Whenever a disaster, natural or otherwise, strikes – whether a single site, a city, a region, or even the entire globe – crackpots come out of the woodwork (I’m not sure how they do that, maybe through cracks in the woodwork) to spout their theories proclaiming that the event is God’s punishment resulting from the sin of (fill-in-the-blank).
So let me add my crackpot theory to the legions of those already spouted (or sprouted) assigning blame for this global pandemic.
This was the year my beloved Texas Rangers were to open yet another new ballpark, to be known as Globe Life Field. In fact, my son Travis and I have a 20-game ticket package and were planning to be in “our” seats on Opening Day. Well, as we all know, Opening Day – whether home or away – has come and gone in every major league ballpark, without a single first-pitch, traditional “Play Ball” call, or home run fireworks. Major league baseball has joined other sports in shutting down for the foreseeable future.
The resulting postponement of the opening of Globe Life Field in Arlington set me to reflecting on the Texas Rangers’ half-century of history, said reflection leading me to the inevitable conclusion that the blame for this global (note the connection with GLOBE Life Field?) pandemic can be laid squarely at the feet of my beloved Texas Rangers for their decision to open yet another new ballpark.
The evidence is brief, yet conclusive. Consider:
- In 1972, the Washington Senators closed up shop in D.C. (after only 11 years there, following the 60-year run of the original Washington Senators), leaving the Nation’s Capital bereft of baseball for over three decades. The Senators moved to Arlington, Texas, where they were set to begin play as the Texas Rangers in Arlington Stadium – a converted minor league park – on Opening Day. It was punishment enough that the Watergate burglary took place that June, leading to the only presidential resignation in history. But even before that, baseball’s Opening Day had been delayed, as the Rangers and their MLB competitors – along with millions of fans – suffered the first strike in major league baseball history. It lasted from April 1-13, costing baseball a total of 86 games that were never played because of the leagues’ refusal to pay the players for the time they were on strike,
- In April 1994, the Texas Rangers – who had closed out Arlington Stadium on the final weekend of the 1993 season, with a three-game series against the Kansas City Royals – opened their brand-spanking-new park, named The Ballpark in Arlington. Opening Day was a smash, featuring Fort Worth’s own Van Cliburn playing The National Anthem on a beautiful grand piano situated over home plate.
- This time, though, it was the end of the season that fell victim to a strike. On August 11, the Rangers – despite an embarrassing 52-62 record – sat at the top of the American League’s West Division, leading Oakland by one game. On that day, the players’ association called a strike, which lasted the remainder of the season and into the first month of the 1995 season. For the first time in 90 years, no World Series was played, no world champion was crowned.
- An ironic side-note linking 1972 with 1994 is that the management of the Montreal Expos – who had the best record in baseball when the strike was called (74-40) – decided during the subsequent off-season to dismantle the team through a “fire sale,” leading to a decade of mostly dismal records from 1995-2004, and ultimately to the Expos’ relocation to . . . Washington, D.C. (which MLB had abandoned in 1972 for Arlington, TX), where they were renamed the Washington Nationals and would eventually win the franchise’s first world championship in 2019.
- Not to be deterred by the history of opening two ballparks in 1972 and 1994 – and the disastrous strikes that followed – Rangers management, hoping that the third time would indeed be the charm, announced another brand-spanking-new ballpark to open in 2020, even though The Ballpark in Arlington (which had gone through several name changes to be known as, finally, Globe Life Park) was still relatively young, as ballparks go, at 26. (Fenway Park in Boston opened in 1912, yes, not 2012, but 1912; and the Chicago Cubs’ Wrigley Field opened in 1914 – both are still on every MLB fan’s bucket list.) Many Rangers fans joined me in questioning the decision from the beginning and have continued to do so. The Ballpark, as we still liked to call it, was still one of the most beautiful places to see an MLB game . . . we still loved coming there. So what if it got hot? We’re Texans . . . we’re used to the heat! But ownership didn’t consult us and barreled ahead with its plans to build a new ballpark featuring a retractable roof.
- So what happened as Globe Life Field in Arlington was nearing completion? A global pandemic! Who knows? Globe Life Insurance may go broke on paying off insurance claims and have to renege on its naming-rights deal – it’s happened before with the Rangers. And there may not even be a 2020 baseball season!
So, to recap:
- 1972 – The Washington Senators move to Arlington, TX, becoming the Texas Rangers, and Arlington Stadium opens late because of the first strike in MLB history. Not to mention the Watergate burglary in D.C. on June 17, leading to the first resignation of a president in U.S. history.
- 1994 – The Ballpark in Arlington opens, and a late-season strike costs the Rangers their 1st-place standing AND costs MLB the cancellation of the World Series for the first time in 90 years.
- 2020 – The Rangers prepare to open their brand-spanking-new Globe Life Field in Arlington, and a global pandemic causes the shutdown of all major league facilities a couple of weeks before Opening Day and, as of April 16, threatens to cause the cancellation of the entire MLB season for the first time since the National League (the so-called ‘senior circuit’) was founded in 1876.
Can all of this be coincidence? I don’t normally hold to crackpot ‘God’s punishment’ theories, but whereas I’ve spent a lot of time reading baseball history over my six decades as a fan, I’m still playing catch-up when it comes to ‘baseball theology’ (study of the ‘baseball gods’). Nevertheless, there seems to be too much of a connection between these three events and their aftermath.
Anyway, my crackpot ‘baseball gods’ punishment’ theory is as plausible as any crackpot ‘God’s punishment’ theory!
There’s one bright spot in all of this. I’m 69 years old and not likely to be around whenever a future Rangers ownership group decides Globe Life Field (or whatever it’s called by that time) has run its course.
I hate to see what the baseball gods have planned for that one!