Baseball Roundtable, reporting again from Bleacher Bums XL … The Tulsa Culture Tour, which began on June 16. The trip will ultimately take our busload of 32 baseball fans and friends to six ball games (major- and minor-leagues), in five cities, in four states in eight days. Along the way, we’re taking in a number of cultural/historical sights, visiting a few breweries and enjoying the camaraderie of fellow baseball fans and friends. Over the next few days, I will continue to blog from the trip to give you an idea of what a Ballpark Tours trip is like. This post looks at Day Five. For Episode One of our journey, click here. For Episode Two, click here. For Episode Three, click here here.
Day 6 – June 21
It was on the bus by 10 a.m. after another free Holiday Inn breakfast – another big museum/history/culture and chandelier day.
The first stop was Tulsa’s Greenwood Rising Black Wall Street History Center, where one of the worst racially motivated mass acts of violence in U.S. history is documented and commemorated. Termed “The Tulsa Race Massacre,” the tragedy – which took place on May 31, 1921 – saw the destruction of one of the most vibrant and successful Black communities in the nation. (known as The Black Wall Street). In a period of 12-16 hours, more than 1,000 homes and businesses were destroyed and an estimated 150-300 lives lost.
In eye-opening and heart-wrenching displays, the stories of the event, its causes (both immediate and underlying), the immediate impact and aftermath, and the irrepressible spirit and determined rebuilding of the Greenwood community are brought to light.
Our next stop, as we departed Tulsa, was the historic Church (recording ) Studio. Established in what was originally (1915) Grace Methodist Episcopal Church, the building was purchased by Leon Russell in 1972 and transformed into one of the most successful recording studios in the music industry (home of Shelter Records and the “Tulsa sound”) – attracting such talent as Tom Petty, Jimmy Buffet, Eric Clapton, Stevie Wonder, Willie Nelson – and the list goes on and on. Renovated and revived, it now includes a recording studio, musical archive and concert/event venue. Church Studio was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2017 – due to its significance in American musical culture.
Touring the studio, our group came upon two more unique chandeliers – this is now a four-chandelier trip (previously recognized chandeliers were at the Brickworks Brewery and Woody Guthrie Center.
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We reached Wichita about three hours before game time. The Drury Plaza Hotel proved very popular with our group – which was especially fond of the 5:30 “Kickback” social hour, which included three free adult beverages (won our hearts right there.) The group was expecting light hors d’oeuvres to be served. What we fond was everything from the likes of Alfredo pasta, chicken, baked potatoes and salad to nachos and hot dogs. A good time was had by all, but I expect the Drury freebies cut into the ballpark concessions.
Then it was on the bus for Wichita … a long ride for some those who enjoyed Tulsa the most.
The Wichita Windsurge plays at Riverfront Stadium, a beautiful park with simple (some say sleek) architecture, wide concourses, plenty of berm seating and ample food and merchandise locations.
Say it ain’t so, Windsurge
One notable gripe. The Windsurge do not offer a program or scorecard anywhere in the ballpark. You can scan a code for the rosters, but – as Guest Services reported – “We don’t do scorecards.” Well, some fans do. At first, I worked to create my own scorecard in a notebook, but was fortunate to have Joe Bliven (see Episode Two) tear a sheet out of his custom scorebook for me, Come on, Windsurge, a scorecard is part of the game.
Kudos to the Windsurge for the (free) on-site Wichita Baseball Museum, which got high marks from a number of our touring group.
The Windsurge dropped a 5-1 decision to the NW Arkansas Travelers, despite outhitting the Travelers 11-8. It seemed the Tulsa post-tornado power outages followed us to Wichita. All eleven of the Windsurge hits were singles, The Travelers showed more pop, with two home runs and a triple among their eight safeties. Those extra base knocks were the key to Travelers’ scoring. The star of the game was Travelers’ RF Isiah Gillion, who rapped a two-run homer in the top of the sixth and a solo shot in the eighth. His two-for-four outing gave Gilliam a .300-11-33 line for the season. The evening’s home run hero was appropriately wearing Henry Aaron’s number 44. Over on the Windsurge side, catcher Patrick Winkel had a three-for-five day – although all three safeties were harmless singles.
The winning pitcher, righty Shawn Semple, went five innings, pitching in and out of trouble. He gave up nine hits and a walk, but just one run (in the first inning) and did not have a single 1-2-3 inning. He was a strike-throwing machine, throwing 51 strikes in 73 pitches. Unlike yesterday’s game in Tulsa – where we saw 12 walks – only three free passes were issued in this one. The Windsurge had a chance to get back in the game in the bottom of the fourth, as SS Brooks Lee punched lined a two-out single to center with runners on first and second. However, Arkansas CF Jonatan Clase made a great throw to the plate to nail the runner trying to score – ending the inning and the threat. That may have taken the wind out of Wichita’s sails, as the Windsurge got only one runner to second base over the remainder of the game.
JUST A LITTLE OBSERVATION.
One more game- and one more post from the road – to go.
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