While the true story as to who invented baseball is still in
question—Abner Doubleday’s name is still associated with the creation of the
game in 1839.
Doubleday was stationed in the Valley with Zachary Taylor’s
U.S. Army during the Mexican War—once in Port Isabel (1846) and again at
Brownsville’s Fort Brown in 1848.
It is not known whether Doubleday organized a game while
stationed here— but we can always speculate that maybe he did? Abner was long gone when the game found a
diamond in this city…
The first Brownsville amateur baseball team was formed in
1868—this is when the real reporting of the game started in the Brownsville
Ranchero.
It was on a Christmas Day when the inaugural game pitted the
Rio Grande Club of this city against Club Union de Matamoros. It was advertised
as the championship of the border.
The boys from the other side of the river put-up 49 crooked
numbers on the board with the city squad crossing the plate 32 times. As time
progressed, both cities added more teams, but it was not until the turn of the
century that baseball became the king of sports in this region.
The Brownsville Herald credited John D. Hill, who came to
the city to get into the rice business, with giving the sport a push in
1903. Hill’s son, Frank, was a college
pitcher at Kentucky,
and after watching an Army team take on local civilians, he decided that the
family should organize a local team.
By 1904, when the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway
came into town, a city team was in place.
The squad won all its games that year, including one over a strong team
from Corpus Christi,
and it declared itself the South Texas
champion.
In 1910, Brownsville joined Corpus Christi, Beeville,
Laredo, Victoria and Bay City in the professional Southwest Texas League.
Sam Bell was the first manager of the Brownsville Brownies,
and local pharmacist W.G. Willman was named the secretary. One manager who went on to bigger things was
also in the league—famed University of Texas coach Billy Disch managed the
Beeville Squad.
1910 Brownie
The Brownies won their first game of the season, a 2-1 decision
over Corpus Christi on Jacinto day in 1910.
The team finished the year with a 68-47 record, good enough to win the
second half and set up a playoff against Victoria.
The teams split their games in Brownsville, then divided the
next two in Victoria. To accommodate
large crowds—by some reports, between 8,000 and 9,000 fans, the series was moved
to Corpus.
Brownsville
took the next two games and the first league pennant. Among the players on the team was pitcher
John Taff, an Austin
native who appeared in seven games for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1913.
The Southwest Texas League lasted two seasons, but
Brownsville went on to field teams in three more leagues—the Texas Valley
(1938), Rio Grande Valley (1949-1950) and Gulf Coast (1951-1953).
I remember that there was either an "A" or "AA" team in the early to mid 50's called the Brownsville Charros. They played in a field s of W. St. Francis
ReplyDeleteThe one the called Lion's Field right? Rene Torres has researched that team and has written much about them in the Herald. We're amazed at how very few photographs of the team exist. He has spent years looking for team pics or anything about them. He has scanned may Brownsville Herald archives from the sports section. We can see some more of that if you want to. Thanks for commenting.
ReplyDeleteJust a theory since reading something several years ago in the Brownsville Historical Association Newsletter about Matamoros and Seton Hall: Beginning during the American Civil War years, more than a dozen young men from Matamoros and a few from Brownsville studied at Seton Hall University in Orange, NJ. Among the Matamoros Union Base Ball Club roster, listed in an article in The Daily Cosmopolitan of August 11, 1885, were Daniel Yturria, Frank Schreck, Manuel Sylvester Rivadulla, and the captain, José Telésforo Medrano. All four of them also were listed in the BHA newsletter article as among the Matamoros young men who studied at Seton Hall . Thus, my theory is that baseball came to the region first to Matamoros through these young men who learned how to play at Seton Hall and then these young men spread the sport to Brownsville (perhaps to all of Texas) by helping inspire other players to form teams for competition. That included teams like the Brownsville Base Ball Club and the Kenedy Base Ball Club, captained by Thomas Mifflin Kenedy, son of Mifflin Kenedy. By the way, according to the online baseball almanac (http://www.baseball-almanac.com/college/seton_hall_university_baseball_players.shtml) Seton Hall started baseball in 1863 so it was a competitive sport when the Matamoros young men attended. But, again, it's just a theory and apologies to Abner Doubleday if he did indeed start baseball in the region during his tour of duty on the Rio Grande.
ReplyDeleteThey very well may have helped popularize the sport in this region but as the article mentions baseball games being announced in the Daily Ranchero at 1868 and I included an sample from 1869 in the introductory photo to Mr Torres article which predates the Seton Hall boys by almost 20 years. Thanks for including the baseball almanac link. It looks like you're digging into some very interesting history there. Thanks
ReplyDeleteApologies for not making the thought process clear. These young Matamorense returned from Seton Hall in 1867. In 1885 the Matamoros team had the same name as you list in 1868. The logical assumption is that the Seton Hall boys started the Matamoros Union Base Ball club in 1867 and some were still playing in 1885 or almost 20 years later. 1885 is only significant because it's when a newspaper listed the roster. Doesn't make sense that 45 year old men just started playing in 1885 unless they had started 20 years prior when they were recent grads of Seton Hall. Thus the theory that these were the men who introduced baseball to the region.
ReplyDeleteThank you for clearing up the misunderstanding. That there is a very sound theory and thanks again for adding value to this post.
ReplyDelete