Today marks one of the last times the Texas Rangers will open their season at Globe Life Park—barring delays, the retractable-roofed $1 billion new Globe Life Field is expected to be ready in 2020.
For that reason, and because baseball already feels like the most nostalgic of sports, let’s take a quick look back at two other opening days relevant to a team soon to move into a new stadium: The 1972 opener at Arlington Stadium, the team’s first game in its new Texas home after 11 seasons as the Washington Senators, and the 1994 opener at the Ballpark in Arlington.
Via SMU’s wonderful collection of old WFAA newsfilm, here’s a piece on the Rangers’ first ever home opener at Arlington Stadium, in 1972.
As a bonus, here’s an old WFAA story on the Major League Baseball players’ strike that delayed the 1972 Opening Day.
And via somebody on YouTube, here’s a television advertisement for Opening Day in 1994, and the inauguration of what was then called the Ballpark in Arlington.
