Ballpark at Arlington

This is one of the back to the future parks built in the early 90’s. When you approach the stadium it’s by a large pond and not near any other large buildings so it stands out. The outfield has an adjacent office building that overlooks the field. Behind center field is a statue of Nolan Ryan and a kids play area. Unfortunately you can’t see the field from the play area. Right field has an upper deck with front seats almost flush with the outfield wall. At the top of these seats is a Friday’s restaurant. The rest of the stadium is pretty basic – but nicely done.

My first visit to the park was a non-game experience. I was visiting my sister [who at the time was living in Wichita Falls Texas] for Thanksgiving. We drove into Dallas for a few days to see the Redskins/Cowboys game and a Stars game. While we were there we decided to drive by the ballpark to look at it. It happened to be open. They had a bunch of people on the field singing Christmas carols. We walked down to the field and sat in the dugout for a while. The first of my two times to sit in the Texas dugout. The second time was during a ballpark tour in 2000.
I have attended a total of seven games at this park. Al happened in a one week time span in July 2000. I stayed with my sister, now married and living in Dallas. There was really no other reason for the visit other than to see my sister and go to games. I picked a week when the Rangers were in town and went to a game a day. My brother-in-law was not into baseball but seemed to feel obligated to attend all of the games despite my assurances this was not necessary. He only backed out of one game. During this week we sat all over the park. Cheap seats in left, field level seats on the first base side, a luxury suite, and the Friday’s restaurant.

We saw a bad Rangers team that had pretty good offense in Ivan Rodriguez, Rafael Palmeiro, Gabe Kapler, and David Segui – before he was traded later that season. They also had no pitching with a starting rotation consisting of Ryan Glynn, Rick Helling, Esteban Loaiza, Darren Oliver, and Kenny Rogers. John Wetteland was the closer in his last year in the majors. They also had Francisco Cordero in the bullpen in his second year.

We saw three games against the Angels, three against the Tigers, and one against the White Sox. The Angels were mediocre finishing third in the division above the Rangers. They had Darrin Erstad, Mo Vaughn, Garret Anderson, and Tim Salmon on offense and Troy Percival in the bullpen. The first game was a 12 inning victory for the Angels. The Rangers took the next two. I watched the third game from the skybox. My sister was working for a rehab hospital and they would receive tickets from the law firm that represented them. She got tickets for us and we watched from just above first base. As usual with luxury suites, the attendee’s were more interested in being in being in the box than being at the game. This was a close one-run game with the Angels tying it in the ninth and the Rangers getting the winning run in the bottom of the ninth. By the end of the seventh, the box had cleared out and the owners seemed upset that we wanted to stay and watch the end of the game. We stayed.


The next three games were against the Tigers who finished third in the Central that year. They had Juan Gonzalez [signed as a free agent that year] and no one else of particular note. The Rangers would split the four game series. I only saw the first three of four, none of which were close.

The last game I saw there was against the White Sox which we watched from the restaurant. The deal with seeing the game from Friday’s was each ticket cost $50 and you had to buy them pairs. For each ticket you received a $50 credit at the restaurant. We got a table of four – my sister invited a friend from work. When it was all over our final bill [including tip] was $201.

One of the biggest benefits of watching from Friday’s – it was air conditioned. I’m sure this doesn’t come as a shock but Dallas is hot in the summer. Overall this was a nice stadium. If you’re going to a game there in the summer, try to get tickets in the first base side.


UPDATE AUGUST 2010: I was on travel for work and was able to catch the Yankees in town. I went with a colleague from UT Arlington who used his ‘ticket guy’ to get us seats about 10 rows above the Yankee dugout. It was a great game to see. The Rangers won in 10 innings. The rare event for this game was Mariano Rivera, arguably the best reliever in the game right now, took the loss for New York. 

I learned some new things about the park. First, the Friday’s restaurant above right field is closed. It’s now part of the club level. Also [and more interestingly] if you drive a Lexus to the park, you get complimentary valet parking. I don’t know how or why Lexus got this deal as opposed to BMW, Mercedes, or another high-end car maker but there is a drop-off/pick-up right by the home plate entrance. I suppose the Kia valet service may be near the outfield entrance. One thing that’s the same about the park, get seats in the shade.