Minor-League Baseball in the Dallas-Fort Worth Area

Minor-league baseball in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is virtually synonymous with Texas League professional baseball in the region. The small parts not connected to the Texas League are the rise and fall of black baseball in the area and the brief sojourns of the Fort Worth and Dallas teams in other leagues. (The Metroplex is the local sobriquet for what the US government calls the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Statistical Area.)

Black baseball came and went in a span of about 30 years. In 1916 Fort Worth’s Hiram McGar worked to form the Colored Texas League. He also managed the Fort Worth Black Panthers. Dallas had a team in the league. The Black Panthers played at McGar Park, just south of the old Panther Park in Fort Worth. The old Panther Park was located in the Northside of Fort Worth between the West Fork of the Trinity River and North Throckmorton Street near NW Seventh Street. It is not known how long the league lasted or how the Black Panthers fared in their efforts. In 1920 McGar was again involved in organizing a black league. The Dallas Black Giants and the Fort Worth Black Panthers were a part of the Texas Negro League. The league lasted to 1927. In 1929 another league was born. Again Dallas and Fort Worth belonged. At one game in Dallas, possibly at Riverside Park, some 8,000 fans turned out to watch the Black Giants and Black Panthers play. In the later incarnations of the black leagues, the Black Panthers played at Panther Park and LaGrave Field. That league died in 1932 during the Great Depression, and fans of black baseball saw only barnstorming traveling teams in the years. Two such barnstorming teams were the Fort Worth Black Cats and the Dallas Brown Bombers. The barnstormers played all over Texas and featured players who later played in the Negro National League and the Negro American League. With the arrival of Jackie Robinson and the integration of the major leagues in 1947, the death knell for black baseball sounded in Texas. Play continued into the 1950s as the major and minor leagues slowly integrated, but eventually black professional baseball died out.1

Cleburne, Dallas, Fort Worth, and Frisco have all hosted Texas League teams at some point in the league’s history and each has won at least one championship. Dallas was also very briefly a member of the Southern League in 1899. Both Dallas and Fort Worth played in the American Association in 1959. A team representing both cities played in the American Association in 1960-62 and the Pacific Coast League in 1963. In 1964 Dallas had an entry in the PCL and Fort Worth in the Texas League. From 1965 to 1971 Dallas-Fort Worth played in the Texas League.2

Under the minor-league playoff system, the league champion could be, and often was, a team that finished lower than first place in the regular season. The Texas League would sometimes split the season to create greater interest in the pennant races. At times the decision to split the season came during the season itself if one team was running away with the race. If the owners did split the season and one team won both halves, that team was declared the champion. If two teams each won a half, a playoff determined the champion. Texas League officials adopted the Shaughnessy playoff system in 1933. Under that system the first- and fourth-place teams were paired in one bracket and the second- and third-place teams in another. The winners of those brackets played for the league championship. That system has been replaced by divisions and half-seasons for playoff teams. The remainder of this chapter will concentrate on the years in which a Metroplex team emerged as the league champion. The years when Dallas, Fort Worth, Cleburne, or Frisco were not champions are included when other significant events require mention. Brief summaries of the nonwinning years in the American Association and Pacific Coast League are included to note the teams’ presence in those leagues.

The Dallas and Fort Worth franchises in the Texas League were among the original teams. Others were Galveston, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and New Orleans. The league had as few as four members and as many as eight throughout its existence. The history of the Dallas and Fort Worth teams is so intertwined that separating them into separate narratives harms the overall picture. Dallas and Fort Worth were archrivals long before baseball in the Texas League came to be. The baseball rivalry came to symbolize the rivalry between the two cities in other aspects of life and played no small part in making minor-league baseball successful in the area.

