Five stories that have North Texas talking: Raise a roof on the Texas Rangers’ ballpark?; Winter Olympian and North Texan Johnny Quinn busts out of his hotel bathroom in Sochi; Flower Mound’s Marcus Smart apologizes for shoving a fan at an Oklahoma State/Texas Tech basketball game; and more.
Last week, Rangers Ballpark in Arlington was renamed Globe Life Park in Arlington. Despite the name change, the stadium still doesn’t have a retractable roof. The Dallas Morning News’Evan Grant wonders if that will make the park obsolete. Across the country, professional baseball stadiums are having shorter shelf lives. Grant wrote: “If there is one issue that could force the Rangers to seek out a new home, whether in Arlington or elsewhere, it is the roof. Or, rather, the lack of one. The Rangers have done what they can at their current park to create more air flow and more climate-controlled areas in the ballpark. They have added some shade spots, created more air-conditioned clubs and enlarged portals behind home plate that allow air to better circulate. Still: It’s often 90 degrees or hotter at game time with only a hot breeze blowing through the stadium.”
- Oklahoma State's star basketball player, Marcus Smart, has been suspended for three games after he shoved a fan Saturday night during an altercation at the end of a game against Texas Tech in Lubbock. The university held a press conference late Sunday afternoon, and Smart spoke briefly. "I really apologize," Smart said. "This is not me." Smart is a graduate of Marcus High School in Flower Mound. Coach Travis Ford would not go into detail about the exchange Smart had with the Texas Tech fan that led to the run-in. "I think Marcus puts a lot of pressure on himself, and it's something we've worked on," Ford said.
- Lots of people have been complaining about their Sochi hotel rooms during the Winter Olympics – rooms not ready; faucets spitting out water with disgusting hues; doors not working. Add Winter Olympian and McKinney bobsledder Johnny Quinn to the list of folks with hotel issues in Russia. But the North Texan took matters into his own hands. He wrote on Facebook: “I was taking a shower and the door got locked/jammed. With no phone to call for help, I used my bobsled push training to break out. #SochiJailBreak” Then he showed a picture of a door with a huge hole in it.
...With no phone to call for help, I used my bobsled push training to break out. #SochiJailBreak pic.twitter.com/apZRefgvCO
— U.S. Olympian Johnny Quinn (@JohnnyQuinnUSA) February 8, 2014
- Brian Aiken is a filmmaker who uses a drone to produce stunning videos of North Texas from high above. He's produced videosof Dallas in the summer and Big Tex arriving at Fair Park for the State Fair of Texas. On Thursday, he shot a new video -- this time featuring Dallas covered in snow. (You did know that a bit of snow covered North Texas, snarling traffic and closing schools, right?) Aiken's new video almost makes you want the snow to stick around. One of the neatest scenes features the colorful displays at the Chinese Lantern Festival in Fair Park.
- See artwork from talented high school students on display at the Dallas Museum of Art. The museum reports: “The Young Masters exhibition features selected works created by Advanced Placement studio art, art history, and music theory students from ten Dallas-area high schools participating in the O’Donnell Foundation’s AP Arts Incentive Program. The 2014 Young Masters exhibition includes 60 original pieces and features two-dimensional and three-dimensional works of art … essays analyzing works in the DMA’s collection … and four-minute compositions.”
