As Athletics Check Out Rangers' New Home, the Coliseum Just Gets Older
The Oakland Athletics moved from Kansas City in 1968 in part because of the lure of a brand-new stadium.
Well, the Raiders had opened the place for football in 1966, but it was still new.
That was half a century ago. The Washington Senators moved to Arlington , Texas in 1972 and spent their early years in what was a minor league park, Turnpike Stadium. Built in 1965, it was renovated in 1971 and was the Rangers home for two decades before being replaced by The Ballpark in Arlington in 1993, a facility that would eventually be known as Globe Life Park.
That lasted until this year, when the Rangers moved down the street to Globe Life Field, a facility that includes a retractable roof. The A’s will get their first look at the new facility in a four-game series that starts Monday.
It will mean getting used to new walls, mounds, bullpens, angles, lights, turf, airflow and any number of things that are specific to each facility in use as a Major League stadium.
While they’re doing that, the A’s have to wonder when other teams will have to do the same in Oakland. With Fenway Park in Boston and Angel Stadium in Anaheim, the A’s play in the third-oldest facility in the American League. One, Fenway, is an icon. The other has been remodeled so often that it’s basically been rebuilt as a new stadium.
And then there is the Coliseum. It’s been rebuilt, too, but for the return of the Raiders from Los Angeles, and the football redesign ruined much of what made the Coliseum the best multi-purpose stadium for baseball.
The A’s have been trying to get a new stadium going in the East Bay, and even in San Jose, for the better part of two decades. The club is at the point now where they have a site, Howard Terminal north of Oakland’s Jack London Square. They have the financing in place to build without using an infusion of government money.
But they also have a couple of law suits pending – one directed at them, and one in which they are the plaintiffs – no Environmental Impact Report and no sense of when they’ll be able to take their next step forward.
How dire is the A’s stadium situation? No less than seven of the 30 big league franchises have played in three stadiums while the A’s have been stuck in a 1960s model that has seen better days. The Rangers are one of those, of course, this year joining the Braves, the Reds, the Astros, the Phillies, the Pirates and the Twins.
If you count the Expos/Nationals and the Senators/Rangers, there are two franchises who have been in four separate homes, albeit in two different cities, during the time the A’s have been toiling in Oakland in the Coliseum.
Even in Kansas City, the Royals played in the same Memorial Stadium the A’s once called home, then moved into the Royals Stadium, renamed Kauffman Stadium. And that went through a huge remodel that has created a sort-of-seems-like-new stadium less than a decade ago.
For tonight, however, the A’s have to get familiar in a hurry with a stadium they’ve never seen other than in video – and not that much of that, given that the Rangers have played just 13 games in their new home.
So, how does that work?
“We take enough ground balls before the game,” manager Bob Melvin said, “but we’ll probably spend a little more time at it.”
Melvin is less concerned with the shape of the stadium than he is about the artificial turf that’s being used. He’s talked to people around baseball trying to get an idea of how the field plays. He said there have been some comparison he’s heard between the new turf in Phoenix at Chase Field and that of the new Globe Life Field flooring.
“We hadn’t played on the (Chase Field) surface before, and it played really well,” Melvin said. “I think every field turf that we’re seeing seems to be more like grass than the one before it. I’ve heard that this one might be a little bit harder than the one in Arizona, but until you get on it, you’re not really sure.
“Indoors (Globe Life) may be a little different. I remember in the Astrodome, the backdrop was difficult to get used to there, and I'm dating myself, but I think there's probably more of a priority and an understanding of new ballparks and how they are. The other ballpark (had) the wind blowing out so that'll be different as well. But I think this time of year, you probably benefit by being indoors as opposed to outdoors.”
Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3
Click the "follow" button in the top right corner to join the conversation on Inside the Athletics on SI. Access and comment on featured stories and start your own conversations and post external links on our community page.