Subject: The Ballpark in Arlington Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1999 22:26:57 -0400 From: Don Dudley Organization: Sun Microsystems To: Don.Dudley@Sun.COM Last Saturday, I stopped off in Texas on my way west to see the Rangers entertain the Arizona Diamondbacks in some interleague play. 58 years to the day earlier, before 67,000 in a Cleveland night game, pitchers Al Smith and Jim Bagby, Jr., or more accurately third baseman Ken Keltner who robbed him twice, stopped Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak. But as for history, what a day to be staying in a hotel right near Dealy Plaza, scene of JFK's assassination. Similar to Atlanta, I had been to Arlington Stadium nearly 20 years ago, but not this new park. This facility is in its sixth season of operation. It is advertised without too much Texas hyperbole as the finest facility ever built for baseball. I especially like its name as opposed to recent corporate monikers. The City of Arlington approved a half cent sales tax by a 65% majority in a municipal election back in January, 1991 to provide most of the financing. The overall project cost $191 million. Of course, the estimates I hear for a new Fenway Park in Boston are integer multiples this amount, surprise, surprise, thus making significant corporate sponsorship a near necessity. I got to the park just over two hours before game time. The gates weren't open, so it gave me a chance to study the exterior. In addition to the thousands of bricks, bas relief panels wrap around the facade of the park. They are made of clay and depict the history of the state of Texas, including the oil boom, the Alamo, the settling of the Texas frontier, the space program, and the cotton and cattle industries. They also have a brick walk around the stadium, featuring sections for each year since major league baseball came to Texas in 1972, with the roster and player statistics from each season and their awards. Thanks to my brother's connections with the Rangers, I had a great seat, complimentary at that. It was about 10 feet up the first base line and back far enough that I was well into the shade, always a key criteria for July afternoon games in Texas. I believe I was one of only two fans outside the luxury boxes wearing long pants to this game :-(. At 7 pm, on my long walk back to the parking lot after the game, the thermometer on the Convention Center registered 107. That thermometer had to be in the sun, but it was hot enough -- I paid the price for not bothering to bring shorts. People flocked to the areas where high-speed fans blow mist on them, especially in Vandergriff Plaza behind center field. They have a big bronze statue of Nolan Ryan out there, inspiring many photo opportunities. They're gearing up for a big weekend for Nolan a week after his upcoming Hall of Fame induction. There was a very high percentage of fans wearing the red Ranger hats, a nice contrast to my navy blue Red Sox hat. The game featured a couple of Ranger home runs, hence I got to (had to?) see the fireworks. Each time, the smoke just seemed to hang low over the field for minutes. I heard a fan say, "This is like watching a game in LA." I didn't appreciate that remark ;-). "Igor" Gonzalez hit the second Ranger homer, a three-run shot in the 5th to give the Rangers a 6-3 lead. They brought in John Wetteland in the 9th to protect their 6-4 lead. He promptly gave up two solo shots, the second was Jay Bell's second of the game, and the lead. This was only the second time in Wetteland's 500+ game career that he has given up two homers in a game. Before the bottom of the 9th, the JumboTRON played the scene from "Hoosiers" where Gene Hackman gives his team a pep talk, whereupon the team spontaneously breaks into a rhythmic clap; the fans in the park joined in. The Rangers did rally, but David Dellucci made a great game-saving catch of a shot by Ivan Rodriquez against the wall in right. The Diamondbacks got two more runs off Wetteland in the 10th with the aid of Tony Womack's two-out blooper with the bases loaded that Rusty Greer never saw in the sun in left for a double. So much for afternoon games in The Ballpark. This was a satisfying win for the Diamondbacks who had blown leads in the 9th to lose the first two games of the series. I've often said that nearly every baseball game will have an event you've never seen before. Late in this game, the Diamondbacks brought designated hitter Jay Bell in to play 2nd base, thus giving up their DH -- being from the National League, they must not like the concept anyway ;-). Okay, you've seen that, but how about this? There were two interference calls. A fan reached out over the rail and caught a foul ball that Dimaondback's left fielder Luis Gonzalez was about to catch for the first instance -- they gave Gonzalez the putout. (I know, all you Oriole fans are writhing ;-).) Then the ball boy down the right field foul line came onto the field and scooped up a ball hit by Arizona's Andy Fox. It was clearly called fair by umpire Dale Ford. Fox was given a double. Well, I've never seen that before. Some of you know that the airlines didn't cooperate and I was unable to make it to Cleveland and Jacobs Field on July 11th. I'm going to try that same itinerary again on August 1st. If it doesn't work this time, I think I'll wait for the post-season ;-). I _did_ have the good fortune to conquer a tight schedule from Chicago and those same airlines to get to the All-Star Game at Fenway two days later. Hopefully, you were able to catch the entirety of the pre-game ceremony -- nice way to end the Millennium. Regards, Don