One other point to note: when I got to my hotel I enjoyed a pool for the first time on my trip. For those of you who don’t know, I took a scuba diving class senior year of college and fell in love with swimming laps. Well, I had the pool to myself Friday morning and I got burned because I spent an hour doing laps. Anyways, before I got in I was attacked by a bird when I was opening the cage to get to the pool! I must have gone too close to their nest or something but a bird literally pecked twice at my arm and then hovered about 5 ft. above my head. Needless to say, I was quite rattled by the whole experience. But the show must go on…on to baseball!
Game Notes:
I ended up staying at a HoJo about a half mile from Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. I think that’s the official name anyway. From my balcony you could see the construction of the Dallas Cowboys new 80,000+ seat monstrosity.
I know they say everything is bigger in Texas but this thing was absurd. I’ll get you another picture later but trust me on this one. When I walked over to the Ballpark the word stately came to mind. The entire outside of the park just looked “stately” or “regal”…I really liked the first impression.
(That’s the outside and here’s the inside.)
When I got inside the theme rang true. Everything IS bigger in Texas. The ceilings were high, the aisles were spacious and the food was enormous! Not to judge but the patrons could stand to run a few laps too, if you know what I mean. Keeping with this theme, my first stop was section 17. I’ve been trying to read a bit about each park beforehand and the Rangers website provides a handy guide to where all of the concessions are located. Well, section 17 purports to have a “1/2 pound hot dog”! I had to check this out. The sign calls it a “loaded hot dog” and I really think they could do better with that. Call it a “Ranger Dog” or a “Texas Two Step” or SOMETHING to get people to buy it, ya know? Anyway, being the tourist, I had to try it.
UGH. Not cool, Texas. It came with the dog, chili, onions and cheese wiz. I added ketchup, mustard and relish. I had to go at it with a knife and fork and I’m not happy I did. It was just a pile of unhealthy unenjoyable if you ask me. Oh well, when in Rome, right?
The next thing I noticed was Nolan Ryan. He was everywhere in this stadium. Now, Nolan Ryan was one of the greatest pitchers ever to play the game but it kind of seems like everyone wants to “own” him. He spent parts of 5 years with the Mets, 8 years with the Angels, 9 Years with the Astros and his last 5 years with the Rangers. The way they made it seem you’d think he was the founding member of their franchise and took on the rest of the league by himself. Either way, I still had to get a picture with the big lug.
The kids area at the Ballpark in Arlington is right where Nolan’s statue stands. They have the typical whiffle ball field, face painting, kid size food and the like along with the speed pitch with a twist. Most stadiums have a radar gun where you can see how fast you can throw but the Rangers provide a manikin batter! Also, if you hit the catcher’s mitt on 3 out of 4 throws you win an official Rangers jersey. It was interesting to watch the strategy here because some meatheads just threw it as hard as they could to rack up numbers but others would slow the ball down and try to hit the mitt (with success!). Of course, they got ridiculed by their friends and wouldn’t win the jersey but it was still fun to watch.
Last general point…and again, I won’t dwell on this because I’m not turning this blog political but people in Texas are DAMN proud of their soldiers in this war. Regardless of which side of the line you come down on, it was nice to see the troops in Texas are supported in a helluva way. All of the typical “rah rah” songs were played… "Proud to be an American", "God Bless America", etc. along with the "Star Spangled Banner" and some others I didn’t recognize. Well, they all got a standing ovation and we even were treated to a special live speech from a major general over in Bagdad. Good for them. God Bless America.
High Points:
-Like San Diego, under the press box at the Ballpark in Arlington they had a section that jutted out and gave fans a good view of the action on the field.
-I believe they have something similar at other stadiums but I haven’t seen it yet so I’m going to give the Rangers points for keeping their center field grass open for kids to chase home run balls. You can’t sit in the area during the game but there is a special designated section in straightaway center field for kids to run out on should a homerun land in that area. That’s good old fashioned baseball.
-Because I promised it, here’s a closer shot of the new Cowboys’ Stadium!
