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The magic of opening day
Published: 4/13/2012 8:38 PM
Last Modified: 4/13/2012 8:38 PM

On the desk in my study sits a box of old ticket stubs.

Some were saved as reminders of dates my wife and I went on before we were married. Most, though, chronicle a misspent youth attending sporting events.

I haven't added to that box in years, now more concerned with throwing things away than saving them.

But last night -- after watching the Drillers open their home season at ONEOK Field -- I was drawn to those old ticket stubs.

I'm not a huge baseball fan. I've certainly never romanticized the game like so many people I've worked with.

But I've always been fascinated with minor league baseball. Maybe it's the proximity of the fans to the game, or the inexpensive ticket prices or the crazy promotions.

Or maybe, it's an appreciation grown from a four-year period in the early 1980s when the Texas League took residence in my hometown.

The Beaumont Golden Gators -- now the Northwest Arkansas Naturals -- were San Diego's Double A affiliate from 1983-86.

Before he became American League Rookie of the Year and long before he was a say-anything big league manager, Ozzie Guillen played in Beaumont.

And then there was an often-heckled stone-handed first baseman named Pat Casey who later led Oregon State to two College World Series titles as its manager.

Attending games in Beaumont was a little like being an extra in the movie Bull Durham. There was the clubhouse cat who had kittens in the dugout, the 50-cent beer nights that didn't end until the game's final out, and the Mama's pitching for pizza promotion (a story that can't be told in a family paper).

These days, the minor league experience is a little more staid. The Drillers play in a nearly $40 million ballpark with club seats and luxury suites.

But everyone is a kid on opening day, and for the Drillers on Thursday, only the final score could have been better.

A shaky weather forecast held steady, and the ballpark filled despite competing with a Miranda Lambert concert at the BOK Center.

And a surprising number of fans stayed until the bitter (or perhaps more accurately, brisk) end of the 2-1 loss.

My wife and daughter weren't part of that group, although we had a nice first opening night as a family while it lasted -- about four innings.

When I got home, I went through that box of ticket stubs and found a couple I saved from the Gators last season in Beaumont.

I put the tickets from Thursday night right next to them.

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The Editor's Desk

Tulsa World Sports Editor Michael Peters has nearly 20 years of daily newspaper experience. A 1993 graduate of Texas A&M, he worked at papers in Bryan-College Station, Texas, Beaumont, Texas, and Galveston, Texas, before joining the Houston Chronicle as High School Sports Editor in 2008. While in Houston, he coordinated coverage of the 2008 Texas Class 5A state football championships and the 2011 NCAA Men's Final Four.

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