We flew into Dallas on Tuesday and spent the night with our friends Tim and Rhonda Parker. Dallas is all agog over the Mavericks so baseball is on the back burner for now. On Wednesday all 4 us went to the game. For the next few games I have hooked up with a group from SportsTravel and Tours. There are about 24 of us so we will be together until Sunday in Denver. It is a little different being with a group and have someone else making the decisions about travel issues and getting to and from the game. I think I am going to enjoy it. Rangers Ballpark was built in 1994 and at that time was pretty much all alone with nothing else around the stadium. Over the years the area has been developed and now with the new Cowboys Stadium next door it is not so lonely anymore. The stadium has a Legends of the Game Museum located behind the right field bleachers. The museum has over 100 items on loan from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and tickets are half off on game day. We went directly to Sweet Baby Lou’s Bar BQ and had a beef brisket sandwich with a large Diet Coke. The sandwich had excellent flavor there just was not enough of it. It was about 95 degrees with a brisk breeze blowing in from center field. This breeze actually cut down some possible home run balls hit during the game. The humidity was low so it was not all that uncomfortable. Rangers Stadium is a retro ballpark that really highlights the aspects of years gone by. One of the unique features is the double deck home run porch in right field. Another in this enclosed stadium is the large mock up of an old time stadium in center field. There is a large video board in right field that sits high atop the roof. It is a 3 tiered stadium with the suite level running from foul pole to foul pole. There is a large grassy knoll ( can you say that in Dallas? ) in center field that serves as the batter’s eye and gives fans a chance to jump over rails and retrieve home runs hit into that area. The out of town scoreboard is on the left field wall. There are large ad signs at the top of the stadium in center field. At the top of the stadium I counted 30 Texas Flags and 1 US Flag. The Republic of Texas still counts itself very independent. We sat in field box seats 19 rows from the field and directly behind the visitors dugout. A great vantage point to watch the game. Ranger fans are late arrivers but by the 4th inning the stadium had filled in nicely. Ogando the Ranger pitcher gave up some hits but only 1 run through the early innings. Meanwhile the Ranger hitters were having their way with Coke the Tiger pitcher. They were hitting him hard and often. When Coke was relieved in the 5th inning the scoreboard operator failed to remove his name from the board that tracks the number of pitches during the game. He was charged with 37 more pitches than he actually threw. You would expect more from the American League Champions. One of our group, Kyle from Ohio, was charged with an error in the 5th inning for muffing a Tshirt tossed into the stands. Bad way to start the trip!
Game: June 8
Ballpark: Rangers Ballpark, Arlington
Final: Rangers 7, Tigers 3
Accessibility – 9
Stadium Personnel – 8
View – 10
Food – 9
Overall Stadium Experience – 9
