1982 Fleer, John Harris

#463 John Harris

Here is the second card that John signed for me in Wichita in 2011. As I said in the last post, John was managing the Amarillo Sox of the American Association that summer. A friend and I went to Amarillo the previous season to check out a game. While I was unable to get my cards signed by John at that game, I did get some good pictures of a rather outdated ballpark.

Here is the ballpark from the outside.

They say everything is bigger in Texas, but that is not always the case. Take the enlarged hats on the outside of the park, for instance. They do not even come close to the ones in Anaheim.

This park was built in 1948 and feels that way in every way, from the stands to the restrooms to the playing surface. Here is a pic of the seating bowl, followed by one of the outfield. Notice the little league-style scoreboard and badly manicured lawn.

The Sox got trounced at the game we attended. In fact, the first eight guys to bat for the opposing team all scored. The eight hole hitter hit a grand slam in the top of the first to put the team up 8-0 with no outs. It was quite impressive to say the least.

Here is one of the concession stands that reminds me of a carnival. I bought a brat at the game and Amarillo is the only place I have ever been where I had to decide if I wanted it in a bun or a tortilla. I picked the tortilla just because it was so different.

Overall, I had a great time at Amarillo National Bank Sox Stadium. There are not too many dinosaurs like this that are still around, so it is fun to take one in when you get the chance. There are talks about the city building a new park and I can easily understand where they are coming from. While I enjoyed my trip there, it would be hard to go there ten or more times in a season. And it has got to be hard to draw talent there with the rough playing surface and outdated clubhouses.

The Sox have some of the cooler uniforms in pro ball today. They remind me of some early Padres unis.

When I first started this blog, I was just doing it so I could get used to blogger. My main goal was to start a blog about all of the ballparks I had been to. Sadly, that blog never came to be.