Ballpark Tour: Rangers Ballpark at Arlington

We did not purposely end up on a tour of the Rangers Ballpark at Arlington, but it turns out that it is included with the admission price to the Legends of the Game Museum, so when we visited the museum on July 23, 2009, we also ended up taking a tour of the ballpark. Mik was quite annoyed that we ended up doing this tour, but we would not even be on this trip if we always gave into his complaining. I was not going to pass up on something that was part of the museum admission, especially since I had thought $12 was steep for just a small museum, but it was not too bad of a price when I learned it included the tour. Anyways once it started he stopped complaining, but it only because he knew there was no turning back and not because the tour was spectacular.

The tour really was just of the behind home plate levels of the ballpark. It involved using the media elevator to go to various floors, which may or may not be the normal tour, as I know in the past ballpark tours have been modified because Mik was on them, but this one did not feel modified, as it was not like there were special accommodations taken into consideration. Thus the tour was overall accessible, but some stops involved steps that made it hard for Mik to enjoy parts, especially the Suite.

The first stop on the tour was the Press Room. The press room is located up behind home plate. It is interesting to see, but really not that different than seeing the press room at other ballparks we have taken tours of. At least Mik could roll up to the front and see the view from this part of the tour.

The second stop on the tour was the Arlington Suite. Along the way to the suite we could see some of the other suite entrances, which have paintings of famous ballplayers, such as Joe DiMaggio. Just a few feet into the suite are steps, so Mik really just got to see the kitchen part on top of the steps. If you go down the steps you can go up to the sliding doors and see what the view is like.

The next part of the tour involved going down in the tunnel below the stands. Not as cool as the unique view of centerfield we got in the tunnel at Yankee Stadium using the wheelchair accessible route to Memorial Grove, but still interesting because we saw some of the behind the scenes rooms. One of the rooms we saw was the room that the Rangers can take indoor batting practice. We also got to see the Media Room, where the coaches, players, etc. give press conferences.

The final part of the tour was going into the dugout from the tunnel. The ramp that leads down to it is accessible, but then there are steps up into the dugout. We did not deal with the steps in the Suite, but here Dad took Mik up the steps to get into the dugout. It was kind of cool to go into the dugout, but really it is just the normal end to a rather typical ballpark tour.

Honestly the tour disappointed me. There was not really anything special that we got to see. It was all rather dull parts of the ballpark that really could have been any ballpark with even very minimal Texas Ranger décor to make it stand out as your at the Rangers Ballpark. Maybe, it would be interesting if we were at all into the Rangers team, but being an American League team we do not really even know any of the names of players on the team.

I did not even get the feel we learned anything about the Rangers history or the ballpark. Sure they have not really been that much of a Championship team, but I got to imagine they have some interesting history. All the tour guide seemed to talk about was how it used to be better without really even saying why anti-Bush things and even that barely got to what he had to do with the Rangers. Basically you could only enjoy her rambling if you already were a Rangers fan and knew about the team management history.

Accessibility Review: Rangers Ballpark at Arlington

Parking at Rangers Ballpark at Arlington is easy to find, as parking lot surround the park. Note it does seem that all the handicap spots are in lots marked reserved or passes needed, but they do act as cash lots if you have a handicap placard or plate. The day of the game we parked across from the closed off street near the first base gate, as that is where our original tickets said to go in. This is also the best entrance if you need an elevator to the upper deck (300s), as I will explain in a little bit.

Be careful lining up outside the gates before they open. If you do not have season tickets then you do not want to be to the left because they only would check bags and let people through there if they had season tickets. Besides it seemed only the turnstiles in the middle had room for wheelchairs to go through, which is where we ended up after they opened and told our line they had to move to the center. By the way that was very annoying because just before they opened they had split us off from the center lane and told us to line up to the left. Note that they only cared about season tickets for bag check and did not care if you had them or not for the left turnstile lanes specifically marked Season Ticket. I have a feeling it is based on who is at the particular stations that day that determines how strict they are on it being a season ticket line on the left or not.

Before we headed up to the seats we originally had tickets to in 334 we walked around on the main concourse level a little. We ended up by the 3rd base entrance and noticed an elevator there. The elevator here, however, is a freight elevator, which was kind of annoying to use because of the staff still using it for getting things to concession stands and such, but I guess it does have the plus of being big and not end up crowded even with the staff. We did not notice any regular elevators on this side of the park, but later when we went down to our surprise upgraded seats we used the elevators on the 1st base side and these are normal ones.

