'Family reunion': Season’s start special for Arkansas Travelers workers, fans alike

The pollen brushed off as easy as it had the year before.

Seat 2 of Row K, Section 211, gleamed green, and Dorothy McDonald approached for her 20th season.

She sat, draped the gray blanket over her lap and began filling out her scorecard.

"It's a special day," said McDonald, 78, who attended opening day for the Arkansas Travelers on Thursday night at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock. "I enjoy them more than anything."

The Travs defeated the San Antonio Missions 3-1 to kick off the 2018 season.

Once upon a previous season, McDonald said, she had befriended two of the players, who ended up attending Sylvan Hills Church of Christ with her. She made them cookies for their road trips on the bus -- no-bakes and Martha Washingtons.

On Thursday, her son, Sam, was her game-day companion. She used to attend every game with her husband, Quitman, who died in 2015.

They always sat in Row K, a few yards away from the ballpark organ.

There, Trey Trimble was quietly tapping practice tunes.

A notebook rested on the organ's music stand, with a long list of handwritten song titles. He doesn't read music. The first read "Wheel Of Fortune Theme"; the last, "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life."

"I played four of the songs two days ago," said Trimble, 30, who is one of six live organists in minor-league baseball. "I shoulda done more."

Trimble arrived for his 10th opening day as the live organist with the Travelers.

"It's kind of like a big family reunion," Trimble said. "We all catch up, and it's enjoyable."

A line began to form outside the gates, while season-ticket holders such as McDonald gained the privilege of early passage.

Through the concourse walked Paul Allen, who is entering his sixth season as general manager of the Travs.

He passed the popcorn stand, the organ, the concession kitchen.

Six years ago, Allen said, he spent the waning hours before his first baseball game as the ballpark's manager in that kitchen. The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville baseball team was in town, and Allen, in the rush to prepare the ballpark, entered the kitchen and began grilling hamburgers.

"I got a lot more sleep this time," said Allen, 37. "I could have even slept longer."

Allen started out as an intern at the old Ray Winder Field in 2005, a fresh graduate from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

"This time in 2005, I was picking up trash and washing windows, changing light bulbs, mowing grass, not knowing what I was getting into," Allen said. "I was just a giddy kid out of college.

"I was in charge of painting the batter's box lines. It was super cool. I was like, 'Man, I got this huge job I'm responsible for. All the players are going to step into the batter's box, and everyone who comes through the gates are going to see it.' I had butterflies as if I was playing that day."

The grounds crew began to hose down the infield dirt after batting practice concluded, and the Travelers jogged toward the clubhouse beyond right field.

There, Dwayne Tinkle, 38, and Alisha Stephenson, 30, leaned against the fence with a stack of notebooks filled with fresh baseball cards.

Season-ticket holders for five years, Tinkle and Stephenson have collected dozens of autographs from former Travs, which they said they collect and give to the 13 nieces and nephews in their family.

"If they make it [to the majors], that makes it better," Tinkle said. "But we want them no matter what."

Travs right-handed reliever Matt Walker approached, signed and chatted with another autograph hunter.

"Are you gonna pitch tonight?" the man asked.

"Nobody knows for sure," Walker replied.

The crowd began to trickle in, the organ began to play and a new intern began to paint the batter's box lines.

"It's the beginning of pro baseball for me," said Logan Cook, 26, who is entering his first season after attending the University of Alabama in Huntsville. "Hopefully this'll be a good start for me."

Sports on 04/06/2018