The atmosphere was different, but the Texas Rangers finally played ball (and won)
Baseball, the actual game of baseball, is the same.
The distance between the pitcher’s mound and home plate is 60 feet 6 inches.
The distance between one base to the other is 90 feet.
The Texas Rangers found those same measurements at Globe Life Field, their new home, Friday in their season opener against the Colorado Rockies.
Not having fans, well, that’s different.
But that’s baseball, at least for the time being, in the coronavirus pandemic.
And Rangers baseball, at least for one game, centered on pitching in a 1-0 season-opening victory.
“Baseball is baseball when there’s an umpire calling balls and strikes, and there’s outs and all that stuff,” Rangers starter Lance Lynn said Wednesday. “Everybody knows it’s going to be different. It’s going to feel weird. There’s nothing like hearing fans cheer for hits, home runs, strikeouts — that’s the best part about playing the game.
“But when it’s all said and done, you don’t want to give up a hit against anybody, and you don’t want to give up any runs. So the natural competitiveness is going to take over, and all that stuff really won’t matter.”
Lynn tossed six scoreless innings, allowing two hits and striking out nine, and relievers Jonathan Hernandez and Jose Leclerc dodged trouble in the eighth and ninth innings to preserve the victory. Rougned Odor drove in the game’s only run with a two-out double in sixth that scored Danny Santana.
The Rangers entered the inning without a hit against Rockies starter German Marquez.
“I know the stuff with that kid is elite,” manager Chris Woodward said. “I wasn’t surprised. I know we were up against a tough outing.”
The game itself nullified the funkiness going on around it. Players competed. There were tense moments.
It was, as Lynn said, baseball.
But the Rangers’ ballpark entertainment crew did its best to replicate a game atmosphere.
Players were introduced as they would have been under normal circumstances, standing on the first-base line after hearing their name called. Social distancing was in effect, and masks were intros were done.
The National Anthem was performed live, by country music legend Charley Pride. Rangers and Rockies players and coaches held a black ribbon to show their support for ending racism in their communities and country.
Fourteen Rangers players and coaches — including Black player Willie Calhoun, Black coaches Tony Beasley and Callix Crabbe, and manager Chris Woodward — knelt while holding the ribbon as videos in support of ending racism played.
All stood for the Anthem. Rockies outfielder Matt Kemp knelt.
Gov. Greg Abbott threw out the first pitch, though virtually from Austin.
Fans were in the stands, though in cardboard-cutout form. An area youngster gave a virtual call of “Play ball!” Stats were displayed on the videoboard.
The Rangers even had their famed Dot Race. Red wins!
Yes, here was crowd noise, replicated from past TV broadcasts and at various levels of excitement, from a general din of the crowd as it enters the ballpark to loud roars after a good play by the home team.
The Rangers experimented with their catalog of ballpark sounds throughout summer camp. Michael Gruber was in charge of pulling the sounds and will be the one pushing the buttons on crowd noise.
He has more than 100 files, including the former vendor who yelled, “Hawtttttt dawgggggggs.”
“He’s done a good job with that,” said Chuck Morgan, the Rangers’ public-address announcer and executive vice president of ballpark entertainment. “It’s not perfect. It’s the hand we’ve been dealt. We’re probably a little bit over the top compared to other clubs. He’s got different types of sounds that either enhance a base hit or even a foul ball that might go over someone’s head and they just miss it.”
But there will be no booing.
“There’s something to me that doesn’t feel right about an employee of a team pressing a boo button at an umpire or an opposing player,” Morgan said. “That doesn’t feel right to me, and I’m not so sure our players down in the dugout or our manager and coaches would be on board with that.”
Despite all the piped-in enhancements, Opening Day was going to be different and so will the 29 home games that are scheduled to follow.
“People know how much I love to interact with fans, especially during the game,” shortstop Elvis Andrus said. “I feel throughout my career that fans are always the extra player that motivates you, that inject the energy that you need, especially late in the games — the home-field advantage.”
The Rangers spent three weeks gaining a home-field advantage by learning the intricacies of Globe Life Field. They and the Rockies are the only two teams who have ever played at the $1.2 billion ballpark, which is across the street from their previous home.
The key feature of the ballpark, the retractable roof, benefited both teams.
The first-pitch temperature inside, with the roof closed, was 72 degrees.
Outside it was 94 degrees.
That’s different, too, and no one is complaining about that.
This story was originally published July 24, 2020 at 8:38 PM.
