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PrintDrillers - Special section - Why the Drillers have more opportunities for winning seasons
If you’ve ever had the experience of moving from a small, cramped apartment to a more spacious home, you can probably appreciate how the players, coaches and trainers of the Tulsa Drillers feel right about now as they get used to occupying their new digs: ONEOK Field.
“Everything has been expanded and it’s bigger,” Drillers Manager Ron Gideon says. “It’s kind of a freedom thing. We’ve got a big-league-type locker room, and that’s going to create a big-league atmosphere.”
Although not visible to fans, the service level of the new stadium, located 15 feet below street level, includes a clubhouse locker room that is 25 percent larger than the locker room at the old Drillers Stadium. In addition to spacious metal lockers, painted Driller blue, the clubhouse includes showers, sinks, a physical therapy room and a dedicated weight training room. The Drillers’ major league parent, the Colorado Rockies, has furnished equipment for the weight room.
“Returning players, especially, will notice the improvements,” says Mike Melega, general manager for the Drillers. “We barely had enough room for a stationary bike at Drillers Stadium, and no free weights at all. Now we have weights and cardio, plus space to rehab with trainers instead of having to go to another facility, so a lot more work can be done on-site.”
The service level also includes a kitchenette for team meals, lending a bit of a “home feel” for the home team. The managers have a larger locker room, and there is a 40-foot-by-70-foot indoor batting tunnel, making practice possible regardless of weather conditions. At the old stadium, the batting structure was out in right field, which meant it — and the players — were subject to the vagaries of Oklahoma weather.
Other amenities include a commercial laundry with two washers and two dryers, a dedicated mascot/VIP dressing room (affording Hornsby a bit of heretofore unknown privacy) and even a batboy’s dressing room. Although slightly smaller than for the home team, the visitor locker room also includes showers, sinks, a physical therapy area and kitchen furnishings. An umpire locker room has space for up to four officials, and there is even an auxiliary locker room suitable for use in tournament play or for press conferences.
Nor were the latest advances in video technology left out. There is a dedicated video room adjacent to the coaches’ locker room rather than in the manager’s office, as it was at Drillers Stadium. And the footage to be reviewed there?
“The Rockies outfitted ONEOK Field with three fixed cameras — one on each dugout looking in toward home plate and one in center field that will peer over the pitcher’s shoulder,” Melega says. “Plus, there will be an intern on-site to work every game — recording and indexing video for a feed back to Colorado.”
Everything on the service level connects via a main tunnel to the dugouts, which are twice as large as at the old facility and should make the experiences of the Drillers and their opponents much more comfortable.
“Two of what we had at the old stadium could fit in there,” Gideon says. “Any time you’re on top of each other, you feel smothered, and now being spread out, it’s going to be a luxury.”
ONEOK Field has fewer fixed seats (about 6,650) than Drillers Stadium (10,997), but the net effect of the new stadium’s design feels like an expansion.
“You’re going to have to have a GPS to get around,” Gideon says with a chuckle, “because everything is so much bigger than it used to be.”
With all of these enhanced capabilities, the question then becomes: Does having such a nice new facility, particularly one largely funded by private donors, put a lot of extra pressure on the Drillers to win every game?
“When they come in there, the kids are going to want to play to the top of their ability because it is a new atmosphere and a new place,” Gideon says. “We want to do the best we can for the city of Tulsa and for (owner) Chuck Lamson and his group. We’re going to do everything we can on our side and hopefully hold up our end of the bargain.”
