Globe Life Park in Arlington

Call it what you will, but the Rangers' ballpark in Arlington is about as pretty a place as you'll ever see upon approach. Built alongside a 12-acre lake, arches are cut into the picturesque brick facade of the ballpark, which is the only fully enclosed one to open in the ballpark renaissance era that began in 1992.

The Rangers' stadium is enclosed thanks to one of its more distinctive features: a four-story office building that's in center field. The top three stories of the office complex are leased by regular (non-baseball) businesses and the field-facing balconies they enjoy are quite a perk for each of the lessees.

Appropriate for Texas, the ballpark is a big one as it contains 48,114 seats. Except for in the Big Apple, no American League ballpark in America has a larger capacity (Toronto's Rogers Centre is north of 50K) and the large upper deck that holds many of those fans is topped with a white frieze, a la Yankee Stadium, but less gaudy than New York's example. The double-deck covered "home run porch" in right field in Arlington is a nod to another classic ballpark, Detroit's Tiger Stadium, and atop its roof is a 42' by 120' high-definition scoreboard.

Something original to Arlington's yard is the grass berm batter's backdrop in center field, upon which fans can scamper when a home run is hit there. It's the majors' only fan accessible outfield grass embankment.

Heat and humidity go hand-in-hand during most of the baseball season in Texas and there is no reprieve from it in the venue often affectionately referred to by locals as simply "The Ballpark," which was the first of four names to primarily grace the place. An insurance company based in Oklahoma bought the name to Texas' ballpark in 2014, so it's now called Globe Life Park (in Arlington, which has always been a part of the name).

Since the stadiums in other notoriously hot major league host cities (Houston, Miami, Phoenix, St. Petersburg) all have roofs, whether fixed or retractable, Globe Life Park in Arlington is the most likely place in which you can watch big league baseball in 100-degree heat. It was the first MLB park in which I did -- in July of 2011 -- and I'm sure plenty of other people can say the same thing.

And many, if not most, people will also say this is what a ballpark should look like, especially on the exterior. That much can be controlled. The weather cannot, and if that's the biggest strike against a place, then just about everything that could be done right was.

- Written by Graham Knight, and last revised on February 12, 2014

Globe Life Park Facts & Figures

Construction cost: $191 million

Architects: David M. Schwarz Architectural Services did the design but HKS is the architect of record

Construction began on April 24, 1992.

Naming rights: Globe Life and Accident Insurance Company reportedly is paying $50 million total over 10 years

Opened as The Ballpark in Arlington, a name that was announced on September 28, 1993. The original name was changed on May 7, 2004 to Ameriquest Field in Arlington after Ameriquest Mortgage Company agreed to pay $2.5 million per year through 2034. That deal didn't last too long and the name was relinquished on March 19, 2007 by Ameriquest, which was eventually shut down after being a key cog in the US financial crisis that began in 2007. Name #3 was simply Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, and it lasted until February 5, 2014, when it was announced that Globe Life had bought the ballpark's name.

The field is located 22 feet below street level.

The complex includes a youth baseball park and a 12-acre lake located in front of the ballpark. The Texas Rangers Baseball Hall of Fame is located inside of the stadium and replaced the Legends of the Game Baseball Museum.

Replaced Arlington Stadium (1972-1993), which was located a quarter mile away. Arlington Stadium was demolished in 1994.

From the ballpark's opening in 1994 through the 2015 season, its foul poles were the same ones used at Arlington Stadium. That set of poles dated to the Rangers' first season in Arlington (1972), which means they had a combined 44 seasons of use that was equally split between the two ballparks. The height of the original foul poles was 92 feet and their 2016-made replacements are also 92' high.

Was the site of the first-ever regular season interleague game on June 12, 1997, when the Rangers hosted and lost to the San Francisco Giants, 4-3. Attendance for the historic match-up was 46,507. In an ironic twist, the Rangers would again host the Giants in the first-ever World Series home game in franchise history, which took place on October 30, 2010. The Rangers won that game, 4-2, before a larger crowd of 52,419.