So, About That Rangers Game
As Jeanne mentioned, I was at last night’s game. With that many people in the ballpark using their cell phones, all hopes of actually telling you guys about it real time flew out the window. So today, I will give you bullet points. Let’s jump.
- It was hot as hell. I mean, literally, hell. And although there were fans on the upper Home Run Porch, they were not on. And there was no breeze. So the entire first four innings were basically like getting in your car, rolling up the windows, and just sitting there.
- The Home Run Porch – aka the all-you-can-eat section – is actually a pretty good deal, especially if you like nitrites. It was money well spent when, sometime in the fifth inning, I wussed out and went inside the cool, sweet air conditioning and watched the game on TV. Yes, I know I’m a weak sister, and I was watching a game on TV when it was occurring feet from me. Feel free to berate me in the comments.
- I did manage to make note of a few things: 1. Bengie Molina is on my list. 2. If the Rangers could figure out a way to shade the ballpark, both Cliff Lee and I would probably return. 3. At the seventh inning, the Rangers were up 6-2, which was also the exact ratio of hot dogs to chicken sandwiches the guy in the booth in front of me inhaled, which leads me to … 4. If you put out all you can eat nachos and hot dogs, suddenly everyone behaves as if they’re refugees at the last rice drop.
- I witnessed a child eating ketchup directly from the spigot.
- People who work at the ballpark measure their breaks by innings.
- I’m pretty sure we sat behind the rejected cast from The Jersey Shore.
- I loved pretty much everything about the game until the seventh inning. Then commenced a point where my sports-related, recreational Tourettes nearly kicked in, but I realized there was a very small child standing next to me, yelling, “Go Wangews!” Nothing like an impossibly cute child to suck the vitriol and cursing out of the room.
- It was hard to tell who got booed/cheered simultaneously harder: George W. Bush or A-Rod.
- My game companion is pretty sure he saw an older gentleman with an escort before the game started.
Word is that the heat got the best of Cliff Lee last night. I totally can see why – it was hotter than the face of the sun out there. It didn’t really cool down much at all. As Mark Cuban pointed out earlier, the one bugaboo for the Rangers is the ballpark, and the fact that it gets so friending hot out there.
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12 comments
… and in other news water is still wet.
The upper deck of the Home Run Porch is the absolute worst place to sit in the Ballpark. The one time that I had the misfortune to get tickets there I discovered that it is situated in a pocket of especially stagnant air. And that was on a 90-degree day, nowhere near 100. Those fans don’t ever seem to be on. It is a miserable, miserable place. We retreated to open seats high up in the third deck just to get away from there.
I was also at the game last night, but in section 12, near the left field corner. It was hot, but we did enjoy the occasional slight breeze.
Speaking as someone who was rooting against the Yankees rather than for the Rangers, I thought that was a rip-roaring good baseball game. Great pitching from Lee to start. Greater offense through the final half.
I am going to preface this comment with the disclaimer that baseball the sport I am weakest on. I’m fully on the Rangers bandwagon but there’s some things I still don’t get.
The biggest one being: why did the team build an open stadium with no roof or shade when they knew it was going to be, you know, located in Texas and baseball is played in the summer? This is not a rhetorical question. I don’t know if there’s a game or tradition-related answer. I asked a friend and he offered up that the D’backs play in an open park as well during the Arizona summers. But honestly, please enlighten me on why the park was built without any way to protect fans from the heat. It’s not as if 100 degree summer days is a new thing around here.
Last night was my first experience with the Home Run Porch, and for the money, it wasn’t bad at all. I sat outside for half the game and yeah, it was hot, but its Texas and its August. My friends tell me that they have witnessed HRP patrons shoveling hot dogs, grilled chicken breasts and tortilla chips into purses for a little take home treat. Saw the older dude with the cute twentysomething, and thought the same thing.
Baseball is supposed to be played outside in the daytime in the summer. Sit on the first base side if you don’t want to be in the sun. I have sat through an absolutely freezing game in St. Louis one time in October that was pretty painful. The last Rangers game I attended, a few weeks ago, George and Laura were there and received a standing ovation. No booing heard by me.
@amandacobra: That’s an excellent question about the Rangers ballpark. Good reason to move the team to Dallas and have them play in a proper domed stadium. BTW, I think Arizona’s stadium has a retractable roof and is air-conditioned.
Exactly, Jason. Stagnant. And yet, there are fans up there. I don’t understand why they weren’t turned on – it would’ve at least moved the air around a little bit.
I would say that Rangers Ballpark is pleasant in the fall (although we really never get to find out for very long, so maybe we can test that theory out by playing longer?).
But I’m with amandacobra – who builds a ballpark in Texas for a sport that is played primarily in the summer, and doesn’t figure out a way to keep people a little cooler. I’m not saying I need it to be 72 or something, just slightly less warm than Satan’s sauna.
@Melissa has it exactly right. Baseball indoors sucks. Go watch a game at that glorified mall food court that is Minute Maid Park. Worse game experience I’ve ever been through.
And do people forget that the Ballpark was built in 1992-1993? Good, affordable retractable roof technology didn’t really come around until a few years later. And if it was a permenant dome, well, that would have really sucked.
I don’t see why the heat couldn’t be played to best home field advantage. I’d put a thermometer in the visitor’s dugout that was calibrated 5 degrees high. You could put Burton Gilliam (Lyle from Blazing Saddles) in a Ranger’s uniform…”C’mon boys! The way you’s lollygagging around here with them bats and and ‘em gloves, you’d think it was a hundred and twenty degrees. Can’t be more ‘n a hundred and fourteen!”
Also, roof = stadium and therefore not a ballpark.
@Rico: I did a triple take when I saw them.
“I witnessed a child eating ketchup directly from the spigot.”
White trashiness of proportions that epic needs to be documented with a pic in the future please.