Where the 89ers Played

Looking at the press box level and right-field stands at All Sports Stadium, Aug-1995.

A shot looking out from the seats.

Chronological Tour: Stop 86

• Location: State Fairgrounds, Oklahoma City, Okla.
• Opened: 1961
• Closed: 1997
• Demolished: 2005
• Home team: Oklahoma City 89ers, American Association (1962, 1969-97), Pacific Coast League (1963-68)
• Capacity: 12,000

Rating: 2 baseballs

The park was located in the State Fairgrounds complex, convenient to both I-40 and I-44, and about 3 miles south of old Route 66. According to site visitor Frank Jackson of Dallas, the park was still standing in Jun-2002, five years after it last saw action. However, it was in very poor condition, as the State Fair had done nothing to preserve it. Finally, in 2005, another site visitor, Nathan Milliron of Oklahoma City, told me the park was demolished in June.

I visited the park in August 1995, less than four months after the devastating bombing of a federal building in the city. The presence of the 89ers (named after the legal homesteaders of the former Indian Territory in 1889, as opposed to the early birds who became known as Sooners) was one of the city’s stabilizing forces in that tough time.