This is the statue of the Rangers fan who fell to his death at the ballpark in '11. Look what people did to it today. pic.twitter.com/zaZgRnMl7W
— Kami Mattioli (@kmattio) April 1, 2014
The photo above has made the rounds on Twitter. It shows that fans at yesterday’s Texas Rangers game against the Phillies used the statue erected in tribute to the fan who fell to his death in 2011 as a trash receptacle.
The Rangers issued an apology:
“The Rangers certainly regret and apologize for the trash that accumulated on the Rangers Fans statue at the home plate gate this afternoon. With thousands of opening day fans, many of whom had been tailgating, entering the park in the 30 minutes before game time, large amounts of cans, bottles, and other items that are prohibited in the park, accumulated at all entrances. Numerous clean up calls came into the maintenance department in this period, and the club utilized a large number of employees to continually remove the vast amount of trash that was accumulating. The debris on the statue was removed in a timely manner but it should not have been allowed to be placed there in the first place. The Rangers Fans statue is a cherished component of Globe Life Park in Arlington and the club will make certain this situation does not occur in the future.”
Not to defend the slovenly behavior of the crowd, but every time I’ve been to the Ballpark since that statue went up, I’ve thought it was positioned in a horrible spot. It’s quite close to the home-plate gate and when there’s any kind of back-up in the lines there, fans are forced to stream tightly around it to enter. Maybe the Rangers thought they were doing Shannon Stone more honor by giving it such a prominent place, but they’ve also made it a bit of a nuisance. There are plenty of wide open stretches of sidewalk around the Ballpark where it still could have been in full view and wouldn’t serve as the last convenient place to ditch contraband items before going in.
