Waco Pirates: A Tale of Two Cities

Dick Hall was one of five players on the 1953 Waco team who saw major league service time. He would switch to pitching in 1955 and would play through 1971 with Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. (SABR-Rucker Archive)

 

This is a Tale of Two Cities. The Big State League was a Class B League from 1947 to 1957. For eleven seasons, teams from around Texas competed for the title. Each team was affiliated with a major-league club who could purchase players from them. The Waco Pirates played 1948-57 as an affiliate of Pittsburgh. The 1953 and 1954 seasons could not have been more different from each other. This is the Waco Pirates’ story from tragedy to championship.

1953: A YEAR TO FORGET

The 1952 season for the Pirates was one to forget in many ways as the team lost 118 games. To shake things up, Pittsburgh general manager Branch Rickey brought back former manager Buster Chatham. In 1948, Chatham had led the team to a third-place finish. Buster had his work cut out for him. Heading into the 1953 season only 3 of 32 players were returning, so he would be working with an unfamiliar and untested group.1 The team spent three weeks at Country Campus, Texas near Huntsville for spring training. Country Campus had four ballfields built on a former prisoner of war camp, and the ballfields were carved out of old Black Angus cow pastures. Perhaps this foreshadowed how the season would go.2

Professional teams in Waco never fared very well, winning only three titles despite the large number of different teams and leagues that bounced in and out of Waco over the first half of the twentieth century. Heading into the 1953 season, newspapers were picking the Pirates to finish in fourth place, a rise from the cellar a year before.3 With optimism high, Big State League President Howard Green anticipated Waco to surpass the 100,000-attendance mark which was a big number for a Class B team. The record-breaking crowd, however, would never make it to the ballpark. Mother Nature had a different plan.4

The 1953 season started well for the Pirates. By May 5 the Pirates had already won 11 games. Newspaper reporter Oscar Larnce wrote in the Waco Tribune about how the team was nearly halfway to their win total of a year before despite dropping a heartbreaker in the ninth inning to Greenville.5 “Pirate ‘Tornado’ Rips Austin 10-5,” was an unfortunate headline by Waco sports reporter Jinx Tucker. Unbeknownst to him as he penned this headline, he was foreshadowing one of the most horrific natural disasters in Waco’s history.6

MOTHER NATURE STRIKES

“8 Killed, Scores Hurt as Twisters Rampage” was the headline of the Waco News-Tribune on May 11, 1953, referring to tornadoes in Minnesota. It was the middle of tornado season after all, but nobody in Waco would believe what was headed their way that day. The frontpage weather forecast called for “Partly cloudy with mild temperatures today, tonight and Tuesday.”7 That night’s matchup had Ed McLish set to pitch versus Greenville hurler Jodie Phipps—but the game never took place.8

“37 Die, 300 Hurt in Waco Twister” was the headline in the Waco News-Tribune the next day. At 4:36PM on Monday May 11, 1953, the deadliest tornado in the history of Texas would rip through the heart of Waco, killing 114 people and injuring 600 more. The F5 caused an estimated $10,000,000 in damage.9 The nearly one-third-mile-wide twister destroyed numerous businesses and homes with winds up to 260 miles per hour.10 It had been long said that the native population had chosen the area because it was tornado-proof. According to legend, the rim of hills surrounding Waco would prevent a tornado from hitting that spot. Unfortunately, the natives were either misquoted, or wrong.11

As for the Pirates, their stadium, Katy Park, was demolished by the storm. Despite three players going missing for around 24 hours, none of the players were hurt. Pitcher Cleo Lewright—the first black player ever on a Waco team12—and catcher Marcos Cobos were planning a move that day to the east side of town. Instead, they waited due to the weather looking bad. That decision might have saved them from injury or worse as the area of town they were going to move to was one of the hardest hit.13

