baseball

The NBC World Series is returning to its roots in downtown Wichita this summer.

For the first time in almost 14 years, Wichita baseball fans cheered on a minor-league team in their hometown.

The Wichita Wind Surge played their inaugural game Tuesday night at Riverfront Stadium against the Amarillo Sod Poodles to an almost sold-out crowd.

The long-delayed debut of Wichita’s newest baseball team is finally here.

Nearly three years ago, then-Mayor Jeff Longwell announced in a news conference at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium that the New Orleans Baby Cakes were planning to relocate to Wichita.

After a long, twisting journey that included controversy over the stadium development deal, the cancellation of the 2020 season and the death of the team's managing partner, affiliated minor league baseball will return to Wichita on May 11.

The first baseball game in the stadium built for the Wind Surge, Wichita’s minor league team, will not involve the Wind Surge.

Instead, Wichita State will play Houston in a college baseball game Saturday in Riverfront Stadium’s debut event.

The Wichita Wind Surge baseball team will play its first game in Riverfront Stadium on May 11.

The team will open the 2021 season on the road May 4 in Springfield, Missouri, before returning to Wichita.

Jared Forma, senior vice president and general manager of the Wind Surge, said he is thrilled to play baseball after last season was canceled by the pandemic.

“This is a tremendous day,” Forma said. “We are beyond excited.

Wichita’s minor league baseball team is set to become part of the Minnesota Twins’ organization.

The Wind Surge said Wednesday it has been invited to be Minnesota’s Double-A affiliate.

Lou Schwechheimer, who brought minor league baseball back to Wichita, has died.

The owner of the Wind Surge never saw his team play in its new stadium because the 2020 season was canceled by the pandemic.

The team said in a news release Wednesday that Schwechheimer died of complications from Covid-19. He was 62.

“There are no words to express the loss of the entire Wind Surge family,” Jared Forma, the team’s senior vice president and general manager said in a statement. “Lou was truly one of a kind, someone who never met a stranger.