Tulsa Drillers
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Tulsa Drillers Founded in 1977 Tulsa, Oklahoma |
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| Class-level | |||||
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| Current | Double-A | ||||
| Minor league affiliations | |||||
| League | Texas League | ||||
| Division | North Division | ||||
| Major league affiliations | |||||
| Current | Los Angeles Dodgers (2015–present) | ||||
| Previous |
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| Minor league titles | |||||
| League titles (3) |
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| Division titles (4) |
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| Team data | |||||
| Nickname | Tulsa Drillers (1977–present) Lafayette Drillers (1975–1976) |
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| Ballpark | ONEOK Field (2010–present) | ||||
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Previous parks
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Drillers Stadium (1981–2009) Oiler Park (1977–1980) |
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Owner(s)/
Operator(s) |
Dale & Jeff Hubbard | ||||
| Manager | Ryan Garko | ||||
| General Manager | Mike Melega | ||||
The Tulsa Drillers are a minor league baseball team based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The team, which plays in the Texas League, is the Double-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers major-league club.
The Drillers play at ONEOK Field (pronounced "one-oak"), in downtown Tulsa's Greenwood district. The team previously played at Drillers Stadium on the Tulsa County Fairgrounds at 15th and Yale in midtown Tulsa. The Drillers held their first home opener at ONEOK Field on April 8, 2010, losing 7–0 to the Corpus Christi Hooks in front of an over-capacity crowd of 8,665. In their first season in the new ballpark, the Drillers drew total attendance of 408,183, the highest season figure in the history of Tulsa professional baseball.
The Drillers came into being in 1977, when the two-year-old Lafayette Drillers were moved to Tulsa. Before that time, the Triple-A Tulsa Oilers had been the city's minor league club, but owner A. Ray Smith moved that team to New Orleans due to concerns over the dilapidated condition of Oiler Park. The new team opted to keep the Drillers name carried over from Lafayette—appropriate given the importance of oil to the Tulsa economy.
The Drillers set up shop at Oiler Park, which was renamed Driller Park. However, it was obvious that the old stadium was at the end of its useful life, and plans were already underway for a replacement. Tulsa County completed 8,000 seat Robert B. Sutton Stadium in 1981, naming it for its chief benefactor, a local oil executive. Sutton, however, was convicted in 1982 of fraud, and as a result the County renamed the park Tulsa County Stadium, and renamed it Drillers Stadium in 1989.
From 1977 to 2002, the Drillers were the Double-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers. In 2002, Rangers owner Tom Hicks purchased the Shreveport, Louisiana Texas League franchise with the intention of moving the team to Frisco, Texas, a suburban city north of Dallas, Texas. At the time, the Shreveport Swamp Dragons were affiliated with the San Francisco Giants; Hicks cast aside this association and bought out the remaining two years of Tulsa's Player Development Contract. The Drillers then signed a two-year agreement with the Colorado Rockies. After the 2014 season they signed an affiliation agreement with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
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