Arkansas Travelers General Manager Paul Allen had a moment, barely that, to reflect on crisis management before the start of Saturday night's Texas League game between the Travelers and the Tulsa Drillers.
"It's a sense of urgency," said Allen, describing how staff dealt with the sudden arrival of four sinkholes on the Dickey-Stephens Park playing surface. "You need to put your head down and go to work."
That Tulsa beat Arkansas for the second consecutive night -- 4-2 on Saturday after rallying to win 6-5 on Friday -- was secondary to the work done by ballpark Superintendent Greg Johnston and his grounds crew to keep the field in playing shape, and the communication between Travs personnel and the managers of both teams.
It was that communication that led to two field-maintenance delays totaling 68 minutes -- 23 minutes in the eighth inning on Friday night, and 45 minutes before the start of Saturday's game, witnessed by an announced crowd of 7,651 -- to repair sinkholes.
Each time, Travs Manager Mitch Canham and Tulsa Manager Scott Hennessey got together and watched intently as the grounds crew did what needed to be done to fill the holes with dirt and Donofill.
Saturday, they actually stripped fresh sod off a soft spot in right-center field after players repeatedly ran over the ground.
"It's their call," Travs President Russ Meeks said of the managers. "We go to them and say, 'Here's what we're thinking, and then they can say, 'Do it that way.' "
Hennessey said the grounds crew deserves all the credit.
"They were right on it," he said. "A-plus effort."
Former major-leaguer Mike Cameron, a special assistant for the Mariners organization, tested the spot and helped come up with a remedy.
"We suggested putting clay on it," Canham said.
The grounds crew obliged.
"Those guys are working their tails off," he said.
There was a third field maintenance delay -- for fuve minutes at the end of five innings Saturday to correct an infield flaw -- but it had nothing to do with the sinkholes and was caused by a postgame remote dig Friday that won the finder a new TV.
Hennessey had nothing but praise for the way the situation has been handled.
"Credit the executives here," said Hennessey, whose team has pulled within 51/2 games of the Travelers in the standings with 15 first-half games remaining. "They weren't going to force the issue. Everybody was on the same page. Very professional."
It was management that alerted Canham to the deepening hole down the right-field line before the Travs came to bat in the bottom of the eighth inning on Friday night.
Canham trotted out of the dugout, summoned Hennessey to the plate and apprised him of the deteriorating situation in right field.
"We were watching it, and we pointed it out," Meeks said.
Travs officials also had to deal with flooding in the parking lot and in the entrance way to the park caused by the rapidly rising Arkansas River.
"We're pumping water out," Meeks said, "and more is coming in from different places."
Meeks said it will be impossible to know the extent of the sinkhole problem until the Arkansas River recedes.
It's a situation the Travs thought had been corrected in January 2016 when sinkholes popped up all over the playing surface, mostly on the warning track, after heavy rains in December 2015. North Little Rock appropriated $450,000 to correct the problem, and the field was deemed playable by late March of that year.
Both Meeks and Allen said they were told the ground had been "rehabilitated" and were assured the problem would not surface again.
But Meeks said it's possible that the pressure of this historic cresting of the Arkansas River may be the culprit and not a product of incomplete work. They will have to wait and see.
More will be known after today's 2:10 p.m. finale, followed by an eight-day road trip for the Travs.
"I have no opinion," Meeks said of the cause, adding, "some of them are in the same spots."
TULSA AB R H BI ARKANSAS AB R H BI
Lux, ss 4 0 0 0 Cowan, 2b 5 0 2 0
McKinstry, 2b 5 1 2 1 White, 1b 5 0 2 0
Thomas, dh 5 0 1 0 Fraley, lf 4 0 1 0
Santana, 3b 5 0 2 0 Taylor, 3b 5 0 1 0
Ruiz, c 2 1 0 0 Ahmed, ss 4 0 1 0
Peters, cf 4 1 1 1 T-Williams, dh 4 0 0 0
Walker, 1b 3 0 0 0 Zammarlli, rf 4 1 2 1
Rincon, lf 3 0 0 0 DeCarlo, c 4 0 1 0
Landon, rf 3 1 1 1 Knapp, cf 3 1 0 0
TOTALS 34 4 7 3 totals 38 2 10 1
Tulsa 020 000 110 -- 4 7 2
Arkansas 000 101 000 -- 2 10 1
E -- Lux, Peters, Ahmed. LOB -- Tulsa 9, Arkansas 11. 3B -- Peters. HR -- Landon (3), McKinstry (6), Zammarelli (4). SB -- Fraley, Cowan.
TULSA IP H R ER BB SO
Holmes 5 8 1 1 2 3
Nunn W, 2-1 1 0 1 0 0 1
Cabrera 2 1 0 0 0 2
Kasowski S, 2 1 1 0 0 0 1
Arkansas IP H R ER BB SO
Crismatt L, 1-4 62/3 5 3 2 2 6
Tenuta 2/3 1 1 1 0 0
Cordero 2/3 1 0 0 4 1
Leyer 1 0 0 0 0 2
Cordero pitched to 3 batters in the 9th.
WP -- Crismatt, Cordero 2. Umpires -- Home: Gorman; First: Olson; Third: Carroll. Time -- 3:07 (:50 delay). Attendance -- 7,651.
Sports on 06/02/2019