© by Ray Sanchez 07.31.16
Next week belongs to the El Paso Baseball Hall of Fame. Who says? El Paso City Council, that’s who. It 
And for good reason. Take a look:
- On Wednesday there will be a “Meet and Greet” session for the Class of 2016 inductees and honorees at the Radisson Hotel. This year’s inductees are Darrin Glenn, Eric Enders, Matt Hicks, Victor Maldonado and Pete Leyva (posthumously).
- Thursday is Game Day. The El Paso Chihuahuas will host and recognize the El Paso Baseball Hall of Fame members, inductees, honorees and their families at Southwest University Ballpark in a reserved special seating section.
- On Friday, the third annual El Paso Baseball Hall of Fame Golf Tournament will take place at Painted Dunes Golf Course.
- On Saturday, the 2016 El Paso Baseball Hall of Fame induction banquet will take place at the Radisson Hotel by the Airport. All Tickets to the event have been sold.
THE EL PASO Baseball Hall of Fame has been getting more and more attention under the leadership of president Tom Carrillo (the legendary Montwood High coach who did so much to improve the baseball program there) and its present board members. That’s great. Baseball has been El Paso’s most popular sport since the city’s beginning. Actually, it was popular all over the country even before El Paso became a city. As Bob Ingram so colorfully put it in his book, “Baseball: From Browns to Diablos:”
“There may have been some hostile Indians when wagon trains came to the western most part of Texas in 1880 but when the wagon master shouted ‘Circle your wagons’ it’s more likely he may have been wanting to clear a space for a baseball game between the settlers and the pioneers.”
And as I pointed out in my book, “The Good, the Bad and the Funny of El Paso Sports History,” El Paso had a baseball field even before it had a paved street.
LATER ON, El Paso became a mecca for baseball players, even big leaguers. Such early Major League stars as Christy Mathewson. Rube Wadell and Frank Chance showed their wares in El Paso. Even some of the players of the infamous “Black Sox” came here to play.
That continued through the 1950s when we oldtimers got to see such big leaguers as Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays and many, many others right here in our own backyard. I even have a photo of Willie Mays and me in the Dudley Field dugout.
So yes, baseball has been a big part of our city and yes, I was a charter member of the El Paso Baseball Hall of Fame and even served as its president one year. I can’t get around as much as I used to but my heart still skips a beat every time El Paso Baseball Hall of Fame time comes around.
TRIVIA QUESTION: Many Major League players have nicknames. What was Willie Mays’ nickname? Answer at end of column.
SADNESS. Bennie Lenox, my son Victor’s freshman basketball coach at University of Texas at Austin, passed away earlier this month. I met Lenox when he was on a scouting trip to El Paso. He excelled in various sports in high school but basketball was his love. He played for Texas A&M and earned All-Southwest Conference and All-American honors. Victor says, “He was good people. I have fond memories of him.”
MATT SLOAN, one of my golfing buddies, remembers Don Larsen’s perfect World Series game in 1956 well. He writes: “I was a college student when Don Larsen pitched the perfect game. We had started to watch it but should have stopped and gone to class, but we stayed for the whole game and saw history being made. The bad news is that I probably got a bad grade i the classes that I missed.”
ANSWER to trivia question: The Say Hey Kid.