Driller hosts minor league exhibition

Brandon Haygood is coming home.

And he's bringing quite a few of his newest, closest friends with him.

Haygood, who spent his childhood in Kilgore, will get to come back to the place where baseball all started for him on Wednesday, May 3, when he and his team - the Shreveport Sports - face their rivals, the Fort Worth Cats, right here at Driller Park in an exhibition game, which should bring a bit of nostalgia to longtime Kilgore residents - it will be the first professional baseball game of any kind played at the historic ballpark since the late 1940s.

"I'm looking forward to this," said Haygood on Thursday, referring to playing a game at Driller. "I played a game or two there when I was a kid, playing in the KBBA (Kilgore Boys Baseball Association). We played an all-star game there, I think.

"I thought it was pretty cool when they announced this (the exhibition game). We only play one other exhibition, and then we start the season."

The 23-year-old former Louisiana Tech University standout, a secondyear player for the Sports, will suit up at second base. Father Galin Haygood and mom Galene, who still live here in Kilgore, make many of Brandon's home games in Shreveport. But they won't have to drive more than three or four miles to make this one.

"They liked that," Brandon laughed.

He attended Chandler Elementary School and Kilgore Intermediate School, he said, before his parents moved to Tatum in his sixth or seventh grade year. Brandon, the next-toyoungest of four brothers, finished high school in Bossier City, and then got his college education - in the classroom and on the baseball diamond - at Louisiana Tech in Ruston. Brandon has been working out with La Tech's team recently, and the Sports start their own official preseason workouts next week.

Shreveport has embraced the Sports with open arms, Haygood said, and he's glad to be playing so close to home.

The May 3 date here at Driller against the Cats will be a preview of the season opener between the two American Association South Division rivals on May 11, and Haygood said he's looking forward to playing top competition, noting that the Cats "have always been pretty good," he said, and that they are the defending Central Baseball League (CBL) champions (the CBL folded after last season, and now both teams are part of the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball).

Haygood had a good season last year, his first as a pro. He hit .235 in 187 at-bats in 60 games, getting 44 hits (including 10 doubles, two triples, two home runs) and collecting 20 RBI. He walked 22 times, stole five bases, and had a slugging percentage of .342.

He correctly noted that when the Sports face the Cats, there is one other local connection.

Kip Harkrider, a former U.S. Olympian and University of Texas standout and the brother of Kilgore High School baseball

head coach Tim Harkrider, will be the second baseman for the Cats. Harkrider played most recently with the Edinburg Roadrunners, but was signed by the Cats in the offseason.

"He is good," Haygood said. "I'm looking forward to seeing him play."

The exhibition game here, sponsored by Alcoa and the Kilgore Chamber of Commerce, marks the first time since 1948 that Driller Park has hosted a pro game. The park regularly hosts high school games, and is among the most sought-after venues in East Texas when the playoffs roll around each year.

Tickets for the contest are $4 and can be purchased in advance at the chamber or at any Kilgore bank. Tickets at the gate will be $5, and children 12 and under will be admitted free. Any KBBA player wearing a uniform will also be admitted free.

The first pitch that day will be at 6 p.m.

The chamber plans various promotions during the game, most of them between innings.

Kilgore's own Lana Phillips will sing the National Anthem, and various activities are scheduled for the remainder of the contest. Between the first and second innings, there will be a dot race sponsored by Patterson

Motors. Between the second and third innings, there will be a dizzy bat race, sponsored by Kimray, New Generation Farms, and Express Personnel.

Between the third and fourth, there will be a uniform race, sponsored by Cudd Pressure, Kilgore Ford and Wilbur Yates. A water balloon race will be conducted between the fourth and fifth innings, sponsored by Kilgore Ford, and a rubber chicken race between the fifth and sixth, sponsored by Citizens Bank.

Another dot race, this time sponsored by Oil Masters/Rig Masters, will take place between the sixth and seventh innings, and "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" will be sung, a la Chicago Cubs/Harry Carey style, in the seventh-inning stretch, sponsored by General Dynamics/ Vertex.

There will be a mascot race sponsored by Guaranty Bank between the seventh and eighth innings, and there is not yet an event scheduled between the eighth and ninth.

If you'd like to meet Haygood and possibly some other Sports and Fort Worth Cats players before the game, come to next weekend's Taste of Kilgore event. Some players are scheduled to be on hand and team memorabilia will be given away.