Personal entry – Page 8 – Jim Stafford's BlogOKC

My college pal Scott Kirk brings baseball revival to Abilene

Scott Kirk Bison intro — Scott Kirk, president of the Abilene Flying Bison, introduces the new development league team on Dec. 14.

It’s funny how your memory can distort the facts over the years. When I first met Scott Kirk on the campus of Abilene Christian University in the fall of 1976, I was impressed because he had actually worked for a minor league baseball team in his hometown of Harlingen, Texas.

At least, that’s what I remembered from a distance of almost 50 years.

Scott recently corrected the historical record for me.

In reality, he actually worked as a sportswriter for the Valley Morning Star, covering the Rio Grande Valley WhiteWings baseball team that was based in Harlingen. He even took a year off from college to focus on the job as WhiteWings beat writer.

But I’m not letting the facts get in the way of my warm memory.

I remember Scott Kirk as a fellow student who was committed to sports journalism and loved the sport of baseball above all sports. He was and is one of my favorite writers both in college at the Optimist student newspaper and through a long career with the Abilene Reporter News after graduation. He closed out his career as a high school journalism teacher in Abilene.

By comparison, I was far behind Scott in my writing and reporting abilities when I landed on campus in 1976. But I loved baseball, and that sort of bonded us as members of the Optimist staff. We watched baseball on TV, talked baseball and drove to Arlington to watch the Texas Rangers play.

Scott and I have stayed in touch through the years, each of us playing a role in the other’s wedding, meeting in Dallas or Houston to watch baseball, and once playing a round of golf in 100+degree weather during a scorching Abilene summer.

Although he’s retired from roles as reporter and teacher, Scott continues to pursue his passion for baseball not only as a fan, but as someone working hard to bring a professional or semi-pro revival to Abilene. The west Texas city has been home to professional and independent baseball teams in both the distant and recent past.

Back in the 1940s and ’50s, it was home to a minor league team named the Abilene Blue Sox. There were two versions of the Abilene Prairie Dogs, one that played on the ACU campus from 1995-’99 and again for a one-year reprise in 2012.. Scott served as official scorer for the 1990s version of the Prairie Dogs.

Fast forward to Dec. 14, 2023. Scott’s vision for another Abilene baseball team became reality with the announcement that the Abilene Flying Bison developmental league team would begin play in May on the home field of McMurry University.

Turns out the person who made the announcement before about 150 people at a downtown Abilene events center was, wait for it, Scott Kirk, who is now President of the Abilene Flying Bison.

Scott’s wife, Nancy, posted a photo on Facebook of her husband making the announcement, so I called him to get the story of how it happened.

It begins with Scott connecting with George Lessmeister, a Kansas City resident who was scouting for a city to locate a team in a proposed developmental league, which would be unaffiliated with Major League Baseball.

“George Lessmeister’s involvement came through National Sports Services, which owns and operates several collegiate teams and also matches prospective owners with franchises,” Scott told me. “NSS and Ventura Sports Group are the co-founders of the Mid America League.”

It was a natural connection because of Scott’s long presence in the city of roughly 125,000 residents, and his past roles with previous teams.

AN ASIDE TO THE STORY: There’s an Oklahoma connection to all of this. Lessmeister previously considered locating the team in Edmond, where it would play on the UCO baseball field. But a deal could never be consummated.

So, now it’s the Abilene Flying Bison, instead.

I asked Scott how the team was named. The Bison part is easy because of the city’s location in an area where the buffalo once roamed. The team added “Flying” as an homage to Dyess Air Force Base, Scott said. Dyess has a big local presence from its location on the west side of Abilene.

So, what about the league the Flying Bison will play in and where are the other teams located?

“We’re going to be playing in what is known as the Mid America League,” Scott told me. “It’s a developmental league with no Major League affiliation. The players are going to primarily be collegiate players. We can have guys who might have played pro ball for a couple years, and they can play for us. We just can’t pay them.”

Five cities have been identified for the six-team league, Scott said. In addition to Abilene, there are Sherman, Texarkana and White Oak, all in Texas, with the fifth team located in my home town of Fort Smith, Ark. Scott said the league is close to announcing the sixth location.

mid america citiers

Here’s what I found out about the league on the Mid America League website:

“The League will play a 68-game schedule to start in late May and run through early August, concluding with playoffs to determine the League champion. The League will also be contracting with Opendorse to implement a program offering Name, Image and Likeness opportunities for players.”

Wait. NIL for an independent baseball league?

“I know it sounds like pay for play, but those are the rules we live by,” Scott said. “There are literally dozens of collegiate baseball leagues across the country. I would say there are probably 200 collegiate teams. One league, the Northwoods League, has almost 40 teams.”

I looked up the Northwoods League, which plays in the upper Midwest, and its website showed 25 teams in two divisions.

OK, Mr. President, what’s the next step for the Flying Bison and the Mid America League?

“Get a season completed,” Scott said. “If you complete your first season, your chances of success are better.”

So, Scott Kirk’s baseball story has come full circle. He DID have an unofficial affiliation with the Rio Grande WhiteWings. And now he’s leading a long-sought baseball revival in Abilene.

“The motivation for bringing a team to Abilene has always been about doing something that contributes to a sense of community in the city,” Scott said. “The overarching goal has been to build a venue that could serve as the home for a sports team in the future, whether it’s the MAL team or another team. If there’s a place for the team to play, it increases the likelihood of baseball or another sport to continue to play in Abilene.”

