Friday, May 9, 2008

The Wingnuts Open Their Season

Tuesday night it rained hard most of the night, and the rain continued off and on throughout Wednesday, causing the postponement Wednesday night of the scheduled home opener for the Wichita Wingnuts. However, yesterday dawned bright and clear, and the game last night was played in ideal conditions, temperature about 70 degrees and the sky filled with beautiful puffy clouds.

There was the usual opening day fanfare, which was mostly forgettable, but the best thing was the great turnout. Lawrence-Dumont Stadium was filled to near-capacity, confirming my hunch that an independent league team would do better here than the various minor league teams have over the years. Wichita fans have just never been able to embrace the minor league teams, as the players come and go and no connections are developed between the players and the city.

The game started on the right foot for the local team, as the first Wingnuts batter walked, was sacrificed to 2nd, and then scored on a ground-ball single up the middle. For the record, final score was Wingnuts over Sioux City 7-4, before a crowd of 5,874.

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