Searching for the Houston Apaches!
(Personified here by an oil canvas that a cousin, Myrtle Hunt, painted back in the 1930s.)
Who were the Houston Apaches baseball team?
The question came up this week when an e-mail from friend and fellow baseball history lover Darrell Pittman passed it along to me in behalf of someone who had written to him with the very same query. We don’t, or I don’t, even know who this stranger was, but that’s OK. – The question had been raised and neither Darrell nor I, nor anyone else so invited, knew the answer beyond the wild guessing stage. It was pretty easy to surmise, if they did once exist, that they played at the myriad sub-fully professional organized baseball level as either an amateur club, or one with a few compensated in some way player or players, or otherwise, as a full-blown semi-pro team.
The basic question about their existence was easy enough to confirm. The Pecan Park Eagle used their digital News Archival website program to find numerous references to games played and announced for the Houston Apaches from 1948 through 1960, mostly from reports in the Galveston Daily News, but a few from the Baytown Sun. (Our website resource, unfortunately, doe not include the archives of Houston print news sources at this time.)
Here’s a small sample of what we’ve learned about the Houston Apaches, so far, from an era in which political correctness was not even in play as a commonly understood expression. If “Apaches” offends any of you readers as a club nickname, let’s see if your adroitness on this subject will find the one among these few stories that pales all others:
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(1950) TC Falstaffers To Play Apaches
The Texas City Falstaff baseball team, which plays independently, will take on the Houston Apaches next Sunday at 3 p.m. at Terminal Field in Texas City.
The Texas City team has won ten and lost three so far this season.
Manager of the team is Ben Rodriguez while John Berry is the captain and Manuel Garcia the scorekeeper.
~ Galveston Daily News, August 2, 1950, Page 17.
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(1951) Texas City Pearl Beats Houstonians
Texas City, April 22. – Mgr. Rudy Farias’ Pearl Beer team of Texas City downed the Houston Apaches here today, 11-7. Jim Velasquez, John Berry, and Hacido Zaragoza led the beermen at the plate, belting out two safeties each. Rudy Ramos was the winning pitcher, but he received help in the final frame from Dick Humphries, former Galveston White Cap player. Pearl will meet the Houston Aztecs in Texas City next Monday.
~ Galveston Daily News, April 23, 1951, Page 13.
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(1953) Manuel’s Loses
Manuel’s Cafe suffered an 8-5 loss at the hands of the Houston Apaches in a baseball game played at Heard’s Lane Sunday.
Tony Gonzales’ two-run double was the biggest blow hit by a Galveston player. Manuel’s out-hit their foes, 12-9. The loss makes their record 1-1 for the season.
~ Galveston Daily News, May 18, 1953, Page 13.
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(1954) Merchants In Game With Houston Team
The Baytown Merchants, semi-pro baseball team, attempt to strengthen a won two, lost two record when the team meets the Houston Apaches at Oiler Park Tuesday night.
Game time is 8 p.m.
Joe Martinez will handle the pitching chores for the Baytown team.
~ Baytown Sun, May 11, 1954, Page 8.
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(1957) Chinks Play Today
The Chinks’ 1011 Club baseball team plays the Houston Apaches at 1:30 p.m. Sunday at Heard’s Lane in an exhibition game.Pedro Perez, who formerly pitched for Monterrey in the Mexican League, will pitch for the 1011 Club. Albert House will catch.~ Galveston Daily News, July 16, 1957, Page 13.
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We would like to know more than who they played and what the scores were. If you know anything about the Houston Apaches, their organizers and players, their playing fields in Houston, and their league associations, if any – or anything at all beyond what’s reported here, please leave a comment in the section that follows this column on the website. We will be sure to pass it on to Darrell Pittman and the unknown (to us) person who raised this question in the first place. Much obliged. – The Pecan Park Eagle
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The Pecan Park Eagle 
October 12, 2014 at 2:41 am |
There was a notice in a San Antonio Spanish newspaper (Prensa) on June 24, 1950, that the Houston Apaches team was interested in competitive baseball with teams within a 275 mile radius of Houston, If my limited ability to translate Spanish is correct, the notice was urging operators of interested baseball teams to contact Mr. Rudy de Leon, at address 3602 Liberty Road in Houston.
I also found a couple of articles which indicated that the Apaches played the Bryan (TX) Aztecs on more than one occasion. One of the announcements in 1957 mentioned that the Apaches had a pitcher named Eddie Knobloch who had hurled a no-hitter and who had shut down the Aztecs 6-0 the last time out.
To try to get a sense for the level of competition, I sought to look up the record of the Pedro Perez of the Mexican League mentioned in the materials you posted. The Mexican Baseball Encyclopedia lists an Ernesto Perez who pitched for Monterrey in 1954 and VERY briefly in 1955. Perhaps “Pedro” was a nickname for Ernesto. Ernesto had a 1-2 record in 1954 with a 4.68 ERA in 6 games. In 1955, he appeared in only one game for Monterrey, and seems to have zero innings pitched. I think all he did was surrender a base on balls, and then was yanked. He did not get a decision in that game.
October 12, 2014 at 3:10 am |
Bill – Thanks for that boatload feedback. “Pedro” may have been a nickname for Ernesto Perez, but I guess we can’t rule out poor record-keeping or background-lying for the sake of a job based upon how little we know of him at this point. – Bill McCurdy
October 12, 2014 at 3:49 pm |
Thank you, Bill Hickman, for all the great info! I’ll pass it along. And thank you, Bill McCurdy, for posting this! Sorry to seem so mysterious, I just haven’t asked permission to share the identity of the originator of the query.
