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A Brief History of Baseball in Victoria
A summary of “Riverside Park” by Charles D. Spurlin
Baseball as a pastime in Victoria County dates to the latter quarter of the nineteenth century when locally organized amateur clubs played similar organizations within Victoria and the surrounding counties. The first team, the Safe Hits, came into existence in 1905 and played teams from the surrounding area while going undefeated for the season. One of the more noted teams was the 1909 Champions which claimed the unofficial championship of South and Southwest Texas.
The success of the Champions created an enormous interest in baseball throughout the community. This sparked leading city officials to create the Victoria Baseball Association to help organize a league and oversee the formation of a local team. Subsequently, Victoria became a member of the Southwest Texas Baseball League that included Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Laredo, Bay City, and Beeville. As everything began to fall into place the less vexing task of deciding on a team name went to debate. The newspaper recommended Rosebuds as an appropriate name because Victoria was widely known as “The City of Roses.” Little did the people know at the time that “Rosebuds” would become synonymous with semi-pro baseball in Victoria. In the inaugural season for the Rosebuds, the team had the highest attendance in the league.
With a strong baseball team and organization in place, the next step was to build a fitting stadium. Since the baseball stadium was to be owned by the city the obvious location was the City Park. In 1947 Chester Evans, a sports columnist for the Advocate suggested the name “Riverside Park,” doubting “if a more fitting name could be selected for the picturesque park.” Riverside Stadium was considered one of the most modern stadiums for its time. Associated with it were wooden seats, foot rests, a large press box, restrooms for men and women (a first for local outdoor sports), team dressing rooms with showers, and dugouts. The Rosebuds and the Edna Pipefitters played on Thursday, May 1, 1947, making it the first official event played in Riverside Park. There were 797 paying customers, the largest week-day crowd to see a baseball game in Victoria.
After the 1950 baseball season, the Rosebuds disbanded. In 1956, Tom O’Connor, Jr. acquired the Rosebud franchise and made arrangements for them to become a farm team of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Under O’Connor’s ownership the Rosebuds won the Big State League championship. At the end of the 1957 season the Rosebuds became affiliated with the now Los Angeles Dodgers. While he was actively engaged with the baseball franchises, O’Connor more than any other person was responsible for the emergence of Victoria as a premier professional baseball city. In September 1960, O’Connor announced that he was relinquishing ownership of the Rosebuds, and without his devoted nurturing of professional baseball in Victoria, league play for all practical purposes became extinct.
During the 1970s there were attempts made to revive professional baseball in Victoria, but to no avail. In 1974, Cal Rockefeller established a team, the Toros, in the city. An affiliate of the New York Mets, the baseball club won the Texas League pennant, but poor attendance doomed its stay in Victoria.
Two years later, in 1976, a Class A baseball team, the Cowboys, was formed to become a member of the Gulf States League. They also struck out, mainly because of low attendance at the games.
In 1977, Jack Bartlett, decided to try to establish a professional baseball club in Victoria as a member of the Lone Star League. To enhance his chances for success, he resurrected Rosebuds as the name of the team. But he too failed to attract the necessary number of spectators to the games to place the franchise on a sound financial footing to remain in the city. Attendance for the games was less than for the two previous professional teams.
In between the years of professional baseball and afterwards, local high schools, teen-age leagues, and amateur pick-up teams casino spel have used Riverside Park. And here to bring baseball back to life again in Victoria are the Victoria Generals of the Texas Collegiate League. So come out, Victoria, and support local baseball! Let’s resurrect the past and never let it die!
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