The Start of the Texas League

Editor’s note: This article was told to William B. Ruggles, June 15, 1931.

Actually, I think the birth of the Texas League in 1888 was due to the fact that a club of minor leaguers defeated the New York Giants. That notable victory aroused the sporting blood of Austin to the patch of enthusiasm necessary to form the league.

In 1887, I had been playing at St. Joseph in the old Western League. Mike O’Connor had a club at Webb City, Missouri, and after the close of the Western League season, I was asked to get a team together to represent Joplin, ten miles away, in a match series with him. I gathered up a star collection of Western Leaguers and we won ten out of fourteen games from Mike’s club. All of the ball players headed for the Pacific Coast in the winter in those days. So we decided to hold the Joplin team together and work it out to the Coast via Texas. We played in Fort Worth and Waco against strong independent clubs and got down to Austin where we expected to play the Austin team. A friendly clerk in the hotel tipped me off to the fact that the Austin folk had gotten together the star players of the Southern League. But with Dooms pitching brilliantly, we defeated them.

Sam French, a lumber man, and Ed Byrne, contractor, with kindred spirits, conceived the idea that we could defeat the New York Giants, then barnstorming in Texas. The Giants demanded a thousand dollars guarantee with winner to take 65%. Byrne wired back that the offer was accepted but winner would have to take 85%. I was not especially confident, but we did have a good club. The upshot of it was that the Giants scheduled three games, we defeated them twice, and they did not stay for the third contest. Austin, then about to celebrate the dedication of the new capitol building, was wild with enthusiasm. Byrne, French, Charlie Newning and others joined me in getting the new league launched and the Texas League became history.

One birth was not quite enough for it as a matter of fact. We had to revive it every year. There was no such thing as continuous ownership of franchises, and in 1888, 1890, and again in 1892, after a year’s absence in which there was not Texas League, I had to stir up interest.

Our chief trouble was inability to keep the ball clubs in the best of physical condition. The state was new to baseball. People were enthusiastic. The saloon and the poolrooms were open to the players, free of charge. They were young for the most part. Naturally they fell for the diversions offered, but it was difficult for the men who were seriously trying to make a go of baseball.

As for the actual playing strength of the early clubs and those of today, I think the teams then were fully as good. My Austin team of 1888 developed such major league stars as Red Ehret, Buck Weaver, and Raymond, and players as good as they were in their prime could hold their own on a major league nine of 1931.