Minor League baseball was founded
Sept. 5, 1901, when the presidents
of seven independent leagues met in
Chicago, Ill. The National Association
of Professional Baseball Leagues
(NAPBL), now known as Minor League
Baseball, was organized at that meeting.
The founders established rules of operation
which for the most part are still in force.
Spring of 1902 ushered in 14 independent
leagues supporting 96 teams. The minor
league farm system, as we now know it,
came out of an agreement between the
NAPBL and Branch Rickey,
the influential owner of
the St. Louis Cardinals.
The agreement allowed
major league baseball
clubs to purchase minor
league clubs along with
the contracts of their
players. To this day the
minor league baseball
farm system supplies a
constant pool of young
talent to its major
league affiliates.
By the age of 13 I
could keep a baseball
box score, read a
racing form and
was hustling golf
games. I regularly
tagged along with
my dad as he
reported
local
sporting events
which included
the San Antonio
AA minor league
baseball team, The Missions.
The Missions were a charter
member of the fledgling Texas
League when it was formed in
1888. The Texas Almanac calls
the league, “one of the oldest,
most colorful and historic
circuits in organized baseball.”
They still compete as a member
of the Texas League along with
the Corpus Christi club, The
Hooks. Minor league baseball
has a long and sometimes
The Texas Coast’s Best Regional Magazine
✯
texas now
& THE ARTS
TAGE,
EVENTS, HERI
colorful history in the Coastal Bend/Lower
Rio Grande Valley. For those of you who
don’t follow baseball you might not have
heard the term “Texas Leaguer.” It is a
weakly hit fly ball that drops in for a single
between an infielder and an outfielder. The
term is said to have originated when Ollie
Pickering, a popular Texas League player,
made his major league debut and proceeded
to run off a string of seven straight bloop
hits, leading fans and writers to say, “Well,
there goes Pickering with another one of
those “Texas Leaguers. The Texas League
was not the only league to play baseball in
South Texas during the early days.
South Texas has been a hotbed of minor
league baseball since the early 1900s.
Two fledgling leagues fielded teams in the
Coastal Bend/LRGV during those early
years. The Southwest Texas League formed
in 1910 but only lasted two seasons. The
Corpus Christi Pelicans, forerunners to the
Hooks, played in the short lived league.
The Brownsville Charros, Corpus Christi
Spudders, Harlingen Hubs, McAllen
Packers, Refugio Oilers and Taft Cardinals
barnstormed the LRGV during the 1938
season of the Texas Valley League.
Refugio is known as the birthplace of
baseball legend Nolan Ryan. Lynn Nolan
Ryan, Jr. was born Jan. 31, 1947, to Lynn
Nolan Ryan, Sr., and Martha Lee Hancock
Ryan. The Ryan’s moved to Alvin with
their six children in tow when Nolan was
only six weeks old. Young Nolan was a
stando