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Globe Life Park in Arlington
The Ballpark, The Temple, The Globe
Globe Life Park logo
Former names The Ballpark in Arlington (1994–2004)
Ameriquest Field in Arlington (2004–2006)
Rangers Ballpark in Arlington (2007–2013)
Globe Life Park in Arlington (2014–)
Location 1000 Ballpark Way
Arlington, Texas 76011
Coordinates Template:Geobox coor
Broke ground April 2, 1992
Opened April 1, 1994
Owner Arlington Sports Facilities Development Authority
Operator Rangers Baseball Express
Surface Infield: Y2 Zoysiagrass
Outfield: Tifway 419 Bermudagrass
Construction cost $191 million
($Template:Formatprice in 2024 dollarsTemplate:Inflation-fn)
Architect David M. Schwarz Architectural Services, Inc.
HKS, Inc. (architect of record)
Structural engineer Walter P Moore/Datum[1]
Services engineer M–E Engineers, Inc./Dunn Consulting[2]
General Contractor Manhattan Construction Company
Capacity 48,114[3]
Record attendance 52,419
Tenants
Texas Rangers (MLB) (1994–present)

Globe Life Park in Arlington is a stadium in Arlington, Texas, located between Dallas and Fort Worth. It is home to the American League's Texas Rangers, and the Texas Rangers Baseball Hall of Fame. It was constructed as a replacement for nearby Arlington Stadium. It was known as The Ballpark in Arlington until May 7, 2004, when Ameriquest bought the naming rights to it and renamed it Ameriquest Field in Arlington. On March 19, 2007, the Rangers severed their relationship with Ameriquest and announced that it would be renamed Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. On February 5, 2014, Globe Life and Accident Insurance Company bought the naming rights to it. Globe Life is owned by Torchmark Corporation, which is based in McKinney, Texas, a northern suburb of Dallas.[4]

History[]

Funding was approved for a new home for the Rangers in 1991 by the City of Arlington. Construction began on April 2, 1992 a short distance away from Arlington Stadium, the stadium it would replace, and the new Ballpark in Arlington opened on April 1, 1994 in an exhibition contest between the Rangers and the New York Mets. The first official game was on April 11 against the Milwaukee Brewers.

The largest crowd to watch a Rangers baseball game was on October 30, 2010, when 52,419 fans watched Game 3 of the 2010 World Series against the San Francisco Giants.

Features[]

Design[]

Rangersballparkinarlington

Park by the Home Plate Entrance at Globe Life Park in Arlington.

The stadium was designed by David M. Schwarz Architectural Services of Washington, D.C. The Rangers chose to build a retro-style ballpark, incorporating many features of baseball's Jewel Box parks. A roofed home run porch in right field is reminiscent of Tiger Stadium, while the white steel frieze that surrounds the upper deck was copied from the pre-1973 Yankee Stadium. The out-of-town scoreboard (removed in 2009 and replaced with a state-of-the-art videoboard) was built into the left-field wall—a nod to Fenway Park, while the numerous nooks and crannies in the outfield fence are a reminder of Ebbets Field.[5] The arched windows are a reminder of Comiskey Park. However, it has a few distinct features of its own. Several traditional Texas-style stone carvings are visible throughout it. A four-story office building in center field encloses it, with a white steel multilevel facade similar to the facade on the roof.

As the stadium was built on one of the former Arlington Stadium parking lots, the irregular dimensions of the outfield were planned independently, rather than being forced by neighboring structures. The home plate, foul poles, and bleachers were originally at Arlington Stadium. The Home Plate was inserted into place by Richard Greene (then Mayor of Arlington), Elzie Odom (Head of Arlington Home Run Committee and later Mayor of Arlington), and George W. Bush (former part Rangers owner, later Texas Governor and President of the United States).

The stadium's 810 ft (247m)-long facades are made of brick and Texas Sunset Red granite. Bas-relief friezes depict significant scenes from the history of both Texas and baseball. The calculus of seating arrangements represented a new economic model for the sport: a critical mass of high-dollar seats close to the infield boost ticket revenue. The stadium has three basic seating tiers: lower, club and upper deck. Two levels of luxury suites occupy spaces behind sliding glass doors above and below the club tier.[6]

The stadium has a large number of obstructed-view seats. In some cases, the view is cut off by an overhang or underhang, and others are directly in front of the foul or support poles. Also, the design of the upper deck leaves it one of the highest in baseball. The view from the grandstand reserved sections in left is particularly obstructed.

