Arlington: Charley Pride at Globe Life Field

Charley Pride had the arm first. Before the country hits came, he pitched in the Negro American League. So when Pride became a minority owner of the Texas Rangers, walking into Globe Life Field wasn’t just a business deal. It was the closing of a very long loop.

Pride joined the Rangers’ ownership group around 2010. At the time, he was one of a small number of Black part-owners in Major League Baseball. He also sang the national anthem at Rangers games across two ballparks. First came the old Globe Life Park. Then came the new Globe Life Field, which opened in 2020 — the year Pride died. His baritone over a Texas stadium crowd sounded like it always belonged there.

Baseball and Country Music

The Arlington years completed a full-circle story. Here was country music’s most prominent Black star, who had spent forty years conquering Nashville against every odd. Now he stood on a baseball diamond in North Texas with a stake in the franchise. Pride took it all in stride. He was a proud Texan by then — a Dallas man who also happened to conquer music.

When the Rangers won the World Series in 2023, Pride’s name lived in the celebration. Three years had passed since his death. But he had rooted for this team, owned a piece of it, and sung at its biggest moments. Globe Life Field is the right place to honor one of Texas’s most unlikely legends.