Drilling in a Pitch in Tulsa

Tim McGraw to throw out first pitch at the Tulsa Driller's Opening Game.  It's the first professional game in Tulsa in 80 years.

From: TulsaWorld.com ...

Country music singer and actor Tim McGraw will throw the ceremonial first pitch at ONEOK Field for the Tulsa Drillers' sold-out opening game Thursday.

"We are very fortunate to have Tim McGraw agree to do this. He's a busy man," Drillers owner Chuck Lamson said Monday.

McGraw is scheduled to play a concert at the BOK Center on Thursday.

Lamson said it is fitting that McGraw throw the pitch because he has a baseball connection — his father, Tug McGraw.

Tug McGraw was a premier relief pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Mets. He died in 2004.

In the 1980 World Series, Tug McGraw earned the final out against Kansas City with a strikeout, giving the Phillies their first world championship.

He was twice selected to play in the MLB All-Star game, and he is in the New York Mets Hall of Fame and on the Philadelphia Phillies Wall of Fame.

Tim McGraw attended Northeast Louisiana University on a baseball scholarship.

When Lamson and others realized that Tim McGraw would be in Tulsa the same night as the Drillers' opening game and debut of the new downtown ballpark, officials began efforts to see if McGraw would throw the pitch.

"When it was all said and done, it was some Louisiana connections that made this happen," Lamson said, pointing to Mike Neal, CEO and president of the Tulsa Metro Chamber, and Paul Wilkening, former chief deputy for the Tulsa County commissioners.

Neal's wife went to college with Tim McGraw at Northeast Louisiana, and later the children of Neal and Tim McGraw competed in sports against each other. Wilkening was a fraternity brother of McGraw's in college.

Neal said it's a huge plus to have the superstar in town.

"Albeit, we would prefer to not have the opening night of the Drillers in competition with a Tim McGraw concert, but everything worked out ideally with Tim's willingness to participate in the ceremonial first pitch," he said.

"I'm sure there will be a lot of us start out at the ballgame and move over to Tim's concert later," Neal said. "That just shows how our two venues can complement one another. Downtown Tulsa is certainly going to be hopping Thursday night."

Lamson said he is excited to have such "a great guy bring a blend of country music and baseball to really kick off this new era of Drillers baseball."

Read more from this Tulsa World article at http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=408&articleid=20100406_11_B1_Countr962831

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Watch Tim McGraw talk about how he discreetly spread his father's ashes on the mound at the World Series in 2008.  

Watch today's Baseball Song of the Day, "Live Like You're Dying" by Tim McGraw




BSOD 4/7/2010: Live Like You're Dying
Artist: Tim McGraw
Released: 2004


Live Like You're Dying Lyrics



He said: "I was in my early forties,
"With a lot of life before me,
"An' a moment came that stopped me on a dime.
"I spent most of the next days,
"Looking at the x-rays,
"An' talking 'bout the options an' talkin’ ‘bout sweet time."
I asked him when it sank in,
That this might really be the real end?
How’s it hit you when you get that kind of news?
Man whatcha do? 


An' he said: "I went sky diving, I went rocky mountain climbing,
"I went two point seven seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu.
"And I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter,
"And I gave forgiveness I'd been denying."
An' he said: "Some day, I hope you get the chance,
"To live like you were dyin'." 


He said "I was finally the husband,
"That most the time I wasn’t.
"An' I became a friend a friend would like to have.
"And all of a sudden goin' fishin’,
"Wasn’t such an imposition,
"And I went three times that year I lost my Dad.
"Well, I finally read the Good Book,
"And I took a good long hard look,
"At what I'd do if I could do it all again,
"And then: 


"I went sky diving, I went rocky mountain climbing,
"I went two point seven seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu.
"And I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter,
"And I gave forgiveness I'd been denying."
An' he said: "Some day, I hope you get the chance,
"To live like you were dyin'." 


Like tomorrow was a gift,
And you got eternity,
To think about what you’d do with it.
An' what did you do with it?
An' what can I do with it?
An' what would I do with it? 


"Sky diving, I went rocky mountain climbing,
"I went two point seven seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu.
"And then I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter,
"And I watched Blue Eagle as it was flyin'."
An' he said: "Some day, I hope you get the chance,
"To live like you were dyin'." 


"To live like you were dyin'."
"To live like you were dyin'."
"To live like you were dyin'."
"To live like you were dyin'." 


Related Links:
http://www.tugmcgraw.org
http://www.tulsadrillers.com