THE MOVE TO LONGVIEW

After Katy Park was destroyed, the fate of the team was up in the air. While the Pittsburgh Pirates ran the Waco club, the park was owned by local businessman A.H. Kirksey. This left the Pirates scrambling to find a place to play or they would be forced to disband. One option that quickly arose was Longview, which was 176 miles northeast of Waco. Longview had lost their Big State League team to Tyler a year before.14 The Pirates began their transition period as a road team, and the Temple Eagles offered the use of their field until something could be worked out.15 On May 23, 1953, Rickey announced that the Waco Pirates would become the Longview Pirates for the remainder of the season.16

The 1953 team featured five future major league players, including Dick Hall, who would go on to win 93 games over 16 years in the big leagues. Ironically, he was an infielder/outfielder for Waco/Longview during the 1953 season. He started pitching in 1955.17

Despite being hit with the worst tornado in Texas’ history and moving 176 miles to a new city, the Longview Pirates played well enough to make the playoffs in 1953, finishing in fourth place with a 77-68 record. They would lose in four games to the leading Wichita Falls Spudders, who would go on to win the 1953 title.18

1954: A NEW LEASE ON BASEBALL

A.H. Kirksey rebuilt Katy Park for the 1954 season, and the Pirates looked for good things to happen. Jack Paepke became the new manager when Buster Chatham moved to the front office to help run the club. Paepke was only in his second season as a manager, having managed the club in Brunswick, Georgia, the year before.19 Many people in the media were picking the Pirates to come out on top.20 The Waco News-Tribune invoked the greatest Big State League team of all-time, the 1948 Sherman-Denison Twins, who had gone 94-51 and won the league by 10½ games.21 Little did anyone know that the 1954 Pirates would go down as one of the top 25 teams of all time, not just in the Big State League but in the minor leagues.

The season started off rather nondescriptly as the team meandered through the first few games at a .500 clip, before rattling off five straight wins in late April. Then the rain came. Sitting at only 8-7, the Pirates had three straight rainouts.22 And just as the team was finding a rhythm in early May, manager and catcher Jack Paepke broke his thumb.23 Paepke batted .348 before he got injured. His replacement, William Phillips, a 23-year-old who only lasted one more minor league season, did not have the hitting ability of Paepke. Phillips finished the season batting just .234, while Paepke came back to finish out the year at a .314 clip.24

A RUN AT THE TITLE

When the calendar turned to June, the Pirates were on the heels of Tyler, but by June 4 they would take the lead and not look back. Two days later, one of the longest hitting streaks in baseball history would begin. On the tenth anniversary of the D-Day landings in France, Roman Mejias started what would become a 55-game hitting streak, the third longest in minor league history.26

By the end of June, the Pirates led Tyler by three games, which was not a lot considering Waco ran off an unbeaten streak of 12 games ending on June 30. Mejias’ streak was twice the length at 24 games by the end of June.27 Later in July, with his hitting streak at 46 games, Mejias was awarded a $200 diamond ring and $214 in cash by Waco fans during an intermission of a game against the Corpus Christi Clippers. A few innings later he was able to thank the fans by extending his streak to 47 games, breaking up a no-hitter and starting a rally as Waco went on to win, 5-2.28

The Pirates continued to win, and Mejias kept hitting. Waco ran away with the league’s regular season title by 13 games over Tyler, and Mejias would finish the season with 198 hits and a .354 batting average. He jumped to the majors the next season and spent parts of nine years in the big leagues with Pittsburgh, Houston, and Boston before finishing his career in Japan. The team went on to defeat the Austin Pioneers in the semifinals, and then capped the year with a league championship by defeating the Clippers in a close seven-game series.29

The journey through the two seasons was marred with disaster and loss, yet ended with a team coming together and building a championship. The Pirates tried to run it back again in 1955, but ran into the Clippers once again in the finals and lost in four games. Nevertheless, the team overcame a tragedy and became champions of the Big State League, and are now regarded as one of the greatest minor league teams of all time. In 2001, in conjunction with the centennial celebration of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, the top 100 minor league teams of all-time were selected by historians Bill Weiss and Marshall Wright. At number 25 on the list were the 1954 Waco Pirates.30

ERIC BYNUM has been a die-hard Atlanta Braves fan since the early 1980s thanks to WTBS. A history teacher by day, he tried to immerse himself in baseball as much as possible by night. For years he has run a baseball blog on international baseball, BaseballdeWorld, and is taking a break from working on his history PhD to write more about baseball.

