After a delay of nearly four months due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Texas Rangers will play their first regular season game ever at Globe Life Field on Friday night at 7:05 p.m. against the Colorado Rockies.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott with to throw a virtual ceremonial first pitch and country singing legend Charley Pride will sing The National Anthem.
The only thing missing? No physically present fans.
That’s due to the health and safety requirements established by Major League Baseball. And no tailgating. All public parking lots around Globe Life Field will be closed and tailgating will be prohibited prior or during all games.
Several areas of Texas Live!, which is located on the north side of Globe Life Field, are open to the public. Lot B parking will be available for Texas Live! customers only, the Rangers said in a news release.
Texas opens its 49th regular season in Arlington and first at Globe Life Field with a five-game homestand versus National League West Division opponents.
The Rangers and Rockies will also play on Saturday, July 25. at 3:05 p.m. and Sunday, July 26, at 1:35 p.m. The opening homestand concludes with a two-game series against the Arizona Diamondback, Tuesday, July 28, at 8:05 and Wednesday, July 29, at 3:05 p.m.
Abbott will throw out the first pitch prior to the season opener – virtually from in front of the State Capitol in Austin. The event will be displayed on the Globe Life Field video boards.
Pride will sing the Star-Spangled Banner. He’s a resident of the Dallas-Fort Worth area and a limited partner in the Texas Rangers ownership group. He’s been performing for more than 60 years and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2000.
The Rangers said Pride has a rich history in baseball, playing for the Negro Leagues Memphis Red Sox and Birmingham Black Barons from 1953-58 and briefly in both the Cincinnati and New York Yankees organizations.
While fans will not be able to attend in person for some time, the Rangers have figured out a way to allow at least their images to be present – DoppelRangers.
Two-dimensional DoppelRangers will allow fans to have their likenesses located in the lower seating bowl areas behind home plate and the dugouts for at least Rangers July games at Globe Life Field. If fans are allowed to attend games later in the season, the DoppelRangers will be moved to other areas in Globe Life Field.
The cardboard images are created from photographs submitted by fans, who have placed orders over the last two weeks. In that time, nearly 2,700 DoppelRangers have been sold and will be in place for Friday’s opener.
DoppelRangers may still be purchased for $50 each with all proceeds benefitting the Texas Rangers Baseball Foundation. All orders placed at this point will not be completed in time for the first homestand.
The details are here:Â Â https://www.mlb.com/rangers/fans/doppel-rangers-cutouts
| Doppel-Rangers Fan Cutouts | Texas RangersThe cutouts will be placed in the stands for Rangers 2020 home games following production, but the Texas Rangers Baseball Club reserves the right to move/remove any or all of the cutouts at its own sole discretion for any reason or no reason at any time without notice or liability to you.www.mlb.com |
Friday marks the first regular season game ever at the new Globe Life Field, this after the Rangers were unable to host a scheduled home opener on March 31 vs. LAA (original Opening Day was 3/28 at SEA).
Globe Life Field will be the Rangers’ 3rd home park, following Arlington Stadium (1972-93) and Globe Life Park in Arlington (1994-2019). Each of the thee ballparks will have opened in shortened MLB seasons (1972, 1994, 2020). According to Elias Sports Bureau, the Rangers’ three parks will represent three of the five all-time instances of a facility opening in a shortened MLB season (1918, 1919, 1972, 1981, 1994, 1995, or 2020), the Rangers’ news release said. The others: CLE’s Progressive Field in 1994 and COL’s Coors Field in 1995.
– FWBP Staff