The Dallas Hams (55-29) won the first Texas League championship, in 1888. They played in Oak Cliff Park, across the Trinity River from downtown. The championship came outright as there was no playoff. Several of the original teams, including Fort Worth, folded during the season. Fort Worth had a record of 20-28 when it stopped play on June 25. The Panthers’ home was an unnamed park located near the Texas and Pacific Railroad reservation south of downtown and near the notorious Hell’s Half Acre.3

The Texas League did not operate in 1891, 1893, or 1894. The Fort Worth Panthers won their first league title in 1895. Although the Dallas Steers finished the overall regular season in first place and won the first half, Fort Worth won the second half and then a 13-game playoff series, seven games to six. Dallas (13-7) was in first place in 1898 when league magnates called off the season due to the Spanish-American War. Dallas’s brief venture in the Southern League resulted from the reduction of the Texas League to four teams in 1899. When Dallas’s bid to return to play was rejected by the league out of fear of increased travel costs, the Steers joined the Southern League only to see it fold shortly afterward.

When the Texas League re-formed in 1902, Dallas and Fort Worth returned the Dallas Griffins and the Fort Worth Panthers. Joe Gardner bought the Griffins in 1902. W.H. Ward owned the Panthers. The Dallas Giants took the 1903 pennant by defeating Waco in a 10-game playoff series. The title fell into dispute, however, because Corsicana had claimed Charlie Barrett, who played for Dallas in the series. Corsicana and Dallas were thus named co-champions.4

Fort Worth (71-31) had the best overall record in 1904. The Panthers were an amazing 40-10 in the second half, finishing 12 games ahead of the Dallas Giants. Taking on the Corsicana Oilers in a 19-game playoff series, the Panthers were able to win only eight of the games, and Corsicana was the league champion.5

Fort Worth repeated as champion in 1905 in a wild finish. The Panthers trailed the Temple Boll Weevils by four games with seven to play on August 29. Fort Worth won seven straight games, including four from Temple, to close out the year at 72-60, a half-game ahead of the Boll Weevils. There were no playoffs.6

Cleburne won its title in 1906, the only year the Railroaders were a Texas League team. In that year, the playoffs put the first-half winner against the second-half winner. Fort Worth’s Panthers (78-46) took the first half with a record of 42-20 and finished second in the second half with a mark of 36-26. Cleburne’s Railroaders (77-49) finished third in the first half at 38-24, but won the second half at 39-25. Fort Worth refused to play the Railroaders in the playoffs, handing the championship to the Cleburne nine. Future Hall of Famer Tris Speaker played for the Railroaders and hit .268. He also pitched, appearing in 11 games with a 2-7 record.7

Neither Dallas nor Fort Worth took a league championship until the Giants of Dallas (83-57) broke through with a narrow win in 1910, finishing one game ahead of the second-place Houston Buffaloes. The season came down to a doubleheader between Dallas and Fort Worth and a rare tripleheader (five innings each game) between Houston and Galveston. Dallas won both its games while Houston lost the first game, won the second, and was given the third game by forfeit when Galveston left the field fearing a riot. There were no playoffs.8

Dallas and Fort Worth’s greatest era in Texas League baseball began with the 1917 season. Joe Gardner, Dallas owner since 1902, sold the team in 1916 to a group of veteran players headed by Hamilton Patterson. W.K. Stripling and Paul LaGrave bought the Panthers with Stripling becoming president and LaGrave team secretary. (Team secretaries then were the equivalent of general managers of today.) The two teams won eight of nine league titles and six of seven Dixie Series titles in the years between 1917 and 1926. The Dallas Giants took the first of two consecutive titles with a 96-64 record in 1917. There were no playoffs in 1917. James “Snipe” Conley, a spitballing right-handed pitcher, was the key to the pennant as he won 25 games, including 19 straight victories and a no-hitter.9

In 1918, with the United States involved heavily in the World War, owners elected to stop play on July 7. Dallas, in first place with a 53-37 record, was named the champion team.10

Shreveport broke the DFW string with a championship in 1919. The Gassers ran away with the first half, recording a 44-21 mark. Fort Worth, showing the beginnings of the greatness that was to follow in the next six seasons, took the second half at 56-30. The Gassers dropped from first to fifth at 38-39 in the second half, but came alive to take the playoffs four games to two.11

