Team names field in his honor

The Texas Rangers are honoring Charley Pride by naming a field at their spring training complex in Sunrise, AZ after him. Pride, who was a baseball player before turning into a trailblazing country singer, held a part-ownership stake as a member of a group that purchased the team in 2010.

The Rangers announced the dedication Sunday (March 14th) on Twitter with the unveiling of the “Charley Pride Field” signage and tweeting, “You are greatly missed.”

Pride was an avid baseball fan who would frequently attend home games, including annual stops at the spring training facility. Pride died December 12th from compilations of COVID-19. He was 86.

“Mr. Pride’s first love was baseball. He pitched professionally in the Negro and Minor Leagues throughout the 1950’s before embarking on his Hall of Fame singing career of more than 60 years,” the team shared following his death. “Mr. Pride then became a regular participant at Texas Rangers spring training camps in Pompano Beach and Port Charlotte, Florida and Surprise, Arizona, working out with the team and staging an annual clubhouse concert for players and staff, a tradition that continued through this past spring.

He sang The Star Spangled Banner one final time before the first regular season game ever played at Globe Life Field on July 24, 2020, marking one his final performances.

Pride’s final performance was a month before his death on November 11, 2020, when he sang “Kiss An Angel Good Mornin’” during the CMA Awards show at Nashville’s Music City Center with Jimmie Allen, a modern-day hitmaker who counts Pride among his heroes.

Between 1967 and 1987, Pride delivered 52 Top 10 country hits, won GRAMMY Awards, and became RCA Records’ top-selling country artist. His musicality opened minds and superseded prejudice.