Bricktown Ballpark

Oklahoma City Dodgers, Pacific Coast League

8/10

Statues of Oklahomans Johnny Bench and Mickey Mantle(not shown)  are located outside of the ballpark.

A modest mid-week crowd takes in Oklahoma City vs. Sacramento.

All in all, a pleasant evening for baseball.

I rolled into OKC for the first time in June 2015, having driven down from Kansas City that day, making a brief pit stop in Wichita, to see Lawrence-Dumont Stadium, home of the National Baseball Congress. I've known about this place for awhile, since it hosted the AAA championship game for a few years and consistently gets mentioned in various lists of "best ballpark".

As the name implies, the park is located in the Bricktown area of Oklahoma City, only a few blocks away from the home of the NBA's Thunder. The park features a decent redbrick façade (who isn't doing brick these days?) and some statues of Oklahoman baseball legends including Johnny Bench and Mickey Mantle. I caught a game featuring the newly minted San Francisco affiliate Sacramento and the equally new Oklahoma City Dodgers, who were in their first year with that affiliation and were playing it up quite a bit. Everything from ballpark signage to the uniforms to a recording of Vin Scully welcoming everyone to "Dodgertown". It was prominent, but avoided being over the top. However, the night did suffer from the curse of the midweek home game as a "good for a Wednesday" kind of crowd showed. Most of the time I seem to hit the PCL parks when no one is home. Oh well.

The plus from my perspective was the concessions, which featured a variety of options including my choice, the Chicken Fried Steak sandwich, which I did have to wait for, but being as I arrived well before game time, this wasn't so bad. I don't remember any other choices, but do remember having to think for a bit before getting in line, which usually means only good things.

Overall, a nice park that was a little empty and a little quiet when I attended, but above average food options.

Update 2022: Looking back at the box score, both Corey Seager and Austin Barnes were in the OKC lineup that day. I still haven't made it back down here. It was an option for a potential Texas trip, but I ended up choosing a Midwestern swing instead. When I do finally go that way, this will be a strong favourite for a stop going down or up. 

Linescore

2015-06-03

                                                    123  456   789   R H E

Sacramento River Cats(SF)        100   120  003  7 11 0
Oklahoma City Dodgers(LAD)     000   000   003  3 9 0

Time: 2:21 Temp: 86F Att: 4,082

Spitz Stadium

Lethbridge Bulls, Western Canadian Baseball League

There wasn't really an entrance towards home plate, but this was what it looked like.

The first live baseball I'd seen in about two years.

The socially distanced, limited crowd files out.

I actually got back on the road for a day trip in 2021, this ended up being my only game for that whole season. This park used to host minor leaguers from the Dodgers, Expos and Diamondbacks organizations for a little over 20 years, before the affiliated minors moved south. The Bulls, a collegiate summer league team, moved in the next year. The park had been renovated within the previous few years of my visit. The Bulls current league, the Western Canadian Baseball League, was playing a reduced schedule that season, with COVID restrictions still in effect, which meant only 5 teams for the summer. 

It was tough to rate very much, given the unique circumstances for the game. The park is old enough that Andre Dawson played here when in the Expos system, but renovations have kept it looking good. Concession was somewhat limited due to the smaller crowds, which also ended up limiting the atmosphere somewhat. I ended up volunteering in Brooks during this year's summer league season, but if I had the opportunity, I'd be willing to head back down to go here with a bigger crowd.