With the Texas Rangers preparing to play their first season in brand new Globe Life Field, baseball already feels quite different in North Texas in 2020 – literally. And the team is thrilled about it.
“My office is cold, the field is almost chilly, then I walk outside and it’s 100 degrees,” manager Chris Woodward said. “We don’t have to deal with that, which is a beautiful thing.”
“Everything we do in this stadium is so much easier,” infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa said. “The mind is a lot fresher, your body is a lot fresher, and just to be fresh working out makes a big difference.”
A big difference in a stadium that was expected to be a loud home field advantage, with cheers echoing off a retractable roof. Instead, Globe Life Field is expected to remain empty for games in the near future, with the Rangers organization still trying to determine when fans will be able to fill the brand new seats in Arlington.
“The Rangers had intended to sell tickets for Opening Day, per the governor’s regulations that allowed 50% of capacity in the stadium,” The Dallas Morning News reporter Evan Grant said. “MLB kind of threw them a curve when commissioner Rob Manfred said, 'I think we need to get up and running before we do this.' The Rangers and MLB had some back and forth on that. I think ultimately everybody has decided the best thing to do would be, at least through this first homestand in July, let’s see how things operate with no fans in the stands. Baseball will reevaluate in the beginning of August.”
A reevaluation of when fans can watch games in a new stadium for the first time, with the Rangers preparing for a baseball season that will feel and sound very different when it begins in a few weeks.
