Rangers Ballpark in Arlington

One of the gems of modern baseball stadiums, The Ballpark in Arlington, home of the American League Texas Rangers, opened April 11, 1994. The Ballpark is the centerpiece of a 230-aacre entertainment complex including lakes stocked with catfish, a learning center, shops, restaurants and a propsed 20,000-seat concert ampitheatre. Around the facade of the The Ballpark are bas reliefs of longhorn cattle and scenes from Texas history. The panels measuring 4 feet wide by 19 feet tall tell of the Alamo, the oil boom, settling the frontier, the space program and the cotton and cattle industires. Sculptor Michael Curtis of Washington, DC, executed the panels. The Ballpark is an open-air natural grass, baseball-only facility. Seating capacity is 49,272. The upper arches are built of 840,000 "Ranger Red" bricks while the lower arches consist of "Sunset Red" pink granite from quarries in Marble Falls, TX. Overall cost of the project was $190 million funded by revenue bonds and the sale of 126 luxury suites. At the entrance to each suite are sepiatone murals, 9 by 10 feet, of each baseball Hall of Fame inductee, including the Ranger's Nolan Ryan. The playing field is Bermuda sod from a Granbyry, TX, farm, laid in 4 foot by 100-foot strips. A nostalgia feature is the 10 by 90-foot manual scoreboard similar to the one in the "Green Monster" in Boston's Fenway Park. President George W. Bush was intimately involved with the construction of The Ballpark during his tenure as an owner of the Rangers. Tours of The Ballpark are conducted year round. The 50-minute tour includes the clubhouse, press box, field and owner's suite - subject to the demands of game days. By admission. Information: (817) 273-5098.