𝗙𝗗𝗥 𝗞𝗘𝗣𝗧 𝗕𝗔𝗦𝗘𝗕𝗔𝗟𝗟 𝗔𝗟𝗜𝗩𝗘 𝗗𝗨𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗟𝗗 𝗪𝗔𝗥 𝗜𝗜~𝗟𝗢𝗖𝗔𝗟 𝗥𝗚𝗩 𝗚𝗜𝗥𝗟𝗦 𝗧𝗔𝗞𝗘 𝗧𝗢 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗗𝗜𝗔𝗠𝗢𝗡𝗗!

by Rene Torres

President Franklin D. Roosevelt Throwing Out the First Pitch

The attack on Pearl Harbor plunged the United States into WW II. Soon after, rationing was a way of life and Americans had to learn to live with less of everything that made up their daily lives. Although America’s game took a back seat during the conflict, it did not go away. Expressing the need to keep the game going, FDR wrote what became known as the “Green Letter.”

The letter was in response to Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Landis’ question of whether to suspend baseball for the duration of the war. Roosevelt declared “I honestly feel that it would best for the country to keep baseball going. There will be fewer people unemployed, and everybody will work longer hours and harder than ever. And that means that they need to have a chance for recreation and to take their minds off their work more so than before.”

The president loved baseball, as a player he was shallow in skill, but lacked no enthusiasm for the game. In fact, as a youth he was so bad that he played on a team called the “Bum Base Ball Boys”, there were certainly no red and white fluttering banners welcoming this team.

His dream of being on the diamond continued while at Harvard. But there was no entourage following his play on the field as he was delegated to fetching this and that, as the team’s manager.

Valley Ball Loop…

Baseball also suffered from unexpected shortages during the war. But those deficiencies did not stop local military and civilian teams from forming a circuit. The 1942 Valley semi-pro league included three military teams: the Moore Field Fliers from Mission, the Gunners from Harlingen Air Force Gunnery School and the Brownsville Fort Brown Yankees. The rest of the teams that made up the league included: the Mission 30-30, Harlingen Magnolias and the San Benito Merchants.

The league started with a lot of promise, but by mid-season the country’s rationing system took a bite out of baseball and the civilian teams bowed out of the league. The major culprit that caused the league to fold was the shortage of “rubber.” George Strohmeyer of the Mission Rifles and the rest of the city teams said they could not play out town games because of the lack of extra tires. Shortages in rubber, gasoline and dwindling gate revenues were generally to blame for the collapse of the season.

Valley girls take the diamond…

While the men’s league was struggling at the gate and many players left to serve their country, Valley Girls’ Softball teams were attracting thousands to the park. The girls were not only replacing the men in the workplace but were also filling the gap in providing recreational entertainment. And no, the girls were not the frumpy housewife type, but rather they were a feast for the eyes, as they demonstrated exquisite execution on the field.

By 1940 and throughout the war years and beyond, there was an unending stream of fans supporting girls’ softball and the game took the Valley by storm. In the summer of 1941, the Texas Amateur Athletic Foundation Softball Tournament was held in Mercedes. Attendance records zoomed as girl softball teams became a major attraction for Valley sports enthusiasts, with more than 300 steroid-free girls participating. John Kilman, then tourney director, reported that after the first six nights of exhibition games more than 11,000 fans had made it to the ballpark. With five more nights of softball left he declared, “There was every indication that fan attendance would exceed 20,000. There was no doubt that wartime girls’ softball had established itself as the big Valley outdoor sport, outdrawing all other forms of amusement, except for an occasional football game.

Drawing the most attention at the time were the La Feria Bombers, who were considered the finest organization ever seen in the Valley. In a two-week period, they drew no less than 3, 000 fans per game. As the final games of the TAAF tournament drew near, it was estimated that each game would attract at least 5,000 people. In the semi-final game, between the San Benito Kiwanis and the Bombers, there was such an unbelievable rush to find a seat, that the front door of the park was demolished.

There were other outstanding teams around the Valley, but in ’41, no one could claim they had a 43 game winning streak like the La Feria Bombers did. The Bomber’s winning summer run ended against Houston opponent. A newspaper from there reported “A stunning last frame rally by Jax Beer of Houston shattered a 43-game winning streak of the La Feria Bombers girls’ softball team here Friday night, 12 to 11.”

The Valley girls of summer demonstrated that they belonged at Home… and First, Second and Third!