Prior to the 2012 season, the visitor bullpen was reconfigured to be parallel to the field after the previous visitor bullpen configuration had excessive amount of heat during hot weather games. To allow construction, a few rows of bleacher sections were removed.

Greene's Hill[]

Greeneshill

Globe Life Park in Arlington in 2006, with Greene's Hill in center field

Greene's Hill is a sloped section of turf located behind the center field fence at the home field of the ballpark. The Hill serves as a batter's eye, providing a contrasting background behind the pitchers which enables hitters to more easily see the baseball after the pitcher's release. It was originally designed as a picnic area for fans but the Rangers have never initiated this policy. It was named after former Arlington mayor Richard Greene in November 1997. For a couple of years in the 2000s, the Rangers had the "T" from the Texas Rangers logo mowed into the grass, but this is no longer done. In 2010, the Rangers started a tradition where they had four girls run around on it with giant flags of the Flag of Texas when the Rangers scored, similar to what many football teams do when their teams score.

Seating capacity[]

  • 49,292 (1994–1995)
  • 49,178 (1996)
  • 49,166 (1997–1999)
  • 49,115 (2000–2005)
  • 48,911 (2006–2008)
  • 49,170 (2009–2011)
  • 48,194 (2012)[7]
  • 48,114 (2013–present)[3]

The stadium contains 5,704 club seats and 126 luxury suites.

Field dimensions[]

The field is one of the most notoriously hitter-friendly parks in baseball, due to the high temperatures, relatively short fences, and the design of the stadium which has allowed the area's high winds to swirl and lift balls that wouldn't normally make it out. In truth, the park would give up even more home runs if not for the office building in center and the field being {{rnd/bExpression error: Unexpected < operator.|Expression error: Unexpected < operator.|Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character "[".|Expression error: Unexpected < operator.}} feet ({{rnd/bExpression error: Unexpected < operator.|Expression error: Unexpected < operator.|(Expression error: Unexpected < operator.)|Expression error: Unexpected < operator.}} m)Template:Convert/track/abbr/Template:Convert/track/disp/Template:Convert/track/adj/ below street level.[8]

With a combination of the park's design and the naturally good hitters who've played for the Rangers, the team has put up some rather high home run totals. In 1996, the Rangers hit 221 homers. They eclipsed 200 again in 1998 (201), 1999 (230), 2001 (241), 2002 (230), 2003 (239), 2004 (227), and 2005 (260, four short of the all-time record of 264 by the 1997 Seattle Mariners). Many of the Rangers' already-skilled hitters take advantage of this, some even racking up multiple 30+ Home run seasons, such as Ian Kinsler, Adrián Beltré, and Josh Hamilton.[9]

Dimensions[10]

  • Left Field: 332 feet
  • Left Center Field: 390 feet
  • Center Field: 400 feet
  • Right Center Field: 377 feet
  • Right Field: 325 feet

Lack of retractable roof[]

Rangers Ballpark in Arlington

The Ballpark during the day

Despite being hailed as a wonderful venue in its infant years, articles in The Dallas Morning News began to suggest that the ballpark would have been better served by having a dome or retractable roof – much like Minute Maid Park, the home of the Houston Astros – due to the often oppressive heat that settles over Texas during baseball season, with temperatures on the field being in excess of 110 degrees. Many argue that the intense heat is a liability in attracting players, particularly starting pitchers.[11]

That being said, it is questionable that retractable roof technology was a good candidate at the time the stadium was constructed, when modern mechanical retractable-roof ballparks like Chase Field, Safeco Field, Minute Maid Park, and Miller Park would not open until several years after it.

While retractable roof solutions did exist at the time, they had significant detractors. The Rogers Centre (formerly SkyDome), which opened in 1989, has a motorized retractable roof. Compared to newer retractable roof stadiums, it has not been a success financially or aesthetically, with a sportswriter saying that the retractable roof "functions when called upon, but it’s ungainly. When it’s closed, it feels like any other dimly-lit echo chamber. Mildly depressing". It had a C$570 million price tag, being partially funded by the federal and provincial governments, the city of Toronto, as well as a consortium of corporations (though the Blue Jays now own the stadium, by way of parent company Rogers Communications). One reason for the extra funding sources was that it was a multipurpose venue, being used for a wide variety of sports, as well as conventions. Its technology therefore would have been cost prohibitive to the Rangers, who did not have the benefit of those extra sources of funding, and where the total cost was well over six times that of Globe Life Park in Arlington.[12]

Many local sports writers in recent years have suggested adding a roof but the idea has not found any traction within the Rangers organization.

