{"id":38880,"date":"2019-09-16T23:15:16","date_gmt":"2019-09-16T23:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=38880"},"modified":"2019-09-16T23:15:16","modified_gmt":"2019-09-16T23:15:16","slug":"will-there-be-a-city-celebration-for-the-soddies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=38880","title":{"rendered":"Will there be a city celebration for the Soddies?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?hashtags=Soddies%20%23SodSquad%20%23SodPoodles%20%23Hodgetown&#038;via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/ama-soddies.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-38024\" src=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/ama-soddies-300x224.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"224\" srcset=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/ama-soddies-300x224.png 300w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/ama-soddies.png 420w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I am acutely aware that as an Amarillo ex-pat, any suggestion I have for the city I called home for more than 20 years likely won&#8217;t carry much weight.<\/p>\n<p>What the hey? Here goes anyway \u2026<\/p>\n<p>Is there any thought being given in Amarillo for a community celebration to honor the Amarillo Sod Poodles&#8217; winning the Texas League baseball championship?<\/p>\n<p>I mentioned a parade in an earlier blog post. I get that a parade along Polk Street could be tough to assemble.<\/p>\n<p>But there need not be a parade to celebrate the Sod Poodles&#8217; accomplishment. A ceremony at second base at Hodgetown might work. Invite the public onto the field for an afternoon soiree. Serve hot dogs, beer, nachos, Cracker Jack, popcorn.<\/p>\n<p>Bring the Sod Poodles players to the event. Have a presentation from Mayor Ginger Nelson. Give &#8217;em a key to the city.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m on the road at the moment. I won&#8217;t be able to attend such an event. I only want the best for Amarillo. The Sod Poodles have delivered a major bragging point for the city&#8217;s baseball fans who&#8217;ve waited a long time for the return of affiliated minor-league hardball.<\/p>\n<p>I keep thinking of what retired Amarillo College President Paul Matney once said in promoting the referendum approval of the venue that eventually would become Hodgetown. &#8220;Amarillo is a baseball town,&#8221; Matney said. He is right. The fans demonstrated it by showing up by the thousands for each home game the Soddies played.<\/p>\n<p>So, why not reward them &#8212; and the team &#8212; with a citywide celebration?<\/p>\n<p>It would cap a wondrous season.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?hashtags=Soddies%20%23SodSquad%20%23SodPoodles%20%23Hodgetown&#038;via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am acutely aware that as an Amarillo ex-pat, any suggestion I have for the city I called home for more than 20 years likely won&#8217;t carry much weight. What the hey? Here goes anyway \u2026 Is there any thought being given in Amarillo for a community celebration to honor the Amarillo Sod Poodles&#8217; winning &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=38880\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Will there be a city celebration for the Soddies?<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,17],"tags":[1436,8347,7816,5786],"class_list":["post-38880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","category-sports-news","tag-downtown-amarillo","tag-hodgetown","tag-sod-poodles","tag-texas-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38880"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38881,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38880\/revisions\/38881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}