The big show is tonight at Driller

File photo THE PLACE TO BE TONIGHT - Pro baseball returns to Driller Park at 7:05 p.m. tonight. It's been a hot topic all week around town, and tonight is the night that the Shreveport Sports and Fort Worth Cats bring professional baseball back to one of its most historic places in the state, Driller Park.

The two American Association of Baseball South Division rivals, who met in the playoffs last season, just began spring training last week and will face off in an exhibition game tonight at Driller, a 7:05 p.m. start. It's the second straight year for Driller to host a spring game between the two, and the contest drew a large turnout last year.

Tickets are $5, and box seats, which apparently were a good idea, have just about been sold. Come prepared to sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," grab great food from the concession stand, watch some great professional baseball players and take in some of the fun contests between innings.

Children in uniform (such as Kilgore Boys Baseball Association players, for instance) will be admitted free.

The game is brought to the area just as it was last year by the Kilgore Chamber of Commerce, who plan all sorts of activities between each inning (several contests, trivia questions, and just good fun). Remember - this is a pro game, and it has nine innings.

The contest does not count on either team's record - that will begin next week when the Cats host the Sports in the season opener May 10. But, as Cats third baseman Terence Green pointed out in Wednesday's Kilgore News Herald sports section, his team will face the Sports several times this year, maybe even again in the playoffs. Every look at the Shreveport squad could help them (and vice versa).

It's only fitting that Driller host pro baseball. The park opened in April, 1947, and, as the historical marker in front of the park reads, it sits on the Gregg-Rusk County line. The Kilgore Drillers were the first team to call the park home, and the Kilgore High School team plays its home games there, one of the best facilities in high school baseball in the state (many playoff games are played there each year, as well).

The old park has been refurbished in recent years, getting a new press box, a much-needed new paved parking lot and the ultra-nice new clubhouse, the latter provided largely by the KHS baseball booster club.

See coverage of the game and scenes from and around it in Friday's News Herald.