History of baseball in Texas facts for kids

Texas has a long and exciting history with the game of baseball, just like many other states in the United States.

How Baseball Started in Texas

Baseball began in Texas around the time of the American Civil War in 1861. The Houston Base Ball Club was formed to help the game grow. This was similar to how Alexander Cartwright helped start the game in the 1840s with the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club in Manhattan.

People played baseball in Galveston and other parts of Texas before the war. The Civil War slowed things down, but the game picked up again after the war ended. Soldiers, mostly from the Union side, played baseball during the war. Sometimes, even Confederate soldiers played.

A funny story from a Union soldier named George A. Putnam tells about a baseball game that was stopped by Confederate gunfire. He said:

Suddenly there was a scattering of fire, which three outfielders caught the brunt; the centerfield was hit and was captured, left and right field managed to get back to our lines. The attack...was repelled without serious difficulty, but we had lost not only our centerfield, but...the only baseball in Alexandria, Texas.

The first baseball game officially reported in a newspaper happened on April 21, 1868. The Houston Post wrote about it. This game took place at the San Jacinto Battlegrounds, near Houston. This is where General Sam Houston led Texas to victory in the War of Independence against Mexico in 1836. On this special anniversary, the Houston Stonewalls played the Galveston Robert E. Lees. The Stonewalls won 35–2!

Over the next 20 years, baseball became very popular across Texas as a game played for fun. The Houston club's early efforts, along with people who learned the game during the Civil War and new Texans who moved during the Reconstruction Era, helped organize the sport. This brought more attention to baseball in the state. Not long after the first recorded game in 1868, Texas had 100 minor league teams. This was more than any other state!

By the end of the 1800s, baseball was very well-known in Texas. The Houston Base Ball Club was one of the first teams in the Texas League when it started in 1888. They also won their first league championship the next year. The Houston team had many nicknames like Babies, Red Stockings, and Mud Cats, before they became known as the Houston Buffaloes around 1900.

Professional Baseball in Texas

Minor League Teams

The Texas League helped make professional baseball popular in the state starting in the late 1800s. There were teams in many cities, including Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio.

Today, the Texas League is still active. It is a "AA" level minor league that works with Major League Baseball (MLB) teams. Not all teams in the league are in Texas anymore. However, both of Texas's two MLB teams, the Texas Rangers and the Houston Astros, have minor league teams in Texas that play in this league. The Rangers' team is the Frisco RoughRiders, and the Astros' team is the Corpus Christi Hooks.

Besides the Texas League, many other baseball leagues have existed in Texas over the years. Some were around for a short time, while others included at least one team from Texas. Today, in addition to MLB and the Texas League, teams in Texas also play in the Pacific Coast League, the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball, the Pecos League, and the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball.

Major League Baseball Teams

Texas is home to two Major League Baseball teams:

Houston Astros

Texas Rangers

Amateur Baseball

College Baseball

College baseball is also a big part of Texas culture. You can find Texas college baseball teams at many different levels of college sports.

Many major college baseball programs in Texas used to play together in the Southwest Conference (SWC). These included teams from Baylor, Houston, Rice, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Christian (TCU), and Texas Tech. The SWC ended in 1996.

Today, Texas teams play in many different college conferences. Some of these are the American Athletic Conference, Big 12 Conference, Conference USA, Southeastern Conference, and Southland Conference.

Texas also has some exciting rivalries between its college teams. For example, there's the Battle of the Brazos between Texas A&M and Baylor University. Another big one is the Lone Star Showdown between the Texas Longhorns and Texas A&M Aggies. Other rivalries include Houston-Rice, Baylor-TCU, and Sam Houston State-Stephen F. Austin.

Baseball tournaments are also popular in Texas. Events like the Southwest Diamond Classic in Frisco, Texas, and the Houston College Classic (played at Minute Maid Park) happen in late February. This is because the weather is warmer and better for playing baseball.