eBook About Metro Tulsa Gains Popularity
By DAVE ANDREWS
Contributing Writer
The people, places, teams and events that make metropolitan Tulsa unique are featured in the first comprehensive eBook about this area’s contributions in entertainment, athletics, industry, education, religion and the American way of life.
“Derricks, Diamonds and Dreams: Life and Sports in the Tulsa Oil Patch” was published in July 2015 and quickly received national and international distribution from well-known eBook retailers such as Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Kobo and many others.
Some reviews have likened the eBook to a Ken Burns public television documentary. While there is in-depth information about each subject, the presentations are entertaining.
The eBook’s author, Elven Lindblad, is a life-long resident of metropolitan Tulsa with over 40 years of experience in research for such diverse industries as background screening, print and electronic communications, private education, and financial institutions.
“Derricks, Diamonds and Dreams” originally focused strictly on metropolitan Tulsa’s sports heritage. Then, conversations with out-of-state visitors planted a seed that grew into something much larger.
“To a person, every one of them said they wanted to learn everything possible about all aspects of Tulsa in a single book or eBook. For people considering relocating here for employment or other reasons, they says that is very important,” Lindblad said.
“There have been many intriguing books written about Tulsa’s civic history, minor league baseball, the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot and other topics, but most of those focused on a single subject,” he continues.
“There was almost nothing that connected all aspects of life in Tulsa and the surrounding communities. So the more I thought about it, the more sense it made, and it was written that way.”
An interesting story in “Derricks, Diamonds and Dreams” is the invention of the batting tee by the manager of the 1966 Tulsa Oilers baseball team, Charlie Metro, and how he lost out on millions of dollars from his creation.
In 1942, Metro played against Tulsa as a member of the Beaumont Exporters but couldn’t hit worth a lick. While working after that season at a Pennsylvania rubber factory, he stacked rubber tubes of various sizes atop each other, put an old mattress nearby, placed a ball on top of those tubes and hit it into the mattress. Dollar signs soon danced in Metro’s head.
“Charlie completed the necessary paperwork to patent his creation but never paid the filing fee because minor league baseball players weren’t paid very much during the 1940s,” Lindblad says. “He kept putting it off, and others soon capitalized on his mistakes.
“Nevertheless, every child or grandchild that ever played tee ball owes a debt of gratitude to the manager of the 1966 Tulsa Oilers,” he adds.
By visiting www.tulsasportsebook.com, a copy of “Derricks, Diamonds and Dreams: Life and Sports in the Tulsa Oil Patch” can be purchased for $2.99, then directly downloaded to an eReader, tablet, smartphone or computer. Users of an iPad or other Apple devices, click on the Apple icon, Kindle users, click on the Amazon icon, and so forth.
Updated 11-24-2015
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