 

Notes

1. Oscar Larnce, “Waco Pirates Begin Job Today of Rebuilding Team,” Waco News-Tribune, March 20, 1953, 19.

2. Larnce, “Waco Pirates Begin Job Today of Rebuilding Team.”

3. Jinx Tucker, “Waco Teams Finish on Top Only 3 Times in History,” Baseball Tabloid, Waco News-Tribune, April 14, 1954, 7.

4. Oscar Larnce, “In This Corner,” Waco News-Tribune, March 24, 1953, 11.

5. Oscar Larnce, “In This Corner,” Waco News-Tribune, May 5, 1953, 10,12.

6. Jinx Tucker, “Pirate ‘Tornado’ Rips Austin 10-5,” Waco News-Tribune, April 29, 1953, 12.

7. “8 Killed, Scores Hurt As Twisters Rampage,” Waco News-Tribune, May 11, 1953, 1.

8. Jinx Tucker, “Bucs Win In Tenth, 9-to-8,” Waco News-Tribune, May 11, 1953, 8.

9. “Vicious Winds Crumble Buildings, Autos in Business Heart of City,” Waco News-Tribune, May 12, 1953, 1.

10. Amanda Sawyer, “Waco Tornado,” WacoHistory.org, https://wacohistory.org/items/show/53, accessed February 1, 2025,

11. “Old Legend About Waco Blows Away,” Waco News-Tribune, May 12, 1953, 6.

12. Earl Golding, “Golding Glances,” Waco News-Tribune, April 17, 1953, 19.

13. “‘Missing’ Bucs Found Okeh,” Waco News-Tribune, May 13, 1953, 13.

14. Buster Hale, “Chances Bright for Longview To Get Big State Berth: Officials Here to Study Shift,” Longview News-Journal, May 14, 1953, 13.

15. “Bucs to Operate as Road Team Until Site Is Picked,” Waco News-Tribune, May 14, 1953, 11.

16. Buster Hale, “Pirates Will Open Here Thursday Night,” Longview News-Journal, May 24, 1953, 10.

17. “Dick Hall,” Baseball Reference. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/halldi01.shtml, accessed May 16, 2025.

18. “1953 Waco/Longview Pirates,” Baseball Reference, https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/team.cgi?id=d121cf02, accessed May 16, 2025.

19. “Pirates Led by Versatile Boss,” Baseball Tabloid, Waco News Tribune, April 16, 1954, 6.

20. Dave Campbell, “Bucs Open Chase With High Hopes,” Baseball Tabloid, Waco News-Tribune, April 16, 1954, 2.

21. George Raborn, “‘48 Twins Were All-Time Kings,” Baseball Tabloid, Waco News-Tribune, April 16, 1954, 13.

22. “3rd Straight Rainout for Pirates at Bryan,” Waco News-Tribune, May 3, 1954, 6.

23. Dave Campbell, “Pirates Win 7 to 1, But Paepke Lost for Month,” Waco News-Tribune, May 7, 1954, 15.

24. “1954 Waco Pirates,” Baseball Reference, https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/team.cgi?id=34db8aa8, accessed May 16, 2025.

25. Dave Campbell, “Pirates Continue Hit Slump, Lose to Austin,” Waco News-Tribune, May 31, 1954, 4.

26. “Longest Hitting Streaks,” Baseball Reference, https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Longest_Hitting_Streaks, accessed May 16, 2025.

27. “Temple Ends Waco’s Streak With 10th Inning Victory, 4-3,” Waco News-Tribune, July 1, 1954, 21.

28. “Slugging Wacoan Continues Streak,” Corsicana Daily Sun, July 24, 1954, 8.

29. “1954 Waco Pirates.”

30. “100 Best Minor League Baseball Teams,” Baseball Reference, https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/100_Best_Minor_League_Baseball_Teams, accessed May 16, 2025.