Texas Tailgaters vs Indianapolis Clowns – Tulsa

Over the weekend I made my annual trip to Tulsa – except this time it was not for Hanson although I landed ON Hanson Day. (May 6.) I was instead going to see Banana Ball – My first Texas Tailgaters series of the season against the Indianapolis Clowns. I landed and went to my usual hotel and was given my usual room, except I’d be there all alone this time and every time I went into the lobby I didn’t know everyone there. It was really weird. I ended up doing a ride around the area only to see that it seemed like Hanson had completely moved out of their studio and office space and all of their decals had been removed, but the outline of their logo and name remained.

My first adventure was to head to Scheels where players would be doing a M&G. I am never sure how early to turn up at these things, but I also hadn’t eaten and they had a restaurant inside so I first got myself some food, then wandered the store that had a Ferris wheel and aquarium among other exciting things and finally got in line about 30 minutes before the M&G was scheduled to start. The players were on the Ferris wheel and in attendance was Brett Sanchez and Christian Davis from the Tailgaters and Drew Irvine and Kobe Robinson from the Clowns. I had on my Kyle Field shirt (iykyk) and they asked if i was at the game and I said no, I just liked the shirt and Brett said that they had beaten the Bananas and I said “I KNOW!!!” a bit too enthusiastically which prompted Kobe to ask who my favorite team was. When I replied hesitantly that it was The Party Animals they made the connection with my hair and called me ‘the second coming of Tanner Thomas’. They had Banana Ball in Tulsa shirts for sale which I got signed and then wandered around some more waiting for my friend to get off work so he could come meet them as well.

Thursday my friend picked me up after I successfully was able to get Hanson tix (with the help of a friend) for later in the year and we did a little tour around Route 66 – the Kendall Whittier neighborhood to do a photo shoot with the KW (my initials), a drive by the Outsiders house (I haven’t been yet but it unfortunately wasn’t open) and then lunch at Mother Road Market which I also had not yet been to. We then swapped the walker for a scooter and made our way down to OneOK for game 1!

We opted to skip the KClub set up as it was not at the field and my friend bought a pack of cards for each team with the goal to try and get as many signed as he could. I have been having them fill out little quiz worksheets so I continued with that. I never saw Clark so I figured he was at the KClub event, and then I looked up after getting ready to go let my other friends into the plaza area and he was above me waiting for a hug! Game 1 was pretty exciting – the Clowns took a 1-0 lead in the 1st and Eli Paton got the 100th Trick Play in Clowns history. In the 2nd the Tailgaters tied it up and then went ahead for a 3-1 lead in the 5th. The Clowns came back to tie it in the 6th and 7th and we went into the 9th tied 3-3. In the end, the Tailgaters came out on top winning 4-3 in regular innings. But the Clowns had their 2nd cycle of the season and the 2nd I was present for. Eli Paton became the 3rd cycle of the season! (Again they didn’t announce it in the stadium and I asked why and the team did not know, but they said a lot of the players and even the coaches didn’t realize it had happened!) After the game we hung out in the plaza until the very, very end – getting in the circle for friends in low places and I even danced with one of the two-steppers! By the time I had gotten back to my hotel room, I had secured a ticket for my friend for the Friday game and he was hooked. And only had a handful of cards left to get signed!

For Game 2 we had Banana Ball Backstage tickets and we knew rain was going to be coming in so we didn’t know if it would be on the field or not. But the skies were sunny and bright so we were down on the field. I think by the time we got down to the field my friend had snagged Jayson Arendt and gotten all his cards signed at least by whatever players were in attendance (there is a lot of tailgaters who are injured!) We opted to get our posters signed at the BBB and it took us a while to track down an elevator and I had a lot of fun scooting around the bases. There didn’t seem to be as many people as usual so we were able to have some longer conversations with several players AND I finally made it into a group photo. I also got a photo with Grub, who then later tried to ride on top of me and my scooter! Afterwards we got to our seats which were 2 rows from home plate and watched the sky get darker and darker and the tarp go on. It was supposed to be “just rain” so we donned our ponchos to not have to deal with navigating steps and a wet concourse. No, there definitely was thunder and lightning and perhaps even some hail (or some really hard hitting raindrops that made us scream ‘ouch’) We were not the only ones who braved it out in our seats and honestly considering the downpour and how much water was at our feet – our stuff and ourselves didn’t get nearly as wet as I was expecting.

