Don’t Miss UTEP’s Baseball on the Border Exhibit

Currently at “Centennial Museum” on the grounds of the University of Texas at El Paso, is a wonderful exhibit “Baseball on the Border.” 

 If you are a Baseball fan, you need to visit this exhibit. If you’re an El Paso Baseball fan, you MUST visit this exhibit.

A popular theory is that modern Baseball began in 1845 in New York. The first mass increase in participation came about in the 1860’s during the Civil War, when Union Army troops would involve themselves in the recreational pursuit of Baseball, as a break from the horrors of the battles that lie ahead. It also allowed the spreading of the game to regions previously unexposed to the sport. By 1869, the first professional team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings was organized. Over the next 31 years, numerous major and minor league teams came to be.  It’s within that period, El Paso made its entry into the game.     

It’s amazing to think that our city, once known as the gunfight capitol of the Old West, was at that same time finding its way toward becoming a part of “civilized America,” with the then-modern recreation option of attending a professional Baseball game. 

If you want to learn more about some of that infamous Old West history, get yourself a copy of the El Paso Gold DVD, “Gunfighters of the Old West.”

Through the years many legendary and colorful characters spent their time either in an El Paso uniform, or visiting the Sun City while living their Baseball dreams. That history’s roster includes 3 very famous, or maybe more appropriately…infamous Baseball legends.

Published in an El Paso Times article on March 18, 1963: EP Baseball History Goes Back To 1890’s

Pick-up baseball continued to thrive in El Paso in the early 1900s and probably the highlight of the period was the famed Black Sox scandal which brought many famous ball players down to this area to play ball.

One memorable event was when El Paso was playing Albuquerque in a grudge game. The report goes that Albuquerque showed up with the old Kansas City Blues intact, and they were slightly chagrined to find that El Paso had most of the stars from the old Chicago Black Sox team in El Paso uniforms.

Over years many future and former major leaguers took to one of the fields where Baseball on the Border was played. Our video showcases some of these players, but at the exhibit many more are given the proper acknowledgement for their place in our Baseball history, making the exhibit indeed a MUST SEE for any El Paso Baseball fan.