For the first time this season, Texas Rangers playing with Globe Life Field roof open
The Texas Rangers, pretty much from the last man on the bench to the people who pay his salary, wanted a ballpark with a roof.
So, the people who pay the salaries ponied up $700 million for the $1.2 billion Globe Life Field to be built with a retractable roof to block out the searing summer sun.
And the late-spring and early-autumn sun, too.
With temperatures Monday in Arlington hitting 100 degrees, naturally the Rangers opted to play the opener of a three-game series against the Seattle Mariners with the roof open.
Come again?
The Globe Life Field roof — yes, open — was open for the first time this season as the Rangers looked to extended their three-game winning streak. With an 8:05 p.m. start, the thought was the sun would be low enough beneath the west wall to keep the field in shade until sundown.
But why do it, with the temperature well-above the 80-degrees threshold for closing and without a rainstorm in sight?
“Curiosity, as much as anything else,” general manager Jon Daniels said.
Curiosity, like, oh, how a struggling offense could benefit by playing with the roof open?
“I don’t know that it will have an impact on the offense,” Daniels said. “It might have an impact on the flight of the ball a little bit.”
So far, Globe Life Field has been the least-homer friendly park in baseball, and the only factor that doesn’t favor pitchers is triples. The only other ballparks with fewer runs scored than Globe Life Field are Target Field in Minnesota and Wrigley Field in Chicago.
The Rangers scored only six runs in their first four home games of the season, but have scored 20 in the past four. The scored 13 runs over the weekend in their three-game sweep of the Los Angeles Angels.
“I think there’s only one way to really find out, and that’s to get some information,” Daniels said. “It affects both teams the same.”
Part of the planning process for the ballpark included simulations on how weather elements would affect a game if the roof was open. Globe Life Field faces a different direction than Globe Life Park, where an infamous jet stream was created by a south wind blowing in from right field, swirling around the seating bowl, and shooting back out to right field.
So far, only nine home runs have been hit in eight games at Globe Life Field. That number would bump to 10 if the American League overrules the official scorer who scored a Nick Solak fly ball that bounced out of Jo Adell’s glove an error.
Daniels said the Rangers are appealing that ruling.
“I think the official scorers are at a little bit of a disadvantage doing it off TV because you don’t necessarily see the whole field and the flight of the ball,” Daniels said.
The Rangers opened the roof during summer camp to give it a trial run, but the intrasquad game that day started at 6 p.m. Manager Chris Woodward said the players seemed to enjoy the change and would be looking forward to playing with the ballpark open in a real game.
“It’s a different feel out there,” he said. “I know we did it once during camp. It was nice. I think an 8 o’clock game it will be a little different because there won’t be really shadows or anything from a light standpoint. And I don’t think that the weather will be a factor at all. Maybe wind will affect the ball flight. So we’ll see. I’m excited.”
It’s been clear that the ball doesn’t fly at a closed Globe Life Field. Hence the curiosity on how an open roof, even with temperatures in the 90s at first pitch.
The roof didn’t begin open until around 7:45 p.m. to maximize the air conditioning before the cool air started to escape during the 10 minutes it took to open the roof.
The only way the roof would close once the game starts would be for rain or extreme weather, Daniels said.
“We’ll see where it goes,” Daniels said. “I used the term curiosity, I think that’s part of it, but we haven’t had a chance to experiment at all. Normally we would have had it open in cooler weather early on.
“We want to get some feedback from the players. We played with it opened during [an intrasquad] game, and it got good reviews. It warmed up a little bit down on the field, but the way the AC worked it was still very comfortable. Whether we have fans or not in the short term, it’s an option for us to consider if it’s an environment that everyone enjoys.”
This story was originally published August 10, 2020 at 7:45 PM.
