A Behind The Scenes Tour Of Globe Life Park In Arlington
There's more to Globe Life Park in Arlington, where the Texas Rangers play, than the field, seats and concession stands, there's history, beauty and so many things you don't pay attention too. This ballpark will soon be retired and replaced with a new facility for the Texas Rangers. Before they stop playing in this facility a friend of mine bought tickets for a behind the scenes tour!
While on vacation a couple of weeks back, we had nothing to do so we decided to go tour the ballpark, something I'm glad I did because it was really informative and I learned quite a bit while on the hour long guided tour with tour guide Mike! One of the first things he points out to us is that the ballpark facility tries to reuse and re-purpose as much as they can. Take for instance, when you're walking along the promenade to find your seats. You look up at the section sign, but most likely not paying close attention to what that sign is hanging from. Take a close look at the picture below.
Yes, that is a bat that was used in the ballpark at one point. They reuse bats that are cracked, splintered or broken to hang signs and other things around the stadium. Also in the photo gallery below you'll see that they reuse bats in the suites as handrails on stairs. Another interesting thing that they reuse are the baseballs themselves! As you can see below, baseballs are used as decoration around the door frame of the suites. As a general ticket holder you'd probably never see this or notice this, heck, maybe as a season ticket holder you've never really noticed this!
Seeing how I'm in the media a couple of cool spots that I got to visit were the print media press box - the broadcast booth for radio and television were closed and off limits! The view of the ballpark from there was astounding! From there we got to go down below the seats into the 'bowels' of the stadium and we toured the batting cages, weight room and the extremely cold room where they hold after game interviews and press conferences.
While on the tour, Mike was telling us all about the rich Texas Rangers history along with the history of previous ballparks and what all went in to making the new stadium. The architectural details are amazing in this facility. Texas stars are everywhere, the logo is on the end of every row of seats, the home run porch resembles other stadiums and so much more.
My friend and I were looking forward to getting to tour the locker room facilities, but unfortunately they were closed off and this is as close as we could get!
From there we headed down the tunnel to the dugout. Before going out the door at the end of the tunnel to the dugout, we got to touch one of the horseshoes that are scattered around the area! One is above it going out, coming back in and one on the inside wall above a water fountain! Heading down the hallway, you pass by a ton of Texas Rangers history and milestones and then you arrive right at field level. You have to walk up five stairs before getting up on the field. We could only go up four stairs because we couldn't get on the field level! But it was still awesome standing there in that dugout and looking up at the giant scoreboard and imagining the thousands of fans that would occupy the now empty seats. Before leaving I got to sit on the manager's bench and imagine what it would be like in a full stadium!
If you're ever in the metroplex and have an hour to burn, I highly suggest doing the tour of this ballpark. I am not going to give away they told us on the tour because I'd like for you to experience it for yourself. There is so much to see and do and if you're like my and my buddy you could get lucky and be the only ones on the tour and then it becomes a personal tour where you can ask as many and whatever question you want!
Here are some of the images I was able to capture while touring Globe Life Park in Arlington, home to the Texas Rangers!