By Pablo Angulo-Gonzalez
The Historic Bricktown District is a place for many things. Bricktown is where I work, eat, listen to live music, relax, grab a drink or two, and, dare I say, go partying (salsa dancing, to be precise).
Baseball, however, was something outside of my [Bricktown] ballpark. Taylor Bond, a Water Taxi co-worker, tagged along to my first baseball game.
PARKING & TICKETS
We both parked at one of the many parking lots near the ballpark and met at the southeast corner of Reno Avenue and Mickey Mantle Drive. Less than 5 minutes later, we were getting in line and chatting with the strangers waiting to get their tickets the old fashion way. Online tickets were available and easy to book.
Blythe greeted us at the ticket booth wearing a cool-looking Dodgers polo shirt. She answered our questions and congratulated me for attending my first-ever baseball game. Blythe welcomed us to the ballpark, making our first interaction easy and memorable.
Unlike me, Taylor had been to a few games in the past. The last time she visited the ballpark, Oklahoma City’s RedHawks were playing.
The Oklahoma City 89ers became the Oklahoma RedHawks when the team rejoined the Triple-A Pacific Coast League (PCL) in 1998 after the American Association of Professional Baseball (AA) league disbanded.
They were later called the Oklahoma City RedHawks from 2009 to 2014 before becoming the Oklahoma City Dodgers after taking on their affiliated parent team name in 2015.
THE BALLPARK
The Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark, known locally as “The Brick,” opened its doors to the public in 1998, making this facility the first Metropolitan Area Projects (MAPS) construction finished.
MAPS was “Oklahoma City’s visionary capital improvement program for new and upgraded sports, recreation, entertainment, cultural and convention facilities.”
https://web.archive.org/web/20131219115843/http://www.okc.gov/maps/
Taylor was surprised to see how much the atmosphere had changed and how much more relaxed and newer the ballpark felt since her last visit.
In 2020, “The Brick” won the Ballpark Digest competition for best Triple-A facility over the Cincinnati Riverfront Stadium.
“This was a record-setting vote in the Best of the Ballparks competition: with 145,695 voters weighing in at some point in the Triple-A voting, it was the most popular round of voting ever in this competition.”
$2 TUESDAYS
We attended The Oklahoma City Dodgers game against the El Paso Chihuahuas on a $2 Tuesday in August.
The weather, the footlong hotdog, and the $2 beer made our visit a spectacular and very affordable downtown experience.
The OKC Dodgers “announced special promotions for the first half of their 2022 schedule such as a $2 Tuesday, featuring $2 select beer, soda and bottled water from a line of Budweiser and Pepsi products.”
BRICKTOWN FUN & SOONER FRIENDLINESS
Taylor and I really enjoyed going to a Dodgers game. Even though we are not the most avid baseball fans, we talked about how fun and cool it is to have a facility such as “The Brick” for sporting events in the city.
“Sporting events bring all sorts of people together,” said Taylor.
She continued, “Whether you know anything about the sport or not, you can just enjoy it and have a good time.”
Taylor joined the Water Taxi team earlier this summer. She is originally from Noble, Oklahoma. She moved to the city for college and got her bachelors in English from the University of Central Oklahoma.
One of the things that surprised her the most about the work atmosphere along the Bricktown Canal was how locals and tourists alike are out in the district to have a good time. “I’m always pleasantly surprised that we get people from Germany, Ireland, and other countries on a regular basis,” she said.
Taylor is working hard and looking forward to her next adventure: Barcelona. She will be moving abroad early next year to further her career as an English teacher while sousing in the Spanish metropolis’s food, drinks, and culture.
I asked her what she would miss the most about Oklahoma, and she mentioned the overall sense of friendliness permeating throughout the state. We have experienced this omnipresent kindness and warmth at “The Brick” especially.