Renovations[]

Rangers Ballpark Scoreboard

The new HD screen on top of the right field porch

On December 3, 2010, the Rangers announced that extensive renovations to the stadium would be made and ready for the 2011 season.[13] These renovations included:

  • New Daktronics HD video displays in right field (atop the Home Run Porch) and center field (on top of the office building).
  • The out-of-town scoreboard on the left field wall (which had been replaced prior to the 2009 season) also was updated with HD technology.
  • The audio system throughout the stadium was completely overhauled, with new speakers and production equipment.
  • A new "Show Control System" which can display networked data such as videos, scores, and point-of-sale information anywhere in the stadium.
  • An IPTV system that can display live television content on ten HDTV channels to any display in the stadium.
Tbia pano2003

Panoramic shot of Globe Life Park in Arlington taken February 1, 2003.

Accidents[]

1994[]

On April 11, 1994, the first game at the ballpark, Holly Minter, who was posing for a picture while intoxicated, fell 35 feet over a railing in right field, fracturing several bones and causing the team to raise the height of the railings.[14]

2010[]

On July 6, 2010, firefighter Tyler Morris, leaning over the rail to catch a Nelson Cruz foul ball, fell 30 feet onto the section below him, causing a head injury and a severely sprained ankle to himself and minor injuries to fans he landed on.[15] The game was stopped for 15 minutes while paramedics treated him.[16]

2011[]

On July 7, 2011, firefighter Shannon Stone, from Brownwood, Texas, was attending the Rangers game against the Oakland Athletics with his six-year-old son, Cooper, when outfielder Josh Hamilton threw him a ball, as he had asked.[14] Reaching for it, he flipped over the railing and fell twenty feet, head-first, onto the concrete behind the out-of-town scoreboard in left field.[14] He was conscious and talking as paramedics tended to him, but he died en route to the hospital.[17] The cause of death was identified as blunt force trauma.[18] This was the fourth fall in the stadium's 17 years of history.[19] A moment of silence was held for him prior to the next day's game, both the Rangers and Athletics wore black ribbons on their uniforms, and the flags at the stadium were flown at half-staff in memory of him.[18] The Rangers Foundation set up a memorial fund for Stone's family.[20]

A tarp was placed over the opening through which Stone fell.[18] Rangers team president Nolan Ryan said the height of the railings exceeds the requirement of the building codes but said the team would do "whatever it takes" to ensure the safety of the fans;[21] on July 20, 2011, the Rangers announced they would raise all railings in the front of seating sections to 42 inches.[22] On August 10, 2011, the team announced it would erect a statue memorializing Stone.[23] Cooper helped unveil the statue on April 5, 2012. It depicts him and his father wearing baseball caps. They are holding hands and looking at each other as if they were talking. The inscription on the statue reads "In memory of Shannon Stone and dedicated to all fans who love the game".

On September 30, 2011, Cooper threw out the ceremonial first pitch to honor his father before Game 1 of the 2011 American League Division Series against the Tampa Bay Rays.[24][25]

Events hosted[]

  • It was the site of where Kenny Rogers pitched a perfect game on 28 July 1994 against the California Angels.
  • It was the site of the 1995 MLB All-Star Game.
  • It hosted the first regular season interleague game on 12 June 1997, when the Rangers played the San Francisco Giants.
  • Scenes from Disney's The Rookie were shot here.
  • It hosted the 2002 and the 2004 Big 12 Baseball Tournament.
  • The first postseason game won by the Rangers there would come in Game 2 of the 2010 ALCS by a score of 7–2 over the Yankees, on 16 October 2010.
  • On 22 October 2010, the Rangers clinched their first ever American League pennant there after a 6–1 victory over the New York Yankees in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series, getting the third out in the ninth from former Ranger Alex Rodriguez.
  • It hosted Games 3, 4 and 5 of the 2010 World Series, the San Francisco Giants won the final two games to win the series in five games.
  • It hosted Games 3, 4 and 5 of the 2011 World Series, with the Rangers winning 2 of 3 home games, but losing Game 6 and 7 to the St. Louis Cardinals in St. Louis. This was part of three sporting championships to take place in Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex in the same year, along with the 2011 Super Bowl, and the 2011 NBA Finals.
  • It was the venue for the Dallas/Fort Worth MDA Muscle Walk event that took place on 20 September 2014.[26] The event was previously held at AT&T Stadium (formerly Cowboys Stadium) from 2010 to 2013.

