Final homestand at stadium brings back fond memories

ARLINGTON — Elvis Andrus has spent his entire career as a player in the Texas Rangers’ ballpark, from his debut as a 20-year-old shortstop to consecutive World Series and now being the team’s longest-tenured player.

Hunter Pence grew up in Arlington dreaming of what it would be like to play there while watching in awe the construction of the retrostyle ballpark that opened in 1994, only days before his 11th birthday. He later parked cars there as a teen, his pay being hot dogs and game tickets, before the four-time MLB All-Star this year played with his hometown Rangers for the first time.

The stadium halfway between Dallas and Fort Worth, first known as The Ballpark in Arlington, is down to its final homestand after more than 2,000 regular season games over 26 seasons. Kenny Rogers pitched a perfect game in the first summer there, and MLB’s first interleague game was played there in 1997. An All-Star Game was played in the Texas heat, and those two World Series were among 25 postseason games.

“It’s not that old. It’s still a beautiful stadium,” Mark Teixeira, whose MLB debut was with the Rangers, said when he returned this summer to be part of a nightly countdown to the final game. “It was home, and it was a special place. But then coming back here as a visitor, you have a different apRodriguez preciation, and it’s one the best ballparks in baseball. I still think it’s one of the best ballparks in baseball.”

Before moving across the street next season into a $1 billion-plus air-conditioned stadium with a retractable roof, Texas has three games this week against the Boston Red Sox and then end the season with three against the AL East champion New York Yankees.

The Yankees, who eliminated Texas from the playoffs after each of its first three AL West titles in the 1990s, were in the visiting dugout for what most consider the biggest moment in stadium history. Under Friday night lights in October 2010, the Rangers clinched their first AL pennant when closer Neftali Feliz got former Texas shortstop Alex on a called third strike for the final out in Game 6 of the AL Championship Series.

“That meant the most,” said slugger Josh Hamilton, the 2010 AL MVP who was also the MVP of that championship series.

“A moment that will never go away,” said Andrus, the two-time All-Star who is now 31 and wrapping up his 11th season. “Every time I see it, I get goosebumps and it brings a lot of great memories.”

Adrian Beltre, the Rangers third baseman who retired after last season and is a sure-bet Hall of Fame pick when eligible, got his 3,000th career hit in Texas in July 2017. Rafael Palmeiro belted his 500th career homer with the Rangers in May 2003, four years before Sammy Sosa was with Texas for his 600th homer there.

After Sunday’s game, the 2,081st regular-season game there, the Rangers will dig up home plate and parade it across the street for a ceremonial installation at the new stadium. That will replicate what the team did in October 1993 after finishing its 22nd season at Arlington Stadium.

“I still remember the first time coming here,” said Pence, whose first game at the current ballpark in Arlington was as a rookie with the Astros in 2007. “I still remember the memories and the feelings and the excitement … I still get the same thing from being a fan in the upper deck, of coming as a kid with binoculars, of when they built the stadium. Every time I come here, it’s a special feeling.”