The History of the Big State League: Texas Minor League Baseball

The Big State League (BSL) was among the minor league baseball circuits created in the baseball boom following World War II, during which most minor leagues had suspended play. Operating from 1947 through the 1957 season, the league was constituted entirely of teams in Texas cities, some of which had hosted minor league franchises in previous minor leagues. Organized baseball classified the BSL as Class B (Triple-A was the highest classification). 

The first league president was J. Walter Morris, who had played one season (1908) with the St. Louis Cardinals and had a lengthy post-playing career as a manager and executive with numerous minor league teams and leagues in Texas. He was posthumously elected to the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 1966.

While the largest Texas cities (Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio) were entrenched in the Texas League, a number of smaller Texas cities, some of whom had previously had Texas League franchises, were represented in the Big State League. The original BSL franchises, listed in the order they finished the inaugural 1947 season, were: the Texarkana Bears, the Greenville Majors, the Wichita Falls Spudders, the Paris Red Peppers, the Sherman-Denison Twins, the Gainesville Owls, the Austin Pioneers, and the Waco Dons.

The total attendance for the inaugural season was 800,888. Greenville led the way with 154,356. Two years later, the 1949 Austin Pioneers drew 188,193, the best season attendance in the history of the BSL. During the 1950s, however, the BSL, like many other minor leagues, faced a steady decline in attendance, fueled in large part by the growth of television.

The best-known franchise in the BSL was that of Waco. In 1952 the Waco Pirates (as they had been known since 1948 after they affiliated with the major league Pittsburgh Pirates, who were overseen by the legendary Branch Rickey) finished with a dismal 29–118 record, fifty-six games behind the first-place Temple Eagles. It was one of the worst records ever recorded in any league, minor or major. The team got off to a good start in 1953, but the May 11 F5 tornado that destroyed most of downtown Waco also demolished Katy Park, the Pirates’ home field. After shifting some of their home games to road games, the Pirates decided to move to Longview for the rest of the season. The Longview Cherokees had folded after the 1952 season, so a ballpark was available for the Pirates. Despite the dislocation, the team finished with a 77–68 record, which qualified them for the post-season playoffs, eventually won by the Wichita Falls Spudders.

With Katy Park rebuilt for the 1954 season, the Waco Pirates embarked not just on their best season but on one of the best seasons any minor league team ever enjoyed. The team finished with a record of 105–42, thirteen games ahead of the second-place Tyler Tigers. They followed up their regular season record with a successful post-season—they defeated the Corpus Christi Clippers in the final round of the playoffs for the BSL championship. In 2001, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, baseball historians Bill Weiss and Marshall Wright ranked the 100 greatest minor league teams of all time. The 1954 Waco Pirates were ranked number twenty-five. 

A key component of the Pirates’ surge was Román Mejías, who embarked on a fifty-five-game hitting streak (the third longest in minor league history) on June 6 at Galveston and ended on August 2 at Austin. For the following season, Mejías was promoted to the major league Pirates, and on April 10, 1962, he hit two home runs for the Houston Colt .45s in the first major league game ever played in Texas.

The BSL was known as a hitters’ league, and Mejías was not the only player to showcase his offensive prowess. Other notables include Roy Sanner, who drove home 165 runs for the Texarkana Bears in 1952; Buck Frierson, who hit fifty-eight home runs for the Sherman-Denison Twins in 1947; and Frank Saucier, who hit .446 for the Wichita Falls Spudders in 1949. Despite a stellar minor league career, Saucier is primarily remembered as the batter who was pulled from the lineup in favor of the 3’7” pinch-hitter, Eddie Gaedel, while playing for the St. Louis Browns in 1951. Two-time American League batting champion Pete Runnels also played in the BSL in 1950. 

Despite the league’s reputation, some BSL pitchers went on to forge careers in the major leagues. Among them were Dave Wickersham, who pitched for ten seasons, mostly for the Kansas City Athletics and Detroit Tigers; Fred Green, who pitched for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1960 World Series; and Dick Hall, a nineteen-year major league veteran who pitched for four pennant-winning Baltimore Orioles teams from 1966 through 1971. 

