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THE
LAMESA LOBOSFar
from Fame, their Main Game was to Entertain. Baseball
in West Texas 1948 - 1950by
Steve Pinto
Vintage photos courtesy Dan and Steve Pinto |
| Dan
Pinto "Putting On Tag" Caption states: "...and then smile."
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Editor's
note: Abbott and Costello may never have come up with their famous "Who's
on first" routine if they had been attending games in West Texas in the 50s. Pinto's
on First, Catanzarita's on Second and Grzywacz's on Third doesn't exactly roll
off the tongue. Our thanks to Dan and Steve Pinto of the San Francisco Bay area
for sharing these rare postwar photos of life on and off the diamond in and around
Lamesa.
The
West Texas-New Mexico League was a professional baseball league that ran from
1937 through 1955. It started out as a Class D League but was upgraded to Class
C in 1946. The Lamesa Lobos team started in 1939 and continued until 1952 briefly
changing their name to the Lamesa Dodgers for the 1942 season. The team was inactive
from 1943 - 1945 during the peak years of WWII.
Dan Pinto, my father, was one of the more versatile Lobos playing all infield
positions as well as outfield. He was later drafted by the Dodger's organization.
These photos were all taken between the 1948 and 1950 seasons and are part of
my father's photo album. The players were not pampered like the professional players
of today are. They were housed in a building that they affectionately nicknamed
"Skid Row" in Lamesa and traveled the back dusty
roads of West Texas and New Mexico in an
old Ford station wagon. My father, a native of Richmond, California said that
the players were treated like kings through West
Texas and New Mexico. "After all, we were the only entertainment in town",
he observed.
- Steve Pinto |
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| Dan
Pinto at Bat - 1949 Spring Training |
| Lamesa
Lobos 1949 Official Team Photo |
| Lamesa
Loboes 1948 Official Team Photo
Before they became the Lobos |
| Lamesa
Lobo Park in the late 1940s |
| Vern
Kohout and Ed Arthur with the Ford station wagons the team traveled in |
| John
Catanzarita "The "Cat" at Jay Haney's Service Station |
| Dan
Pinto and John Catanzarita at Jay Haney's Humble Station |
Sampling
the local cuisine
Hank Mellilo and Stan Grzywacz |
Dan
Pinto and Hank Melillo
"Measuring the bowlegs of a cowboy" |
| Dempsey
Sterling and Hank Mellilo |
| Dan
Pinto on the patio of the Hotel Franciscan in Albuquerque | |
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