ARLINGTON, Texas -- Fans want the Texas Rangers to bring the heat and make history, just not this kind of heat or this kind of history.
“Is it ideal? No,” said Rangers Executive Vice President for Business Operations Rob Matwick. “But for all of us that live here in North Texas, we live with the heat, we deal with it every day. We’ll do anything we can to accommodate customers.”
With a 2:05 p.m. start, Sunday’s game has the potential to be the hottest major league baseball game on record. The record is 108 degrees at a Rangers game in the 1980s.
Matwick said extra medical staff including firefighters and paramedics will be on staff. Ushers will allow fans in the unrelenting sun to move to seats in the shade. And parking lot attendants are being urged to take frequent breaks, drink water and even sit in their air-conditioned cars if possible.
“We are checking on them constantly,” Matwick said. “The advice for fans and everyone is plenty of water, light loose-fitting clothing and please get out of the direct sunlight if it’s too much,” he said.
No matter the temperature, if the Rangers are playing, Steve Burdick is pedaling. “To people who aren’t heat acclimated it sounds insane, but it’s not as insane as it sounds,” he said.
He owns Go Green Bike Taxi, so he shuttles fans to and from every game on a bicycle with a cab on the back of it. “It’s not something I’m exactly looking forward to, but I don’t shy away from it,” he said.
Burdick has never worked in heat quite this extreme and fans have never cheered in it. But, the fans won’t have too much longer. Relief in the form of a retractable roof – meaning air-conditioned baseball – is within sight. “It is exciting to see it coming, but on days like this weekend and what we could see on Sunday, we wish it was here already,” Matwick said.
The new stadium is expected to be completed in spring 2020. But summer 2018 is one for the
records.