The 1889 Houston Mud Cats Brought Our Town Its First Flag.
As we have written recently and often over the years, baseball faced a lot of obstacles getting started in Houston and Texas during the late 19th ccentury. Scheduling problems, competitive imbalance between the really good and really bad teams, building a pattern of regular game attendance among fans who were not yet accustomed to that idea, the poor condition of fields and playing venues, the absence of “revenue stream” thinking, the scarcity of “revenue streams period” beyond gameday gate tickets and minor food concession sales, poor club projections on operating expenses, player abandonments from clubs that delayed paydays, the general inadequacy of financial backing, and the limited availability of really talented players all fed into the problem.
In many ways, all these factors fed into the 1889 second season of the Texas League. 1889 proved to be the year for Houston’s first professional baseball pennant, but it was a flag that came with some administrative resistance and quite a bit of tarnish to the cloth of our city’s first glorious flag of victory. The way things turned out, 1889 was as much a victory over financial dragons as it was a win on the field of play.
The 1889 Houston Mud Cats of the second-season Texas League finished their year with a record of 54 wins, 44 losses, and a winning percentage of .551. John McCloskey, the man remembered today by most historians as the “Father of the Texas League,” served as the fiery playing manager of the Houston Mud Cats.
Our town’s team nickname changed often in the early years. Houston had been the Babies/Red Stockings in their first year not-so-good start with the new Texas League in 1888. The 1889 re-christened fish club, however, proved they were anything but “bottom feeders.” The Mud Cats soared to Houston’s first baseball and professional sports crown of any kind.
Led by the inspirational spark and upbeat personality tempo of John McCloskey, Houston did great on the field of play, but they still almost lost their first title on a technicality. The club had never paid their league membership dues in full for the 1889 season. Those unpaid dues were only a part of the financial landslide that soon came avalanching down upon Houston in early August of 1889.
Because of these massive money problems, and in spite of their comfortable game performance lead in the Texas League, the Mud Cats decided to resign from play on August 9, 1889. Three days later, on August 12, 1889, the whole Texas League collapsed under a pile of debt – and in realistic respect for the fact that dwindling attendance offered no hope for recovery.
When Houston then moved to accept the temporarily fallen league’s designation as the official champions of 1889 because of their record through the date of total collapse, they ran into a little hitch. As for earning it, the Texas League office and other clubs had no problem with the fact that Houston had proved themselves champions in actual game play, but league officials still withheld the championship award until Houston agreed to pay its late membership dues to the league office.
Once Houston scrambled around for the cash and paid the late dues money, the city got its first pennant.
How glorious is that memory?
Tags: Baseball, History, Houston Buffs
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