The Tulsa Drillers
I plan to take in a Drillers game on Friday, so I decided to do a little research first.
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The Tulsa Drillers are a minor league baseball team based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The team, which plays in the Texas League, is the Double-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies major-league club.
According to Wikipedia, “The Drillers came into being in 1977, when a Lafayette, Louisiana team was transferred to Tulsa. Before that time, the Triple-A Tulsa Oilers had been the city’s minor league club, but owner A. Ray Smith moved that team to New Orleans, Louisiana due to concerns over the dilapidated condition of Oiler Park. Tulsa County completed 8,000 seat Robert B. Sutton Stadium in 1981, naming it for its chief benefactor, a local oil executive. (The team name also pays homage to the oil industry which has been a large part of the Tulsa economy.) Sutton, however, was convicted in 1982 of fraud, and as a result the County renamed the park Tulsa County Stadium, and renamed it Drillers Stadium in 1989. From 1976 to 2002, the Drillers were the Double-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers. In 2002, Rangers owner Tom Hicks purchased the Shreveport, Louisiana Texas League franchise with the intention of moving the team to Frisco, Texas, a suburban city north of Dallas, Texas. At the time, the Shreveport Swamp Dragons were affiliated with the San Francisco Giants; Hicks cast aside this association and bought out the remaining two years of Tulsa’s Player Development Contract. The Drillers then signed a two-year agreement with the Colorado Rockies.”
The Drillers have been around for a long time! Professional baseball has been played in Tulsa since 1905, making the Drillers the oldest professional team in Tulsa. They play at ONEOK Field, which was built in 14 months with public and private funds.
According to the team’s Facebook page, “The Drillers are annually one of the highest-drawing seasonal attractions in Tulsa. Over the past two seasons more than 774,000 fans have attended games at ONEOK Field including an all-time professional baseball attendance record of 408,183 fans in 2010.
The Drillers compete in the eight-team Texas League. San Antonio, Frisco, Corpus Christi and Midland make up the South Division; Tulsa, Springfield, NW Arkansas and Arkansas complete the North Division. The teams play 140 games in just over 150 days from April through the beginning of September. The season is split into two halves. Champions of each half reach the playoffs followed by the two teams with the next-best records in each division.”
Some of the concessions offerings at ONEOK Field include Driller Dogs, footlong corn dogs, bratwurst, Hornsby’s rodeo burger, grilled chicken sandwich, chicken tenders, veggie hot dog, vegan Boca Burger, french fries, onion rings, chili cheese fries, frito chili pie, nachos w/cheese, jumbo pretzel w/cheese, roasted peanuts, Cracker Jack, chips and pizza.
The weather is threatening rain, but still, it sounds like I am in for a great evening!
