Long before the Wichita Wingnuts took the field before 6,000 cheering fans at Lawrence Dumont Stadium, the team already had scored big with crowds in middle Kansas. The American Association of Independent Professional Baseball team became Wichita’s newest pro sports league in 2008, joining the Wichita Wild Indoor Professional Football team and hockey club Wichita Thunder, also operated by Wingnuts owner Wichita Pro Sports.

“We’ve had an outstanding start,” says Wingnuts field manager Kash Beauchamp. “The support of the com­munity has been overwhelming.”

Beauchamp says the team felt at home in Wichita early on, when the Wingnuts name was selected through The Wichita Eagle’s name-the-team contest. Wichitan Hank Haneberg submitted the Wingnuts name, which later was selected from among 200 submissions.

“The Wingnuts name ties in with Wichita’s airline industry and is just a great choice,” Beauchamp says.

The logo, designed by the local firm Associated Advertising, features a sin­ister baseball hiding behind the team name and wearing a wingnut for a baseball cap. It immediately took second place in the CNBC.com Minor League Logo Awards.

The Wingnuts arrived in Kansas following the 2007 departure of the Wichita Wranglers, but more than jerseys have changed in Lawrence Dumont Stadium. Games now include fan pro­motions and family-friendly events, from balloon relays and mascot races to inflatable jump toys.

“We do a lot of wild and crazy things,” Beauchamp says. “It’s just more fun for the fans.”

He also credits the team’s success to an active local ownership group and the players’ eagerness to embrace the city as their own.