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THE LAMESA
LOBOS
Far from Fame,
their Main Game was to Entertain.
Baseball in
West Texas 1948 - 1950
by Steve Pinto
Vintage photos courtesy Dan and Steve Pinto |
| Dan
Pinto "Putting On Tag" Caption states: "...and then
smile." |
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 |
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Lamesa
Loboes 1948 Official Team Photo
Before they became the Lobos
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| 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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