Galena Park boosters sent Eagles coach Joe Rodriguez a telegram reminding them San Jacinto battlefield was visible from Yellow Jacket baseball field. Graphic courtesy of Prax Garcia.
By John BourgmyRGV
Longtime Brownsville baseball fans remember the championship 1965 Golden Eagles baseball team under then-29-year-old coach Joe Rodriguez..
Locals cannot recall the last time Brownsville has won district, but it probably had been 30 years. The Eagles were in the rugged 14-4A with Corpus Christi schools and the other South Zone schools Harlingen, McAllen, Edinburg, and Alice.
Coach Rodriguez, said, “We had great pitching and defense, and were so fast our four speediest challenged and beat the Eagles’ 4×100 relay team.”
Charlie Vaughan (Left, with Atlanta Braves.)
13-3, 0.39 ERA, 139 K, 2 ‘nos’
Tony Barbosa (Right, with Los Angeles, Calif. Angels)
12-1, 1.01 ERA, 203 K, 3 ‘nos’ including a perfect game vs. HHS
The Eagles didn’t need much hitting, but a local sportswriter was way off base calling them "Hitless Wonders." Arnie Alvarez led the Valley with a .478 average; Cesar de la Garza hit .385; Tony Barbosa, 1st baseman when not pitching, hit .353; and there were no "automatic outs" in the rest of the lineup.
The Eagles won the South Zone with a 9-1 record (23-6 season), and played Corpus Christi Ray Texans for the 14-4A championship. After the Eagles and Texans split the first two games, the 3rd game was in Brownsville's Eagles Park with hundreds of overflow fans standing behind ropes. Charlie Vaughan was the starting pitcher.
After Tony Tamayo hit a 3-run homerun in the 4th, the Texans tied the game 3-3 in the top of the 7th. With 2 outs in the bottom of the 7th, Rene Torres hit a homerun over the left field fence. (That's Torres pictured at right when he was with the Pan American Broncos.)
Rene could barely get through the mob of fans who broke through the ropes to greet him rounding third with the winning run. District champions at last.
That year, the Eagles swept Waco Richfield in bi-district; defeated San Antonio Lee in regionals; and beat Galena Park 7-1 in the state semifinal. Though they lost the final to Dallas Samuel, the Eagles had achieved a historic playoff run for a Valley team.
Longtime Brownsville baseball fans remember the championship 1965 Golden Eagles baseball team under then-29-year-old coach Joe Rodriguez..
Locals cannot recall the last time Brownsville has won district, but it probably had been 30 years. The Eagles were in the rugged 14-4A with Corpus Christi schools and the other South Zone schools Harlingen, McAllen, Edinburg, and Alice.
Coach Rodriguez, said, “We had great pitching and defense, and were so fast our four speediest challenged and beat the Eagles’ 4×100 relay team.”
Two Superb Pitchers
The Eagles had two superb lefthanded pitchers. (K=strikeouts; ‘nos’=no-hitters; ERA=Earned run average — average runs/game from hits and walks, not errors)
Charlie Vaughan (Left, with Atlanta Braves.)
13-3, 0.39 ERA, 139 K, 2 ‘nos’
Tony Barbosa (Right, with Los Angeles, Calif. Angels)
12-1, 1.01 ERA, 203 K, 3 ‘nos’ including a perfect game vs. HHS
Hardly ‘Hitless Wonders’
District Champions at Last
The Eagles won the South Zone with a 9-1 record (23-6 season), and played Corpus Christi Ray Texans for the 14-4A championship. After the Eagles and Texans split the first two games, the 3rd game was in Brownsville's Eagles Park with hundreds of overflow fans standing behind ropes. Charlie Vaughan was the starting pitcher.
After Tony Tamayo hit a 3-run homerun in the 4th, the Texans tied the game 3-3 in the top of the 7th. With 2 outs in the bottom of the 7th, Rene Torres hit a homerun over the left field fence. (That's Torres pictured at right when he was with the Pan American Broncos.)
Rene could barely get through the mob of fans who broke through the ropes to greet him rounding third with the winning run. District champions at last.
March to State Final
That year, the Eagles swept Waco Richfield in bi-district; defeated San Antonio Lee in regionals; and beat Galena Park 7-1 in the state semifinal. Though they lost the final to Dallas Samuel, the Eagles had achieved a historic playoff run for a Valley team.
After the Galena Park telegram was read to the team, player Praxedis Garcia remembered that coach Rodriguez had told them to "Remember the Alamo!"
"If I remember correctly, that was a massacre, too."
1 comment:
Wow. Crazy.
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