Maybe my memory from long ago wasn’t so faulty after all. Facts is facts.

mid america screen

The Best of BlogOKC from 2023

EDITOR’S NOTE: For the third consecutive year, I’ve gone through my year in BlogOKC and pulled the posts that were most meaningful to me as a “best of” column. My favorite may be the one written by my daughter after she saved a roommate’s life in Florida. I was proud of her for jumping in when needed and also proud of her for the way she wrote of the experience. There are also links at the end of this ‘best of’ column that take you to other special blog posts worth reading, including three written as guest posts by friends. The subhead on each favorite blog post is also a link, so you can click through to the actual blog and read it in its entirety, if you choose. WordPress tells me BlogOKC had 7,024 visitors to this point in 2023. I thank you for reading my thoughts.

How to save a life

Sarah Florida — Sarah Stafford poses in her South Florida residence

For the past year and a half, my 24-year-old daughter, Sarah, has worked as a “tech” at drug-and-alcohol rehabilitation centers in South Florida. She is trained in CPR because of the potential for relapse and overdose of recovering addicts. Sarah is a recovering addict herself, and lives in a nearby home occupied by other recovering addicts with house rules that support their road to recovery. It’s not always easy, though. Temptation sometimes leads addicts to relapse with potential deadly consequences. This is Sarah’s story about a recent incident in her home.

Cancelled: Why Dilbert had to go

Cancelled

I went back through my social media history this morning and came across a dozen or more Dilbert comic strips I have posted over the years. If you aren’t familiar with Dilbert, it’s an insightful, often hilarious syndicated comic strip that skewers corporate office life. It features Dilbert, an engineer, his co-worker Wally and the pointy-haired boss, among others. So, it hit me hard when a text over the weekend from a former co-worker at The Oklahoman delivered some devastating news. The paper is cancelling Dilbert, and for all the right reasons.

The Beatles were great storytellers in song

Beatles NY — The Beatles from an early photo as they landed in New York City.

I was introduced to the Beatles in 1964 by my uncle. I was 11 and he was 19 and had purchased the album, ‘Meet the Beatles.’ In my extended family in 1964, buying something as worldly as a secular rock-n-roll record by the Beatles was a pretty bold step. My uncle told me he didn’t care for the music, even if the Beatles were a pop culture phenomenon. So, he gave me the album. Beatlemania washed over me like it did millions of other young Americans. I couldn’t get enough. As I was listening to a Beatles playlist on my iPhone today, it occurred to me what great storytellers, they were.

Chatbot comes alive for OKC audience in demo

Dodd AI3 — Bucky Dodd, Ph.D., founder & CEO of technology firm ClearKinetic, demonstrates an AI Chatbot at a recent OKC meeting.

“If you came here today for answers, I’m sorry, you will probably leave with more questions.” That’s how Bucky Dodd, Ph.D., a long-time educator and CEO of an educational technology startup called ClearKinetic, launched his presentation on Artificial Intelligence last week to a group of association executives at the OKC Convention Center. Dodd obviously follows author Stephen Covey and his 7 habits of a highly effective person. Begin with the end in mind. But Dodd’s presentation was more of a show-and-tell to his audience from the Oklahoma Society of Association Executives. He prompted a Chatbot to actually generate some amazing content for us.

The Walkable City on my mind

Walkable3

I just read Jeff Speck’s “Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time,” and I don’t know where to start with my reaction. Jeff Speck, you might remember, is the urban planner and author who advocates making urban areas pedestrian friendly to encourage both economic development and urban living spaces. He consulted with the City of OKC about 15 years ago that resulted in big changes downtown, especially in the elimination of most one-way streets. I worked downtown in the 1980s, and I can assure you there was little to brag about.

Class Reunion, Party of Two

yearbook ppic — A page of the 1971 Southside High School yearbook, ‘Lifestyles’

I walked into Cattlemen’s Steakhouse a few weeks ago, made my way to a back booth and was greeted by someone I had not seen in 52 years. He was an old high school chum, so it was the ultimate class reunion.

Say it ain’t so

Sellout

I’ve written all of this because, as most people know by now, both Berry and Jenni are leaving the paper. They’re joining a new online venture called The Sellout, Sellout Crowd, or something like that. It should debut later this month, from what I understand. I got wind of Berry’s impending exit about three weeks ago and immediately sent him an email with the subject line “Say It Ain’t So.” Berry responded and said it was so. He said it’s a good thing, not bad, because readers who follow him and Jenni will be able to read their work in a free online newsletter.

A life of divine coincidences

mike magazine — Mike West with magazine opened to classified that advertised Keystone Labels for sale

Was it karma or divine coincidence? I write that because of how I recently met another outstanding couple. Except this time it wasn’t in church; it was at The Joinery restaurant in Bricktown back in October on the occasion of the Sellout Crowd launch party. Sellout Crowd is a new online sports reporting service that launched September 1. As I sat down at a table to consume some complementary food I carried from the buffet line, I found myself across from a couple who were unfamiliar to me. The couple introduced themselves as Mike and Tonia West. And did they have a story of divine coincidence.

3 Old Geezers and the pleasures of podcasting disharmony

Geezers blog — The 3 Old Geezers are (from left) Steve Buck, Ed Godfrey, Jim Stafford

For me, the podcast confirmed that I’m more agile behind a keyboard than with a microphone in my face, while both Steve and Ed have shown the ability to be clever and entertaining on the run. If you haven’t listened yet, I invite you to listen to our latest episode, and then perhaps invest some time in the previous podcasts. We’re all Thunder fans, but take different approaches to our fandom and perceive the team slightly differently. In fact, one Geezer has a tendency to sleep right through some of the games.

The new BRT line is A-OK with me

BRT1 — Our driver poses outside the BRT bus at the Lake Hefner park-and-ride stop along the Northwest Expressway.

