Group Turns To The Web To Keep The Drillers

Monday, August 27th 2007, 8:36 pm

By: News On 6

The thought of the Tulsa Drillers moving to Jenks has some fans crying foul. A small group of Drillers fans is using the web to keep the baseball diamond in Tulsa. News On 6 anchor Omar Villafranca reports the man behind savetulsabaseball.com says he just wants to keep baseball alive and well in Tulsa.

Michael Patton loves Drillers baseball. He's watched hundreds of games from the stands, but when he heard the Tulsa Drillers might move to Jenks Patton went from fan to activist.

â€œWe were just lamenting the fact that Tulsa might leave. We want the Drillers to be in Tulsa, so we thought, what can we do?" said Michael Patton creator of www.savetulsabaseball.com.

Patton teamed up with other fans to start www.savetulsabaseball.com. The site wants to keep home plate in the Tulsa City limits.

"We just want to let the Drillers know how much we love them. We just want to tell Chuck and Hornsby and all them, we love the Drillers,â€ Patton said. â€œTulsa has a great tradition in baseball; we want to keep it here in Tulsa."

Patton is planning a 9th inning rally for the team through the website. He wants all diehard Driller fans to bring homemade signs and banners to Tuesday's game to try and keep the City of Jenks from stealing home plate.

â€œMost of the stuff is homemade. We have some little signs we made up, we printed at Kinko's, we didn't have a big PR budget," said Patton.

Patton says his website is not political. He just wants Tulsa residents and dormant fans to realize what they have in their dugout, before it's gone.

â€œThe new river tax is talking about building family gathering places on the river, we already have one, it's called the ballpark," he said.

On Tuesday the savetulsabaseball.com group will meet at the ballpark before the game. Tuesdayâ€™s Drillers game is free as long as you pick up free tickets. Those free tickets are available at QuikTrip, Arbyâ€™s and Mazzioâ€™s locations.

Watch the video: Man Launches Website To Save The Drillers

Related Stories:

8/20/2007 The Jenks Drillers?

8/21/2007 Jenks Trying To Lure The Drillers From Tulsa

8/21/2007 Fans React To Possible Drillers Move

8/21/2007 Previous Plans To Move The Drillers Have All Failed