Baseball is alive if not kickin’ in Wichita, Kansas, after the departure of the AA Wrangler’s last season. The Wichita Wingnuts are the newest member of the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball, taking up residence in Lawrence Dumont stadium. Former minor league player and coach Kash Beauchamp leads team in their debut season, which hasn’t gotten off to a rocking start at 20-15, but they make up for it with a lot of heart.
My wife and son joined me for a game this past Saturday night where the Wingnuts beat the St. Paul Saints 5-2. The win was not as pretty as it sounded, because of a bench clearing brawl in the top of the 9th inning. Now, it’s not that we shouldn’t have expected a fight to break out, because this IS the baseball team owned by the same group that owns the Central Hockey League Wichita Thunder. In fact, Thunder hockey forward Jason Duda even tried out for the baseball team in the spring. I missed the fight, since I was down getting beer in a very long concession line. Too bad. But it WAS a win!
Sunday was Father’s Day, and one of the special things my son and I did was attend a free baseball clinic put on by the Wingnuts coach Beauchamp. We spent more than an hour with outfielders, infielders, pitchers and Beachamp in his batting cage learning some great fundamentals for kids baseball. The players and coach were very generous with their time, and patient with the kids who came to the clinic. Some might be playing high school ball, while a few had never picked up a bat before. It didn’t matter. All the kids were treated with respect, and everybody had a great time. The attitudes displayed by the Wingnuts on Father’s Day will go a long way in shaping my opinion of this team as a member of the community. Good on you, guys!
We plan to see a lot more games this year, and I hope you will, too!
Filed under: My Posts | Tagged: baseball, Kash Beauchamp, Lawrence Dumont, Wichita, Wingnuts
I have to say that my impression of the Wichita Wingnuts Baseball organization has fallen somewhat due to their continued failure to address fan concerns. We went to a game last night where there were over 8,000 people in attendance. (3,000 were comp tickets purchased by Quik Trip) and the service was horrible.
Long lines at concession stands, confusion over the the debit card system established to combat employee theft, and general apathy on the part of Wingnuts management when contacted at the game, game me the feeling that it’s never going to be about the fans.
Non-profit volunteer run concession stands don’t work here. They don’t work at the Thunder games, either.
Even though they offered me free tickets to future games, I seriously doubt I will take advantage of the opportunity. Not unless I can sneak my own food and drink in the door, so I don’t spend more than half the game waiting in those insufferably long lines.
Kash Beauchamp, the Wingnuts manager, probably has done more for the team publicity wise in the past week than his players will do all year. A temper tantrum convienently captured on video and quickly distributed throughout the national media got him a lot of attention. Problem is, the attention will probably get him a better job as a coach-mascot with some minor league pro team before it will help his players performance.