SAN ANTONIO – The sign of football season approaching in the Alamo City usually signifies the end of minor league baseball for the summer. The end of this Missions' season will be bittersweet no matter how the season concludes.
It was announced last summer that our Missions were moving up in the baseball world. San Antonio has been home to minor league baseball since 1888 and after 113 years in the Texas League, the Missions will be moving from Double-A to Triple-A baseball in 2019, just one step away from Major League Baseball.
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The biggest question going forward is a new stadium to go along with San Antonio's advancement in minor league baseball. Nelson Wolff Stadium has been the Missions home since 1994 when they moved away from V.J. Keefe Field at St. Mary's University. The talk of a new stadium has been on people's lips long before the city welcomed the San Antonio Scorpions.
For now, the blueprints for a new stadium are no where to be found, or at least not been announced, and the Missions will be playing Triple-A ball at the Wolff for at least the next two years.
Another unanswered question is who the Missions will be a farm club for. The team has not be told who they will be affiliated with starting in 2019. The Missions have been the farm club for numerous MLB teams, such as the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Seattle Mariners and currently the San Diego Padres.
While the Missions say goodbye to the Texas League teams they've battled for so many years, they also prepare for new rivalries. According to the team, the Missions will be playing in the Pacific Coast League's American Southern Conference. Other teams in that conference are the Round Rock Express, the New Orleans Baby Cakes and the Oklahoma City Dodgers. The new conference adds a chance for San Antonio to create a new I-35 rivalry with the Express, the farm club to the Texas Rangers.
The other team from the Lone Star State in the league are the El Paso Chihuahuas. They're the current Triple-A affiliate to the Padres, so there's a chance you'll see some of your favorite Missions players visiting the Wolff next season.
Fans will be pleased that one promotion will not change next year. The "Flying Chanclas" campaign will continue in some fashion in 2019 according to the team. The fan favorite home games as the Missions don Flying Chanclas hats and jerseys is too popular to let go. So if you didn't get a chance to buy your own "Copa de la Diversion" merchandise, it turns out you'll still be able to do that next season.
But why wait until 2019 when it's still being sold at the Wolff?
There's only seven regular season home games left, with the Missions starting a four games series on Tuesday against the Frisco RoughRiders. All games will start at 7:05 p.m. The last three home games will be against the Corpus Christi Hooks starting on Friday, September 1st.
Twitter: @missionsmilb Instagram: @SAMissions
Daniel P. Villanueva has worked with KSAT 12 Sports for over 15 years and is an award-winning sports producer. For story ideas, email sports@ksat.com