See also[]

References[]

  1. Sports Projects – Datum Engineers
  2. Walker Engineering – Sports & Entertainment
  3. 3.0 3.1 Sullivan, T. R. (October 30, 2012). Rangers Resume Fan-Focused Park Renovations. Major League Baseball Advanced Media. Retrieved on March 7, 2013.
  4. http://texas.rangers.mlb.com/news/article/tex/rangers-rename-home-stadium-globe-life-park-in-arlington?ymd=20140205&content_id=67468960&vkey=news_tex
  5. Daktronics (February 5, 2009). Daktronics LED Technology to Light Up Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. Press release.
  6. from David M. Schwarz/Architectural Services, ISBN 0-9679143-6-1
  7. "Texas Rangers", Forbes.
  8. Pahigaian, Josh (2004). The Ultimate Baseball Road Trip. Guilford, Connecticut: Lyons Press.
  9. Home Run Statistics. ESPN. Retrieved on April 20, 2012.
  10. The Ballpark in Arlington. Baseball Statistics. QATD Internet Ventures. Retrieved on October 21, 2011.
  11. "If Rangers Can't Curb Ballpark Heat, They'll Likely Lose Ace Cliff Lee", August 12, 2010. Retrieved on August 12, 2010.
  12. http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/09/24/brian-hutchinson-finally-b-c-place-is-a-retractable-roof-stadium-that-works/
  13. Texas Rangers to Make Significant Ballpark Upgrades for 2011. Major League Baseball Advanced Media (December 3, 2010). Retrieved on December 3, 2010.
  14. 14.0 14.1 14.2 "Grief and Questions After Death at Ballpark", July 9, 2011. Retrieved on July 9, 2011.
  15. "Fan Falls From Deck at Texas Rangers Game", KDFW, July 7, 2010. Retrieved on July 7, 2010.
  16. Cox, Chris (July 6, 2010). Fan Falls From Stands at Rangers Ballpark. Major League Baseball Advanced Media. Retrieved on July 7, 2010.
  17. Sullivan, T. R. (July 8, 2011). Rangers Return to Work in Wake of Tragedy. Major League Baseball Advanced Media. Retrieved on July 8, 2011.
  18. 18.0 18.1 18.2 Barzilai, Peter. "Rangers Ballpark Inspected; Josh Hamilton Recounts Incident", July 10, 2011. Retrieved on July 10, 2011.
  19. "Texas Rangers Baseball Fan Dies in Plunge from Seat", BBC News, July 8, 2011. Retrieved on July 8, 2011.
  20. Sullivan, T. R. (July 8, 2011). Rangers Express Regret, Support for Family of Fan. Major League Baseball Advanced Media. Retrieved on July 8, 2011.
  21. Slusser, Susan. "Fan's Death Weighs Heavy on A's, Rangers Players", July 8, 2011. Retrieved on July 8, 2011.
  22. Associated Press. "After Fan Death, Texas Rangers to Raise Railing Heights at Ballpark", July 20, 2011. Retrieved on March 7, 2013.
  23. Durrett, Richard (September 30, 2011). Cooper Stone to Throw Out First Pitch. ESPN Dallas/Fort Worth. Retrieved on September 30, 2011.
  24. Levine, Zachary. "Fan Whose Father Died at Game Throws Out First Pitch", September 30, 2011. Retrieved on September 30, 2011.
  25. Cooper Stone First Pitch: Rangers Open MLB Playoff Game With Throw From Son Of Shannon Stone (VIDEO)
  26. DFW Muscle Walk - Muscular Dystrophy Association (accessed June 7, 2014)

External links[]

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Template:S-staTemplate:S-endTemplate:Texas Rangers
Preceded by:
Arlington Stadium
Home of the Texas Rangers
1994 – present
Succeeded by:
Current
Preceded by:
Three Rivers Stadium
Host of the All-Star Game
1995
Succeeded by:
Veterans Stadium
Current ballparks in Major League Baseball
National League American League
American Family Field | Busch Stadium | Chase Field | Citi Field | Citizens Bank Park | Coors Field | Dodger Stadium | Great American Ball Park | Loan Depot Park | Nationals Park | Oracle Park | PETCO Park | PNC Park | Truist Park | Wrigley Field Angel Stadium | Comerica Park | Fenway Park | Globe Life Field | Guaranteed Rate Field | Kauffman Stadium | Minute Maid Park | Oriole Park at Camden Yards | Progressive Field | RingCentral Coliseum | Rogers Centre | T-Mobile Park | Target Field | Tropicana Field | Yankee Stadium

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