The boys of summer are back – well soon to be back - in Amarillo.
As the Amarillo Globe News reports, Elmore Sports Group announced Wednesday its plans to move its minor league baseball franchise, the San Antonio Missions, from San Antonio to Amarillo and to build a $45.5 million downtown stadium for the 2019 season.
The announcement was made during a press conference Wednesday and marks the return of AA affiliated minor league baseball to the city for the first time since the Amarillo Gold Sox left in 1982.
The team is a San Diego Padres farm club but that contract ends at the end of the 2018 season, so the Major League Baseball team affiliation could be evaluated. The Colorado Sky Sox, a AAA team in the Pacific Coast League, will move to San Antonio. Both teams are owned by Elmore.
D.G. Elmore of the Elmore Sports Group said the Amarillo team’s name will be changed through a naming contest.