History Buffalo Stadium

1 history

1.1 planning , funding
1.2 regular use
1.3 closure
1.4 post-occupancy

history
planning , funding

buffalo stadium s home plate plaque, until 2013, existed in stadium s original home plate location @ houston sports museum part of finger furniture store

on january 5, 1927, sam breadon, owner of major league cardinals, announced wanted purchase land city of houston construct new ballpark texas league buffaloes on january 18, announced location had been purchased in east end. @ st. louis cardinals board of directors meeting on february 1, 1927, money appropriated site. buffaloes had been owned cardinals since 1920.

buffalo stadium s name decided on january 21, 1928 committee composed of president of houston baseball association, fred ankenman, sports editors of 3 houston daily newspapers.

regular use

the stadium opened on april 11, 1928, 7-5 win on waco cubs infamous cushion fight. 15,000 fans in attendance, , largest crowd ever have watched baseball game in houston @ time. previously, record had been 8,300 set in 1925. texas governor dan moody threw ceremonial first pitch, while houston mayor oscar f. holcombe served catcher , houston businessman jesse h. jones served umpire.

on february 21, 1931, chicago white sox , new york giants played exhibition game @ buffalo stadium first night game between 2 major league ball clubs. game went on ten innings.

on june 11, 1950 death occurred @ ballpark during game between houston , tulsa oilers when fifty-year-old laundry worker, sanford b. twente, committed suicide there @ press box. incident heard in ballpark listening on television via klee-tv. directly after suicide, camera broadcast television footage of man slumped over. police had been told half-hour before incident man had reported waitress kill himself. upon arriving @ television booth of press box in sixth inning of game, twente told broadcaster dick gottlieb got tell you. gottlieb, motioned man away, , continued commentary of game. instead of leaving, twente sat himself between gottlieb , television engineer. engineer attempted remove twente press box, revealed pistol , shot himself. body fell across engineer.

the stadium became home cardinals after 1952 season. fred saigh, had bought both cardinals , buffs in 1947, on verge of being forced out of baseball after being convicted of tax evasion, , put cardinals sale. lucrative offer consortium of houston businessmen planned move cardinals houston. under major-league rules of day, since cardinals owned buffs, owned major-league rights houston. reason, question whether buff stadium upgraded major league standards in time 1952 season. however, @ 11th hour, saigh took lower offer anheuser-busch.

the stadium renamed, in similar fashion st. louis cardinals sportsman s park, busch stadium in 1958 honor busch family. @ same time, buffs transferred triple-a american association cardinals top affiliate. although team sold marty marion on november 26, 1958, busch stadium remained under ownership of anheuser-busch company.

closure

eventually stadium purchased anheuser-busch william hopkins after purchased houston buffaloes marty marion. initially, stadium planned expanded capacity of 30,655 accommodate major league baseball team. however, when owners of houston colt .45s purchased buffaloes territorial rights, opted use stadium practice, , built colt stadium , astrodome.

the final game @ buffalo stadium major league all-star game (not confused midsummer classic) sponsored houston professional baseball players association on october 15, 1961.

post-occupancy

the stadium existed unused when sold a. w. george salvage company @ public auction on march 14, 1963 mere $19,750 usd. single bid stadium.

sammy finger, owner of houston-based finger furniture, purchased stadium, , demolished in order build furniture showroom , warehouse finished in 1965. stadium had been badly damaged hurricane carla 2 years prior. finger furniture built showroom around home plate, , retained commemorative plaque home plate location on floor in addition houston sports museum on-site.

during demolition, pieces of ballpark moved nearby hitchcock, texas, , stored @ hitchcock naval air station.

in 2013, physical building of finger furniture store closed, , sold developer frank liu in february 2014.