History of the Texas Association Minor Baseball League (1923–26)

The Texas Association was a short-lived (four seasons) minor baseball league during the 1920s. The league was rated Class D. It had six franchises every season, but only Austin, Corsicana, and Mexia were present for all four seasons.

In the inaugural season of 1923, the league was comprised of the Mexia Gushers, the Austin Rangers, the Sherman Red Sox (which played for one season only), the Corsicana Gumbo Busters, the Marlin Bathers (so-called because of the town’s hot springs), and the Waco Indians. Mexia had the best win-loss record for the 140-game season, but the post-season, played between the winners of the first and second halves of the split season, resulted in an impasse. With Austin and Sherman tied at three games each, the two teams could not agree as to where the decisive seventh game should be played. The league called off the seventh game and awarded no pennant.

In 1924 the league returned with a slightly shorter (130 games) schedule. Five of the six teams returned with the Temple Surgeons (so-called because of the city’s status as a regional medical center) replacing Sherman. The Corsicana club, now called the Oilers, finished first in both halves of the season with a total record of 83–42 (.664). There was no post-season.

In 1925 Waco dropped out and was replaced by the Terrell Terrors. The Austin Rangers became the Austin Senators. On May 13 the Marlin franchise moved to Palestine, with the nickname being changed from Bathers to Pals. The most notable player on the team was pitcher Walter “Boom-Boom” Beck, who broke into the major leagues with the St. Louis Browns in 1924, returned to the minors in 1925, and eventually returned to the big leagues for eleven more seasons.

In 1925 the Corsicana Oilers again led the pack and won both halves of the season with a record of 85–48. They were led by twenty-three-year-old Smead Jolley who led the league in hits (180) and batted .362 with twenty-six home runs. Although in previous seasons, he had split time between the pitcher’s mound and the outfield, at Corsicana he was strictly an outfielder. While he eventually went on to play four seasons of major league ball (1930–33) with the Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox, he is primarily remembered as a minor league legend. He accumulated 2,714 hits in sixteen seasons, peaking in 1928 when he hit .404 for the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League.

The 1925 franchises carried over to 1926 and played a 125-game schedule. Austin and Palestine won the two halves of the split season. Austin posted the best overall record with a 73–49 season. Palestine finished 2.5 games behind but swept Austin three games to none in the post-season.

The 1926 season was noteworthy for the debuts of Earl Caldwell, who pitched for both Temple and Mexia, and Jack Knott, who pitched for Corsicana. Caldwell made his major league debut two years later with the Philadelphia Phillies and went on to an eight-year major league career. Across his twenty-four-season minor league career, much of it in Texas, he fashioned a record of 302–265. Knott played eleven seasons in the major leagues, beginning in 1933 with the St. Louis Browns.

Following the 1926 season the Texas Association merged with the East Texas League to form the Lone Star League. Only three franchises (Palestine, Mexia, and Corsicana) were involved in the merger. After World War II Austin and Temple fielded teams in other minor leagues, but the Terrell Terrors were the last professional team to play in that city.