Friday, August 22, 2014

Max H. Christensen Stadium


WHERE: Midland, Texas
WHERE EXACTLY: North Lamesa Road and TX-250 Loop 
WHEN VISITED: November 24, 2013 while returning home from visiting son Tommy and his art exhibit at Fabrica 309 during Alpine ArtWalk 2013.
WHEN BUILT: 1952

The Angels minor league team the Midland Angels played here from 1985-1998 so I was super excited to visit it.
It used to be called Angels Stadium, then Cubs Stadium.


You can see the darker areas on the facade which included "Home of the Rockhounds" and the teams logo.
The Rockhounds, an A's affiliate, called it home from 1999-2001 


Ticket office.  Still a few vestiges of the Rockhounds existance here.


In 2002 the city built a brand new facility for the Rockhounds on the West side of town, they now play at First American Bank Ballpark.


Local high schools and Midland College use the stadium now.


Seating capacity was about 5,000.
All the remaining seating is aluminum bleachers.


The lower box seats were all missing, probably sold off as memorabilia when the Rockhounds left.


Theres only a small section with a rook overhand offering limiting protection from the West Texas sun.










Old logo of the Midland Angels still exists in brick on the third base side behind home plate.
You can barely make out the halo at the top of Texas.
I was really happy to see this as it was the only indication of Angels history here.


Mike Carter Field


WHERE: Tyler, Texas
WHERE EXACTLY: Fair Park Drive, next to Rose Stadium (football) and Tyler Rose Garden 
WHEN VISITED: August 2, 2014 on a weekend trip to East Texas

The WPA field opened in 1938 and was home to several teams: Tyler Trojans, East Texas League (1938-40, 1946, 1949-50), Lone Star League (1947-48); Tyler East Texans (1951-53), Tigers (1954-55), Big State League.  It then didn't see a lot of action until the Tyler Wildcatters of the Texas-Louisiana League called it home from 1994-97.  It was most recently used by the Tyler Roughnecks of the All-American Association in 2001 and now apparently it's mostly used by the local Tyler Junior College Apaches and amateur teams.  The stadium was renovated in 1990 and seats 4,000.


The field was locked up pretty tight, except there was a gap in the chain-link gate on the right field side near the equipment shed.  There was just enough room to slide through, and I really wanted to see the inside bad, we came all that way.  So I left my wife in the car, grabbed my camera and wriggled my way in.  As I did so I apparently set off a motion detector because I heard a buzzer sound coming from the shed.  Frantic, I was only able to get the one interior shot before I scurried out of there, ran to the car and got out sight before the cops came.  We laughed.......

Angelina College Roadrunner Baseball Field

WHERE: Lufkin, Texas
WHERE EXACTLY: Angelina College, 3500 South First Steet (actually off of FM819/College Drive 
WHEN VISITED: August 3, 2014 on a weekend trip to East Texas


The ballpark is built into the side of a hill, you enter from the top.  You can't really see much at the entrance which serves as the entrance to both the softball and baseball fields.


Nice stonework serves as a grass seating area along the right field line.  It had rained pretty heavily the week before so a lot of the grass was washed out.  It was fairly muddy.


Angelina College is home to Roadrunner Baseball.  The Roadrunners play in the NJCAA, Division XIV.