Hello, Yet Goodbye: Catching the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Park

Texas Rangers

Globe Life Park (now known as Choctaw Stadium)

St. Louis Cardinals vs. Texas Rangers

Date of Game: Sunday, May 19, 2019

Time of Game: 2:08 PM CDT

Final score: Cardinals-4, Rangers-5

Section 235 Row 3 Seat 15

Tickets were purchased through StubHub the morning of the game.

On our quest to see all 30 MLB baseball teams in their home stadiums, I decided that May 2019 would be when we headed to Texas. The Rangers were the first of two games that we’d see this week. On Monday, May 20, 2019, we drove to Houston to watch a night game with Astros against the White Sox. Since this was the last season that the Rangers played at Globe Life Park, this posting may not be super helpful for tips. I am happy to share that as of this writing, the Globe Life Field (the new stadium) and the hotel are part of the Arlington Trolley system.

I chose the Holiday Inn Arlington ME-Rangers Ballpark, for its location, free parking, and trolley service. The hotel is approximately a mile from Globe Life Park and was a participant in the Arlington Trolley service. The trolley provided transportation back and forth to the baseball game.

The trolley picked us up right in the driveway of the hotel. The trolley is free for guests from the hotel. It was very convenient and not overly crowded at all. I found that surprising for a Sunday afternoon game. Maybe May was too early for out of towners to be using the trolley for the game.

As I mentioned earlier, this was also the last season for the Rangers to be at Globe Life Park. We learned about this as we walked through security and up the concourse. Representatives from Carter BloodCare were handing out free baseball caps to commemorate the last season at Globe Life Park. Although not official MLB caps, they were a nice surprise souvenir to remember our visit to the Dallas area. We arrived at just about game time, although you wouldn’t know it. There weren’t crowds of people walking through the ramps.

On our way towards our seats in Section 235 I noticed a section that was labeled, “Grant Thornton |Suite Level Main Concourse Lower Suites” – this amused me because I met with several consultants in years prior in relation to the company that I worked for at the time. I took a photo and sent it to my manager and co-workers to share in my amusement.

The tickets that my partner selected for this game were in the Lexus Club area, which included food and drinks. As soon as we arrived at our seats, he went up to the club area to see whether he could obtain the ice cream helmets there or if he needed to go track them down. Luckily, I took a screen shot that showed Stadium Sweets Ice Cream as where we can get these souvenirs, just in case.

While he was gone, I focused on the view and noticed that one could see the whole field and a lot of the seating area too. It was a little far away to see the nuances of the players’ movements, but you really could see the whole field. The unfortunate part of these seats was that we’d be in the sun for most of the game. Although it wasn’t very warm (about 82 degrees), and the humidity was relatively low, sitting in the direct sunlight became uncomfortable after a while. Luckily, I had my new hat! I wore it throughout the whole game, which was great because I didn’t bring sunglasses.  

Since the Rangers were American League, and the Cardinals were National League, they really don’t play against each other more than once a year. At this point in the season, the Cardinals have better stats and were favored to win.

The game had just started when he came back with the ice cream helmets, there were already two runners on base. So, he found the helmets somewhere! By the end of the first inning, St. Louis had two runs and Texas had one. Unfortunately, at the top of the 4th inning, the manager for the Cardinals was ejected by the umpire for disagreeing with his calls. I mean, I know I’m supposed to root for the home team, but I felt bad that they lost him mid-game. At the end of the fourth inning, the teams were tied at 2 and 2.

By the middle of the game, I was getting restless. The stands were still pretty empty. The upper decks behind the outfield had whole sections with all open seats. At this point, I needed to get out of the sun for a little bit. I went to the concession stand for lemonade. My partner joined me about 10 minutes later and we watched some of the game in the shade.

We were back in our seats, refueled by the lemonade and watched the rest of the game. We even stayed for the extra inning and got to see the Rangers strategically get their players on the bases to send two runs home at the bottom of the 10th. This ended the series with a win against the Cardinals.

On our walk out of the stadium towards the trolley, we discussed how nice we thought the stadium was. We both agreed that there were less fans at the stadium than we’d have expected for a Saturday in May, but maybe that’s what enhanced our experience.

Some information, such as baseball game information and directions were sought by using ChatGPT or Perplexity.

Written May 8, 2025

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