I just want to let you know about something disheartening that happened this weekend.
We traveled 115 miles to attend the 9U State Baseball tourney this weekend. I am an assistant coach and my son plays on the team with ten (10) other 8-9 year olds. I brought my whole family (5), my parents (2), and a couple friends to watch my son play for the possibility of winning 9U state championship. Nine people total. We stayed two (2) nights at a local hotel (2 different rooms), went out to eat for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner... Went shopping... Bought gas, clothing, beverages, snacks and so much more. We poured in over $1000 into your local economy and that's just for 1 kid on 1 team. Think about all of the other teams and all of the other kids and their family members. Seven to eight teams with 10-13 kids on each team. Think of how much money everyone poured into the local economy... As well as entry fee and gate fee's. Just a ball park guest-imate... If just each family spent $500... LOW BALL estimate...$44,000-$88,000.
Back to the point at hand. It seems the city left the water sprinklers on during the night on Friday and the amount of rain on Friday and sat left the fields soaking wet. Games were delayed a few hours, which is fine... Then we tried to play our game at 1:30 and it started to rain harder and the kids were getting stuck in the mud so the games were postpones till Sunday. So Sunday we went to the ball fields and were not able to play at our field because of the water situation (may have left the water on again, because all of the other fields were playable). So an announcement was made to move the 9U games to the softball fields. We packed up and moved over to the softball fields and practiced outside till the fields were ready. Our game was slated for 11, but didn't get to get on the fields till 12:30 or so. Ready for game time, we were called over for a coaches meeting. There we were told that Bob Lomax (softball coordinator/field manager?) would not let us use the facility because someone broke in the park and was going to use it w/o HIS permission. We were told that some phone calls were made to try to fix the situation... But Bob was strong on his stance... And the games were cancelled. Several parents and coaches talked to him to get him to change his mind, but to no avail. "It's for the kids... Let us play... It's for the kids and they have worked hard all year to get to the state tourney"... But still set on his stance... NO!!! I asked him to explain it to my ball players and he went up to them and asked " Is it right or wrong for someone to break into your house?"... Kids replied..."it's wrong"... So Bob said "there you go" and walked off. He would not listen to anybody's rationale and would not talk to anybody about why we couldn't play our game. No one was using the fields that day.
My son and the rest of my players, along with the parents, were heartbroken. Bob would not take anything into consideration. Just because he has a personal beef with someone from the baseball field doesn't mean he has to take it out on the kids. Coach B. Told the kids " that's what happens when adults can't settle their differences... Kids get caught in the middle and end up getting hurt."
Bob, and whomever wouldn't give their permission to use the fields and whom let this ordeal unfold this way... SHAME ON YOU!!!
I promise you that our TEAMS (I help coach several teams in different age groups because of my kids) and their families will never set foot in Bixby again... Never... NEVER!!! And I will certainly let everyone else know all over the State how people are treated by Bob Lomax in Bixby. Believe me... I know lots of people all over the state, not only baseball related, but business related. Almost every team said the same..."WE WILL NEVER COME TO BIXBY AGAIN"!!! Mr. Lomax has set a bad example to our kids and his mishandling of this has put Bixby in a terrible light. I can't even express in words the way Mr. Lomax completely turned everyone away. I hope you are proud of this so-called employee... He just cost you thousands upon thousands of dollars.
Respectfully yours in disappointment
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