Editor’s Note: The National Pastime 2025
This article was written by Steve West
This article was published in The National Pastime: Baseball in Texas and Beyond (2025)
When I was asked to edit this book to accompany SABR’s 53rd national convention in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, I thought about what to cover about baseball in Texas, and where it should focus. Naturally the Texas Rangers had to be a part of the story, but I wanted it to show so much more.
First, Where, exactly? When you think about the Rangers, you think about North Texas, but their reach goes far beyond. The Rangers Radio Network broadcasts from Arkansas in the east to New Mexico in the west, from Oklahoma in the north to San Antonio in the south. That made for a natural region to focus on, and I’m pleased to say we have articles from across the area.
Then we had to solve for which subjects to cover.
Texas has a long baseball history, which many people know. Sure, the major leagues arrived in the 1960s and 1970s, but there was already a deep tradition of baseball, from high schools to college to the minors. In the early days, Texas was perfect for spring training, and major league teams took advantage. The minors flourished, with teams in almost every town, at least until there weren’t. Black teams and Negro League teams came and went. And of course, college ball thrives to this day in Texas and Oklahoma.
After some thought, we decided that we wanted to capture all of that.
We put out a call to Dallas-Fort Worth’s Banks-Bragan chapter and several nearby SABR chapters, and received a very encouraging response. SABR members naturally wanted to write about their interests, which included the entire length and breadth of baseball in Texas and beyond. Our What and When questions quickly had their answers.
Reading through the articles as they were submitted, I ran across so much I did not know about Texas baseball history. Yes, I knew some of the names and some of the stories, but there is plenty here to grab your interest. You probably know nothing about high school baseball in San Antonio in the 1960s, for example, but we have a story about it. There are articles about college ball in both Texas and Oklahoma over the years (fun fact: Banks-Bragan chapter president Paul Rogers, who wrote two articles in this book, was once president of the Southwest Conference).
Back in the day there were dozens of minor league teams in Texas, but now there are just eight, in part due to economics, but also because of football. Former Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton once said that Dallas-Fort Worth was not a baseball town, because football dominated the world of sports in Dallas. In some ways he was right, but that didn’t stop me and tens of thousands of Rangers fans from chanting “Baseball Town” when he came back here to play.
Texas being Texas, you might be surprised to see how much history Black baseball has in the state. From early Black teams to Negro League players, we’re pleased to bring some of these stories to light. There’s even an article about wartime baseball at Camp Hood, which, although not focused on Black players, reminds us of Jackie Robinson, whose own inciting incident may have been in the very same place.
I thank every contributor to this book, all of whom are helping to keep baseball history alive in Texas and beyond. When asked, they stepped up to the plate and hit a home run, and this book is all the better for it. I especially want to thank my co-editor Cecilia Tan, who has guided me in so many ways through the book, and definitely helped make it as good as it is.
Baseball still thrives in Texas, with thousands of people every day watching games from local sandlots to the professional level. In the past decade both major league teams in Texas have won a World Series (and as a Rangers fan, I would be remiss if I didn’t remind you that—sorry Astros fans—the Astros cheated!).
I’m also not ashamed to admit the Dallas Cowboys dominate the headlines here. Still, there are millions of Rangers fans for whom no moment was lower than when Nelson Cruz missed the catch which would have won the World Series in 2011, but no moment was greater than when we won it all in 2023.
I hope you enjoy this look at baseball across the region and throughout the history of Texas and beyond.
— Steve West
June 2025
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