The Northwest line is one of at least three BRT routes planned by the city, with two others in the works for the south side and the Northeast corridor. MAPS 4 dollars are paying for the new BRT routes, according to this story from The Oklahoman. Anyway, the bus was clean and new with about 5 people already aboard in the back seating area. I took a seat in the middle, and we headed toward downtown OKC. So, the BRT route gets a big thumbs up from me, even though it doesn’t lend itself to my daily transportation needs.

The OKC origin story of the Dot Race

Dot Race live — The Dot Race as presented on the Texas Rangers scoreboard in the 1980s.

If you frequented the late All Sports Stadium to watch the Oklahoma City 89ers Triple A baseball team play during the 1980s, you probably were a fan of an animated scoreboard feature known as the Dot Race. A form of the Dot Race lives on in the 2020s as between-inning entertainment for the Texas Rangers and other Major League parks around the country. And as time has passed, few people recall that the Dot Race had its beginning as humble, white dots on the 89ers scoreboard in Oklahoma City.

BONUS: Other posts from 2023 to explore:

Flight delay and an airport reunion

For Ed, Cardinals baseball a lifelong addiction (guest post written by Ed Godfrey)

The Wisdom of Linus: Be nice, and always carry a blanket (guest post written by Don Mecoy)

Chicago Woes, Part 2: Cunning as a savage pitted against the wilderness (guest post written by Don Mecoy)

Best of BlogOKC - 1

The OKC Origin Story of the Dot Race

I know I was.

I can remember many nights at the ballpark when the Dot Race prompted thousands of fans to cheer on their favorite computerized, pixelated “Dot” like they were at Churchill Downs. Sometimes, there seemed to be more excitement surrounding the faux scoreboard race than the actual game.

If you can recall through the hazy years of the past, the three Dots — labeled Dots 1, 2 & 3 — raced down an animated speedway toward the finish line. Sometimes a dot veered into the wall or had a breakdown just when it appeared it would win the race.

A form of the Dot Race lives on in the 2020s as between-inning entertainment for the Texas Rangers and other Major League parks around the country. And as time has passed, few people recall that the Dot Race had its beginning as humble, white dots on the 89ers scoreboard in Oklahoma City.

Turns out, the Dot Race was the brainstorm of a then part-time 89ers employee and University of Oklahoma student named Larry Newman.

By coincidence, when I arrived in The Oklahoman newsroom as a sports copy editor in 1983, Larry also worked part-time at night on the paper’s sports desk, taking scores and writing up short summaries of high school basketball and football games.

I got to know him as a bright, competent young man who also had an interest in computers and software coding. One night he brought the first Macintosh computer I had ever seen in the wild into the newsroom.

So, it wasn’t long before I learned that Larry was the creator of the Dot Race, although I didn’t know the full story until a recent Saturday morning when we caught up with one another at MentaliTEA and Coffee in Bethany. It was the first time we had seen one another in roughly 40 years.

I wanted to know the story of the Dot Race, and Larry was happy to share it.

Larry Newman began working as a ticket taker for the 89ers while in high school back in the late 1970s. He eventually was asked by owners Bing Hampton and Patty Cox to take over duties of operating the scoreboard pitch count from the press box.

“I did balls and strikes for probably two or three years,” Larry said. “In that role, you are watching every single pitch of every single game throughout a baseball season. So, a lot of innings.”

The next development leading to the Dot Race involved a new scoreboard installed at All Sports Stadium in a sweetheart deal between the 89ers, the City of Oklahoma City and the Miller Brewing Co.

“The people from Miller said we will give you a brand new scoreboard and attached message center in exchange for leaving the Miller Brewing Company logo advertisement on top of the new scoreboard for some number of seasons,” he said. “That’s what the Dot Race ran on; that message center.”

That brand new scoreboard offered a three-line message center, which provided the opportunity to not only display text, but to develop simple graphics that would be displayed. It came with a couple pre-made animations that had clapping hands and home run celebrations.

So, Larry learned to do frame-by-frame animations that were written in code to magnetic tape storage — no fancy floppy discs for this scoreboard. Larry began working on his Dot Race idea because the 89ers had no between-inning entertainment during one half inning of each game.

Larry dove into the coding challenge. He said it took about 35-40 hours to create the first race course and the dots — “pixel by pixel,” but after the first one was completed, programming each individual race to run on his course took about 30 minutes a night, he said.

So, the Dot Race was born.

“When I showed the idea to 89er owners Bing Hampton and Patty Cox, they approved the idea and actually promoted it at each 89er home game,” Larry said. “The public address announcer said, ‘hey, we’ve got a new feature, the Dot Race. Pick your winning Dot.’ We did it every night and people started getting into it.”

Larry programmed a new Dot Race for every game, and fans liked it so much that some asked him to tell them in advance what the winning Dot was going to be that night. He said he never disclosed the winner prior to any race.

“I had a race once where a Dot ran into the wall and an ambulance came out and picked it up,” he said. “That one took a lot of time to build.”

During this time the 89ers switched Major League affiliation from the Philadelphia Phillies to the Rangers, which was critical to the eventual spread of the Dot Race across baseball.

One night, visiting Texas Rangers officials that included then-General Manager Tom Grieve came to OKC to watch their minor league players. The Rangers reps spoke to Larry in the press box that night.

“They came up to me and said, ‘hey we want to see this Dot Race thing; we’ve heard about it from a couple of the players,’ ” Larry recalled.

The Rangers officials watched it and saw the fans reacting to it.

“They asked, ‘how did you do that?’ I said ‘it’s a very involved process.’ “

A short time later, he got a call from the Rangers scoreboard operator. The Texas version of the Dot Race was soon born and became hugely popular.

