at that ring and every single angle, there’s a story to it. The way we won the World Series, road games and just different things that you sit back and think, ‘Oh yeah, we did that, that was true. We did do that.’”
Players got a sneak peek at the rings at a dinner Friday night, but that didn't stop the smiles when they took the rings out of the boxes after being introduced one-by-one by longtime public address announcer Chuck Morgan.
It wasn't long before slugging star Adolis García, the ALCS MVP, had the ring on a finger for the cameras as the players lined the infield, shortly after Semien was shown with a big smile as he held his.
Morgan, who has been with the club every year but once since joining the Rangers in 1983, was the first to receive his ring when the club revealed details earlier Saturday.
“There are no words I can describe to get the first one,” an emotional Morgan said a few hours before the ceremony. “There's so many other people that were probably more worthy than me, but it's a huge, huge honor.”
Jason of Beverly Hills designed the ring after CEO Jason Arasheben said his company's bid to design the World Series ring was denied for 17 consecutive seasons.
“There was a lot of pressure when designing this ring, not just because it was a first for the Rangers, but because it is also our very first World Series ring,” Arasheben said while noting his company has now designed championship rings in each of the four major pro sports in the U.S.
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AP Baseball Writer Stephen Hawkins contributed to this story.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB