Behind the Scenes of the
World Series
UTA alumni connected to the Texas Rangers take us out to the ballgame by sharing their favorite memories of the team's remarkable World Series championship run.
When the Texas Rangers won the World Series in November, the entire DFW Metroplex celebated the franchise's first championship in its 52-year history and the culmination of an unbelivable postseason that included 11 wins on the road. For four UTA alums, however, the World Series victory was especially sweet. These are the Mavericks who blazed career paths that led to them to becoming part of the team behind the scenes, by building the state-of-the art Globe Life Field that the Rangers call home or working there every day to connect the team with area businesses and community members. As the Rangers won game after game under the postseason motto “Go and Take It,” these alumni took away meaningful memories they now share here.
Brian Nephew
'11 BA, Communication
The Rangers’ rivals, the Houston Astros, edged them out for the American League West division title. Considered underdogs in the Wild Card series, the Rangers beat the Tampa Bay Rays in two games and the Baltimore Orioles in three straight games in order to once again face the Astros in the American League Championship Series to determine who would advance to the World Series.
As a former third baseman for UTA’s baseball team, Brian Nephew appreciates exceptional play on the diamond. He witnessed a lot of it last season; in his role as director of business partnerships for the Rangers, he attends nearly every home game, entertaining sponsors in Suite 233 at Globe Life Field.
The Arlington native and lifelong Rangers fan has spent 11 years with the team, first in ticket sales before transitioning to business partnerships and crafting sponsorship programs with such corporations as Coca-Cola, Toyota, Globe Life, and Lockheed Martin.
“It’s rewarding to determine what’s important to our sponsors, and over a multiyear program, to maintain those relationships and grow them as new opportunities come up,” he says.
Nephew often has the opportunity to travel for away games, including the crucial must-win Game 6 in Houston against the Astros in the American League Championship Series. The Rangers were up 2-0 in the bottom of the eighth inning when Astros third baseman Alex Bregman drove a ball deep into the outfield. The Rangers’ 21-year-old rookie center fielder, Evan Carter, made an impressive leaping catch at the wall, then threw the ball to second base for a double play.
“It was an incredible play,” Nephew says. “Here’s this kid who was playing minor league baseball two months ago making an amazing play like that. If I have to pin it down to one moment that stands out from the whole postseason, it is that play.”
When the Rangers blew away the Astros 11-4 in Game 7 to advance to the World Series, “I remember jumping up and down and hugging the sponsors,” Nephew says. “Afterward in the hotel lobby, it was a sea of people all in red and blue. For us to win Game 6 and Game 7 the way we did, it felt like we had won the World Series right there.”
Fred Ortiz
'90 BS, Architecture
The cutting-edge $1.2-billion Globe Life Field was denied its grand opening in spring 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Rangers played to an empty house that season. The stadium hosted the 2020 World Series, but the Rangers didn’t play in it. After difficult seasons in 2021 and 2022, the Rangers’ triumphant entry into the 2023 World Series against the Arizona Diamondbacks garnered the team and Globe Life Field the long-overdue moment in the spotlight they deserved.
“The World Series was personal for me, because it’s my team playing in a stadium that I worked on,” he says.
Ortiz’s personal story parallels the Rangers’ incredible season, one of overcoming multiple adversities to ultimately triumph. A first-generation Mexican American from a family of seven who grew up in a federal housing project in El Paso, Ortiz was the first in his extended family to attend college in the United States.
After joining HKS in 2007, Ortiz worked on projects including a minor league ballpark and collegiate stadiums and training facilities. When HKS landed the Globe Life Field project in 2016, he was called up to the major leagues of design.
“Everything about the project was amplified,” he says. “I loved that I was working with the city of Arlington and with my favorite team.”
Ortiz knows every inch of this next-generation ballpark, and during Game 1 of the World Series, he roamed its concourses repeatedly.