The 89ers — but not its inventor — got credit in early DFW area newspaper articles about the Dot Race phenomenon.

A story in the August 24, 1986, edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram quotes Rangers PA announcer Chuck Morgan as crediting the idea to the 89ers, but said it came to the Rangers via a newspaper reporter.

But in newspaper articles about the Rangers Dot Race just a decade later, Morgan made no mention of its Oklahoma City roots.

And on the current Website called “Ballpark Brothers,” the Dot Race is 100 percent attributed to Morgan.

“The Dot Race at Arlington Stadium was first originated by Arlington Stadium announcer Chuck Morgan, who somehow got the tech guys to have 3 colored dots circle around an oval on the scoreboard, much to the fans’ glee. It was this dot race that spawned all other video races and the human races in ballparks across North America.”

I guess you can chalk that up to the loss of institutional memory over time.

So, I asked Larry if he was bitter at not receiving any recognition for creating the Dot Race phenomenon that continues to circle scoreboards in different forms around the nation.

“It didn’t upset me, but I do remember walking into the Rangers stadium not too long after they came to Oklahoma City,” Larry said. “They were handing out a small card with a dot color on it to everyone entering the stadium. Some of the cards had a red dot, some had a blue dot and some had a green dot, and it was sponsored by Wendy’s or Arby’s or someone. If the dot you were handed won the race that night, you could go to the restaurant and get a free small burger or something.

“I’m like, ‘these people are finding a way to make money off my Dot Race.’ ”

But decades have passed, and Larry Newman is now a retired technical writer whose last employers were tech giants Google and Oracle. He looks back over the years and finds the silver lining in the story.

“I’m happy that people have enjoyed it for so many years,” he said. “Absolutely.”

In the grand scheme of Dot Race life, that’s a winner.

EDITOR’S NOTE: More info on the roots of the legendary Dot Race:

Larry Newman told me the Dot Race got a big boost with the 89ers audience when 89ers Director of Communications Monty Clegg began doing play-by-play announcing of the racing dots. I contacted Monty, who now lives in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, to get his side of the story and here’s what he told me:

“Larry was really creative and worked some magic with a limited slate of a three-line message center with the 89ers,” Monty said. “Bing Hampton suggested that we have a Dot Race track announcer. Since I worked in the press box, I think I was volunteered. I still remember that as the dots rounded for home, I would always say ‘And they’re spinning out of the final turn!’

The Dot Race tale is a great story, and I thank Larry Newman and Monty Clegg for letting me share it.

The new BRT line is A-OK with me

My first brush with Oklahoma City’s new BRT — Bus Rapid Transit — didn’t start with promise.

A bus was waiting as I drove onto OKC EMBARK’s Lake Hefner park-and-ride lot along NW Expressway about 11:30 Monday morning. So, I parked, exited my car and started to walk about 30 yards to the platform only to watch as the bus pulled away.

I went back to my car.

My mission this morning was purely exploratory to see how efficiently Oklahoma City’s new BRT route that launched Sunday could move someone who parked and rode into downtown OKC.

I had read the waits for the next BRT buses were only 12 to 15 minutes, so I stuck around, and after about 10 minutes returned to the platform. The bus-tracker monitor said the next bus would arrive in 4 minutes.

The monitor was accurate, and the BRT bus pulled up as predicted.

The great thing about catching public transit — or a plane or a train for that matter — when the equipment is new is that you get that ‘brand-new car smell’ before it’s worn out by use. Or was I just imagining?

And the BRT cost is perfect all through December at the low, low price of free. The City of OKC officially launched the BRT line with a special ceremony early Monday morning.

Anyway, the bus was clean and new with about 5 people already aboard in the back seating area. I took a seat in the middle, and we headed toward downtown OKC.

We wound through the neighborhood just west of INTEGRIS Hospital, past the platforms outside the hospital and turned onto NW Expressway.

That’s when things got interesting. The bus began filling up.

Each eastbound stop seemed to add four to six more people, and when we turned south on Classen Blvd. so many people climbed aboard at the first couple of stops that most new newcomers were forced to stand and hold on to the straps and poles.

BRT 2 — Opening day strap hangers on OKC’s new BRT bus route.

By coincidence, my seatmate for a portion of the route was Cody Boyd, a friend of mine who actually works for EMBARK and was headed to a downtown restaurant for lunch.

I stayed aboard until we reached the Downtown Transit Center. Total time for the inbound stretch from Lake Hefner lot was 38 minutes. Not bad, considering how many people got on — and off — along NW Expressway and Classen Blvd.

After departing the bus, I walked a couple of blocks to my favorite OKC sandwich spot — Hobby’s Hoagies — where I ordered lunch and grabbed a table. After finishing my sandwich, I hiked back to the Transit Center where two BRT buses were waiting.

One bus pulled out before I got to the platform and headed south to complete the downtown loop. I boarded the northbound bus, and we were off on the return trip to the Lake Hefner stop.

On this trip the bus was less crowded, traffic was favorable and we arrived at the park-and-ride lot in 31 minutes. I thanked the driver and took his photo as he walked out of the bus onto the platform for a few seconds.

So, the BRT route gets a big thumbs up from me, even though it doesn’t lend itself to my daily transportation needs. Here’s another first-day perspective, that of OKC Free Press founder/editor Brett Dickerson.

Monday was the second time I was a first-day rider of a new OKC public transportation route. I rode the OKC Streetcar on its first day in December 2018 and liked it, as well, although the Streetcar only takes a slow loop through downtown.

I wrote my thoughts on the Streetcar in this blog post a couple of years ago.

