By RENE TORRES
Rene Torres is a retired University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College assistant professor. He has a long history in the Rio Grande Valley as an educator, sports historian, and humanitarian, with a wealth of community service to his credit.
Ellen Klages wrote, “In the 1870s, an American woman could not vote, and she could only own property in her own name after marriage. But there was nothing that prevented her from playing baseball, as well as it could be played, in an outfit that weighed as much as 30 pounds.”
A uniform designed by Amelia Bloomer was part of the diamond scenery by the 1890s, thus the “Bloomer Girls Teams” were born. The Bloomer Girls baseball teams were not part of any professional baseball league.
The girls barnstormed across the country, playing local gals, semi-pro, and minor league men’s teams.
The Valley didn’t have the Bloomer Girls, but it had the San Benito “Cratemakers,” a men’s semi-pro club. The “Boxmakers,” were recognized as one of the best amateur nine in the Valley.
By the middle of the 1931 season, the locals had 18 wins with three defeats, a record that attracted the New York Bloomers to San Benito.
The San Benito fans received word that the Bloomers were coming to town to challenge the boys from the Resaca City. The All-Star Bloomers were hungry for a win as they had dropped their previous game to the strong Mopac Nine of Kingsville.
San Benito manager A.M. Salinas was confident that his club would add the “Big Apple Nine” to their string of victories. The stage was set as “Lefty” Rodriguez, ace of the Crater hurling staff, started on the mound with Bridges and Walker in relief.
The much-anticipated match brought hundreds of fans to the San Benito city ballpark. It is not known whether the girls were wearing their matching uniforms, which included a floor-length skirt, underskirts, a long-sleeved, high-necked blouse, and high-button shoes.
Regardless of the type of uniform they wore, they were different from anything the Valley had seen since the drifters and bums that lined the Valley streets after the Stock Market Crash of 1929.
As the best that New York could offer was on the dusty diamond going through their pre-game warm-ups, the unexpected happened.
A Bloomer took a swing at a San Benito player and the San Benitan returned the favor. After this, all was not well at the old ballpark. Fans were also reported to have disagreements with the New York manager.
The visiting team packed their bags and left the park, leaving hundreds of fans without a ball game.
Many fans stayed around the park, hoping the girls would down their pride and play the game, but that didn’t happen as that night, the Bloomer Girls played a whale of a game against the boys from McAllen. The McAllen Palms semipro team had to hustle to post with a 6-4 victory.
Although most of the players on the roster were women, it was not unusual to at least have one male player on the team. Former St. Louis Cardinal superstar Rogers Hornsby got his start on a Bloomer Girls team.
The Bloomer Girl era lasted from the 1890s-1934. The girls played a solid game of hardball proving the tagline correct, “A woman’s place is at home…first, second, and third.”