Globe
Life Stadium Home of the Texas Rangers
This
stadium opened in April of 1994 as The Ballpark in Arlington and then
has several other names since then. The funding for the stadium came
from a ½ cents sales tax increase to finance $135 million of the
$191 million needed. The remaining money was provided by Ranger
ownership, which included George W Bush. The Rangers started as the
Senators in Washington DC, and eventually moved to Texas whereas
George W, well, we all know how he moved from Texas to Washington DC.
Texas is one of 2 current American League teams that originated as
the Washington Senators, the Minnesota Twins are the other. After the
first Senator team moved to Minnesota in 1960, Washington DC was
awarded an expansion team the very next year. Just 12 years later,
the Senators left for Texas. The fans were so upset, that during the
Senators last game in DC on September 30,1971, they stormed the field
and refused to leave. The Senators had to forfeit their last game
even though they were leading 7-5 the Yankees. It was just one more
loss in their 10th time of finishing below 500 in 11
years.
The
first season in the new ballpark was one of optimism for the Rangers.
In the new stadium, Kenny Rogers threw a perfect game, the first
game in Rangers history on July 28, 1994. He became the first left
hander in the American League to achieve perfection and has since
been joined with David Wells (1998), Mark Buehrle (2009) and Dallas
Braden (2010).
Some
wonderful baseball moments occurred in Arlington. Eighteen year old
pitching wonder, David Clyde made his ML debut and beat the MN Twins
4-3 just 20 days after graduating from high school in Houston in
1973. Another special time was when Dave Nelson stole 2nd,
3rd and home all in one inning on 8-30-74. On 8-24-93, 46
year old Ryan hit Chicago's Robin Ventura with a pitch who then angrily charged the
mound and then the 46 year old Ryan got the better of him.
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| Nolan Ryan |
Nolan
Ryan holds a special place in the heart of Texans. He is a Texan,
and the most overpowering pitcher of his generation. He is previously
CEO of the Texas Rangers but is now advisor to the owner of the
Houston Astros. He is the only player to have his number(s) retired
by 3 different teams. Number 30, his Angel number was retired in
1992. Number 34 was retired by the Rangers in September of 1996 and 2
weeks later the Houston Astros retired Number 34. In Cooperstown, he
has a Rangers cap on even though he only had 51 of his
324 wins with them.
The
common baseball term, the Texas Leaguer, a blooper that lands out of
reach by the infielders and too shallow for the outfielders,
originated because of the sun-baked fields of the Texas League.
Those fields were very fast so the outfielders played deep throughout
the minor league to prevent balls from getting by them. Because of
this, many lightly hit balls fell in for singles.
We
were happy to see the Mariners play and beat the Rangers in Globe
Life Stadium for their 3rd game of their 1st
sweep of the season.
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| Mariner's player Seth Smith |
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| Love that follow through, Rodney! |
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| Mariners sweep Texas! |
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| LoMo is heating up with the long ball |
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| How would like to have that batting average with a name like Blanks? |
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| Cano as Ichiro? One came from New York and one went there. Maybe some baseball voodoo? |
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