GLOBE LIFE PARK, ARLINGTON, TEXAS

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1 GLOBE LIFE PARK, ARLINGTON, TEXAS After seeing the first game in the Texas Rangers long-awaited new ballpark, on Monday, April 11, 1994, a sports writer for the Austin American-Statesman wrote, With its asymmetrical dimensions, lofty arches, jutting outfield fences, short right-field porch and raised bullpen areas, for example, The Ballpark in Arlington serves as a monument to originality. Not everyone shared that view. If anything, the park was a remarkable amalgam of features from other Major League parks: The white frieze from the upper deck of the original Yankee Stadium in New York The out-of-town scoreboard in the left field wall at Fenway Park in Boston The multiple angled sections in the outfield from Ebbets Field in Brooklyn The arched windows ala Comiskey Park in Chicago And that short porch in right? It s lifted straight from Tiger Stadium in Detroit, conceded columnist John Maher in the same paper. But, if you re going to steal ideas, steal from the best. In fairness, it did have a few unique areas, such as Greene s Hill, a sloped section behind the center field wall covered in turf that serve s as the background for hitters. Fans from adjacent sections were allowed to race onto the hill to grab home run balls. In later years, when the Rangers scored a run, 4 girls would run around the hill, waving Texas state flag, as sometimes is seen at football games. While some people dismissed The Ballpark as a mish-mash, far more loved it, including nearly everyone among the 46,056 who watched the Rangers lose to the Milwaukee Brewers, 4-3. They hardly seemed to care that there was a 53-minute rain delay before world renowned pianist Van Cliburn, who grew up in Texas, and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra all members of the latter wearing Rangers caps to perform the National Anthem. The Rangers started life in Washington, D.C., in 1961, as an immediate replacement for the original Senators, who had moved to Minnesota after the previous season and become the Twins. After just 12 dismal seasons, the last 10 in dismal D.C. Stadium (renamed Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in 1969), the team relocated to Arlington, Texas, 16 miles east of Fort Worth and 20 miles west of Dallas. It wasn t exactly welcomed with open arms. The Rangers first game in Texas, on Friday, April 21, 1972, at Arlington Stadium, attracted 20,943 fans. Their second, the next day, just 5,517. Attendance topped 20,000 only 4 times all year. There were 16 crowds of fewer than 5,000, a dozen of them in September, once football season started. The next-to-last series barely topped 10,000 fans for the 3 games combined. Average attendance was 8,610 only 400 more per game than the year before, in Washington. And in 1973, the Rangers second year in Texas, the average dropped by 140 per game. It didn t help that the team was playing in a hastily built, hastily expanded minor league park. Or that the Rangers lost 100 games their first year and 105 their second. Between 1973 and 1985, average attendance bounced around in a range of 5,000 fans, between 13,695 and 18,761. It did not reach 20,000 until 1986 and 25,000 until 1989.

2 Photo in the Austin American-Statesman, April 12, 1994 Turnout peaked at 28,367 in That was the same year that 65 percent of voters agreed to raise the sales tax by half a cent per dollar to pay 71 percent of the projected $191 million cost of a new ballpark. It would be located just a short distance from Arlington Stadium, which would be demolished. Tom Schieffer, the president of the Rangers, sent a request for proposal to multiple architects around the country. One went to a 31-member firm in Washington, D.C., headed by David Schwarz. His firm had designed movie theaters, hospitals and libraries, but never a ballpark. Schwarz thought the Arlington proposal would be too expensive. His colleague unanimously disagreed. Schwarz deferred to them and the firm made a bid that cost it $120,000. Schieffer liked what he saw and Schwarz s firm was awarded the design contract. One of the great sadnesses about ballparks built over the past 30 years was that they weren t different, Schwarz said in one of many interviews he gave the day The Ballpark in Arlington opened. And that s one of the sadnesses about our society. You go to New York, you go to Chicago, you go to the same stores, you eat the same food. Everything s identical. Used to be, ballparks reflected the character of their cities. I wanted it to be a Texas ballpark and be unique. It s not like being at Camden Yards or Jacob Field. This is different. When you re here, you re here. While The Ballpark had all the latest amenities, some were deliberately obscured, Schwarz explained: It was very important to us that the (luxury) suites disappear, that when you looked at the ballpark, what you saw was the stands and the fans and not see great rings of glass showing you all these rich