In 1920 the Panthers (108-40) began their six-year domination of the Texas League. Managed by Jake Atz and having a combination of great pitching and hitting, they won no fewer than 96 games in each of the six seasons and twice won 109 in a season. Atz was a former major-league infielder who had signed as manager with Fort Worth in 1914, left in 1916, returned in 1917, and stayed until 1929. He was considered the greatest manager in the history of the Texas League. The Panthers took the 1920 first half by 8½ games and the second by 12 games. Joe Pate, who would pitch briefly in the majors in 1926 and 1927, and Paul Wachtel, who had pitched for Brooklyn in 1917, won 26 games each and had ERAs of 1.75 and 2.45 respectively. After the season, and in hopes of moving up from Class B to Class A, the Texas League challenged the Class A Southern Association to a playoff between the two league champions. That was the beginning of the Dixie Series. The Panthers defeated Little Rock, four games to two. The next year the National Association raised the Texas League to Class A.12

The rampage of the Panthers (107-51) through the Texas League continued in 1921 as they once again ran away with both halves of the season. The Memphis Chicks fell to the Panthers four games to two in the Dixie Series. Pate led the league with a 30-9 mark and a 2.68 ERA. Wachtel and Bill Whitaker each won 23 games. Augie Johns added 20 wins. Clarence Kraft led the league in hitting with a .352 average and hit 31 home runs.13

The 1922 season brought more of the same to the Panther fans. The beloved home team racked up another runaway first-place finish. After rolling through the first half with a remarkable 50-22 record, the Panthers (109-46) outdid themselves in the second half with a 59-24 mark, setting a league record for victories. Mobile’s Bears cast a bit of darkness over the campaign when they took the Dixie Series four games to two. Pate dropped from 30 wins to 24 and Wachtel had 26 and Johns 21. Kraft won the home-run title with 32 and had 131 runs batted in. He hit .339 but missed the Triple Crown.

In 1923 the Panthers (96-56) suffered a slower start. League executives decided the race was tight enough to not split the season as they had at times in the past. Nonetheless Fort Worth ran away from the other teams, benefiting from an August surge, and downed second-place San Antonio by 13½ games. The Panthers redeemed themselves for the 1922 loss in the Dixie Series by beating the New Orleans Pelicans four games to one. Kraft repeated as home-run champion with 32. Lil Stoner led the Panther staff with 27 wins while Pate continued his string of 20-win seasons with 23.14

Clarence “Big Boy” Kraft had a career season in 1924. The first sacker led the Panthers (109-41) to another Texas League title. He hit 55 home runs, drove in 196 runs and batted .349. His efforts again fell shy of a Triple Crown. He led the league in home runs and RBIs, but failed to catch Butch Weiss of Wichita Falls, who hit .377. Kraft retired from baseball after the season. His league record of 196 RBIs still stands. Fort Worth got out to a much better start than it had in 1923. The Panthers were nine games ahead of second-place Houston at the break with a 51-23 mark. They bested that in the second half with a 58-18 record. Pate once again won 30 games and Wachtel 22. In Dallas, Steer Park burned on July 19. The Steers played a game at Riverside Park, home of the black team, before finishing the season at the State Fair Ground racing facility. There an attendance record (16,484) was set when the Steers and Panthers played on August 3. The Panthers took the Dixie Series from Memphis in seven games.15

The final year of the Fort Worth Panthers’ streak began with the usual expectation that Fort Worth would again easily surpass the other teams. League officials anticipated a split based on that assumption. The situation nearly backfired, however, because they did not anticipate the improvement of the Dallas Steers in the second half. The Panthers charged to the first-half winner’s circle, leading second-place Houston by 7½ games. The Steers finished fifth in the first part of the season. Dallas came on hard after the break and Fort Worth fell to earth. When the half was over, the two teams were deadlocked at 49-26. A best-of-three playoff for the second-half title went to Fort Worth in a sweep. The Panthers then won the Dixie Series for the fifth time in six years, downing Atlanta in six games. Paul Wachtel again led the league in victories with 23 while Johns had the lowest ERA at 2.74. Johns and Pate also racked up 20 wins each. Ed Konetchy, a former major leaguer who replaced Kraft at first base for the Panthers, led the league in home runs with 41 and RBIs with 162.16

