Shreveport, LA

Park # 34

What I Remember

Fair Grounds Field in Shreveport was a fairly nondescript stadium, which is another way of saying that I don’t remember too much out of the ordinary from this Monday night stop in northwest Louisiana except that we were on the front page of the local sports section the next day. This began to happen more and more frequently as the summer went along and we even rated a front page or two but in May this was a new experience for us and pretty exciting. A copy of the story is in “The Box” photo gallery below.

The Shreveport Captains moved to Frisco, Texas in 2002 and their stadium gradually fell into disrepair but the demise of Fair Grounds Field was also a sign of the times. In 1991 there were many minor league teams that played at ballparks at the local fairgrounds and, as the name implies, Shreveport was one of them. But because of the real estate they require, fairgrounds are typically found on the outskirts of town and the trend that started with Camden Yards in Baltimore toward downtown ballparks was already well underway before the Captains left town.

The Game(s)

San Antonio Missions 4 Shreveport Captains 3

The Box (Click on the arrows to see more images)

The Shreveport Captains lost this game but they won a lot more than they lost that year. The Giants Double-A team went 86-50 and won the Texas League Championship in 1991 beating El Paso in the championship series.

The Trip

This was the last stop in the Texas League and that was good since we were almost out of gas literally and figuratively. The league was notorious at the time for its long bus rides, it stretched from El Paso, Texas to Jackson, Mississippi, more than 1,000 miles, but our circuitous route through it was way longer than that. There were still a few long drives ahead but by the end of this week we would be in Florida where teams play within minutes of each other.