Quote:
Originally Posted by peterb69
I believe May 21 1892 Pickering was signed by Houston of the Texas League and debuted that night where he went 7 for 7, all bloop singles. There was no outfield fence so outfielders tended to play deeper. I believe this game coined the phrase Texas Leaguer.
But he was the first batter for the upstart AL which I did not know.
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Thanks for that input. May 21st was not Pickering's first game with Houston, but on that date he did go 7-for-7. The only newspaper description that I found did not confirm that his hits were bloop singles, but that game is almost certainly the reason that the term "Texas Leaguers" is connected with Pickering.
Edited to add: I take back that Pickering's 7-for-7 game is the likely inspiration for the term "Texas Leaguer". See my next post.