Back to the Future: Original 1980s Dot Race makes 2024 appearance

Back in December, I published an article on this blog about the history of baseball’s Dot Race and how it was created here in OKC by Larry Newman in the early 1980s. You can read it here.

Larry was an employee of the Oklahoma City 89ers in those days, as well as working part time on the Sports desk at The Oklahoman.

That’s where my path crossed with Larry’s, because I worked on The Oklahoman’s Sports desk as a copy editor for most of the 1980s.

So, I saw the Dot Race in action on the 89ers scoreboard many times and learned that it was created by Larry. The Dot Race often created almost as much in-game excitement for the 1980s Oklahoma City baseball fans as the game itself.

After the blog post was published — and also mentioned on the 3 Old Geezers podcast, of which I am a part — the current-day Oklahoma City Baseball Club contacted Larry.  He offered to re-create the original Dot Race for use during the 2024 season and the team accepted.

Larry went to work and created a perfect replica of his work from 40-plus years ago.

The OKC Baseball Cub plays as the Oklahoma City 89ers on Thursday nights, and the team decided to play the Dot Race during each “89ers” game.

That brought Larry and his family, along with me, my fellow Geezer Ed Godfrey and Ed’s son, Cade, to the ballpark this past week to watch the first 2024 Dot Race.

To me, it looked exactly the same as the 1980s version, although maybe a little smoother with the better technology and scoreboard capabilities in 2024.  It was a small crowd that witnessed the rebirth of the original Dot Race, but I could see and hear some excitement as the dots rounded the final turn for home.

Anyway, I asked Larry to share his thoughts on the whole experience. Here’s what Larry Newman had to say about going Back to the Future to watch his 1980s Dot Race in 2024:

Larry Newman’s Dot Race thoughts

“First, I was quite surprised when you contacted me this winter to learn more about the origin of the Dot Race. After all, it had been over 43 years since I did the first Dot Race and about 38 years since I had done my last one. It was an enjoyable experience meeting with you and recalling the events that occurred to set the stage for the creation of the first Dot Race.

Thoughts about seeing other teams adopt the dot race

“By nature, I spend very little time thinking about the past, so after I left the 89ers to take a technical writing position in Phoenix, AZ. in 1987, the Dot Race became a small footnote in my mind and simply a fond memory of the eight years I spent working for the 89ers at All Sports Stadium. The only time I thought about it was when I would go to a Texas Rangers game or other major league sporting event and see a Dot Race in those other venues. I got a kick out of seeing how various teams improved the race over the years, and I enjoyed watching the fans cheering on their selected dot during the races. That always brought a smile to my face.

Thoughts about how the Dot Race came back to  OKC

“Fast forward to early 2024 when AJ Navarro from the Oklahoma City Baseball Club contacted me after either listening to your podcast or reading your blog about the origin of the Dot Race.

“He said they are dedicating every Thursday home game to honor the legacy of the 89ers and were doing all they could to integrate as many elements of 89ers history on these nights.

“During our conversation, I asked Mr. Navarro if he would like me to create an authentic replica of the first generation 89ers Dot Races that he could run on their video system. He was enthusiastic about the idea.

“After receiving the video resolution specifications from Mr. Navarro, I set off to create a race that would look as much like the original dot races as possible. This meant it needed to be in black and white, no color, and a little jerky. After all, creating a Dot Race in the 1980s involved creating a 400-frame black and white animation one frame at a time. It was also a bit jerky due to computer processing limitations — very crude tools compared to today. The data was also stored on audio tape—there were no reasonably affordable disk drives or rewritable flash memory in those days! So even storing each race took a bit of time.

Thoughts about the fan reaction

“During the dot race Thursday night at the Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark, I was mostly watching the reaction of my two adult children, Matt and Haley. Matt was born in 1989, and my daughter several years later, so neither of them had ever seen a first generation Dot Race created by their dad. My kids got quite a kick out of watching the race, so I was happy. My wife (Stephanie) also came to the game, but since we were dating in the 1980’s, she had seen many of my Dot Races at All Sports Stadium.

“The general fan reaction in the ballpark was muted but better than I expected. It was evident that some of the fans either recalled the Dot Races at All Sports Stadium or enjoyed Dot Races at other venues and enthusiastically cheered for their selected dot.

“The Oklahoma City Baseball Club does such an incredible job of filling every moment between innings with great entertainment that I suspect some fans will continue to look forward to watching the Dot Races, but it will probably struggle to stand out or gain much momentum with the fans throughout the season. There are simply so many other things competing for the attention of the fans. It’s an amazing environment for baseball and elevates the fan experience far above what I have ever experienced in any other ballpark, so it’s a good trade-off.

“I plan to attend many more games this year.”

Thank, you Larry Newman, for creating the Dot Race and for sharing it with the 2024 audience. It’s a great memory for me from days long past, and I’m sure it will create some memories for today’s fans.