After 47 days of being on the road, nearly 11,000 miles of travel, and visits to 27 baseball stadiums, we have reached the last place on our trip around the country to see all of the major league ballparks. By design, we did not make it to two of them - the parks for the Minnesota Twins and Florida Marlins. Over the next couple of years we will get there. But for now, here is the last review of the ballparks on our trip. We will do a review of Chase Field next week after the All-Star Game in Phoenix, but this is the last one for the road trip.
We spent the morning taking it easy getting out of Houston. We hopped on I-45 on the 4.5 hour drive to Dallas and made it in about 3:30. Rangers Ballpark was just a quick 10 minute ride from our hotel and we arrived early to try to get some batting practice. When we arrived, we found out two things - when it's 105 degrees and 90% humidity the teams don't take batting practice, and that is an awful set of conditions to play baseball let alone watch it. Michael's baseball team regularly plays in that kind of weather in late summer and early fall in Phoenix (absent the high humidity), but somehow when you pay for the tickets, it seems like there should be a big air conditioning unit keeping you cool.
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| Outside of Rangers Ballpark |
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| Michael and I outside the park. |
Anyway, I had been here nearly 20 years ago a couple of months after the park opened in 1993. It's still a very impressive park from the outside. It's one of many parks that adopted the old-style brick structure. Rangers Ballpark looks more like a big cathedral on the outside. There are arches that surround the entire perimeter of the building. I would say when it opened, it was probably a top five ballpark. Today, however, there are a lot of newer and better designed structures.
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| The white facade in left/center field |
Inside, it is a great place to see a game. The park has two different themes in its outfield. In left field and center field, the ballpark incorporates an old-time facade of white arches four stories high. In right field, the park has a old-time upper and lower deck with a roof that resembles something from a barn roof in the 1910s - but it works. We sat in the middle deck down first base and the seats gave us a perfect view of the park. The park has spacious walkways behind the seats, which is definitely needed on hot days like today. The major problem with the park is the scoreboard layout. That roof I just mention has the big video board, but it is on top of it and way out in right field. There is a smaller video board that shows player stats that is in the deepest and highest part of center field and it is barely visible. They should try to fix that next time. We didn't have a chance to eat there, but there were plenty of concession stands and relatively short lines. The fans sitting around us were pretty nice too. You've got to give it to the fans there. There were just under 31,000 people there for the game on a brutally hot night. Michael and Chris spent much of their time before the game in the kids section in center field playing various games and trying to forget about how hot it was at the park.
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| Something out of the early 20th century |
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| Chris playing games |
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| Michael and Chris having fun |
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| Michael trying to stay cool |
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| The boys in center field |
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| Michael and I in front of the Nolan Ryan statue in center field |
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| The view from our seats |
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| Michael and I from our seats |
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| It's been a long trip but this is what it's all about for me. |
As for the game, the Rangers destroyed the Orioles 13-5. It was by far the most hits/home runs we had seen in a game and that was a nice way to close out the trip. Overall, I would give the park a 7/10. It still a good place to see a game. But compared to all the other places, it's good, but not great. Here's Michael and Chris's take:
Hi everyone, it's me Michael. I thought Rangers Ballpark was nice, but not one of the best. The best part was how they have a lot of cool games in center field to play and win prizes. The club level was nice, but not as good as the one we saw at Camden Yards. The field was just okay to me. I thought the scoreboards could use come improvements, but I like how they put it up on the right field roof. I just wish it wasn't so humid there! On a scale of 1-10, I'd give it a 6.
It's Chris here. The best part of the stadium for me was the $1 hot dogs and $1 Cokes! Like Michael, I liked all the games in center field. I did get into a fun discussion about football with this older girl who was sitting next to us at the game. I think she was 19. She was teasing me about who my favorite football team was. I thought the stadium looked nice too. Since this was my only game I went too (other than my tour of the park in Houston) I don't have much to compare it to, but it was nice. Overall, I'd give it a 7/10.
Well there it is! We did it! We reviewed every stadium we went to. On our final day in Dallas, we are going to try and catch a tour of Cowboys stadium and see the JFK stuff. We'll post our final rankings later tonight. But our blog is not over. We'll keep updating it over the next couple of weeks with our experience at the All Star weekend in Phoenix and with updating all of our videos from the last couple of weeks of the trip. We fly out of Dallas later this afternoon and will be back sleeping in our own beds tonight!
More later.
