The Tired Scorekeeper

I have been researching minor league baseball for 25 years now. I have researched big leagues like the Pacific Coast League and the International League with long histories spanning the history of the game. I have researched small leagues with short histories that opening day hardly makes the headlines before the league folds into the history books, waiting for people like me to find. I have researched leagues like the 1995 Golden State League, 1986 Connecticut State League and the 1915 Rio Grande valley Association. I have researched womens leagues, negro leagues, foreign leagues, winter leagues and instructional leagues. I have but one game where a team has scored more then 49 runs in one game. The game where 49 runs were scored in a game in the National Association in the early 1870s. The only time is score was exceeded was on June 15, 1902.

On that Sunday afternoon in the State of Texas, the Corsicana Oil Cities team set several professional baseball records that stand to this day. The Oil Cities Club was not allowed to play Sunday games at home. They did schedule sunday games in nearby Ennis, Texas. They scheduled on such game with the Texarkana Casketmakers. It did not help the Casketmakers that the Oil Cities Club was in the middle of a 27 game winning streak.

By the time the Oil Cities Club was done the final score was 51-3. Yes 51-3, not the 5-3 score that many telegraph operators were reporting as a 51-3 score was hardly that of a normal baseball game. The Oil Cities catcher, a future major leaguer, Justin "Nig" Clarke had an amazing 8 home runs, 16 RBIs and 32 total bases. Clarke had collected 8 of his clubs 21 home runs!! His teammate and second baseman William Alexander had 3 home runs and a double. Another teammate Mike O'Conner went 7 for 8 with 3 home runs. In collecting 53 hits and scoring in every inning, they still managed to leave 15 runners on base.

Less then a month later the Casketmakers were gone. On July 8, the Casketmakers and the Waco Tigers folded, leaving four clubs in the league. Tomorrow we will look at Brians' Song.