Paul LaGrave: Architect of a Fort Worth Baseball Dynasty

Paul LaGrave in a short span of 12 years became the architect of a dominant minor league dynasty at Fort Worth and paragon baseball figure in the Texas League.

Late in the 1916 season Fort Worth owner H.M. Weaver of Waxahachie became enraged at the way that manager Jake Atz was running his club. A climax in the scenario came one afternoon when an agitated Weaver rose from his box seat, rushed onto the field and relieved the Fort Worth pitcher from “a real country pounding,” according to accounts. Atz immediately resigned as manager. Texas League president J. Walter Morris didn’t conceal his embarrassment over the incident nor did Fort Worth fans, particularly business and civic leader William Stripling.

Morris told Stripling to buy the club. Stripling agreed if he could find the right baseball man to run the show. League president Morris came up with the name of a 32-year-old Missouri native, Paul LaGrave. Acceptance was immediate, and no one could imagine what was in store for suffering Tarrant County fans.

Stripling agreed to serve as president and LaGrave, also a minority stockholder, would bear the title of business manager-secretary with full authority over operations. Their first move was to recall Atz as manager. That signified the most successful story in Texas League history in the next decade. It was a case of the astute LaGrave in the office and Atz on the field.

LaGrave later brought boyhood pal Jack Zeller to Fort Worth as an assistant and chief scout. Zeller later became one of the most respected persons in baseball and was credited with building an empire that resulted in four American League pennants and two World Series championships for the Tigers. LaGrave and Zeller produced the material that topped the Texas League in winning percentage for seven consecutive seasons.

LaGrave also conceived the idea of a Dixie Series, matching the champions of the Texas League and Southern Association. With assistance from Morris, he launched in 1920 a classic that for over 25 years became one of the outstanding sports events in the South and Southwest. Fort Worth teams competed in the first six Dixie Series and won five.

“Only those who lived through it appreciate the throbbing excitement experienced when Jake Atz and his Fightin’ Cats made baseball history,” wrote famed sports editor Flem Hall. “In retrospect, it’s almost unbelievable. Public interest boiled for nearly 10 years. The Majors were remote. There was no radio coverage and little else to hold attention. No World Series meant more to New York or any other place than the Dixie Series meant to Fort Worth in the early 1920s. There were overflow parades, special trains and fierce loyalty to the team.”

LaGrave stocked this roster well. A former shortstop, LaGrave joined Zeller to produce four outstanding shortstops during the first seven seasons of that era. Bobby Stow, Topper Rigney, Jack Tavener, and Wayne Windle are still legends in TL tales. Texas A&M alumnus Rigney was peddled to the White Sox, but Tavener stepped right into his spot after Zeller spotted the latter in the South Atlantic League. Windle jumped into the fray when Tavener was sold to the Tigers. Stow later was a popular concessionaire at Fort Worth sporting events while Tavener returned to the city of his baseball fame as operator of a popular bowling establishment.

The Atz-LaGrave-Zeller combo had a strong belief in the Connie Mack adage that pitching is 80 percent of baseball. Among the best to pass through the organization were Joe Pate, who won 30 games twice and 20 or more contests in six straight seasons, and righty Paul Wachtel (winner of a Texas League-record 232 games with 32 shutouts and two no-hitters).