In 1926 Conley, now a player-manager, led the Steers (89-66) to the Texas League crown, ending the six-year title streak of the Panthers. Dallas finished first by 3½ games over San Antonio. Fort Worth finished third, 6½ games back of the Steers. The Steers downed the New Orleans Pelicans, four games to two, to claim the Dixie Series. Individual performances for the Steers included Charlie Miller leading the league with 30 home runs and 118 RBIs, and Slim Love winning the strikeout race for the third straight year with 216.17

In the winter of 1928-29 Paul LaGrave, the longtime team secretary of the Panthers, died in El Paso. W.K. Stripling honored him by renaming the Panthers home field LaGrave Field. The new field, which had opened in 1926, was a few blocks east of the old one at Seventh and Commerce Streets, had more seats and was closer to the levees on the Trinity River. It remained as the home of the Panthers/Cats until their demise after the 1964 season. It was destroyed a few years afterward. In 2002 a new LaGrave Field was built on the site of the original and was home to the independent Fort Worth Cats through the 2014 season.18

Dallas won its next championship in 1929 when the Steers (91-68) won the first half and defeated the Wichita Falls Spudders for the title. The Steers had a record of 47-33 in the first half, but fell to 44-36 in the second. The Spudders led the league with an overall record of 94-65, three games ahead of Dallas. Dallas took the playoffs three games to one. Birmingham’s Barons beat the Steers four games to two for the Dixie Series title.

W.K. Stripling sold controlling interest in the Panthers to a group headed by S.S. Lard and Ted Robinson in the early days of the 1929 season. Later in the year, with the Panthers languishing in the second division, longtime manager Jake Atz was fired and replaced by Frank Snyder. The death of LaGrave, the sale of the club by Stripling, and the firing of Atz brought to an end the triumvirate that had created the greatest single stretch of athletic success in Fort Worth history.19

Fort Worth returned to the championship ranks in 1930. Wichita Falls pulled away from the rest of the league by 8½ games to take the first half. Fort Worth, faced with a lengthy road stretch at the end of the year, won 13 of 18 road games to overtake Wichita Falls for the second-half title. The Panthers then took the playoffs in three games. Fort Worth beat Memphis four games to one in the Dixie Series. Dick McCabe and Dick Wentworth each won 20 games to lead the league in victories for Fort Worth. In an effort to lure more fans to games, Waco’s Navigators installed lights in Katy Park. The first night game resulted in a 13-0 drubbing of the Panthers. Other teams soon followed and night baseball was on its way to being the dominant way the game was played in the Texas League. Only Beaumont held out, largely at the behest of the Detroit Tigers, and did not install lights in Briggs Stadium until 1948.20

The 1937 season saw the Cats (85-74) return to the championship ranks. They finished the regular season in third place. The Cats eliminated Tulsa three games to two in the first round and knocked out Oklahoma City four games to two in the finals. The Cats defeated Little Rock in the Dixie Series, four games to one.21

The 1939 season saw a return of both Dallas (now the Rebels) and the Cats to the playoffs, and was the first time the four largest cities in Texas appeared in the playoffs. Houston won the regular season with a 97-63 record. Dallas and San Antonio tied for second at 89-72. Dallas won the coin flip for second place. Fort Worth finished in fourth place, two games behind Dallas and San Antonio. Fort Worth drove the Houston Buffaloes from further play with a three games to two win in the first round. Dallas did the same with San Antonio. That set up a Cats-Rebels final. Fort Worth won, four games to one. The Dixie Series trophy came to Fort Worth, which defeated Nashville in seven games.22

