History of the West Texas-New Mexico League (1937–55)

The West Texas-New Mexico (WT-NM) League was a minor league baseball circuit which existed from 1937 until 1955 (excluding the years 1943 to 1945). Though the name of the league implies parity, franchises were more plentiful in West Texas than New Mexico. Only Albuquerque (1942, 1946–55) and Clovis (1938–42, 1946–55) had long-term representation in the league. Most of the Texas teams were close to the New Mexico border. What teams in both states had in common were climate and offense: the warm air and higher elevations of the Llano Estacado favored hitters. While .400 hitters disappeared from the major leagues after 1941, they still appeared occasionally in the WT-NM League. Batting averages of .300 were commonplace, not just for individuals but for teams, and during four seasons (1947, 1948, 1950, and 1952) the league as a whole averaged .300 or better. The peak year was 1948 at .310.

The challenges that faced all new minor leagues were particularly acute for the WT-NM League, created in 1937 during the Great Depression. Additionally, the Dust Bowl encompassed many of the franchise cities. Consequently, the fans had limited discretionary income. Prior to World War II, the WT-NM League was rated Class D, the lowest rung in the minor league hierarchy. Despite this, a few players in the league advanced all the way to the major leagues. Milton Price served as the first president of the league. He was simultaneously the secretary of the Texas League, the offices of which were located far from any of the WT-NM franchise cities, in the Republic National Bank building in Dallas.

Class D Seasons (1937–42)

Given the adverse conditions of 1937, it was not surprising that the league started with only six teams and finished with four. The Odessa Oilers team was the first to withdraw (on June 17) after forty-five games; next the Midland Cardinals (on July 9) withdrew after sixty-six games. The proximity of the two cities (twenty miles) might have seemed like a made-to-order rivalry, but the populations (less than 10,000 each) were not enough to support two franchises so close together. The four teams that completed the inaugural season were the Hobbs Drillers, the Monahans Trojans, the Roswell Sunshiners, and the Wink Spudders, the latter of which led the league with a 68–50 record and also emerged triumphant in the playoffs.

Despite the mid-season collapse of two franchises and two other teams withdrawing after the season, the league was back to six teams in 1938. Midland returned, but not Odessa. Wink and Hobbs also returned but not Monahans and Roswell. The new franchises were in Lubbock, Big Spring, and Clovis.

In 1939 the league expanded to eight teams. Wink and Hobbs had dropped out after the 1938 season, but they were replaced by Pampa, Lamesa, Amarillo, and Abilene (until July 9 when the latter team moved to Borger). Combined attendance for all teams was 273,374, a vast improvement over the 108,342 total for the six-team league in 1938. In 1938 and 1939 the Lubbock Hubbers (so-called because of Lubbock’s status as a “hub” of the South Texas Plains) posted the best records during the regular seasons and won the post-season championships.

In mid-season 1940 the Big Spring franchise moved to Odessa. By 1941 the WT-NM League appeared to be on the brink of stability. There were no franchise shifts that year when the Big Spring Bombers finished first with a 91–45 record.

World War II put the league on hold in 1942. The league began the 1942 season with eight teams. The first franchise to teeter was the Wichita Falls Spudders, which moved to Big Spring, where it was renamed the Pirates, on May 22 and went out of business after a month. The Albuquerque Dukes withdrew on June 23. With so many players caught in the draft and travel restrictions in effect, the league disbanded on July 25. Notably, the Lubbock Hubbers, which finished last among the six remaining teams, were managed by Monty Stratton, a former Chicago White Sox pitcher who had lost his right leg in a hunting accident but made a comeback as a minor league pitcher. The most disappointed fans were probably those in Clovis, where the Pioneers’ .732 winning percentage (52–19) was the best in league history.

Post-World War II Peak

The plight of the WT-NM League was not unusual. Most minor leagues disbanded during the war. In 1946 the WT-NM League was reconstituted as a Class C league. Milton Price again presided over the league, which had franchises in Albuquerque and Clovis, New Mexico; and Abilene, Amarillo, Borger, Lamesa, Lubbock, and Pampa, Texas. League attendance for the 1946 season was 658,796 for the eight teams.

Among the new faces in 1946 was Joe Bauman of the Amarillo Gold Sox. Before the war Bauman had played one undistinguished season (1941) with Newport of the Class D Northeast Arkansas League. Playing for the Gold Sox (a Boston Braves affiliate) after being discharged by the U.S. Navy, he led the league with forty-eight home runs and drove home 159 runs. He followed this up with 38 home runs, 127 runs batted in, and a .350 batting average in 1947. That was the end of his involvement with the WT-NM League, but he was well on his way to a career total of 337 home runs. His reputation was secured after the 1954 season, when he batted .400, hit 72 home runs—still a minor league record—and drove home 224 runs for the Roswell Rockets of the Longhorn League. The Roswell ballpark was renamed Joe Bauman Stadium and has served as the home of Roswell Invaders of the Pecos League since 2011.

Bauman’s offensive prowess helped boost the 1946 Gold Sox to a record of 93–47, although the pennant was won by the Abilene Blue Sox, a Brooklyn Dodgers affiliate. The Blue Sox offense was led by Danny Ozark (31 home runs, 142 runs batted in), who never made the big leagues as a player but served as a coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers and a manager of the Philadelphia Phillies. One of the team’s founders was Howard Green, who later served as president of the Longhorn League and the Big State League and was a member of the Texas state legislature (1957–66) and a Tarrant County judge (1967–75).

The 1946 Blue Sox averaged better than eight runs per game on the strength of a .310 composite batting average. They slugged 166 home runs and had three players with 100 or more runs batted in. Their ninety-seven-victory season, then the most wins in league history, was good enough to rank them number 94 of the 100 greatest minor league teams of all time, according to baseball historians Bill Weiss and Marshall Wright, who created the rankings in 2001 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues.

That record lasted only one season, however, as the Lubbock Hubbers, affiliated with the Detroit Tigers, won ninety-nine games in 1947. Their offensive statistics far surpassed the Blue Sox of the year before. They slugged 210 home runs (Bill Serena led the way with fifty-seven), batted .315, and averaged almost nine runs per game. Five batters drove home more than 100 home runs, led by Serena with 190. Two years later, he was in the big leagues with the Chicago Cubs, with whom he remained through the 1954 season. The Hubbers led the league in attendance with 117,621. For their efforts the Hubbers were ranked ninety-seventh on the aforementioned list of greatest minor league teams.

Final Seasons

Though lower-level minor leagues experienced a player shortage during the Korean War, the WT-NM League soldiered on and continued through 1952 with the same eight franchises. In 1953 the Plainview Ponies replaced the Lamesa Lobos. That year Hal Sayles, president of the Longhorn League, was elected league president. He remained president until the league’s dissolution. By 1955 the league had been bumped up to Class B status (with the El Paso Texans replacing the Borger Gassers), but it was not enough to save the league. While Amarillo and Abilene had respectable attendance (132,128 and 125,714), the other six franchises drew far fewer fans (the anchor team was the Lubbock Hubbers with 58,555). This was a trend noticeable in other minor leagues. The number of minor league teams peaked at 448 in 1949 and fell to 243 in 1955.

The teams that had been part of the WT-NM League when it folded joined other minor leagues, but those leagues were also on borrowed time. Abilene and Lubbock joined the Class B Big State League, which closed down after the 1957 season. Pampa, El Paso, Clovis, and Plainview joined the Class B Southwestern League, which also folded after the 1957 season. Amarillo and Albuquerque moved on to the Class A Western League, which lasted through the 1958 season.