Globe Life Field, Arlington, Texas (MLB #6 - An insider's tour)

 


I’m a fan of paying attention to the details, so I really like ballparks that have little things that you appreciate if you know them. There’s no better way to learn the details of a stadium than to get an unofficial tour from someone who is responsible for them. We went to the game today with our friends Nate and Alex – Alex was responsible for much of the interior design of the stadium, either by designing it or commissioning it, when she worked for the Rangers as they were building the park.

It's a completely fascinating experience to hear the explanation of how a particular design element ended up getting into the stadium, or coming out the way that it did. There’s a blank wall visible from several levels of concourse? Put up a huge (note the size of the door next to the Texas flag) picture of Juan Gonzalez. I like the bat coming out of the frame of the picture. The jerseys in the displays honoring the players with retired numbers don’t have much life to them? Make them out of foam, so that they appear to be rippling.


 

There are other nice touches. The dimensions of the field honor the franchise’s five retired numbers and a couple of important milestone years for the Rangers. For example, the distances to the outfield wall in left field is 329 feet, in right field it’s 326 feet; the numbers 29 and 26 are retired to honor Adrian Beltre and Johnny Oates, respectively.

An area honoring Nolan Ryan includes, besides a mural next to an escalator, a piece of art made (by a Texas artist) of real baseballs and bats depicting Ryan in the windup.


 

There’s a map of the state of Texas, with a home plate in the Dallas-Fort Worth area (i.e., Dallas as the hometown team), and distances to various cities and towns, some because they're cities everyone knows (El Paso, Amarillo), some because they’ve got a Rangers connection (Alvin, the birthplace of Nolan Ryan), some because they sound baseball-like (Chalk). Alex and her team had fun looking for places to list. There’s one Texas city notably missing, the home city of another American League West team that is a principal rival of the Rangers. What’s not to like about a story like that?

With all the great nods to Rangers history, my only regret is that Alex’s team couldn’t have done that for a franchise with a longer and/or more successful history.

Of course, this year’s team is the best contender they’ve had in a decade to finally break through and win a World Series.

The game:

The Rangers were playing the Houston Astros, who are currently in second place to the Rangers in the AL West. The stadium was nearly fully (39,580, a few hundred shy of capacity), and it was a tight game, generally well-played.

The starting pitchers combined allowed only 1 run, but didn’t last long, so by the top of the 6th inning, it was a bullpen game, in which a series of pitchers each pitch one inning, and the winning team is the one that doesn’t have one pitcher having a bad day (or who has a hitter or two who break through). The Rangers’ Josh Sborz, who has been very good this year, had bad luck and a bad day. In the top of the 8th inning, with one out, he gave up an infield single on a ball hit too softly to throw out the runner, then walked two batters (with an out sandwiched in between). That set the stage for the Astros #8 hitter, Chas McCormick, to hit a triple off the top of the right field wall, scoring all three runners. The Rangers got a two-run homer in the bottom of the inning, but that wasn’t enough, and the Astros won, 5-3.

Two interesting items: the first hitter of the game, Jose Altuve, fouled off nine two-strike pitches. Although he ultimately struck out, he’d lost the battle but won the war, as it set the stage for getting Rangers starter Andrew Heaney out of the game early. Also, one of the bullpen pitchers who was successful for the Rangers was Aroldis Chapman – we saw him play for Kansas City three days ago, but he was traded to the Rangers the next day. 

 

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