“It’s got a kind of Super Bowl-ish feel to it,” said Chris Harkey, a Braves fan from Asheboro, N.C., who flew in with his wife, Lauren Breedlove, to watch Game 3. Throughout the N.L.C.S., fans in a variety of team colors entered the stadium, which opened this year with a capacity of 40,000 spectators but has yet to be filled. Kevin Jairaj/USA Today Sports, via Reuters. Jerome Miron/USA Today Sports, via Reuters. The first baseball fans ever at the Texas Rangers' new home stadium — serving as the venue this time for the National League Championship Series between the … Capacity: 45,000. They had to buy four tickets to Game 3, but they did not give away or sell the other two. The souvenir stores were open, but the Dodgers and Braves fans looked more like museum goers as they dispassionately scanned all the Rangers gear for sale. “But we weren’t going to miss this.”. Several stadium employees, who declined to give a full interview, said they were comfortable with the precautions and appreciated having the work. But like other parts of the country, Texas has seen a recent uptick in cases. “How weird is all of this?” Will Hicks said. “But I kept the streak alive.”. action in person, but it wasn’t a typical stadium outing. “It’s exciting with the mix of different fans.”. “I’ll spend the night in long-term parking, and I’ll be back at work tomorrow,” Amodei said before the game. “We’re pretty careful, and it seems like they are doing it the right way,” Springstead said. games at Globe Life Field, where the audience replaced the cardboard replicas of fans that have dotted seats in ballparks all season. And Harkey and Breedlove, the couple from North Carolina, were happy to provide vocal support to their team. After Game 4, a 10-2 Atlanta victory, bands of seemingly drunken Braves fans, bombinating their droning tomahawk chant, roamed the area around the stadium as if it were 2019, and a nearby hotel lobby was dotted with groups of unmasked fans in their reverie. Texas, which reported about 32,000 new cases of the coronavirus over the seven days before Friday’s Game 5, has 111 cases per 100,000 people, placing it roughly in the middle of the pack compared with other states. Among more than two dozen people interviewed over two days at the stadium, no one seemed overly concerned about the spread of the coronavirus. On March 31, 2020, a new era for the Texas Rangers begins with the opening of Globe Life Field in Arlington. Mark Pittard noted how strange it was that the first game they attended at the Rangers’ new American League park was a playoff matchup between National League teams. “It’s filled me with a sense of excitement, especially in such a difficult time,” Braves third baseman Johan Camargo said through an interpreter. The majority of fans at the park seemed to be supporting the Braves, with a slightly smaller contingent rooting for the Dodgers. But as each game wore on and the beer flowed, some masks fell down around necks as the shouting increased. Credit...Nitashia Johnson for The New York Times. The multi-purpose facility also hosted the Washington Redskins football team. Some fans donned jerseys of other M.L.B. But after a long season without fans, the people in the real uniforms were delighted to have paying customers wearing any shirt at all. So, too, did M.L.B., which has allowed about 10,000 paying customers into the N.L.C.S. Most, though, were displaced Braves and Dodgers fans living in the Dallas area, brimming with excitement over their unexpected good fortune after the announcement last month that tickets would be sold to these games. ... Houston Astros Houston Los Angeles Angels LA Angels Oakland Athletics Oakland Seattle Mariners Seattle Texas Rangers Texas. But the lack of a true home team is one more quirk in the unusual fan experience at these playoffs. Nothing would ever stop him from keeping his streak alive, he thought — until a once-in-a-century pandemic put it in jeopardy. sports Rangers. the announcement last month that tickets would be sold to these games. “You don’t want some stranger sitting there coughing all over you,” Harkey said. Stephanie Gonzalez, right, moved to Texas from California years ago and attended Game 3 with her friend Maria Torres. The Mariners, Astros, Angels, Orioles, Rockies, Brewers and even the old Montreal Expos were all represented at the N.L.C.S. The Rangers were set to open the $1.2 billion retractable-roof, state-of-the-art stadium that was, in large part, a gift from Arlington taxpayers. Because of the pandemic, baseball opted to use four neutral sites for the final three rounds of the postseason, minimizing travel and its attendant risks while creating something of a protective bubble for the teams that kept playing deep into October. The Stadium was renamed Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in 1969 in honor of the … The World Series next week will also be held at Globe Life Field, and will also have real people in the seats watching baseball, cheering for their team and buying beer and merchandise. Tickets were sold in blocks of four, spaced apart from other blocks. They are Dodgers fans from California, who recently settled in the Dallas area, and they said they felt the regulations in place were sufficient. “But if the Braves make the World Series, I’m definitely coming back.”, ‘How Weird Is All of This?’ Fans Return to a Warped Ballpark Experience. “It looks like Petco Park and a big mall had a baby,” said Will Hicks, 41, an investor from San Diego, who wore a Padres mask, Padres jersey and Padres cap, while his brother Sam, 35, an Astros fan, munched on a two-foot hot dog. “This,” to clarify, is the National League Championship Series, the first games that fans have been allowed to attend since spring training, before the pandemic struck. “It’s kind of weird,” said Bruce Pittard, a rancher from Novice, Texas, who is a Rangers season ticket holder. NL East. The unavailable seats had plastic straps attached to them, and the first several rows were blocked off. Location: Washington D.C. “Where did these Braves and Dodgers fans come from?”. For Game 1, fans eschewed social distancing to get to the front rows in hopes of catching a ball, but those areas were blocked for later games. ARLINGTON, Texas — For 54 consecutive years Mike Amodei attended at least one Dodgers game a season, beginning with a Sandy Koufax start in 1966. A book editor from South Bend, Ind., who grew up in Southern California, he bought a ticket online, jumped on a plane and arrived in Texas in time for Game 3 on Wednesday, when he witnessed the Dodgers’ historic 15-3 beatdown of the Atlanta Braves. The Rangers’ new stadium will be the site of both the National League’s divisional and championship series along with being named the site of this year’s World Series. “We’re at a game in Texas with our dad, who is a Dodgers fan, and Sam is listening to the Astros game back at Petco. The beautiful baseball-only facility serves as the centerpiece of a 270-acre complex which solidifies Arlington, Texas as an entertainment giant in the Southwest. Amodei, 63, seized the opportunity. They own season tickets to the Padres at the elegant Petco Park in San Diego, the A.L.C.S. A 2020 souvenir: a masked selfie with a Rangers statue at a Dodgers-Braves game. The third-largest group consisted of those wearing Texas Rangers jerseys and caps, acting as both hosts and mostly neutral observers. Globe Life Field, which was built as a public-private partnership between the City of Arlington and the Rangers, is not only the team’s new home but also a multipurpose sports and entertainment venue that will include capabilities for hosting numerous local, regional, and national events. Directions & Parking Rangers Events Gallery Information Guide Surprise Stadium Texas Live! While a few N.F.L. Fans generally wore masks and often maintained distance from one another. Because the Dodgers and Braves were playing at a neutral site, the stands included a more diverse array of jerseys than would appear at a normal playoff game. For later games, tarps were placed over those seats, and yellow caution tape limited access for ball-seeking fans. This is like a dream come true.”. As the games progressed, some masks dropped and cheering got louder. The available Dodgers and Braves merchandise amounted to two small racks of what looked like hastily produced, generic items — balls and T-shirts that said, “Globe Life Field, NLCS, 2020, Arlington Texas,” and “World Series, Arlington Texas” — neutral gray shirts in a neutral building with a massive gray roof. “I moved here from California nine years ago. teams, too. The National League Championship Series gave fans their first chance to watch M.L.B. “And then this happened.”. “It’s like a jolt of energy, and we are eternally grateful for that.”. The atmosphere inside was similar to that of a Mets game in April, circa 2011 — about a quarter filled, with only die-hards in attendance. Tracy Springstead brought her three children to Game 3. Only in 2020.”. Though Major League Baseball has managed to carry out a 60-game regular season and an expanded postseason, fans were not permitted to attend games for months because of the coronavirus. The expansion Senators moved into new D.C. Stadium in 1962. “The Dodgers came to me,” said Stephanie Gonzalez, who attended Game 3 with her friend Maria Torres, both wearing Dodgers jerseys. After all, this airplane hangar of a building was made for them. Pittard, the rancher from Novice, and his brother, Mark Pittard, wore Cubs jerseys in honor of their favorite team. 2020 marks the first year for the Texas Rangers to play in their beautiful new ballpark, Globe Life Field. invited the regular followers of postseason teams to irregular locations. Some arrived from North Carolina, Florida, New Jersey, Indiana or Louisiana. Some came from Atlanta, roughly 800 miles to the east, and others from Southern California, about 1,200 miles in the opposite direction. teams, NASCAR and some college football teams have allowed fans back into their familiar stadiums — including the Dallas Cowboys’ domed stadium just down the road, which has hosted more than 20,000 people in each of the team’s three home games — M.L.B. Fans will also be able to attend these playoff events at the new field at a limited capacity of 25 percent, meaning about 10,000 fans can attend each game. Throughout the N.L.C.S., fans in a variety of team colors entered the stadium, which opened this year with a capacity of 40,000 spectators but … “I thought it was over,” Amodei said from the lower concourse at the Texas Rangers’ Globe Life Field. site. Home, sweet home: Inside advantages the Rangers will receive when playing at Globe Life Field Texas' new stadium has four unique aspects that … During batting practice at the first game of the series, fans charged to those front rows trying to retrieve balls hit over the fence, clustering in proximity to one another.

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