The game ended up starting about an hour and a half late. The Tailgaters took a quick 1-0 lead in the first, and got their 200th Trick Play of the season in the 2nd. (Compared to the Clowns getting their 100th the night before, they’re still learning the ropes) In the 3rd the Clowns tied it up. It went back and forth until the 9th when it was all tied up 3-3. The Clowns had Jackie Bradley Jr lead off with a single, replaced him with Flash as the designated runner, Bobby Lada had a fan out, then the Golden Batter of Jackie Bradley Jr came back up again hitting a 2 run homerun – scoring… himself and himself? Making it 5-3. Gage Voorhees stressed me out but was able to close it out with a scoreless inning and the Clowns won 5-3!! After the game we chatted with a couple of our favorite players but my feet were soaked and I just wanted to get out of my wet socks so we didn’t stick around long. I was fully prepared to have to put the hair dryer to my shoes in the morning – which was exactly what had to happen and fortunately it worked pretty well and quickly!

Saturday ended up being a busy morning, especially after a late night. First my friend picked me up and we went to Dunkin. We were able to get pennants signed by the players – Clowns had Bobby Lada and Corelle Prime and Tailgaters had Zach Watson and Kyle Martin on hand. Corelle ended up checking out our order of half a dozen donuts, with their faces on them. It was a lot more chill compared to the one that I had done in Charleston and way less people as well which made it even more fun as we had time to chat with everyone. After, I got dropped off at the Oddities and Curiosities Expo to see my friend and her husband who is an artist and had a table set up. There was a lot of cool things but unfortunately not a lot that I liked that I could have safely gotten home (except for of course a print and sticker from my friend’s husband and a sticker and pin from the show itself). There were some cool ballerina skeletons, dia de los muertos sugar skull animals, octopus, sea stars, butterflies… I probably would have gotten a butterfly if I spotted an orange one, but the booth was packed and I didn’t see one from a distance.

After that, I went on what might be one of my most ridiculous side quests yet. The the BOK Center in Tulsa there is a Hanson mural made out of guitar picks. As far as I could tell, you can only see it during a show. The only event going on the weekend I was there was a religious event. I am not religious, but they did discounted tickets for Easter so I decided that was my chance. It was going from 8:30am-6pm and included lunch and I decided I would just go in, see the mural and leave. Plans got mildly shifted when I was escorted to an ADA seating area – but it was right inside the section by the mural. It gave me a chance to eat my provided sandwich. After about 10 minutes of a speaker and half of a song, I made my way out, took a pictures of the mural and me with the mural and then made my way back to the hotel for a nap!

For the final game I went with a Hanson friend, her husband and her husband’s friend but they didn’t get there until closer to gate time so I had time to harass the players by myself for a while. The Clowns took a quick 1-0 lead again, Tailgaters tied it up in the 2nd, took the lead in the 4th, extended it in the 5th. Clowns scored again in the 6th which turned out to be a pretty interesting inning – the Clowns scored 4 runs, with 2 outs in the bottom of the 6th Mo’ne Davis came in to pitch, she gave up a ball 4 sprint to Zach Watson and then what looked like his 3rd home run in as many games to Kyle Martin – except in his celebration he jumped right over home plate. Clowns tagged home, reviewed the play and he was out and I believe the official scoring was an RBI Triple + out to end the inning. Unfortunately the Clowns couldn’t come through for any more runs after that inning and ended up falling to the Tailgaters 3-2.

Once the game was over I only stayed to say goodbye to Clark, since I had a 7am flight. He said that he thought he did too and would probably see me at the airport. I got back to the hotel, showered, packed as much as I could and tried to get as much sleep as I could before my 4:30am ride came.

When I got to the airport there was no sign of any players, until I saw JBJ at the ticket counter next to mine (he was flying a different airline but also not likely flying back to Savannah). Once I got to my gate – way too early, but I never know when to get there for assistance, I started seeing some of the players showing up. I’d say about half of each team got on the flight boarding at the gate next to mine. 2 of the players spotted me – one being Clark. I didn’t bother trying to talk to any of them because I knew how tired I was and they had to be just as if not more so.

More to come on my flights home in the next post about &Juliet…

And yes, my friend of Thursday and Fridays games as well as Clark convinced me I should go to the games in OKC in August too. After finding a hotel with a room OVERLOOKING THE FIELD I was sold. Now to track down tickets. Although, not even sure if I really need to considering my hotel room. haha.