3 people were sitting up there eating and drinking.... Baseball has always been a fairly egalitarian sport and we wanted to keep our ballpark that way as well. On Opening Day in 1994, Schwarz was treated like a rock star or a big leaguer. Everybody keeps asking for my autograph, he said. I may get five feet before somebody whips something out that they want to be signed. I ve signed everything imaginable today. Columnist Maher quoted Maher as saying, Everyone s response is some equivalent of the word wow. He also noted that Schwarz had not been convinced the park would turn out so well: I knew exactly what it was going to look like. But I didn t know what it was going to feel like. It s very hard to imagine something this big. It s easy to imagine what all the details look like, but it s very hard to imagine the scale. I can picture the building in my head, but I can t picture what it is going to feel like to walk through it. It s just an extraordinary feeling. Maher offered this assessment: The Ballpark will take your breath away before you get inside. With its painted girders and decorative metal work, the covered entranceway looks more like the famous restored train station in Indianapolis than it does a ballpark. It s airy, which should be a huge plus in the steaming Texas summers. And it provides shelter on days such as Monday, when rain delayed the start of the game. The new park definitely took pitcher s breath away. Between the short porch in right field and the wind patterns in the area, The Ballpark quickly became a launching pad for home runs. The first run scored in the first game in April 1994 was a line-drive solo homer to deep right by Milwaukee s Dave Nilsson. The Brewers increased their lead to 2-0 in the sixth when Pat Listach led off with one of his 3 hits, then scored on a 2-out fly by Kevin Seitzer that caromed oddly off an outfield wall and wound up as a triple. The Rangers broke through in the bottom of the inning on an error, a steal and an RBI single by Doug Strange, then an error, a single and a double play produced another run for Milwaukee in the top of the seventh. With 2 out in Texas half of the seventh, Wil Clark blasted the Rangers first homer in the new park. Listach opened the Brewers eighth with a double and came home on a 2-out single by Seitzer off Cris Carpenter, who had just replaced Rangers starter Kenny Rogers. The Rangers had a golden opportunity to tie or take the lead in the bottom of the eighth. Ivan Rodriguez singled, knocking out Jaimie Navarro, and pinch hitter Gary Redus greeted reliever Graeme Lloyd with a single. Lloyd then hit David Hulse, who had singled leading off the first for the first hit in The Ballpark. That loaded the bases. Lloyd struck out Strange for the first out, only to walk Jose Canseco, forcing in a run to make the score 4-3. Up came slugger Juan Gonzalez, who had led the league in home runs the past 2 seasons and had driven in more than 100 runs the past 3. With the crowd of its feet, Gonzalez swung mightily at Lloyd second pitch... and grounded into a rally-killing double play. In the ninth, the Rangers got a 2-out walk, but Rodriguez grounded out, ending the game. The Rangers finished the historic day with only 6 hits. The Brewers had 9, as Listach (3 for 4), Seitzer (2 for 4) and Jody Reed (2 for 4) combined to go 7 for 12, while the rest of the team went 2 for 22. Still, the Rangers loss was just 1 game in a long season, and most Opening Day fans focused on the park, not the outcome of the game. Hardly a single aspect failed to be commented upon and evaluated.

