History of the Central Texas League: Minor League Baseball (1914–17)

The Central Texas League (CTL) was a minor baseball league whose history was short (1914–17) and shaky (all four seasons ended early). In the league’s inaugural season of 1914, it consisted of six teams—Waxahachie, West, Ennis, Italy, Corsicana, and Hillsboro—all of which were located on the interurban routes of the Southern Traction Company (see TEXAS ELECTRIC RAILWAY). Consequently, the league was also known as the Central Texas Trolley League. The league was rated Class D, the lowest classification in minor league baseball.

As was the case with many minor leagues, the CTL season was divided in half with the first-half winner meeting the second-half winner in a post-season championship series. The first half of the season went off on schedule with Waxahachie as the winner. The second-half winner was West, although the schedule was not completed as the league folded on July 25. Nevertheless, a post-season series was set up between the two winners with Waxahachie winning the best-of-five series.

Despite the CTL’s abbreviated 1914 season, the league returned in 1915, but half the original teams were gone. West, Italy, and Hillsboro were replaced by Terrell, Kaufman, and Mexia. Once again, the league folded early (July 24). This time, however, there was no playoff series between the first-half winner (the Ennis Tigers) and the second-half winner (the Mexia Gassers). The champion, so to speak, was Ennis with the best overall record (35–26).

The most prominent name in the league in 1915 was Ross Youngs, who played twenty-five games for Waxahachie. A native of Shiner, Texas, Youngs was only eighteen years old, but he was in the early stages of a career that would lead to stardom with John McGraw’s New York Giants and eventual enshrinement in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. His 1915 season illustrates the instability of low-level minor leagues, as both Class D leagues in which he played, the Middle Texas League and the CTL, closed down midseason.

The CTL returned in 1916. Corsicana and Kaufman were replaced by Temple and Marlin. This time the league folded on July 16. The Temple Governors had the best overall record with 36–25. The 1916 CTL season was notable for several players who eventually made it to the major leagues. One was Roy Leslie, a Bailey, Texas, native who batted .358 for Ennis and played briefly for the Chicago Cubs, the St. Louis Cardinals, and the Philadelphia Phillies. Another was Earl Smith, a catcher for Waxahachie, who went on to play twelve seasons in the major leagues with a .303 batting average. A native of Pearsall, Texas, Gene Bailey played for Marlin and later played big league ball for the Philadelphia Athletics, the Boston Braves, the Boston Red Sox, and the Brooklyn Robins. Clarence Huber, a native of Tyler, who played for Mexia, played two seasons each with the Detroit Tigers and the Philadelphia Phillies. In addition, catcher Larry Pratt closed out his career in Terrell after breaking into the big leagues with the Boston Red Sox in 1914. He also played for the Brooklyn Tip-Tops and Newark Peppers of the short-lived Federal League in 1915.

The final CTL season (1917) featured just Mexia, Ennis, Marlin and Temple, with the latter team moving to Corsicana on June 1, five days before the league permanently disbanded. Each team had played only fourteen or fifteen games. The “champion” was Mexia with a record of 8–6. The bellwether city of the CTL, however, was Ennis, the only city to field a team for all four seasons.

The league was on shaky ground every season, but the 1917 season was doomed from the start due to the United States declaration of war on Germany on April 6, followed six weeks later by the enactment of the Selective Service Act. Some players joined the military, while others worked in industries vital to the war effort. A number of minor leagues suspended operations for the remainder of World War I. Some leagues resumed operations after the war, but the CTL was not among them.

The 1917 season marked not just the end of the CTL but the end of professional baseball for several cities in the league. Corsicana, Marlin, Mexia, Temple, and Terrell would field other teams in other leagues. Ennis, Hillsboro, Italy, Kaufman, Waxahachie, and West never again hosted professional baseball. Jungle Park, where the Waxahachie club played, however, is still in use as the home field for Waxahachie High School. In 1946 it was renamed Richards Park after Waxahachie-born player Paul Richards.