“I refer to myself as an anthropologist, because I love watching people,” Ortiz says. “I kept moving around because I wanted to take it all in. It’s so invigorating to watch. It’s the reason why I do what I do.”
Sitting three rows up from the field between the Rangers dugout and home base, he had an up-close view of Rangers shortstop Corey Seager tying the game 2-2 with a home run in the bottom of the ninth inning, and of outfielder Adolis Garcia blasting a walk-off solo home run in the bottom of the 11th to give the Rangers a 6-5 victory.
“There was such incredible energy,” Ortiz says. “The roof was closed, so the acoustics were really amplified.
"It was so emotional. Truly the best baseball game I’ve ever attended.”
Margarita Aguirre
'16 MS, Architecture
Game 2 of the World Series was not the Rangers’ best. But even though the Rangers lost to the Diamondbacks 9-1, the loyal fans still cheered their hearts out at what would end up being the last home game for the Rangers in the 2023 World Series.
“I’m a huge people person,” she says. “I love meeting the fans and getting to hear their stories.”
When Aguirre joined HKS right after graduating, her insider knowledge as an usher helped her earn a spot on the Globe Life Field project. Even though she was new, she felt like she had come home. During middle school, she came to HKS for a career day and was awed by the experience. Her interest in architecture had already been sparked and nurtured by an aunt in the profession in El Salvador, but the HKS tour took it to the next level. She asked for the card of the architect leading the tour.
“I kept that card as a reminder that this is what I want to do and this is where I want to work,” she says.
She worked for nearly two years on Globe Life Field construction. Her signature contributions to the new stadium lie in spacious employee lounges on both the main and upper levels and in the television screens positioned so fans can follow the action from everywhere.
Aguirre was thrilled to be there for the action when she ushered for Game 2 of the World Series in 2020. “But that wasn’t the Rangers,” she says. “So to see everyone pouring into the stadium for Game 2, people of different generations and from different places, and realizing, ‘They’re all here for our team,’ it gave me chills.”
From her section immediately behind home plate, she could hear the crack of the bat as Adolis Garcia hit a home run in the sixth inning for the only Rangers’ run of the game.
“It was incredible to see everyone just soaking it in,” she says. “I couldn’t stop smiling.”
Aguirre and her husband returned to Globe Life Field with thousands of other fans to watch Game 5 from Arizona on the stadium’s enormous LED screens. When the Rangers shut out the Diamondbacks to win the World Series, “it was electric,” she says. “It felt like we were there.”
She can’t wait to bring her newborn daughter, Elena, to future games, dressed in her tiny Rangers jersey with the number 23 on the back, and tell her all about the incredible World Series season in the stadium that Mommy helped build.
Ray Casas
'96 BA, Political Science
When the Rangers clinched the World Series, it was a victory and celebration not only for the team, but also for the entire DFW community and the generations of fans who had stuck with them throughout the decades.
Casas was overwhelmed by the tremendous community support for the team during the postseason and the mind-boggling number of fans who turned out for the Rangers’ victory parade in Arlington two days after they won the title. A Fort Worth native and lifelong Rangers fan, Casas felt honored to drive outfielder Leody Tavares and his family in the parade.
“It was electric, driving through a crowd that was somewhere between 400,000 and 700,000 people,” he says. “It gives me chills to this day. There were generations of fans. There were little kids whose first memories as a baseball fan will be of the World Series. And there were men and women in their 80s and 90s who’ve been fans since the franchise arrived in Arlington in 1972. They’ve stuck with us through the lean years, and now they finally get to enjoy a brand-new air-conditioned ballpark and celebrate our World Series champions.”
For his community visits these days, Casas is sometimes accompanied by a very special guest: the World Series trophy. When he brought it to the Arlington Police Department’s north precinct as a thank you for their security work during 81 home games, cadets and officers lined up by the dozens to get a photo with the trophy.
“It’s nerve-wracking every time I hold the trophy, because it’s so special,” Casas says. “But I wish that every fan could hold the trophy, because I think it belongs to every one of our fans.”