Stadium Friday - Arlington Stadium

 I know... It's Saturday.. 

Anyway. I'm feeling less beat up and burned out today so I'm writing up my normal post on Stadium Friday! *cough cough* Saturday Edition

Today is actually a stadium I only have one card of.. It's Arlington Stadium, the original place the Texas Rangers played 

The stadium started out as a minor league stadium, called Turnpike Stadium. It was named that for the Dallas-Fort Worth turnpike. 

The Fort Worth Cats and Dallas-Fort Worth Spurs played here previous to the Rangers. 

As with stadiums of the era, it was designed to be upgradeable to MLB standards for the time. There were 10000 seats, but was able to be bumped to 50K. 

The way the stadium was built, the Dallas Cowboys would have been able to play here as well, but they were uninterested in this stadium. 

The stadium was set into a natural bowl, so little excavation was necessary. 

When the Senators Part 2 moved to Texas and became the Rangers, Arlington Stadium was the sixth stadium to make the leap from minor league to Major League. 

The other stadiums being Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, Municipal Stadium in Kansas City, Metropolitan Stadium in Minneapolis, Seals Stadium in San Francisco. and Sick's Stadium in Seattle.

Before the upper deck was built in 1978, fans could enter the top of the stadium and just walk down to their seats. 

One of the insane things about this place is the absence of a roof or covering of any kind for the fans. As a result, games were scheduled for the evenings most of the time. Something that continued to their next home. 

The stadium was replaced in 1994 with The Ballpark in Arlington. George Brett got the last hit in Arlington Stadium in 1993. Originally home plate and the foul poles were moved to the new Park but were later changed out. Some bleachers were also ported over. They were painted green, but blue showed through if the paint chipped. 

Some of the interesting things about this place: 

There was a scoreboard shaped like Texas. 

They played Cotton-Eye Joe during the 7th Inning Stretch instead of Take me out to the ballgame

Nolan Ryan threw no-hitters here.

Mike Witt had a perfect game here

Nolan Ryan also happened to use Robin Ventura as a grappling buddy here.. 

When this place was demolished, part of the site was used for the new Cowboys Stadium and for a parking lot for a convention centre. 

I just find it interesting that both Texas teams had a stadium that was slap-dashed together when they first came into existence. Both looked about the same. Both had no relief from the elements for fans. Only difference is Houston moved into a dome in a few years, while it took the Rangers until the last couple years to get a dome.