But the BRT line is more than a tourist ride and looks to fill the travel needs of a large number of people on OKC’s northwest side.

It’s a transportation route with a purpose.

BRT 3 — The crowd waiting at a west-bound BRT line stop along NW Expressway on Monday morning.

3 Old Geezers and the pleasures of podcasting disharmony

I’m not a contrarian on most issues. And despite my advanced age, I’m not a get-off-my-lawn guy, either.

Honest.

But there is one issue that has brought me into good-hearted conflict with a couple of my friends. That is the issue of ‘tanking,’ by the Oklahoma City Thunder, by which the team played to lose NBA games for a couple of years in order to get better draft positions.

I’ve written about the tanking issue several times on this blog, opining on how it devalues fans, corporate sponsors and current players even if it positions the team to get better draft picks.

My friends will argue that the Thunder’s tanking strategy paid off as it ended up with Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams, et al, and OKC emerged as a promising team in 2023-24.

But as my Momma told me long ago, the end doesn’t justify the means. Or does it?

That’s the issue on which I’ve been a vocal protestor, a position for which my friends Steve Buck and Ed Godfrey have constantly ridiculed me. We’ve had long text strings across many winter nights the past couple years debating the topic.

As the three of us argued the finer points of tanking and NBA franchise etiquette, Steve suggested that our rants would make a great podcast. We knocked that idea around for months, all agreeing that we would be naturals, but never taking any action.

Until … about two months ago.

Steve obtained some podcasting equipment and we ran out of excuses. We finally set a date and recorded a sample podcast.

Steve came up with a name, ‘3 Old Geezers,’ to match our demographic profiles, and off we went. Here’s a link to the 3 Old Geezers podcast page on the Buzzsprout hosting site. We are sponsored by MentaliTEA and Coffee in Bethany.

The 3 Old Geezers have recorded four episodes in four weeks, tackling Thunder topics, college sports and even the entertainment world in fast-paced, roughly 25 minute segments. We’ve had generally positive feedback.

For me, the podcast confirmed that I’m more agile behind a keyboard than with a microphone in my face, while both Steve and Ed have shown the ability to be clever and entertaining on the run.

If you haven’t listened yet, I invite you to listen to our latest episode, and then perhaps invest some time in the previous podcasts.

We’re all Thunder fans, but take different approaches to our fandom and perceive the team slightly differently. In fact, one Geezer has a tendency to sleep right through some of the games, which you will discover in Episode 4.

Take a listen to the 3 Old Geezers. Now, GET OFF MY LAWN!

A life of divine coincidences

One Sunday more than two decades ago a family unfamiliar to me and my wife, Paula, happened to sit next to us on our favorite pew at what was then Quail Springs Church of Christ.

Paula introduced herself and learned this was Steve and Lisa Buck, who were visiting our church. Paula invited them to our small group meeting that night, which we called ‘Connections.’

Twenty-plus years later we have grown to be great friends with the Bucks.

Was it karma or divine coincidence?

I write that because of how I recently met another outstanding couple. Except this time it wasn’t in church; it was at The Joinery restaurant in Bricktown back in October on the occasion of the Sellout Crowd launch party. Sellout Crowd is a new online sports reporting service that launched September 1.

As I sat down at a table to consume some complementary food I carried from the buffet line, I found myself across from a couple who were unfamiliar to me. The couple introduced themselves as Mike and Tonia West.

And did they have a story of divine coincidence.

You see, Mike and Tonia were at the Sellout Crowd launch party at the invitation of sportswriter Berry Tramel, with whom they go to church at Antioch Community Church in Norman. Berry is a friend of mine and long-time colleague at The Oklahoman newspaper.

“We met Berry on our first Sunday at Antioch,” Mike told me as I sat across the table.

We chatted about Berry, their business and how they got to Oklahoma for a while before I jumped up to take some photos of the festivities. I never made it back to the table, but asked Berry later for their contact info so I could apologize for seemingly abandoning them mid-party.

Berry told me about meeting the Wests for the first time and the unique way they became owners of Oklahoma’s Keystone Labels.

“Our church has a reception type thing once a month, and we went to it one day and the Wests just sat down at our table.,” Berry said. “Mike’s a big newspaper man. They sat down and he recognized me.”

Another divine coincidence.

“We struck it off and became fast friends” Berry said. “He’s just got a heart of gold, always helping people. The one thing he likes most out of his business is when he’s able to help people; that’s what he does.”

Since that coincidental meeting, Berry and Mike have shared mission trips, both local and foreign, even traveling to Mexico together on a mission for their church.

Anyway, I called Mike up to apologize for not coming back to their table at the party, and he invited me down to tour the OKC label business that the Wests have owned since 2006.

A native of Fort Scott, Kan., Mike worked in the label business in that state before spotting a tiny classified ad in the back of an industry magazine that offered an Oklahoma City label business for sale. That was Keystone Labels.

Mike answered the ad through a surrogate and eventually purchased the business. Keystone Labels makes labels for scores of businesses with products like jars of barbecue sauce, pickles, honey and other food products, audio CDs and much, much more.

Since being owned by the Wests, Keystone Labels has become a true family business, with Tonia — a surgical nurse — working two days a week, their daughter Mikala holding down the office and nephew Chris McAllister operating one of two presses that run nonstop.

The rest of the operation’s seven employees have worked there for decades, some preceding West’s ownership. I got to watch both of the presses in action as thousands of labels were produced right in front of me while a half dozen other jobs waited for press time.

I could see that all of Keystone Labels’ employees took great pride in their work, from the graphic artists in the front to press operators Chris and Lenny, who has worked for Keystone for decades and “has never taken a day off,” Mike said.