The Rebels (80-74) returned to the playoffs in 1941. They finished the season in fourth place. Houston’s Buffaloes were the runaway winner at 103-50. Dallas swept the favored Buffaloes in the first round of the playoffs, and then sent Tulsa home in the title round. Nashville swept the Rebels in the Dixie Series.23

The Cats and Rebels returned to the playoffs in 1946, the first year of play after a three-season suspension of play because of World War II. Dallas finished the regular season in second place with a 91-63 mark, 10 games behind the Cats (101-53). In a style reminiscent of their 1920s dominance, the Cats took an early lead and were never headed. Fort Worth disposed of Tulsa three games to one and Dallas eliminated San Antonio three games to two in the first rounds. Dallas erased the Cats four games to one in the finals. The Rebels then moved to the Dixie Series, where they kept their series winning streak alive with a four-game sweep of Atlanta. Prince Oana, a future Detroit Tigers pitcher, led the league with 24 victories for Dallas. Fort Worth’s Johnny Van Cuyk recorded 207 strikeouts and posted an ERA of 1.42. The Rebels’ Bob Moyer had 24 home runs and 102 RBIs. 24

In 1948 Kilgore oilman Richard Burnett bought the Dallas Rebels for $555,000 and later bought Rebel Field for $265,000. He renamed the team the Eagles, and Rebel Field after himself as Burnett Park. It was located at Colorado and Jefferson Streets in Dallas. Burnett enlarged the seating capacity to almost 11,000 and made it one of the better minor-league parks in the nation. As was the case with Fort Worth’s LaGrave Field, it lasted until Turnpike Stadium was built for the Dallas-Fort Worth Spurs. Burnett Park, like its Fort Worth counterpart, was demolished about 1965. The site is now an empty field. On the west side of the Metroplex, the Brooklyn Dodgers offered backup catcher Bobby Bragan the opportunity to manage the Cats. He quickly accepted. He led the team to what would be its final Texas League title in his first year as a player-manager. The Cats finished the season in first place with a 92-61 mark, a game and a half ahead of Tulsa. Houston was third and Shreveport (76-77, .49673) and San Antonio (75-76, .49688) finished in a virtual tie for fourth, with Shreveport winning the final playoff spot by a whisker. Fort Worth, despite being injury-riddled, knocked out Shreveport in six games and then downed the hard-hitting Tulsa Oilers in the finals in six games. The Cats dropped the Dixie Series to Birmingham in five games. The 1948 win was the final championship recorded by the Cats.25

The most significant event of 1949 in Fort Worth was the flood that began on May 17. It was perhaps the worst of many that the city endured since it was established in 1873. Nine people died, more than 13,000 were left homeless, and damage exceeded $25 million. Among the flooded spots was LaGrave Field. The flood was the second disaster suffered by the Cats in a week. Two nights earlier, a fire broke out in the grandstand and more than 10,000 seats were destroyed. Damage from the fire was estimated at $3 million. The Cats were hosting San Antonio when the fire broke out. Notwithstanding the fire, the teams continued the series the next day. The right-field pavilion and bleachers down the third-base line had not been damaged. Portable seats, including some metal folding chairs, were set up down the first-base line. Some series in the rest of the season were moved to the other team’s site with the Cats acting as the home team. Others were played at the damaged LaGrave. The Cats also hosted the Texas League All-Star Game at LaGrave Field just two months after the fire and flood. The Cats (100-54) continued their defensive-minded mastery of the league. Tulsa again gained the second spot. Both clubs easily dispatched their opponents in the first round and Tulsa turned the tables on the Cats to win the league championship. Once again the finals went the full seven games with Tulsa winning the deciding game 4-1 in 11 innings.26

In the offseason after the 1949 campaign, the Dodgers rebuilt LaGrave Field. The new ballpark was much improved over the old one. It had a seating capacity of 13,005, better seats, more restrooms, fewer posts to obstruct the view of fans, better concessions and a press box that contained TV broadcasting space. The Cats (88-64), still under the leadership of Bragan, continued their playoff streak. They finished second to Beaumont, but were eliminated by Tulsa in the first round.27

