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  Bob Lutz  

Stadium could use a little bit of TLC

The old ballpark shows her age with every passing winter.

It sits in a pristine spot, west of the Arkansas River, with a spectacular view of Wichita's changing downtown. It is a treasure in this community, which is why we can never, ever ignore her.

Lawrence-Dumont Stadium is up there in years and needs our love and attention. And even though affiliated professional baseball pulled up roots and left for Arkansas, replaced by an independent league franchise nobody knows a lot about, the stadium's place in the city remains the same.

Wichita would not be the same without a robust and attractive Lawrence-Dumont.

I don't know how the Wingnuts, Wichita's venture into independent baseball, will do. There are so many unknowns. Right out of the chute, I wonder how the Wingnuts can charge 99 cents more for a ticket than the Wranglers and do really well at the box office considering that the Wranglers never really caught on with a better quality of baseball.

I hope this works on the field and in the stands. I hope the Wingnuts' management makes the ballpark experience as much fun as they're apparently trying to make it. Baseball is, after all, baseball. And there are players on this team I'll be curious to see: Ex-Wichita State players Kevin Hooper and Derek Schermerhorn, along with former big leaguer Dustin Mohr, who has hit 49 homers in the big leagues.

The Wingnuts, though, are a separate issue from the stadium in which they'll play 48 home games, starting tonight against the Sioux City Explorers.

It's the stadium that most concerns me. There haven't been many improvements made since the Wranglers' 2007 season ended. One that was made, though, was to replace the windows in the press box. I'll now be able to see the games I'm writing about and for that, I'm thankful.

Some painting was done to spruce up the place. The Wingnuts are going to reopen the seating area down the right-field line; it has been used sparingly for a couple of years. And there is a new beer garden atop the bleachers on the third-base side.

Otherwise, the park looks pretty much the same. Which isn't necessarily a good thing.

The dugouts are still too small. The 10 sky boxes need to be renovated. The artificial turf has lost a lot of its bounce.

"We asked the city of Wichita not to make any big improvements right away," Wingnuts president Chris Presson said. "We wanted to make sure of what needs to be done. Until we've been in here for a year and hear from our players and our fans -- then we'll be able to give a better opinion."

Presson said negotiations with the city, resulting in a 15-year lease on the ballpark, went well. He is convinced city officials have the kind of pride in Lawrence-Dumont Stadium that will keep them from neglecting the place, even when money is tight.

"We have a big wish list of improvements," Wingnuts general manager Josh Robertson said. "And we'll meet with (city officials) in June and go over the capital improvement projects."

Robertson wants to make Lawrence-Dumont more fan friendly and has placed a priority on widening concourses and upgrading concession and restroom facilities.

With a stadium as old as Lawrence-Dumont, which has been around since the 1930s, there's always something to be done.

So far, city officials have done a pretty good job of prettying up the place when it has needed prettying up. It's important that continues, even if there is no affiliated minor-league baseball played there.

Any chance the Wingnuts have to find their niche in this market is, to a large degree, dependent upon the coziness and fan-friendliness of Lawrence-Dumont. Ditto for the National Baseball Congress World Series, which will celebrate its 74th anniversary this year.

L-D is one of Wichita's most prized landmarks. But it will remain one only with relentless TLC.

Eagle sports columnist Bob Lutz co-hosts "Sports Daily" from 9-11 a.m. weekdays on KFH, 1240-AM and 98.7-FM. Reach him at 316-268-6597 or blutz@wichitaeagle.com.