DUANE
Duane's take
Here's the story as the official marker tells it — my job is just to do it justice. Now, picture yourself in Kilgore, Texas, the spring of 1947. The war is over, the boys are home, and somebody somewhere decided the best way to celebrate all of that was to watch a baseball game.
On April 24, 1947, more than three thousand one hundred fans showed up to Driller Park for opening day, watching the Kilgore Drillers take on the Henderson Oilers. Three thousand one hundred people. In Kilgore.
For a baseball game. That is not a small thing — that is a town saying, loud and clear, that life is good again. Now, the park itself is worth a story of its own.
The Kilgore Baseball Club put up one hundred thousand dollars to build it, and S. S. Laird deeded the land to the city of Kilgore.
Here's a little wrinkle the marker wants you to know: Driller Park straddles the line between Gregg and Rusk counties. So depending on where you're standing in those bleachers, you might be in a whole different county by the time the third inning rolls around. And what were those bleachers built out of?
Well, this is East Texas oil country — what do you think? Oil field pipe, tank steel, and concrete, with an underground drainage system built right into the infield. They called it an excellent example of small stadium engineering, and I am not going to argue with that.
The Drillers played their hearts out until 1950, when the club disbanded. But the park — the park stayed. Driller Park kept right on being a haven for baseball in the city of Kilgore.
Some things, it turns out, outlast the team.
What the marker says
On April 24, 1947, more than 3,100 fans celebrated the postwar return of baseball as the Kilgore Drillers played the Henderson Oilers on Driller Park's opening day. Erected by the Kilgore Baseball Club for $100,000 on land deeded to the city of Kilgore by S. S. Laird, the park straddles the line between Gregg and Rusk counties. An excellent example of small stadium engineering, the ballpark was constructed of oil field pipe, tank steel, and concrete with an infield underground drainage system. Though the Drillers disbanded in 1950, Driller Park continues to be a haven for baseball in the city of Kilgore. (1998)