The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1916-12-27
TEXAS LEAeuERv
Origin of a Well Known Term in
Baseball Parlance.

once IN every baseball story and has
a special significance for Texas base
bell fans. Reference is made to the
term Texas Lacquer" There is per-
| haps not a twelve-year-old schoolboy
in the United States who has ever at
tended baseball games who does not
recognize the meaning implied by
that trite phrase.
He understands Immediately that
some batsman has connected with the
offering of a pitcher and in doing so
has popped up a little short fly ball
which falls too far back to be cap
tured by the infield and too far in to
be handled by the outfielders To ask
any sporting writer of the major
league circuits If he understood the
play would constitute nothing short
of downright insult, yet 1t is more
than probable that not one of every
ten of these experts on the game
could give an accurate explanation of
the origin of the phrase or even sat
. isfy himself as to its real fitness.
For the benefit of any such writers.
likewise interested baseball fans, the
explanation is herein set forth:
After the close Of the Texas League
season of 1888, Bill Joyce, Emmett
Rogers and Arthur Sunday, trio Of
Houston Club swingers who had
wrought havoc and devastation TO the
hopes of every pitcher in the curcuit,
were sold to the Toledo Club of the
American Association. 1t was little
wonder that the three Houstonians
took good care of their baseball repu-
tations after going up to the big
show" because they were OF the old
type Of aggressive ball players so
scarce in this day and time as to have
become practically extinct They went
up with their regulations as terrific
sluggers preceding them, and their
arrival in Toledo was acclaimed by
the newspapers of that city under
generously large and black headlines.
The Texas recruits were heralded
as a trio of terrible tapping gladia-
tors, and the pitchers of the other
clubs OF the American Association
were more or less apprehensive as to
just what the youngsters would do
d6aliAol Uib lllnt IutS AtiL
them out rather cautiously, and the
ACCESSIBILITY OF such course was soon
apparent.
None of the three hit the ball like
the great Honus Wagner or the classy
Larry Lajoie, or the renowned Frank
Baker of later years. They were not
hitters of that sort. But they did get
on the bases. and they did 1t by hit
ting safely. Their blows. however,
were not of the "fence-busting,
screaming liner variety. They were
of the sort of tidy little bingles. label
led "one base only" such as are now
known as Texas leaguers.
1t was in q game at Syracuse. short
ly after the Texas combination Joined
Toledo. that Pitcher O'Brien, after
Sunday. Joyce and Rogers dropped
safe hits over the infield. roared
forth; IAN them durn chumps can
do is TO hit out them little old dinky
Texas leaguers"
A general laugh went up from the
bench. and the remark soon reached
the press box. The reporters hoped
on it with a vengeance and the
phrase has lived and thrived from
that day to this. Joyce. Rogers and
Sunday continued in service for many
years and were known among their
baseball acquaintance as the origi-
majors of Texas leaguers.
Globe Sights.
All circumstances are suspicious to
q gossip.
over nothing
If crook looks the part, it makes
his task more difficult.
Some men mistake years OF mere
existence for experience.
An orator seems to get his second
wind" easier than a distance runner. |
The Irritation has to be a partner
ship affair IL it is to make much pro-
gress.
A man can have many worse faults |
than being poor hand to write
letters.
Don't talk too much about how re-
liable you are, or people will begin to
doubt it.
Every man thinks he knows his
business so you neendn't butt in and
tell him how to run It,
A strong man who knows he hasn't |
much chance in an argument with a
poor, weak woman, has learned some
thing.
1t doesn't take much to make some
people proud we once knew a man
who was so proud of his red whiskers
that he perfumed them.
A Chinese statesman says China
needs Roosevelt, and lot of Repub-
licans hope that is true and that
Roosevelt will go to China.
Having discovered that they never
will be able to spell Russian names,
the telegram editors are in favor of