Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark

Oklahoma City voters approved a temporary one-cent sales tax increase in December 1993 to fund the Metropolitan Area Projects Plan (MAPS), the city's capital improvement program created to build and upgrade sports, recreation, entertainment, cultural and convention facilities. During the 66 months the sales tax was in effect, more than $309 million was collected. The ballpark opened on April 16, 1998 with the RedHawks falling to the Edmonton Trappers 6–3 in front of a sellout crowd of 14,066 fans. ==Features==

Statues of legendary baseball players with Oklahoma ties stand before the ballpark's three main gates. A 7-foot-6 bronze statue of Mickey Mantle stands on a 3-foot granite base at the third base pavilion. Mantle, the New York Yankees' switch-hitting star, was born in Spavinaw and raised in Commerce. The Baseball Hall of Fame centerfielder's statue was dedicated on the ballpark's opening day April 16, 1998. Baseball Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench grew up in Binger, and a nine-foot statue of the former Cincinnati Reds star greets fans at the ballpark's home plate gate. The statue was dedicated July 27, 2001. A statue of Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Warren Spahn was dedicated July 2, 2005. The Cy Young Award-winning left-hander hailed from Buffalo, New York, but chose to make Broken Arrow and Hartshorne his home after managing the Tulsa Drillers from 1967-71. His statue sits outside of the ballpark's right field gate. Approximately 480,000 bricks make up the exterior of the ballpark, which mixes retro charm with modern accommodations. A 10-foot-tall, 185-foot-long LED video board was added in left field for the 2011 season. The ballpark has received numerous accolades since its opening in 1998, including being named the No. 2 minor league ballpark in the country by Baseball America the year it opened and being hailed as one of the country's top 10 minor league stadiums in the 2013 10Best Readers' Choice Awards, presented by USA Today. The ballpark has 30 entertainment suites on the upper level along with the Oklahoma Fidelity Bank Club (with 10 attached suites), Legends Lounge, Party Pouch, Budweiser Deck, Baseline Patio, Skyline Deck and Picnic area. There is also two lawn areas and a playground on the east side of the park. ==Name changes==

The stadium was to be called "Southwestern Bell Park." When the general public learned that Bricktown wasn't part of the name, there was an uproar. Due to public pressure, the stadium opened as Southwestern Bell Bricktown Ballpark (later SBC Bricktown Ballpark after Southwestern Bell's name change). In March 2006, the ballpark was renamed AT&T Bricktown Ballpark following the merger between SBC and Old AT&T. After AT&T reevaluated its sports marketing strategy, they gave up naming rights, resulting in the RedHawks Field at Bricktown designation for 2011. On April 4, 2012, it was announced that Newcastle Gaming Center in the nearby suburb of Newcastle (owned by the Chickasaw Nation) had purchased naming rights to the ballpark, with the new Newcastle Field at Bricktown name effective immediately. The name change led to public outcry, principally over the prospect of a suburb's name appearing on a city-owned building. One day later on April 5, 2012 (the opening day of the 2012 RedHawks season), Newcastle Gaming Center announced that it would once again rename the ballpark as the Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. ==Notable games==

• The ballpark opened April 16, 1998, with the RedHawks losing to visiting Edmonton, 6–3, in front of 14,066 fans—the third-largest crowd for an Oklahoma City home opener behind 14,801 in 1992 and 14,488 in 1987. The ballpark's four-game opening weekend attracted the most fans ever for a four-game baseball series in Oklahoma. A total of 42,851 people attended the four games for an average of 10,713 per game, which paced minor league baseball that weekend. • The RedHawks recorded their first win at the ballpark April 17, 1998, defeating Edmonton, 8–2. • On July 10, 2002, a crowd of 11,343 watched the Pacific Coast League shut out the International League, 5–0, in the 15th Triple-A All-Star Game. Oklahoma's Aaron Myette was selected as the Pitcher of the Game. • Luis Mendoza pitched the team's first nine-inning no-hitter August 14, 2009, against the Salt Lake Bees at Bricktown Ballpark. He threw 125 pitches, including 74 for strikes. He walked six and struck out six batters in the 5–0 win. • From 2006 to 2010, the park hosted the Triple-A Baseball National Championship Game, originally called the Bricktown Showdown (2006–2008). The single-game playoff between the champions of the International and Pacific Coast Leagues effectively served as a winner-take-all World Series style game between the two Triple-A leagues. The first one was played on September 19, 2006, when the Tucson Sidewinders defeated the Toledo Mud Hens, 5–2, before a crowd of 12,572. • The RedHawks set the team record for most runs scored in a game at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark and tied the club record for most runs scored in a game overall in a 24–5 win against Colorado Springs on August 3, 2013. • The RedHawks won 17 consecutive home games July 26 – August 20, 2013, for the longest home winning streak in team history at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. • The longest game at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark occurred on September 1, 2015, when Oklahoma City and the Iowa Cubs played a 19-inning game that lasted 5 hours, 44 minutes. Buck Britton's two-run walk-off homer gave the team a 6–4 win in what was the first game of a doubleheader. OKC went on to win the second game, 3–1, as the teams combined to play 25.5 innings over 7 hours, 31 minutes. • OKC starting pitcher Wilmer Font racked up a team-record 15 strikeouts on May 15, 2017, against Sacramento at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark and went on to be named the PCL Pitcher of the Year. • OKC recorded back-to-back-to-back home runs for the first time in modern team history June 9, 2017, against the Round Rock Express in Oklahoma City. With one out in the first inning, Joc Pederson, Scott Van Slyke and Willie Calhoun each homered within a span of five pitches. • The third-largest crowd in Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark history was on hand to watch a rehab appearance by Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw August 26, 2017, against the Omaha Storm Chasers. A standing-room-only crowd of 13,106 was the largest in OKC since April 18, 1998 – the third game ever played at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. ==History of ballparks in Oklahoma City==

Amateur teams started playing on makeshift fields shortly after the state's Land Run in 1889 in a centrally located site near where Bricktown sits today. In fact, Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark sits within a block of the original site. ==Transportation==

The Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark is served by the Oklahoma City Streetcar at Ballpark station. ==References==