The Ballpark in Arlington

Home plate entrance of The Ballpark in Arlington, Jul-2019.

The view through the left-field foul pole.

A look from above the plate at The Ballpark, and its busy outfield.

Chronological Tour: Stop 85

• Location: Ballpark Way at Randol Mill Road (off I-30), Arlington, Texas (map it using Google Maps)
• Opened: 1994 as The Ballpark in Arlington
• Additional names: Ameriquest Field (2004), Rangers Ballpark in Arlington (2007), Globe Life Park in Arlington (2014)
• Home team: Texas Rangers, American League (1994-2019)
• Capacity: 49,166

Rating: 4 baseballs

After 22 years there, the Rangers moved into The Ballpark in Arlington, a “retro” ballpark inspired, in part, by the wild success of Baltimore’s Camden Yards. Without a downtown or a warehouse, the designers had to try to create their own special ambience.

For the most part, they succeeded. The outer facade is quite appealing, with many small features only detected when one walks up close to the building. Inside, the outfield wall is a bit busy, perhaps in imitation (but not duplication) of Yankee Stadium, and the park also seems to contain a lot of unnecessary bends in the outfield fence. The overall result, though, is fairly pleasing.

One thing the park does not have is a retractable roof. As a result, The Ballpark was one of the few facilities that maintains 7:30 starts on a regular basis during the summer, to let some of that infernal Texas heat dissipate.

In 2004, the park joined the parade of sports facilities with corporate names. With the sponsorship of a mortgage company, the prosaic Ballpark in Arlington became Ameriquest Field. However, when the company defaulted on its obligation, the park reverted to something similar to its original moniker. A new naming sponsor took over for 2014.

The Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League, who had played at Texas Stadium in Irving since the mid-1960s, have relocated to Arlington, making this city on the eastern edge of Tarrant County the premier sports destination in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. The Cowboys received their own stadium, leaving The Ballpark free for baseball.

In late 2016, voters passed a referendum authorizing taxes to go toward the building of a new retractable-roof stadium for the Rangers in Arlington, which opened for the 2020 season. The place is across the street, next to the Texas Live entertainment center, and while it hosted no fans during the regular season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, spectators were allowed for several neutral-site playoff games that year, including the World Series.

For now, The Ballpark still stands, and it is primarily used for football. In the spring of 2020, it hosted a game or two in the second incarnation of the XFL, an experimental minor league; however, that league was put on ice due to the pandemic. Come the fall, the Arlington Independent School District started playing high school football there.