The section we had bought tickets for the Rangers game was 334. The handicap seats here were almost as good as the section we ended up getting a surprise upgrade to. However, the view from 334 is not recommended. Even Mik was disappointed as soon as we got to the seats because right field is blocked from view along with the view of the main scoreboard and the secondary Coca Cola one. Only accessibility issue was that there was unfairly no cup holders for the wheelchair spots and only the spots with actual seats. The seats were also not raised that much above the row in front, but there was not a bar blocking the view either.

The seats we ended up enjoying the game from were in section 18. They were pretty much the same accessibility wise as the upper section, except they did have cup holders for every spot including the wheelchair, so Mik did not feel discriminated against here. Not being raised up above the row in front much did not turn out to be an issue for the most part, as the fans mostly stayed seated. However, there was a lot of foot traffic in the aisle, which happened to perfectly block the view of the batter. This was not too bad, but it was annoying that it was often the vendors that stood and lingered in the way until someone would finally tell them to get down out of the way. At most ballparks vendors will usually squat down when serving someone, but here they never did it except the one time I saw someone yell at them for being in the way. Of course, just being able to see the whole field and the scoreboard made a big difference over our original section 334, especially since they often did instant replays of the things we sometimes missed because of people in the aisle.

Overall the Rangers Ballpark rates high middle in terms of accessibility, but it does have some flaws. The parking is easy to find and close. The seats in the lower area do have cup holders, but the upper area did not have them for the wheelchair spots. No where in the park did there seem to be accessible seats raised up above the row in front any more than the normal one step, which really makes viewing games hard for Mik unless it is a very low crowd game and no one sits in the two rows in front of the section. Being a Boston Red Sox game, though, it was crowded and it did make seeing the game hard, but it was not too bad because at least in our section the people in front were for the most part seated or at least quickly got in and out of the row.

Day 71: Mik and his Lion

We are doing the Lion Country Safari today before the final game/ballpark of the trip tonight. Mik got a stuffed animal lion as his souvenir. He thinks it will go great with his cheetah.

Sent from my iPhone

Update from laptop 7/29/09: Mik is happy to have finally found a nice snuggy animal as a souvenir of this trip. He tends to like to get one every summer vacation. Several summers ago is when he got the cheetah at the Los Angeles Zoo and two years ago he got his Hard Rock D.C. bear that is his car animal. He had a chance to look at stuffed animals at the Georgia Aquarium and at some of the Build-a-Bears at the ballparks, but the lion was the first one he spotted that he imagined himself actually snugging a lot and he does not believe in wasting money on a stuffed animal if it is not going to get a good amount of snuggy time.

Day 70: KOA Table Cloth Map with All the Ballparks Route

Since the beginning of July we have been getting KOA Picnic Tablecloths at every KOA because we are VIP members. They are really useful because they have elastic to fit onto the table and avoid the need for tablecloth clips. The really cool part, though is that it is a map of the United States and Canada with all the KOA locations. At every place we have used them Dad has been drawing the route of our trip up to the KOA we are at. Now we are at our final KOA and I thought I should share the final one he will probably do. It shows the whole route we took to get to all 30 ballparks and other things along the way, so it really is just missing the journey home. By the way as of now we have traveled 18,225 miles.

Kj’s Baseball Collection: Boston Red Sox @ Texas Rangers

At the Rangers game I got a baseball that was a souvenir for the particular series we saw. On one side it has the logos of the Texas Rangers and the Boston Red Sox and in between it says vs. Below the logos it says Rangers Ballpark at Arlington. It was because it did say the ballpark name that I did not end up also getting the ballpark souvenir baseball I saw. On another side it has the Texas Rangers T logo on a blue background and on the side opposite that is the Boston Red Sox socks logo on a red background.

Mik’s Mini Bat Collection: Rangers Ballpark at Arlington

I already posted about Mik getting the natural Texas Rangers mini bat at the Rangers game. After the game we were able to go back to the stand outside the park and finally get him the ballpark one that he wanted all along. This one is natural on the bottom and has a brick background look on the top half. On the brick background is an oval image of Rangers Ballpark. Above the image it says Rangers Ballpark and below the image it says at Arlington.

Mik’s Mini Bat Collection: Natural Texas Rangers

Mik had seen a ballpark bat at a stand outside the ballpark and Dad kept trying to find it inside, but everywhere inside was sold out and he just got Mik this natural Texas Rangers one to make sure he got a mini bat here. We would have got it outside before the game, but they were having problems with the cash register and could not process any sales. This Texas Rangers bat is natural in color and says Texas and also has the Texas Rangers circle logo.