Another long-time employee, Lonnie, handles many different tasks in the process, including turning graphic designs into press-ready plates.

Back in Fort Scott as a young man, Mike started out as a sports writer himself, making $1 an inch for his work. I said that seemed like a lot of money for those days.

“Well, considering I was only getting like 7 inches for my stories, it wasn’t a lot,” Mike said.

Mike’s dad was the high school football coach in Fort Scott, and today is retired and an active farmer in his 80s. One of his high school players was future Oklahoma State University football coach Charlie Weatherbie, a fact I learned from a Sellout Crowd article written by Tramel.

So, the visit to Keystone Labels was both informative and eye-opening for me. I saw how a small label business works and how it even has its own platemaking shop. Mike showed me the actual magazine and the four-line ad that he spotted advertising the business for sale.

I heard stories from Mike about the challenges the business has faced, including a wall being destroyed when a drunk driver drove through it in the middle of the night. I learned how Mike lives out his faith by providing support both to those he loves and those he’s never met. I learned of his daughter’s miraculous healing.

mike chris — Chris McAllister and Mike West stand in front of one of Keystone Labels small offset press units.

Since this is a personal blog, I’ve got a personal note to share.

I had intended to visit Keystone Labels two weeks ago, but had to make an emergency trip to Fort Smith, Ark., to deal with a challenging family situation. I texted a note of apology to Mike, begging off because my family was “enduring the week from heck.”

As I drove over to Fort Smith my phone dinged with a message.

It was from Mike, and it contained a prayer for my family and the situation we were facing.

“He has a heart for people that is rare,” Berry said. “You can say that about a lot of people, but he is in the upper 1 percent.”

I’m so glad that Mike and Tonia West sat at Berry’s table that day, and that I sat at Mike’s table at the launch party, and that Steve and Lisa Buck sat on our pew that Sunday more than two decades ago.

Divine coincidences all the way around.

These crying eyes

Caleb Crying — Caleb Williams sobbing in his mother’s arms after losing to Washington last week.

As a 12-year-old Little League baseball player in the mid-1960s, I pitched for a woebegone team named the Angels in Bryan, Texas. We didn’t win very many games.

Still, I wanted to win, so much so that often tears would fall as I stood on the mound late in a game in which we were hopelessly behind.

Near the conclusion of one game, our feisty third-baseman walked over to the mound and said something that has stuck with me for almost 60 years.

“Why do you always cry when you are pitching?” he demanded.

I don’t remember my answer, but I sure remember his question.

I’m writing this because of something that happened after the recent college football game between Southern Cal and Washington. You might have caught the clip of USC quarterback Caleb Williams going into the stands after the loss and being consoled by his mother as he sobbed.

Here’s a take on in the incident from CBS Sports.

I was listening to the Dan Patrick radio show this week when a caller to the show asked DP if the sight of Caleb Williams crying after the game would hurt his draft placement. The current reigning Heisman Trophy Winner, Williams is certain to be drafted among the top three picks, perhaps even first.

A self-proclaimed crier himself, Patrick reacted to the question as if it was intended to insult Williams (I’m certain it was, too). He told the caller that there’s nothing about what the QB did that would diminish his draft status.

However, the incident and questions afterward stirred some emotions in me, because I still feel the sting of my third baseman’s confrontational question so long ago.

I’ve since thought about why I cried on the mound and concluded it was because I wanted so much to be successful and the frustration that it wasn’t happening. A lot.

But I don’t see that shedding tears after (during?) an emotional game diminishes an athlete. What other athletes are famous for shedding tears during or after a game?

I can remember a few. Michael Jordan lay on the locker room floor and shed tears after winning the 1996 NBA title that he dedicated to his late father. Serena Williams cried as she met the press after a hotly contested loss in the 2018 U.S. Open finals.

In fact, here’s a video compilation of some of the saddest athletic moments filled with tears.

My point with all of this is that there’s no shame in tears flowing in the wake of an emotional moment for an athlete. It happens.

The 2023 me is more apt to shed tears watching an emotional scene in a movie, like Roy Kent rushing to the stadium to take his place among the coaches in Ted Lasso while “She’s a Rainbow” plays in the background. Or when George Bailey discovers he really is the “richest man in town” at the conclusion of It’s a Wonderful Life.”

Of course, my career as a soft-throwing Little League pitcher ended in 1965.

Yes, there were tears and a pointed question from my third baseman. It’s a moment etched into my memory.

And that’s the only photographic evidence.

Why I’m all in now on Sellout Crowd

Sellout crowd video — Berry Tramel joined Sellout Crowd colleagues Bob Stoops (right) and Sam Mayes in a broadcast during the new venture’s Launch Party at The Joinery in Bricktown.

Berry Tramel told a story to a boisterous group of roughly 150 people earlier this week at The Joinery restaurant in Bricktown. Berry tells great stories.

He recalled a phone call a few years ago from a former colleague at The Oklahoman newspaper who sought his interest in joining a new, online only sports reporting venture.

Berry said he was interested. As long as his fellow Oklahoman columnist Jenni Carlson came along, he was ready to go.

Turns out, the timing wasn’t right for Mike Koehler’s brainstorm. The deal didn’t happen. Berry and Jenni continued to carry The Oklahoman as its lead sports columnists as they had for the past two decades-plus.

Then Berry got another call from Koehler in 2023. This time, Koehler had financial backing for his project and he had a name. Sellout Crowd.

Was Berry still interested? Berry replied that as long as Jenni was still part of the plan, yes he was.

The next thing you know, “Berry Tramel is a Sellout” billboards started appearing across the OKC metro, teasing the launch of Sellout Crowd.

