Rays 3 @ Rangers 15
When history looks back on the legacy of President George W. Bush, it'll probably focus on things like September 11, the War in Iraq, that whole almost-depression thing and the fact that he was the first non-english speaking man to be elected President. But what about the positives? Like....uh....well....oh, he did get the Ballpark in Arlington built. And its a pretty nice stadium. But you'll never hear about that from the damn liberal media, will you?
Actually, I'm kind of surprised you don't hear more about it in the damn liberal media, because Rangers Ballpark in Arlington is pretty much the whole reason that the man was able to become President. The details are outlined in this really interesting New York Times article, but the basic story is this: The young son of President George H.W. Bush invested roughly half of a million dollars to become a 1% owner of the Texas Rangers. A (somewhat surprisingly) shrewd businessman, he and the other owners were able to convince the taxpayers of Texas to pay $135 million to build a new stadium in Arlington. Because tax money for baseball is OK, but tax money for health care is bad. With the revenues generated by the new stadium and a halfway decent team, Mr. Bush became a multi-millionaire off of his investment, and was able to fund his successful campaign to become Governor of Texas, and later, the President of the United States of America. And I thought I was done writing political science papers.
It was built just after Camden Yards in Baltimore, and opened in 1995. It mimics a lot of Camden Yards, from the bricks, to the green seats, to the unnecessarily forced awkward field dimensions, but manages to maintain a distinctly Texas feel. You are reminded you are in Texas around every turn, from either the southwestern food, to the Texas flags and colors, to all the country songs on the PA that basically say "America is awesome, and you liberals and towelheads can get out if you don't like it."
Parking is plentiful, but kind of pricey. However, with Six Flags over Texas being right next door, I was able to use my Six Flags employee ID to park there for free and walk over to the ballpark. Thank you very much.
It is a massive structure, and is actually probably a bit too big for its market. From watching on TV, there always seems to be plenty of seats available, and sure enough, there were tonight too. This may also be because of the weather. It gets unbearably hot in Dallas in the Summer, but there is no roof or any real shade to protect from the heat. It was built just before retractable roofs became more affordable and practical, so it is kind of doomed to always be exposed to Texas heat. This negatively effects the product on the field as well, as the players get tired and worn out much easier in Texas' dog days.
Gee, a stadium built with the sole purpose of making its owners richer without much thought about how it may negatively effect a fan or player experience. This doesn't sound like a Bush project at all.
I really don't mean to bash on Bush, enough people do that already, and the stadium is actually really, really nice. It has very impressive architecture, and I like the distinctly Texas feel that it gives.
This was the last baseball stop on the Trip, and it was a nice one to end on. With Six Flags being next door, you can see the Texas Titan from the concourse of the upper deck. The Titan is almost an exact clone of Goliath back home, and every time I saw it, it served as kind of a looming reminder that it'll be back to reality in just a few days.
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