by Ashlea Pierce
Around here, sometimes a walk down memory lane leads us to a ballpark.
That was the case at the re-opening of Arlington’s Senter Park as MLB Texas Rangers All-Star Legacy Park.
Former Rangers player and general manager, Tom Grieve, said he hadn’t been to the baseball fields at Arlington’s Senter Park “in probably 15 or 20 years.” One of the oldest youth ballparks in Arlington, it’s the same spot Grieve’s oldest son, Tim, got his start playing in an Optimist league.
“My wife and I have seen a lot of games in this ballpark,” Grieve told the crowd at the dedication. “We both decided to drive by a week ago to see what it looked like. There’s something about Senter Park. When we drove by the ballpark, the feelings of nostalgia and having been here before were almost overwhelming.”
The 3.2 acres that make up the park have been leased by the Optimist Club since the ‘50s for youth sports. Not much about the facilities have changed since then until it was shuttered earlier this year to take on massive renovations.
“This was a couple of just really rough looking fields back in the day,” said Arlington Mayor Jim Ross, who coached his son’s football team here in the late ‘80s. “You couldn’t tell if it was a football field, a baseball field or just a big open field. And it’s been like that for a long time.”
The renovations were sponsored by Major League Baseball, The Texas Rangers Foundation, and Corey and Mady Seager in partnership with the Optimist Club of Arlington, Arlington Tomorrow Foundation, the City of Arlington, Graham Civil and Paragon Sports Construction. The project was part of the 2024 All-Star Legacy program, which seeks to leave behind a meaningful impact in the Arlington, Dallas and Fort Worth communities.
The new ballpark reopened as two separately turfed and fenced, miniature major-league-looking fields emblazoned with the Texas Rangers logo. There are pro-looking scoreboards, yellow foul ball poles, shaded bleachers and dugouts with bat holders.
“A 10 or 12-year-old kid playing Optimist Baseball will really sense what a major league field feels like,” said Grieve. “You don’t have 40 thousand seats but the turf, the mound, the batters box, the fence – just like a big-league field.”
The four covered batting cages and warm up area will carry World Series MVP and Rangers shortstop Corey Seager’s name on them. He and his wife Mady gifted them.
Former Rangers player Hunter Pence played his first games at Senter Park. Now the new fields are waiting for their next future stars.
“This park is now gorgeous,” said Ross. “Forty years from now others will be able to sit and talk about the memories they created out here on these fields.”
