Opening Day 2020: Texas Rangers begin Globe Life Field era without fans
Years from now, after the final play is in the books and the history of Globe Life Field is complete, it will almost certainly be said that no game will have been more unusual than the first official one ever played here.
Major League Baseball’s newest cathedral, the home of the Texas Rangers, is a $1.2 billion palace of glass, steel and stone. It has a retractable roof to keep out the rain. It has air conditioning to keep out the heat. It has a sweet scoreboard that displays as much data as NASA’s mission control.
But, unfortunately, we’ll remember Game #1 for what the ballpark won’t have. Fans.
Among the long list of casualties claimed by the pandemic of 2020, the inability to attend a sporting event will not be first on many lists. And rightly so. Still, people have a right to be saddened by the sight of their cardboard avatars — not socially distancing, and probably not wearing masks! — getting to attend Opening Day while the paying customers are kept away. But that sting is light years away from the loss of lives and livelihoods, and all of the unspeakable hardships that have been created in their wake.
Sports has often been a partner in helping lead societies out of bleak moments, and perhaps it’s for that reason that being shut out of Globe Life Field’s debut is extra bittersweet. Fans have been robbed of the opportunity to come together on this special day over a shared event. For many, the game serves as a backdrop for family celebrations, first dates, annual reunions or simply an evening out.
We will miss what being at Game #1 represents. Opening days have always been about rebirth. It’s the one day anything seems possible. Fans get one of those a year. And every generation or so, those fans get to experience the opening of a new ballpark, in conjunction with the start of a season — albeit a 60-game season. It would be easy for fans to lament the situation, but consider this:
Instead of viewing Friday as missing out on the Rangers’ stadium debut, think of it as the first step toward Opening Day 2021 — or Opening Day 2.021 — a Globe Life Field party that’s now only about eight short months away.
