BLUEFIELD —
They pulled it off. Billy Wagner and Erik Robinson — a pair of Tazewell County farm boys who became roommates and best friends as undergraduate students at Ferrum College — staged the largest one-day event at Mitchell Stadium in Bluefield history.
At the absolute minimum, the crowd attending the Second Chance Rocks the Two Virginias Concert was about 16,500, with some police crowd estimates at 18,000 or more. Even by the most conservative estimates, the figure easily eclipsed the previous crowd estimate of 15,000 that attended the July 12, 1924, “Marriage of the Bluefields” when Graham, Va., officially became Bluefield, Va., at a ceremony on the state line at the old Bluefield Fairgrounds (now the tennis courts of Lotito Park) with Gov. E. Lee Trinkle of Virginia and Gov. Ephraim F. Morgan of West Virginia attending.
However, there weren’t any governors attending this time.
“I am a redneck just like everybody else. I just got lucky,” Wagner said as he and Robinson bathed in the loving cheers from the thousands of country music fans at Mitchell Stadium. For a man whose blood appeared to run like ice water during 16 seasons in pro baseball as one of the most feared relief pitchers in the Major Leagues, Wagner got choked up when he tried to tell the crowd what the Second Chance Learning Center means to him and Robinson.
“I had a guy like Coach [Lou] Perry [of the Tazewell High School Bulldog baseball team] who pushed me,” Wagner said as he tried to explain the importance of giving high school students a second chance to succeed. “The kids are important,” he said as he struggled to maintain composure. “Throwing a baseball ... That’s not important.” He thanked the fans and the community for supporting the effort and thanked the artists “who came through” with exceptional performances.
Wagner and Robinson visited on stage with Dierks Bentley as the stage staff from SRO (Standing Room Only) Productions of Roanoke, Va., worked to strike the stage after Montgomery Gentry’s exciting performance and switch out drum kits, amps and guitars for Bentley’s show. Bentley’s new release, “Am I the Only One?” is currently charting at No. 8 on Billboard’s Country charts. Justin Moore, who performed earlier in the day at Second Chance Rocks the Two Virginias has the number one hit this week on Billboard’s Top 100 Country Songs — “If Heaven Wasn’t So Far Away.”
“This has been a dream of ours,” Robinson said from the big stage at Mitchell Stadium. “This has been a great time today.” He went on to explain that the Second Chance Learning Center provides free counseling, mentoring and tutoring to high school students who are at risk of dropping out of high school. “It’s just like Billy has said: ‘We can’t change the world, but we can change Southwest Virginia and southern West Virginia.”
Robinson said he and Wagner knew there would be some glitches along the way, but he added that Second Chance is already working on next year’s concert.
“Surprisingly, leaving the stadium was probably the smoothest thing we did all day,” Sgt. G.W. Lightfoot of the Bluefield Police Department said. “The representative from RMC that staged the concert told us that our most challenging time would probably be from about 4:30 to 6 p.m. After that, I think everyone was anxious to hear Montgomery Gentry and Dierks Bentley so they were all focused on the music.”
Bluefield Police Chief J.W. “Joe” Wilson smiled and pointed to the crowd during the Montgomery Gentry concert and said: “This fool just ripped his shirt off. I guess there is one in every crowd.” Montgomery Gentry was performing their song, “One in Every Crowd” at the time.
Wilson said his officers had to remove some unruly fans from the stadium, but he agreed that the crowd appeared to mellow as the sun went down and the final two acts performed. “One of my guys got a cut on the head,” Wilson said. “He was treated and is back out here now.”
Pete Sarver, director of the Bluefield Department of Parks and Recreation had spent long days at Mitchell Stadium, and was amazed by the efficiency of the SRO Productions crew that switched out equipment and prepared the stage for seven different acts.
Kent Martin of SRO told me that this was the most bands he had ever worked with at one time,” Sarver said. “He told me it was incredible how all of these bands worked together. I understand that’s not always the way it is, but it worked out great with these groups.”
Sarver also said that Second Chance offered to cover the expense for a Field Turf Tarkett maintenance crew to come in and totally revamp June O. Shott Field in time for the football season.
“It was about time for us to have that maintenance performed on the field, so it works out well for us,” Sarver said. “The only thing that I didn’t expect was that when I contacted the maintenance staff, I told them they could start sometime during the week of July 17, and they scheduled us to start on July 17. We might be pushed to be ready for them.”
“What a party we had today!” Joe Jarvis, program director of KICKS Country said before introducing Bentley.
Kes Blackwell said he was “honored and blessed,” to introduce Robinson and Wagner. Blackwell wore one of Wagner’s No. 13 jerseys from his season with the Atlanta Braves. He was fatigued as he exited the stage when Bentley and his band began to perform. “I’m blessed,” Blackwell said, and smiled.
From a technical standpoint, the crowd that attended the July 4, 1945, Heroes Day Parade was estimated at about 30,000 people in the downtown and along the parade route, but only a few thousand people actually attended the Heroes Day program at Mitchell Stadium.
— Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com
Click here for "Second Chance Rocks in full swing" video
Click here for "Second Chance Rocks begins" video
Click here for "Waiting for Second Chance Rocks" video
Click here for "Second Chance Rocks setup" video