Dallas owner Burnett signed Dave Hoskins, a veteran of the Negro National League, to pitch for the Eagles in 1952. Hoskins was the first black player to work for a Texas League team. He led the league in victories with 22 and pitched for the Cleveland Indians the next two seasons. Dallas (92-69) and Fort Worth (86-75) finished the 1952 campaign in first and second place respectively but fared poorly in the playoffs. The Cats lost to ultimate winner Shreveport while the Eagles were eliminated by Oklahoma City. Shreveport’s Sports then defeated the Indians to win the league title. The Sports dropped the Dixie Series to the Memphis Chicks, four games to two.28

In 1953 the prospects for a major-league franchise in Texas became a bit more likely when the Boston Braves left for Milwaukee. The next year, the St. Louis Browns moved to Baltimore to become the Orioles. Although neither of the moves struck new ground for baseball, they were indicative of the need for change in the location of the game. It was the first change in the major-league team structure in 50 years. Four years later, the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers left the East Coast for the West Coast, landing in San Francisco and Los Angeles respectively. (The move of the Dodgers affected the Cats directly. Seeking a farm club closer to their new West Coast base, the Dodgers traded their Fort Worth franchise to the Chicago Cubs for the Cubs’ farm team in Los Angeles.29)

The Dallas Eagles (88-66) won their final Texas League title in 1953. Tulsa was second at 83-71. Fort Worth was third at 82-72 with Oklahoma City fourth. Tulsa ended the Cats’ chances while Dallas gained revenge for the previous-season loss to Oklahoma City with a four games to three win. Dallas trailed the Indians, three games to none, before taking the final four. Dallas eased past Tulsa in five games and then won the Dixie Series over Nashville in six games.30

The Brooklyn Dodgers sent Maury Wills and Eddie Moore to the Cats in 1955 and the pair had the distinction of integrating Fort Worth professional baseball.31

Neither the Eagles nor the Cats won another Texas League title. The Cats finished fourth in 1954 but were taken out of the playoffs by the ultimate winner, Shreveport. Dallas was a first-place club in 1955, but lost to Houston in the first round. Dallas and Fort Worth were second and third respectively in 1956. Dallas won 102 games in 1957, the most ever by a Dallas team, but was beaten by Houston in the finals. Fort Worth’s final first-place finish came in 1958, but the Cats were erased from the playoffs by Corpus Christi.

Leaving the Texas League after the 1958 season, the Cats and Eagles moved up to the Triple-A American Association. They played separately in 1959 and combined as the Dallas-Fort Worth Rangers in 1960-1962. The American Association folded after the 1962 season, forcing the Rangers to find a new home. In 1963 they played in the Pacific Coast League. Fort Worth returned to the Texas League in 1964 while Dallas played separately as the Dallas Rangers in the Pacific Coast League. From 1965 to 1971, the two teams again combined – this time as the Dallas-Fort Worth Spurs – and played in the Texas League. They were very popular with fans in the Metroplex, drawing well over 200,000 each season and occasionally reaching 300,000. Their attendance was routinely at or near three times the next highest total. The Spurs played in Turnpike Stadium, located along Interstate 30 in Arlington and near the present Globe Life Park that is home to the Texas Rangers. Turnpike Stadium was intended as a demonstration of the support the area would give to a major-league franchise. The Spurs were never more than an also-ran in their seven years of existence, but drew more fans than the winning teams. In 1972 the Washington Senators came to Texas and began play as the Texas Rangers, ending the tenure of minor-league baseball in the Metroplex for three decades.32

Frisco’s Roughriders came to that Dallas suburb from Shreveport in 2003 and won the only Texas League championship in their history the next year. The Roughriders came on strong to win the second half of the East Division race after Tulsa had taken the first. Round Rock won both halves in the West and so advanced to the championship. The Roughriders downed the Drillers in three games to move on against the Express. The Express fell to the Roughriders in five games.33

Minor-league baseball provided fans in the Metroplex with wonderful entertainment in the more than 110 years that it has been played in the area. The Fort Worth teams of 1920-1925 rank among the very best minor-league teams ever to step on a baseball field. The intense rivalry between Dallas and Fort Worth ensured outstanding attendance any time the teams met. Minor-league baseball also paved the way for Major League Baseball to put a team in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Without the outstanding attendance at the Turnpike Stadium for the Dallas-Fort Worth Spurs, the Texas Rangers might never have come to the Metroplex.

