My Favorite Place On Campus

OU’s beautiful campus is full of interesting places. The nooks and crannies of the “Cherokee Gothic” North Oval and the vast South Oval afford something for everyone. However, my favorite campus spot isn’t on the ovals; it’s L. Dale Mitchell Park, home to the Oklahoma Sooners baseball team.

Baseball has been my favorite sport since I was nine, which is saying something–I really like sports. Ballparks are one of baseball’s biggest appeals. They’re unique, well-groomed playing fields with personality and a life of their own, and the Mitch is no different.

The Mitch finds its color in the sloping grassy banks behind each dugout, where kids frolic and clamor for foul balls each game. There’s also the hills behind the outfield walls, where diehard fans forgo the expense of a ticket to set up lawn chairs and watch the game with binoculars and coolers full of beer.

As the winter gives way to tenuous spring, there’s no better sign of summer’s impending reign than baseball games at L. Dale Mitchell Park. They’re unfailingly cold in the early season, but a late-April Sunday afternoon there can feel like paradise.

I first started attending OU baseball games as a freshman. I would walk to the park from my dorm room a few hundred yards away. Sometimes I went with friends, other times by myself. I liked baseball in a way that made company unnecessary; I just wanted to catch the game, even if no one was coming with me.

My favorite memory at the Mitch came that year, when my father came to Norman to see the Sooners take on the University of New Orleans. He bought us tickets for right behind home plate. It was a game we should have won, and we did, but the night was memorable for the fashion in which we did it.

Our starter that Friday night was Jonathan Gray, the big country fireballer. My father and I sat amazed as Gray lit up the Pirates with fastballs clocked as high as 102 miles per hour. It was exhilarating to sit right behind such a masterful performance; we had a perfect view of big-league talent, a much better view than we could ever get in the big leagues.

Though Oklahoma has yet to advance to the College World Series in my time here, I will continue to support the baseball team whenever possible. Games at the Mitch remind me that summer is approaching and that one more year of hard work is almost over, and for these reasons L. Dale Mitchell Park is my favorite place on the OU campus.