Texas Rangers’ 50th Anniversary celebration starts with Monday’s home opener
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The Texas Rangers’ 50th Anniversary celebration starts with Monday’s home opener. Here’s everything you need to know before the first pitch.
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The Texas Rangers’ home opener at 3:05 p.m. Monday at Globe Life Field will be the club’s first official celebration of its 50th season in Arlington.
Accordingly, the festivities will be filled with throwbacks and memories from the Rangers’ first home opener in 1972.
National anthem: Former Arlington mayor, U.S. congressman, and Tarrant County Judge Tom Vandergriff’s daughter Vanessa Vandergriff Watters, who sang the national anthem as a high school student before the first game in Arlington on April 21, 1972, is returning Monday to sing the anthem 50 years later. The Arlington High School alumnus will be accompanied by her sister Vivian Vandergriff and niece Katherine Parker.
Honoring Mayor Vandergriff: The Rangers will recognize Vandergriff’s “extraordinary efforts” to bring Major League Baseball to Arlington during a more than decade-long pursuit that resulted in the Washington Senators relocating in 1972. Vandergriff threw out the first pitch at the first home opener, and his son Victor and grandson Parker will participate in the Texas Toss caught by Tom Grieve, a member of the 1972 team and a lifelong Ranger. Grieve is retiring at the end of the season after 55 years as a player, executive and broadcaster with the franchise.
First pitch: Mansfield resident Orion Jean, 11, who was named the 2021 Time Magazine Kid of the Year for his extraordinary community efforts during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, is throwing out the ceremonial first pitch to Rangers legend Pudge Rodriguez. Jean is a sixth grader at Alma Martinez Intermediate School in Mansfield. The “kindness ambassador,” as Time called him, collected and delivered more than 100,000 meals, 500,000 books and thousands of additional toys to children affected by the pandemic.
Tickets still available: Several thousand reserved tickets remain available for Monday’s opener at texasrangers.com, or by calling 972-RANGERS, and at the Globe Life Field box office at the Southeast entrance.
Opening Day times for parking, gates and batting practice: Globe Life Field parking lots will open at 10 a.m. Monday and the ballpark gates will open at noon. The Rangers are scheduled to take batting practice at 12:10 p.m. and the Rockies are scheduled to take their turn at 1:10 p.m. Pregame ceremonies are scheduled to start at 2:35 p.m.
Honoring players, Texas and America: The Texas Rangers Honor Guard will honor the colors and a large U.S. flag will be unfurled in center field by members of the Texas Rangers front office. Joel LaGrone will sing “Texas, Our Texas,” before the Texas Toss, and the Texas Tenors will sing Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” during the seventh-inning stretch.
This story was originally published April 8, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
