Arlington Stadium (1972-1993)
The home of the pre-playoff Texas Rangers was ugly, uncomfortable, ill-equiped for a big league team. . . And I loved it.
There is no reason I can figure that anyone could come up with to feel nostalgic about old Arlington Stadium. From where it once stood, now a large parking lot, you can stand and see the glory of the Ballpark in Arlington, perhaps the finest baseball-watching facility in the world. There just is no reason to miss the old place.
You could never get a good seat, even when the Rangers were really, really bad. (NOTE: This was much of the time.) This was due to the fact that there weren't any good seats. Most of the seats were bleachers, the largest section of such animal ever seen in a big league park. The "plaza" was so high in the air you felt like you were going to fall out of it onto the field. And the foul territory was just that. Foul.
The only seats worth anything were way down the lines, because that is where the sorry-excuse-for-a-bullpen was. Barely out of play, the warm up area for relievers, most of whom offered very little relief, was a great place to watch a game and chat with players.
Paking was inadequate. Entrances were unclearly marked and sometimes difficult to find. Oh yeah. The place was sunken down into the ground and was like a bowl of Texas chili for August games. (That is, hot, wet, hot, and hotter.)
And yet for some reason, when I am out on that parking lot
looking at what is certainly not there, I am sometimes overcome
with a terribly sad feeling. Yeah, it was pitiful. But it was where my beloved Texas Rangers played, and where I went to learn the game as a child. It was where I spent hot summer nights when I was 10, watching the games and eating those neon-cheese nachos that were, at the time, unique to that ballfield. I remember Arlington Stadium, not for what is wasn't, but for what it was.
Tunpike Stadium was built in the early 1960's to serve as a baseball facility for both Dallas and Ft. Worth. The naturally-sunken area in which it was constructed saved precious dollars for the project, some estimating it cut costs by 90%. When the Texas Rangers metamorphisized from Washington in 1973, it was renamed "Arlington Stadium" and given increased seating capacity.
The Rangers even won their first game they ever played in the
old place.
Until the early eighties, a large light-up "Texas" scoreboard
performed information duties (see photo, right). That was
replaced by a wrap-around ad board with Sony Diamondvision
in the middle. This was before ballpark advertising was back
in vogue, and the Stadium was by far the most ad-covered in
the majors at the time. In right field, the thermometer read
105 more than it read less than 80. Games were played at
night, even on Sunday, a tradition the Rangers continue today.
The first sellout crowd gathered on June 27,1973 when David
Clyde, pitching phenom from Houston, started his first Major
League game and won 4-3. Less memorable was Clyde's career. On April 21,1972 Frank Howard hit a home run in the 1st inning of the first game for Texas. Five players hit 3 homers in a game: John Mayberry 1975, Al Oliver 1979, George Brett 1979, Larry Parrish in 1985, and Juan Gonzalez in 1993. I remember Juando's three round trippers right down to the curtain call. It was my last night at the old place.
Once, on June 25,1976 Ranger shortstop Toby Harrah played an entire double header without a single fielding chance. That's right, only touched the ball in 18 innings while going "around the horn." Slugger Jeff Burroughs won the MVP in 1974 while playing in Arlington Stadium. Burroughs posted 25 homers, 118 RBl's and a 301 average. In the same year, Ferguson Jenkins was 25 12 with 225 K's and 2.83 ERA, good to help him notch comeback player of the year honors.
I remember trying to get autographs at that place. I remember the seats, and can still feel myself sitting in the orange monstrosities. I remember Buddy Bell, and Toby Harrah. Dave Hostetler, and Pete O'Brein. Larry Parrish, Jeff Kunkel, and Mitch Williams. I remember Charlie Hough, Dave Schmidt, Dale Mohorcic, Steve Comer, John Matlack, Rick Honeycutt, and Dave Stewart. I remember the gift shop, the bathroom, the concession stands. I remember the night I saw Bob Ueker heading back for the booth. I remember the night I met Bob Horner after spotting him in the crowd. I remember my favorite place way down the right field line overlooking the player parking lot where you could feel the only breeze to be felt in the whole stadium. I remember sneaking down behind homeplate and watching Nolan Ryan pitch for an inning before the usher sent me packing. I remember the night when I was 15 that I showed 2 girls how to keep score and ended up having to maintain the integrity of their record keeping when they went down to photograph Steve Buechele. I remember staying in that Marriot where the visiting team stays.
No, there is no reason, what with the beautiful Ballpark in Arlington looming on the horizon, that I should stand there where Arlington Stadium once was and feel any sadness whatsoever. But I do. Because I remember...
Arlington Stadium, late 1980's. Note the wealth of advertisements and bleachers.