4 Austin American-Statesman columnist Maher offered a guide to highlights and lowlights, including: The Signs. The Ballpark could stand to lose a few, like the garish red Target sign on the left field wall that looks like a giant bull s eye. The huge billboards atop the building in center field are also pretty hideous. The signs are the single worst feature in the park, but without them admission and food prices would just be higher. Maher provided this explanation from architect Schwarz: We didn t have anything to do with the signs expect to decide where they go.... We decided we would design more places for outdoor advertising as park decoration than (Ranger president Tom) Schieffer could possibly sell. Our view was that if we made more places than he could sell, he d put it where it was supposed to go and we d look good. So far, it has worked. Of course, the park s cuisine also came up for discussion. Maher again: The Nachos. Skip em. They belong back in the old stadium, which was strictly minor league. But who would order such a gooey mess with everything else that s on the menu here? And there continued to be much conversation about the park s name. Schwarz told Maher, I didn t have anything to do with the name. I found out about it by reading the newspaper.... In all our drawings it was called A New Ballpark and I think The Ballpark in Arlington is a lot better than A New Ballpark. Its name would remain The Ballpark in Arlington until 2004, when it would become Ameriquest Field in Arlington. In 2007, it would be Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. Since 2014, it has been Globe Life Park in Arlington. One first-day criticism proved tragic. The railings at the front of each section of stands, although sufficient according to building codes, were lower than in many ballparks. There are no warning signs on the railings, a newspaper story pointed out. On Opening Day, an inebriated fan, posing for a picture, fell 35 feet over a railing in right field, fracturing several bones and causing the team to raise the height of the railings. Then, in 2011, a firefighter named Shannon Stone, sitting in seats behind the left field wall, shouted at outfielder Josh Hamilton, asking him to flip him a ball for his 6-year-old son, Cooper. When Hamilton tossed the ball in Stone s direction, Stone reached for it, lost his balance and fell over the railing. He plummeted 20 feet and landed head-first on a concrete area behind the out-of-town scoreboard. Stone died en route to the hospital. The Rangers raised the railing again. They also commissioned a status of Shannon and Cooper Stone, which was placed just outside the park. Cooper also threw the ceremonial first pitch at a that game following the statue s dedication. More than 45,000 fans flocked to The Ballpark in 1994 for the Rangers second game in their new home and were rewarded with a walk-off, 10-inning victory. By season s end, there would be 32 crowds of 40,000 or more, including 24 that exceeded 40,000. Only 4 games drew fewer than 30,000. A 3-game series against Toronto in July attracted nearly 140,000. Four-game series against Kansas City in June and Detroit in July each drew almost 180,000. The average attendance was 43,916 and the total attendance reached 2.5 million for the first time in franchise history despite the fact the season was halted by a strike in August and never resumed. As a result, the Rangers played only 63 of their 81 scheduled home games.

5 The Rangers, like almost every team, suffered a backlash at the box office when the strike ended and the next season began belatedly. Average attendance at The Ballpark dropped 37 percent, to just over 27,500 per game. It bounced back to about 35,500 in 1996, then stayed between 29,043 and 36,361 through Total attendance fell below 2 million for the first time in 12 years in 2008, before rising again each of the next 4 years. In 2012, the last of those 4, it reached an all-time high of 42,719, as just under 3.5 million turned out in the season after the Rangers had played, and lost, the World Series for the second year in a row. The Rangers have not come close to returning to the Series since then, and their shortcomings on the field have been reflected in the crowds watching them play. The average attendance dropped by 4,000 in 2013, by another 5,000 in 2014, and by 3,000 more in 2015, to 30,764. In 2018, it was 26,013, the lowest since 2008 and the third-lowest in the park s 25-season history. One of the stories in the Austin American-Statesman the day after its first game remarked, The Ballpark has an enduring quality that should allow it to age well. It will not be allowed to age beyond 26, at least not as a ballpark. A new, air-conditioned park, with a retractable roof, is under construction a short distance from the current park and is expected to debut in April This one will be called Globe Life Field. The existing park will not be demolished. Current plans call for its outfield office complex, its facade and its concourse to be put to different uses, possibly condominiums, retail stores or an amphitheater.