October 12, 2014 at 6:17 pm |
My name is Ricky Cardenas and I’m a Graphic Designer here in Houston. I have a strong interest in baseball and baseball history, especially uniforms and equipment.
I was recently informed by one of my aunts that my grandfather, Jesus Cardenas, may have played for the Houston Apaches, an amateur baseball team out of the Houston area. This took place at about the time a few of my 11 aunts and uncles were toddlers (I’m guessing around the 1950s). They didn’t have a ton of information about my grandfather’s time on the team, but I did find out a few things from my family. I am deeply interested in finding out as much as I can about the team, especially in the way of uniforms and photos/images, and below is what I have discovered so far.
• My grandfather, Jesus Cardenas, was a pitcher, but may have been a position player as well. His brother, Mario Cardenas, played for the team also.
• The team was sponsored by a bar near the streets Russell, Eddie, and Liberty.
• Rudy DeLeon was sort of a team captain for the Apaches.
• White Riley Park, which is now Denver Harbor Park or Selena Park, was once the “home field” of the Apaches. They also used Moody Park for many of their games.
• They played in areas as far as Dallas, Fort Worth, Beaumont, Galveston, Victoria, and Angleton.
• Among some of the other players were Johnny and Joe Gonzales (brothers), Rudy DeLeon, Gabino and Cuco Duron (Cuco Duron was my grandfather’s brother-in-law), and Joel Roman.
October 12, 2014 at 8:38 pm |
Bill: Did Eddie Knobloch. mentioned in Bill Hickman’s Bryan citation, play for the Buffs? One of you commenters from 2009 implies that he did, but I can’t find him at bbref: http://bill37mccurdy.wordpress.com/2009/07/31/houston-buffs-forever/
October 12, 2014 at 10:12 pm |
Darrell – Eddie Knoblauch, the uncle of former major leaguer Chuck Knoblauch, did play for the Houston Buffs in the post WWII era, but as you will note, it may have been just a spelling error somewhere. His name was spelled differently than the pitcher referred to by Bill Hickman’s source, It probably was Eddie. He stayed active in local ball for a while beyond his pro days, but I simply do not have the proof that this reference was definitely him. His brother, Ray Knoblauch, was an excellent pitcher and also a successful head baseball coach at Bellaire High School in Houston for several years. It could have been Ray Knoblauch too – and someone may have misidentified him with the better known Eddie Knoblauch.
October 12, 2014 at 11:27 pm
Eddie Knoblauch was an outfielder during his minor league playing days, but I suppose there’s no reason why he couldn’t have converted to pitching once he started playing amateur or semi-pro ball for the Apaches (if he did). His last year in pro ball was 1955. The reference I cited for Eddie Knobloch with the Apaches was in 1957, so there would be no timing conflict if it was the same fellow.
October 13, 2014 at 12:36 am |
Bill Hickman – I couldn’t agree more with all of your latest remarks about Eddie Knoblauch. And I think it was Eddie. My only point is that we have no hard proof it was him without further validation from some other reasonably reliable source.
October 13, 2014 at 12:26 pm |
Wow. If it was Eddie Knoblauch, the former Houston Buff, the Apaches really brought in a ringer! Of course, he would have had to have stayed in the Houston area after his pro career (at least part time), and converted to pitcher. In 1957, he would only have been 39. Seeing that he died in Schertz, TX in 1991, maybe he did stick around the area.
October 13, 2014 at 12:35 pm |
I see now where Knoblauch did stick around after retiring from baseball: http://bill37mccurdy.wordpress.com/2009/08/29/eddie-knoblauch-as-good-as-he-wanted-to-be/
BBref has a short bio on him too: http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Eddie_Knoblauch. There they speculate that had he not served in WWII he probably would have cracked a major league roster, given the talent drain at the time.
FWIW: “Knoblauch” is German for “garlic”
October 14, 2014 at 10:56 pm |
A couple more tidbits to add on the Apaches.
• Jesus Cardenas pitched, played 3B, and even played 1B to rest his arm.
• The bar that may have “sponsored” the team was possibly named Alaniz Ice House or Alaniz Bar located at, or near, the intersection of Russell and Eddie Streets.
• The Apaches also played in areas such as Nacogdoches, Austin, Richmond, and Rosenberg.
• Jesus’ brother Mario, or Mariano, may or may not have played with the Apaches, but played for the Richmond Tigers instead.
• This may be a tall tale, but it is rumored that the Apaches played an exhibition game against the Buffaloes where Jesus Cardenas pitched head-to-head against Dizzy Dean. After which, Jesus was invited to spring training with the Cardinals minor leaguers, but decided on playing with the Apaches and staying close to his family.
• The official name of the team may have been “Los Apaches”.
• The uniforms may have been white, off-white, or a cream color with red trim or red pin striping. The caps may have been white with red bill.
• The sleeve patch was a profile of an Apache Indian head with two arrows crossing behind.
This is information I have received after interviewing a few of my older aunts and uncles who were around at the time my grandfather played so the information may be a little distorted from what the actual truth may be. Thank you to everyone who has added information so far!
December 31, 2014 at 4:37 pm |
I have located a team photo of the Houston Apaches! I am not sure how to post an image to this blog, but for now the photo can be located on my twitter account here: https://twitter.com/positive_24
The year of the photograph and many of the players’ names are currently unknown to me, but you can see that the team was sponsored by Castillo’s Realty Company on 1503 Franklin for this particular year. I believe my grandfather, Jesus Cardenas, is on the top row, third from the right.
Any information that can additionally be provided about the photo is greatly appreciated!