There was also upward mobility for managers, several of whom moved up to the big leagues as coaches and managers. Among them was Monty Basgall, who coached for the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1973 to 1986; Salty Parker, who served as interim manager for the New York Mets in 1967 and the Houston Astros in 1972; and Connie Ryan who served as interim manager for the Atlanta Braves in 1975 and the Texas Rangers in 1977. The most prominent manager to emerge from the BSL was Danny Ozark, who served as player–manager at Wichita Falls in 1956 and later helmed the Philadelphia Phillies from 1973 through 1979—he won divisional titles from 1976 through 1978.

Like most minor leagues, the BSL was designed as a player pipeline for major league franchises. It also provided a home for players who had little chance of ascending to the major leagues. A notable example was Dean Stafford, who played for Greenville, Sherman-Denison, Paris, Tyler, Galveston, and Corpus Christi from 1947 through 1955. During his nine seasons with the league, he amassed 1,809 hits (including 260 home runs) and 1,283 runs batted in while batting .351.

Other BSL players had played in the major leagues before finishing their careers in the minors. Perhaps the best example of such a player was Leslie Elmer “Lon” Goldstein, who played briefly for the Cincinnati Reds in 1943 and 1946. After the BSL was established, he joined the Gainesville Owls in 1947. He remained with the Owls for four seasons, then logged three seasons with the Temple Eagles (serving as a player–manager in 1953), and finished his BSL career at age thirty-six with the Corpus Christi Clippers in 1954. While with the BSL, he had a .340 batting average and 1,228 hits (including 101 home runs). After retiring as a player, he coached at Carter Riverside High School in Fort Worth for thirty-five years and served as athletic director for the Fort Worth public school system. He was named Texas Athletic Director of the Year for 1975, the year the Fort Worth Independent School District opened Lon Goldstein Field at its south Fort Worth sports complex. Goldstein was inducted into the Texas Wesleyan Sports Hall of Fame in 1983 and the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame in 1995. 

One prominent major league veteran who logged time in the BSL was Greenville native Monty Stratton, a member of the Chicago White Sox pitching rotation whose career was cut short after he lost his leg in a hunting accident. Despite being hampered by an artificial leg, he continued his playing career with three BSL teams: the Waco Dons in 1947, the Temple Eagles in 1949, and the Greenville/Bryan Majors in 1953.

Despite the talent on display in the BSL, attendance declined through 1957, when the league, reduced to six teams, drew a total of 214,628 spectators. The Wichita Falls Spudders dropped out after a disastrous 4–26 start, and in August the Temple Redlegs withdrew as well, leaving the Victoria Rosebuds, the Corpus Christi Clippers, the Beaumont Pirates, and the Abilene Blue Sox to finish the season. With that the Big State League came to an end. Texas cities that participated in the BSL but were not mentioned above were Bryan (1953–54), Del Rio (1954), Harlingen (1954–55), Lubbock (1956), Port Arthur (1955–57), and Texas City (1955).

Some of the BSL ballparks remained in use long after the league folded. Gainesville’s Locke Field, which hosted an early Elvis Presley concert (see ELVIS IN TEXAS), was not demolished until 2015. Texan Park, home of the Texas City franchise, was renamed Robinson Stadium and hosted the Bay Area Toros of the independent Continental Baseball League in the 2000s. The Brazos Valley Bombers of the Texas Collegiate League play at Travis Field in Bryan, former home of the Bryan Majors/Indians. The Victoria Generals, also in the Texas Collegiate League, play in Riverside Stadium, where the Victoria Eagles/Rosebuds played. Harlingen Field, home of the Capitals in the 1950s, hosted several professional teams over the following six decades. 

The Texas Historical Commission erected historical markers at Majors Stadium in Greenville in 2003 and at Athletic Park/Spudder Park in Wichita Falls in 2025. A baseball diamond remains at the latter site. In Greenville some remnants (an arch and a fieldhouse) of Majors Stadium are still present. Notably, the field hosted the New York Yankees when they played an exhibition game against the Majors on April 10, 1949. 

In Waco the Katy Park vicinity has been transformed into a mixed-use development by Chip and Joanna Gaines. Now known as Magnolia Market at the Silos, it contains a commemorative plaque and a whiffle ball field at the former site of Katy Park.