Sellout

That’s the story that Berry told at the Sellout Crowd’s Bricktown launch party, where he was joined by Koehler, Jenni Carlson, Mike Sherman and a host of other Sellout Crowd content “creators” and backers.

All of those folks I just named are former colleagues of mine at The Oklahoman.

The Launch Party also featured Toby Keith and Bob Stoops, celebrity investors in the venture. There was Kris Murray, Koehler’s business partner and son of long-time OKC broadcaster Ed Murray.

And there was a lineup of other content creators that included former Tulsa World columnist Guerin Emig, Brett Dawson, Jon Hamm, Todd Lisenbee, Sam Mayes, brothers Ben and Sam Hutchens, Ed Murray, Bob Stoops and Eli Lederman. The team also includes a couple of other former Oklahoman colleagues of mine, Jay Spears and Jacquelyn Musgrove, both of whom provide technical expertise.

I’m spending time daily on the site and have figured out that I get most of the same type content from Berry and Jenni that I found in the newspaper. There is heavy coverage of OU, OSU and the OKC Thunder.

And video. Lots and lots of video blogs, I guess you call them.

This morning I watched Tramel’s awesome interview with sports radio broadcast star Paul Finebaum.

So, you get the drift of the type of coverage the Sellout Crowd is bringing readers/viewers, and the content is not behind any sort of pay wall. In fact, it appears a number of advertisers have jumped on board, as well.

As I talked to some of the folks who showed up at the Launch Party, one guy said Sellout Crowd reminded him of The Ringer, which is the sports and culture site launched about a decade ago by Bill Simmons. I can see the resemblance, but glad Sellout Crowd has an Oklahoma focus.

Sellout Crowd itself is well put together in my opinion. You can see that lots of thought was put into making each article/post look professional in its presentation.

The Launch Party concluded with a series of remarks from Berry, Koehler and Kris Murray. Koehler also has another thriving business known as Smirk New Media.

Anyway, Koehler made some heartfelt comments, tearfully thanking those who supported his vision and those who have come on board.

Sellout crowd Koehler couple — Sellout Crowd founder Mike Koehler and his wife, Gaylee

“We want to honor the people for the great work they do,” Koehler told the crowd about Sellout Crowd’s presentation of its content creators. “And we got the cream of the crop.”

So, while I was pleading “say it ain’t so” a couple of months ago in a blog post, I’m all in on Sellout Crowd today. It has my favorite writers and focuses on topics in which I’m interested.

Which doesn’t mean I’ve abandoned my first love, the newspaper. I’m still a subscriber and a reader of The Oklahoman every day.

There is room for both.

Sellout crowd jerseys — Special Sellout Crowd jerseys were presented to investors and backers during the venture’s Launch Party

The Baseball 100: Fathers and Sons

For the past five months, I’ve walked around our house carrying a massive tome that resembles those old giant-sized King James Bibles that are cherished possessions of many families.

Only this Good Book is titled The Baseball 100 (2021, The Athletic Media Co.) and written by long-time baseball writer Joe Posnanski. It was a birthday gift last April from my friend Ed Godfrey.

Thank you, Ed.

If you’re not familiar with Posnanski, he made his reputation as the baseball beat writer for the Kansas City Star newspaper before moving on to Sports Illustrated, NBC Sports and The Athletic, among his credits. Today, he’s publishing his prose on his own blog at JoeBlogs.

More about Posnanski’s background here.

It’s obvious that Posnanski’s first love is baseball, and, in fact, his latest best seller in a long line of bestsellers is entitled ‘Why We Love Baseball.’

Anyway, back to The Baseball 100. I read it slowly and savored each individual profile of what Posnanski considers to be the best 100 players in Major League history. When I first opened the book, I flipped hurriedly through the pages until I found the Nolan Ryan chapter, just to make sure Posnanski included Big Tex.

Ryan came in at No. 50, and the logic of that ranking was that about half the baseball world (me included) thinks he’s one of the top pitchers ever, while the other half sees him as vastly overrated.

So, then I went back to the beginning and read the book through. What struck me was how often father-son dynamics played into the development and character of so many players.

For instance, let’s consider Oklahoma native Mickey Mantle. Mantle’s father, Mutt, began pitching to him at their Commerce home when the Mick was 6 years old, making him bat from both sides of the plate. Mickey didn’t exactly want to be a switch hitter and wasn’t certain he wanted to be a baseball player from the start.

But his dad willed it even before he was born.

“Mutt knew with a chilling certainty that his future son would be called Mickey, after his favorite ballplayer, Mickey Cochrane, and that Mickey Mantle would be the best ballplayer of them all,” Posnanski writes.

Mickey Mantle did turn out to be one of the great all-time Major League players. He was the All American boy who led the New York Yankees to seven World Series titles in 12 appearances from 1951 to 1964.

Ranked No. 11 all-time by Posnanski, Mantle also was an alcoholic who cheated on his wife and was mostly absent from the lives of his children. I’m pretty sure Mutt’s obsession shaped Mickey beyond baseball.

You learn how flawed so many of our heroes were in The Baseball 100, from Mantle to Pete Rose to Ted Williams to Barry Bonds to Roger Clemens. The Baseball 100 also shares stories about baseball heroes who were model citizens, like Ozzie Smith, Stan ‘The Man’ Musial, Derek Jeter, Albert Pujols and Brooks Robinson, to name a few.

But the theme of overbearing fathers came up again and again. Consider George Brett, who is a contemporary hero to those of us of a certain age and who comes in at No. 35 in Posnanski’s rankings.

“Fear drove George Brett,” Posnanski writes. “His father, Jack, made sure of that.”

