Excitement ran high in May 1932 when Longview learned a Texas League baseball team was coming to town.

"Actual work on a 3,000-seat grandstand was started here Tuesday afternoon," reported the Longview Morning Journal of May 17. "Two-score men will be employed in order to have the plant in readiness by May 25, when the Longview Cannibals, now the Wichita Falls Spudders, play the Fort Worth Cats."

The new baseball stadium, featuring 60 box seats, was on the southwest corner of the old fairgrounds, an area known today as Stamper Park.

 

Because of low attendance at the start of the 1932 season, the St. Louis Browns had decided to relocate their Wichita Falls farm club to the bustling town of Longview.

 

The newly discovered East Texas Oil Field was bringing thousands to the area and they needed entertainment.

It was a different time. "New stands will be sixty feet long directly behind the catcher and will have two wings,"

 said the Longview paper. "Bleachers for whites will be near third base and a section for Negroes will be in right field."

 

The Browns were given "full assurance that Longview and Gregg County will line up solidly behind the club ... it is felt that attendance here will be unusually large."

 

Alas, such was not the case. Despite having a strong hitter in "Debs" Garms, the Cannibals finished with a losing record. Garms was called up to St. Louis in August; he spent 12 years in the majors.

It also didn't help that the Longview stadium had no lights to allow night games.

 

To be sure, the Texas League of 1932 featured numerous future major leaguers and a few who wound up in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

 

Hank Greenberg of the Beaumont club led the league in home runs. "Ducky" Medwick played at Houston and George Sisler managed Tyler. In July "Schoolboy" Rowe came to town and pitched Beaumont to a 3-1 victory over Longview.

Home crowds dwindled as the Cannibals continued to lose. In September a home double-header against Fort Worth had to be moved to Cowtown to ensure a decent crowd. Largest attendance for a Longview game came at Dallas when 8,800 fans turned out. Actually, most of them were there to see "Babe" Didrikson, Olympic champion and the world's greatest female athlete. She led a parade around the stadium field and spent most of her time signing autographs. And yes, Longview lost 5-4.

 

By early January 1933, St. Louis officials were branding as "erroneous" reports that the Cannibals would be moved to another city. But when league officials gathered later that month, the decision was made to relocate Longview's short-lived Texas League squad to San Antonio.

 

Tyler finished with an even worse record than Longview and also lost its Texas League team after the 1932 season.

Both cities continued to field minor-league teams until the early 1950s, playing in the Dixie, West Dixie, Lone Star and Big State leagues.

 

Tyler's stadium fell into disrepair but eventually was restored. Today Mike Carter Field is home to high school and college games.

 

Longview's stadium finally got lights for the 1933 campaign.

 

But by World War II the city was soliciting bids for grandstand lumber and lights to aid the Allied war effort.

Today, the ball field that once housed a Texas League team is only a memory.