Volume 15 , Issue 25

Short History of Pro Baseball In Austin

It was in 1839 that the city of Austin was established as the capital of the Republic of Texas. In 1869 baseball made it debut in Austin on June 29, when the U.S. 15th Infantry's team defeated a group of locals known as the Austin Unknowns, 31-28, in the first organized game.

It was not until 1845 that Alexander Joy Cartwright implemented the first game of modern baseball at the Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey.

In 1887 the Austin His, the city's first professional team, began playing. One year later, they merged with their competitors, the Austin Red Sox, to form the first Austin Senators, charter members of the present-day Texas League. They played at Riverside Park, just southeast of the Congress Avenue Bridge.

By 1914, the Austin Senators played their final season before a 50-year hiatus. It was the 1920's the Austin Black Senators joined the Texas Negro League and played into the Forties.

In 1924, a nineteen year old Willie Wells leaves Austin to join the St. Louis Stars of the Negro National League. In 1929, Wells sets a aNegro League record with 27 home runs in 334 at bats for St. Louis.

By 1930, Seguin native Smokey Joe Williams, then 44, stuck out 27 while one hitting the Kansas City Monarchs over 12 innings to put the icing on his Hall of fame career.

In 1947, we find 7UP bottler Ed Knebel finances construction of Disch Field and brings organized baseball back to Austin with his Class B Austin Pioneers. It was 1956, a year after the Pioneers fold, the Austin Senators began another tour of duty in the Double A Texas League.

It was in 1961 that future Hall of Famer Phil Niekro went 4-4 with a 2.63 ERA for the Senators, then an affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. By 1963, Baseball immortal Rogers Hornsby, considered by many the greatest second baseman of all time, was buried in his family's cemetery in Hornsby Bend, located off FM 989, the eastern extension of MLK Boulevard.

In 1967, the Texas League team, rechristened the Braves in 1964, and relocated to Shreveport, Louisiana, leaving Austin barren of professional ball for the rest of the century. In 1995, the Austin Swing struck out when Austin voters defeated a proposal to fund a stadium, killing plans for the Double A team.

In 1997, Austin's Willie Wells was posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall of fame. Seguin's Smokey Joe Wood and former Black Senator Hilton Smith were elected in 1999 and 2001, respectively. It was in 2000 that the Texas League baseball returned to the Austin area on April 16, the first home game for the Round Rock Express. The Express captured the league pennant that year.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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