Ray Winder Field

It was Happy Sad Day at Ray Winder Field on Sunday, September 3rd. It was the last day the minor league team, the Arkansas Travelers, were playing at the vintage baseball field that, according to t-shirts, has been around for 75 years. If you haven’t been there, it’s got all the charm of its 75 years: the old wooden seats and the intimate, humble space and, of course, the requisite organ that will surely be transported to the newer, fancier stadium being built in North Little Rock. It’s also got some “modern” conveniences—or oddities—like the bathrooms that are a solid sheet of metal. Good for hosing down, I suppose.

I’m not old enough to have a 75-year history with the place. In fact, I’m a Johnny-come-lately. I started going to the Travs games in the 1980s when I was in college. My fondest memory of those days is the Beer Man! who serviced the rowdy crowd on the bleachers behind third base and passed away some years ago.

Luke has a more entertaining history with the Travs at Ray Winder Field. He’s the only person I know personally that has won a Clunker Car—a two-toned Chevy Chevette that, after driving around in it and referring to the unused car as “his OTHER car” in a bragging-cuz-I-got-two-cars kind of way, he sold for 100 bucks.

Luke’s also the only person I know who’s called Bingo at the Travs game. In between bellows of “B-12!” and “O-65”, he’d call out, “Soooomeeeboddddy bring me some Naaaaaachos!” and he’d have 5 orders of them in 5 minutes.

I think Henry will remember his short, 4-year history at Ray Winder. At least, I hope he does. He might drive past it one day and think, “That elephant sanctuary sure reminds me of baseball.” That’s one of the ideas floating around for using the space. But I hope Henry remembers the last game. We scored some box seats through friends of Luke’s—this was major since an hour before the game we couldn’t find any seats and gave up and headed home. We got a phone call during the 2nd inning about the seats and went rushing back. We sat 5 seats down from the Governor and First Lady. Not that we voted for him! Ever! A man in the first row gave Henry a ball he caught that had an awesome black smudge on it from maybe a bat. We later had the ball signed and dated by Bill Valentine, who Luke explained to Henry is “Mr. Travelers.” Henry was also given a set of trading cards by another nice stranger and Luke caught an opposing team’s cap that a player threw into the stands and gave that to Henry (Mr. Travelers also signed that but I doubt he knew it was a Cardinals cap). It was definitely a happy day. The Travs won, by the way.

So long, Ray Winder Field. So long to being a block away from organ music, the 7th Inning Stretch, the scary donkey/horse mascot and 5 orders of nachos. It was fun!