It would be very easy for an Air Force veteran like myself to take time off from writing about sports history to write about the day in 1907 when the unit that would one day become the United States Air Force was formed.
I remain faithful to sports history and tell you about the Porterville Comets. Okay so they were the Ensenda-Riverside, Riverside-Porterville, Porterville Comets. How is that you ask? We let me explain. The club was a member of the 1952 Southwest International League. The league was formed as 10 club league by a merger between the Arizona-texas League and the Sunset League. After one season, the Arizona-Texas League clubs voted to return to their own league. The five remaining clubs needed a sixth club for the league. A solution was found in putting together an all negro club. The team was originally set up as the Ensenda-Riverside club. The club wouuld play week nights in Riverside, California and weekends 200 miles south in the Baja California Norte city of Ensenda. when early attendence figures from Mexico were poor at best, that half of the franchise was transferred 200 miles the other way to the City of Porterville, thus Riverside-Porterville. When attendence figures from Porterville looked much better then those in Riverside, the club was transferred north full time. Even then the team struggled at the gate.
On August 1, 1952 the end came and the club was forced to fold. the end of the season saw the end of the league as well. It was a noble experiment however it was not enough. Fortuneately experiments like this are no longer neccessary to get a good gate for a team. Granted some of the distractions at your local minor league teams game will sometimes make you wonder.
Tomorrow we will look at a football first.
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