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Oklahoma sandlot baseball produced many future major league players. Despite economic woes, downtown dilapidation, and loss of population, small towns all across Oklahoma keep a meticulously manicured high school baseball field.
The nexus of baseball in Oklahoma City is Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark—known as “The Brick”—which opened in 1998. In the generation that has passed since then, major leaguers like Garrett Richards, Michael Fulmer, and Andrew Heaney have counted themselves as Oklahoma City fans.
- Company Town Baseball
- Iola Gasbags and Borger Gassers
- Walter Johnson Pitches For Olinda Oil Wells
- Texon Oilers of The Permian Basin
- Hollywood Visits Oilfields
- Company Town Baseball: Oilmen of Whiting, Indiana
- Citgo and Oil History
In Texas, the booming petroleum town of Corsicana fielded the Oil Citys — and made baseball history in 1902 with a 51 to 3 drubbing of the Texarkana Casketmakers. Oil Citys catcher Jay Justin Clarke hit eight home runs in eight at bats during the game, still an unbroken baseball record. In 1922, the Wichita Falls minor league team lost its opportun...
Thanks to mid-continent oil and natural gasdiscoveries, in just nine years beginning in 1895, Iola, Kansas, grew from a town of 1,567 to a city of more than 11,000. Gas wells lighted the way. However, the Iola Gasbags reportedly adopted their team name not for the resource, but after becoming known as braggers in the Missouri State League. “They tr...
Perhaps baseball’s greatest product from the oilfield was a young man who was a roustabout in the small oil town of Olinda, California. Walter Johnson (1887-1946) would earn national renown as the greatest pitcher of his time. His fastball was legendary. In 1894, the Union Oil Company of Santa Paula purchased 1,200 acres in northern Orange County f...
On May 28, 1923, a loud roar was heard when the Santa Rita No. 1 well erupted in West Texas. People as far away as Fort Worth traveled to see the well. Near Big Lake, Texas, on arid land leased from the University of Texas, Texon Oil and Land Company made the discovery (the school would earn millions of dollars in royalties). The giant oilfield, ab...
The 2002 movie “The Rookie” — filmed almost entirely in the Permian Basin of West Texas — featured a Reagan County High School teacher. Based on the “true life” of baseball pitcher Jimmy Morris, it tells the story of baseball coach, Morris (played by Dennis Quaid), who despite being in his mid-30s briefly makes it to the major leagues. The movie, p...
In 1889, the Standard Oil Company began construction on its massive, 235-acre refinery in Whiting, Indiana. Today owned by BP, the Whiting refinery is the largest in the United States. In 2012, Whiting fielded a baseball team. On June 3, the Northwest Indiana Oilmen crushed the Southland Vikings 14-3 at Oil City Stadium in Standard Diamonds Park fo...
With the arrival of baseball’s opening day in 2024, David Krell published a book about the Boston Red Sox and the role of the former Cities Service Company — CITGO — red triangle sign at Fenway Park. While researching The Fenway Effect: A Cultural History of the Boston Red Sox, Krell discovered the extensive history behind the company and its sign ...
Article discusses the history of minor league baseball teams in Oklahoma during the territorial period as well as after statehood. Leo Kelley appreciates some of the most well-known players and teams of this era and includes a list of teams at the end of the article.
Black minor-league clubs in Oklahoma, organized as early as 1910, served as an informal farm system for the Negro Leagues. Teams in Oklahoma City and Tulsa regularly sent star players to teams such as the Kansas City Monarchs.
Most teams were located in the Northeast and Midwest, and no top-level professional teams existed west of Kansas City. [1] The Pacific Coast League, a baseball league founded in 1903, was never recognized as a true major league, but its quality of play was considered very high.
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Aug 1, 2021 · Approximately 120 Negro League baseball players participated in World War II by serving in the Army, Army Air Corps, Navy, and Marines. The Kansas City Monarchs had over 13 players who served during the war years.
