Oklahoma City Baseball Club Announces New Minor League Affiliates

July 18, 2018 Steve Harper 0 Comments

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – Owner and General Manager Will Owens announced Oklahoma City Baseball Club’s new minor league affiliates for the 2029 season at a press conference Wednesday at Kellogg’s Cereal Bowl in downtown Oklahoma City.

The Mammoths revealed locations and team names for their Reserves, Development-A, Development-B and Youth Academy teams.

“When we were selecting where we wanted our minor league teams to play, everyone agreed we wanted the teams close by to grow our brand in the region,” Owens said. “It also helps us move around players more efficiently when promoting and demoting players.”

Reserves

The Tulsa Roughnecks will be the new reserves team for OKBC. A tribute to the oil industry, the Roughnecks will play at ONEOK Field which was once home to the Tulsa Drillers, an MLB minor league team. Tulsa is the second largest city in Oklahoma and holds the nickname of “Oil Capital of the World”.

City: Tulsa, Okla.

Population: 961,561

Distance from OKC: 1 hour, 39 minutes

Nickname: Roughnecks

Colors: Navy and Orange

Stadium: ONEOK Field

Capacity: 7,833

Development-A

OKBC’s new Dev-A team will be the Panhandle Prairie Dogs and will play at Amarillo Ballpark which opened in 2019 and served as an MLB AA ballpark. The Prairie Dogs will no-doubt have some of the most entertaining uniforms in baseball. The team will wear old-style uniforms complete with suspenders and bow-ties as a tribute to America’s pastime and the early pioneer settlers of both the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles.

City: Amarillo, Texas

Population: 370,000

Distance from OKC: 3 hours, 45 minutes

Nickname: Prairie Dogs

Colors: Brown and Light Blue

Stadium: Amarillo Ballpark

Capacity: 3,200

Development-B

For the Dev-B level, OKBC announced it would be building a new ballpark in Texarkana with half of the park in Texas and the other half in Arkansas. It is believed to be the first professional baseball ballpark in two different states. The Texarkana Twins will be the first professional ballclub in Texarkana since 2009. The Twins will share their ballpark with Texas A&M-Texarkana.

City: Texarkana, Texas/Texarkana, Ark.

Population: 160,000

Distance from OKC: 4 hours, 30 minutes

Nickname: Twins

Colors: Black and Silver

Stadium: State Line Field

Capacity: 1,900

Youth Academy

OKBC wanted it’s top prospects at the Youth Academy level to be close to home so the Mammoths settled on the third-largest city in Oklahoma. A quick 30-minute drive south from downtown OKC, Norman is home to Oklahoma University. Norman is also home to the National Weather Center due to the high volume of tornadic activity in the region. OKBC will pay homage to the scientists in Norman by naming the team the Norman Nadoes. The Nadoes will play at OU’s baseball stadium.

City: Norman, Okla.