-I attended the game on the day of the Preakness. I didn’t think the race was that big of a deal but all of the Astros stopped taking batting/fielding practice to watch the race. About 80-90% of them seemed genuinely interested in the race. That was kind of cool and odd at the same time.-Since I showed up to the stadium so early and saw it all pretty quick I decided to keep score of the game. I didn’t get to move around as much as other stadiums but I had really forgotten how much fun scoring an entire game could be. It forced me to pay attention and I’m glad I did it. I may do it again soon!
-Neither a good nor a bad but there were a lot of genuine Texas cowboys as well as a lot of Astros fans at the game. Definitely not something I’d see back on the east coast so I guess overall that was cool.
-Lots of fans got to be on TV after the game.
Low Points:
-I was very excited to see the outfield at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. I’ve heard a lot of stories about how the park is modeled after all of the other parks in the league. Maybe I’ll appreciate this once I finish my tour but as of now I’m let down. The coolest feature of the park is closed off to the public! In center field there are many stanchions and it looks like a cool place to watch a game but, wouldn’t you know, it’s an office building! The first floor is apparel and ticket sales, the 4th floor is Rangers corporate offices and the middle two floors are leased out to private corporations. That sucks! Here’s what I’m talking about.
-The poles in the right field bleachers weren’t that bad and the bleachers were kind of cool but they still obstructed the view of a lot of fans.
-There were a LOT of luxury boxes in this place. That’s not necessarily bad but when it starts invading on “normal” fans enjoyment of the game, like in center field, it gets to be a bit much, right?
-The bathrooms here were just OK and nothing to write home (or to a blog) about.
-I know I’ve had a lot to say about mascots lately but you’ll need to bear with me on this one. So the PA announcer asks the hometown fans to welcome the “6-shooters” which is the equivalent of a cheerleading squad, just like they have at every park. Fine, that’s all well and good, right? No, it’s not. The 6-shooters come out looking cute on the back of a pickup truck with none other than “Bunny the Astro”. OK, fine, I have no idea what this mascot’s name is but it’s a friggin bunny in an Astros uniform!! UGH! I’ll admit, I don’t know what an “Astro” is but I’m pretty sure it’s not a god damn rabbit. Anyway, after some antics from him the Rangers’ mascot comes out and does his own bits. At least the Rangers’ mascot was a horse and that’s somewhat understandable. The Astros have a damn bunny…what the hell?!
-The only video board in the Ballpark in Arlington is above the right field bleachers and because of its location thousands of fans cannot see the various “hat shuffles” and “condiment races” it displays between innings.
-The scoreboard operator in Arlington was having a bit of an off day as well. I’m pretty sure the Sox didn’t score an “upside down 4” in that inning…
-The person who was chosen to sing “take me out to the ballgame” during the 7th inning stretch was TERRIBLE.
-I took up residence in some seats in the upper deck directly behind home plate. My section was about 2/3rds filled. I was kicked out of my seats TWICE by people who had tickets exactly where I was sitting. Fine, it’s their seats (even though there was empty row after row all around) but when both of those families move after a half inning, that’s when I get pissed. I’ve bitched about ushers not having perspective, but how about fans?? If you want to spread out, don’t worry about your assigned seats, just move up a few rows to the empty section in the first place!
Overall Grade: B-
Game Stats:
Teams: Rangers vs. Astros
Final Score: 6-2 Rangers
WP: Vicente Padilla
LP: Roy Oswalt
Time: 2:46
Announced Attendance: 38,534
Ticket Price: $10.00
Parking Price: N/A
Trip Stats:
Home team record: 8-4
Best Anthem: Tropicana Field
Miles Driven: 4851
States Visited: 9
Beds slept in: 16
Next Stop: Houston Astros
Favorite Park: Petco Park (Padres)
Stadium Grades:
Marlins: D
Rays: B
Braves: B-
Rockies: B+
Mariners: B
Giants: A-
Athletics: C
Angels: B-
Dodgers: B+
Padres: A
Diamondbacks: B
Rangers: B-
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