Stadium Preview: Part XII
What originally fueled the B4B idea was to visit each major league baseball stadium across the country. Now that our dreams will become reality beginning in 2012, we will want to share our greatest experiences with followers of our journey. We’ll report on fan devotion, best concessions, most memorable park moment in history and video blogging each 7th inning stretch the B4B crew will sing along to all season. We really want our readers to experience each stadium along with us.
Over the next few months, the B4B blog will be providing previews of each major league stadium. We will give some historical background, along with plenty of pictures. We would love to get fans perspective on each park as well, so please provide feedback on your favorite stadium on facebook and twitter. Our posts will take us from the oldest stadium all the way to the brand new Marlins Stadium. We hope you enjoy.
Rangers Ballpark in Arlington
The Rangers Ballpark in Arlington is pretty self-explanatory. It’s the ballpark in Arlington where the Rangers play. It was originally known as the Ballpark in Arlington, which is an awesome name for a stadium. I’m just going to refer to it as the Ballpark.
The Ballpark opened April 1, 1994 and has been home to the American League’s representative in the World Series the past two years. As you may have heard during the World Series broadcasts, the Rangers franchise has never won a World Series, dating back to the Washington Senators first season in 1961. That’s so unfortunate because the Rangers were so close to winning it all in Game 6 against the Cardinals, but you know the ending. Sorry to bring that up, Rangers fans, right when you had almost gotten over it.
The Ballpark replaced nearby Arlington Stadium*, which is now the location of an access road to get to the most over-the-top, excessive, expensive, shrine to football ever built Cowboys Stadium. The Ballpark tried to incorporate many features of famous stadiums in baseball. The roofed upper deck in right field is similar to old Tiger Stadium. The out-of-town scoreboard was built into the left field wall like Fenway Park. And the irregular outfield walls are a reminder of Ebbets Field. But, this being Texas and all, they had to include distinctive Texas-style stone carvings throughout the park.
*The last game at Arlington Stadium was also George Brett’s last game. Sad day for 8 year old Royals fans.
The stadium is enclosed in the outfield by a four-story office building in center field with the same façade as the rest of the stadium. This enclosure and the design of the stadium allow high winds to swirl and lift balls over the fence for home runs. Many baseball people refer to it as the “Jetstream.” Every year, the Ballpark is one of the most hitter friendly stadiums in baseball. In the late 90’s and early 2000’s, the Rangers roster was built to take advantage of the offensive advantages of the stadium with Juan Gonzalez, Rafael Palmeiro, A-Rod, Mark Texeira, Alfonso Soriano, and Josh Hamilton. But the reason why they only won one playoff game in that time was because their pitchers were very good at letting the opposing teams take advantage of the offensive advantages of the stadium.
The Ballpark has had unfortunate fan accidents take place in the last few years. By no means is it an unsafe stadium, but the Rangers are being very proactive to prevent any more freak accidents. We are very excited to check out one of the AL’s powerhouses in person this season.