No matter how well Brett played or what amazing stats he put up for the Kansas City Royals, it was never good enough for his father. Never.

In fact, on the night before Jack Brett died of cancer, he spoke to George on the phone and asked him how he did that day. George told him he went 0-for-4. “Well, did you at least hit the ball hard?” his dad asked. “I did, Dad,” George lied to his dying father. “I hit it hard.”

Brett had struck out three times that day.

Then there is Pete Rose at No. 60. We all know how his story played out, the betting on baseball, the relentless chase of the hits record, the womanizing, the Charlie Hustle reputation.

What Posnanski tells us is that Pete’s father, Harry “Big Pete” Rose never gave him the opportunity to develop as a person. Big Pete saw him as a Major League star, and turned him into a switch hitter at 8 years of age. He even demanded that his Little League coach let him switch hit.

It’s the Mickey Mantle story playing out all over again in Cincinnati, Ohio. Except Pete Rose was banned from baseball for life for betting on the game he loved.

And then there was Ted Williams, an all-time player and war hero who fought fans, the media and his own demons. Posnanski doesn’t write about an obsessive father in his life — he barely knew his father — but does quote Williams’ own daughter who said that her father was mentally ill.

“My father was sick,” Bobby Jo (Williams) said. “And it’s a damn shame that, because he was Ted Williams and because nobody wanted to tell him like it was, including myself, he suffered and progressively became more ill by the years.”

In addition to father-son relationships, there is another major theme that runs through the book.

Posnanski writes extensively about the plight of African American stars who never got the chance to play in the Major Leagues. For decades. they were forced to play in the largely invisible (to the white audience) Negro Leagues. Their stories come to life in The Baseball 100, as well.

So, who does Posnanski rank as the No. 1 player of all time? I’ll leave it to you to get a copy of this outstanding book and find out for yourself.

Hint: Say Hey when you finally figure it out

Read The Baseball 100 and savor the stories of the heroes of our youth.

Damar Hamlin: ‘We don’t get to choose our calling’

Damar players — Players huddle in prayer for Buffalo Bills defensive back Damar Hamlin after he collapsed on the field in January. (New York Times photo)

We’ve all experienced moments in our lives that are burned into our memories, and we’ll always remember exactly where we were when we witnessed it or heard the news.

The Twin Towers. John Lennon’s death. The Kennedy Assassination.

On Jan. 2 of this year, millions of Americans watched as Buffalo Bills defensive back Damar Hamlin made a tackle in an NFL game vs. the Cincinnati Bengals, stood up, then collapsed on the field.

My wife and I were among those who witnessed it, watching from our living room.

Damar lay motionless on the field as trainers and emergency personnel rushed to his side. I was struck by the reaction of the players, many of whom turned away and appeared to be in grief or in prayer.

Team and security personnel surrounded Damar and blocked any views by intruding network cameras or even his own teammates. Players on both teams gathered in a big prayer circle.

We feared the worst as the minutes passed. My wife speculated that he already could be dead, even though we didn’t know what had happened. Here’s a recap from the New York Times written a few days later.

Damar Hamlin had had a massive heart attack, and his heart stopped. The emergency personnel and training staff used defibrillators and brought him back to life, more than once, apparently. After many minutes, he was loaded into an ambulance and taken to a Cincinnati hospital.

We were as anxious as anyone else and silently praying for his life. We weren’t optimistic.

But you probably know the rest of the story. Damar escaped more near misses with death on the way to — and in — the hospital. Still, he grew stronger by the day and was released nine days later.

He continued to improve, and under doctor’s supervision began working out again and was eventually cleared to rejoin the team this summer.

Damar is again on the Bills roster and played his first minutes of action this past weekend.

Then he flew to Oklahoma City on Tuesday to share his story with an audience of about 1,000 Oklahomans at the annual Champions of Health Awards Presentations at the OKC Convention Center.

Champ Damar1 — Damar Hamlin shares the stage with News9’s Robin Marsh during a ‘fireside chat’ at the Champions of Health Awards Presentations.

I had the good fortune to be in that OKC audience as an employee of Care Providers Oklahoma, one of 11 health care related organizations that comprise the Champions of Health Coalition. All are working to improve health outcomes for Oklahomans, and the Champions of Health Awards recognize organizations or individuals that have devised innovative programs that could be replicated in other communities.

Anyway, the highlight of the night was Damar Hamlin’s presence and the perspective he shared in a “fireside chat” with News9 TV personality Robin Marsh. Check out the video that my CPO colleague Tanecia Davis shot of Damar speaking during the chat.

Robin introduced Damar and told him that millions of Americans had prayed for him that night from their living rooms, just as his teammates did on the field.

Soft spoken, Damar didn’t go into details of the incident, but instead focused on his mission since. Today, he’s working to ensure that the technology that saved his life is available by every sports team nationwide and that people are trained in CPR.

I was struck by one comment in particular by Damar about this mission.

“It’s kind of like a calling, & we don’t get to choose our calling,” he told us.

Amen.

Robin asked Damar about his youth and how he progressed from high school to college to the NFL. He shared the story of his personal journey, and something else stood out.

“I found a mentor,” he said. “I found someone who was older than me and successful and worked with them.”

Amen again.

I’m a big believer in cultivating a mentor and then following their example and advice. Although I never had a formal mentor, I’ve had some folks in my life who provided sage advice along the way.

Like millions of my fellow Americans, I’m so glad that Damar Hamlin survived this near death experience. Survived and emerged with his new mission, his calling.

And we don’t get to choose our calling.

BONUS! Read my blog post over at Care Providers Oklahoma website that provides more details about the Champions of Health Awards Presentations and winners.