BRUCE BUMBALOUGH is a life-long Detroit Tiger fan. He attended his first Tiger game in 1952 with his mother and younger brother. His life’s work has been in public libraries where he is beginning his 42nd year as a librarian. He holds a master of Library Science degree from the University of Mississippi and a Bachelor of Science degree from the then Memphis State University. He has done additional graduate study in history at the University of North Texas.

 

Notes

1 Mark Presswood, “Black Professional Baseball in Texas,” Texas Almanac (texasalmanac.com/topics/history/black-professional-baseball-texas), accessed October 7, 2015.

2 Larry G. Bowman, “Dallas-Fort Worth Minor-League Baseball,” Handbook of Texas Online (tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/xod03), accessed October 9, 2015.

3 Wright, 7-13; John C. Holady and Mark Presswood, Baseball in Dallas (Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Books, 2004), 115.

4 Larry G. Bowman, “Dallas-Fort Worth Minor-League Baseball”; Ruggles, 26, 84-86; O’Neal, Texas, 233.

5 Ruggles, 90-91.

6 Ruggles, 97-98.

7 William B. Ruggles, The History of the Texas League of Professional Baseball Clubs 1888-1951 (Texas League of Professional Baseball Clubs, 1951), 101-102, 202; Bill O’Neal, The Texas League 1888-1987: A Century of Baseball (Austin, Texas: Eakin Press, 1988), 221-224; Marshall D. Wright, The Texas League in Baseball, 1888-1958 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2004), 92-97.

8 Ruggles, 114.

9 Ruggles, 125-128; Wright, 176-190; Snipe Conley Player Page, baseball-reference.com, accessed October 12, 2015; O’Neal, Texas, 53.

10 Wright, 184.

11 Ruggles, 129-130.

12 Wright, 198-199.

13 Ruggles, 130-131; Wright, 206-207.

14 Ruggles, 135; Wright, 223-224.

15 Ruggles, 136; Wright, 232-233.

16 Ruggles, 137-138; Wright, 240-241.

17 Wright, 249-256; Snipe Conley Player Page.

18 Bruce Bumbalough, “LaGrave Field,” SABR Bio-Project, Society for American Baseball Research (sabr.org/node/37719), accessed October 15, 2015.

19 O’Neal, Texas, 233; Ruggles, 143-145; O’Neal, The Southern League: Baseball in Dixie, 1885-1994 (Austin, Texas: Eakin Press, 1994), 307-308.

20 Ruggles, 145-147; Wright, 285.

21 Ruggles, 160-162.

22 Ruggles, 165-167.

23 Ruggles, 170-172.

24 Ruggles, 179-181; Wright, 395.

25 Ruggles, 184-186; Larry G. Bowman, “Burnett, Richard Wesley,” Handbook of Texas Online (tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fbuws), accessed October 20, 2015; Wright, 417-418; Holaday and Presswood, 115.

26 Bumbalough, “LaGrave Field”; Ruggles, 188-189.

27 Presswood and Holaday, 95; Ruggles, 190-191.

28 Wright, 457; Dave Hoskins Player Page, baseball-reference.com, accessed October 21, 2015.

29 Fran Zimniuch, Baseball’s New Frontier (Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 2013), 3; Wright, 466; Presswood and Holaday, 76.

30 Wright, 466-467.

31 Presswood.

32 Lloyd Johnson and Miles Wolff, eds., Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball Third Edition (Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007), 489, 493, 497, 501, 506, 511, 515.

33 Tom Kayser email to author, October 26, 2015.