April 7, 1959- Major League Baseball Comes to Victoria, Texas

[JJ McGraw]

I have lived in Victoria, Texas for 49 years, right after I graduated from Texas A and I University in 1976. I had been raised in Northern California up to and including high school, so attending major league games in the 1960’s -1972 at Candlestick park and the Oakland Coliseum( saw Vida Blue pitch his first season)was commonplace.
Shortly after I moved here, I became aware of the minor league team here in Victoria. They have had different names at different times, but the main team name was the Victoria Rosebuds. ( We now have a new minor league team, the Victoria Generals, that play at the same, but refurbished Riverside Park from 1947.)
For years , I have collected whatever I could find in the way of memorabilia pertaining to the Rosebuds( although it is pretty tough to find anything) and something last week on eBay caught my eye. It was a very nice condition 6 page , hard stock program dated April,7, 1959 when the Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox played a game at Riverside Park here in Victoria.
I can’t imagine the euphoria baseball fans must have felt seeing stars like Ernie Banks playing ball here in town. Even Roger’s Hornsby was there signing autographs.
I knew I had to have this program and after some intense bidding…it was mine. Below are the pages from that program, but I also got online and looked up the Victoria Advoates coverage ( our local paper since 1846) and was pleased to find two days of coverage. Apparently , the Cubs won the game in 11 innings. What a game that must have been in a very intimate setting.
As a side note, while working on a project in 1994 in Los Angeles, Ernie Bank’s son was a regular on the show and when his Dad came to some network show, Joey got me a signed ball and a bunch of other items.
Anyway…..this is a part of the baseball experience long gone. In reading the article, these teams had played in Corpus Christi, Texas the day before.
It would have been amazing watching these stars up close and having so much interaction with them before and after the game. Enjoy.

[JJ McGraw]

The cover didn’t seem to fully download, so here it is again.

[JJ McGraw]

Here are some excerpts from the Victoria Advocate

[JJ McGraw]

At this time, the Rosebuds were a farm team for the Los Angeles Dodgers. A year before this game, in 1958, soon to be Dodger, Tommy James played for the Rosebuds and wore the uniform I show here the EFF replicated several years back.

[BaltOrioles]

Very cool program. Victoria stuff is tough to find.

I'm a Baltimore Orioles collector trying to put together a run of programs from all the Orioles minor league affiliates. Do you or anyone have a 1961 Victoria Rosebuds program/scorecard, while they were affiliated with the Orioles?

I have a from the 1961 Ardmore Rosebuds, after they moved out of Victoria, and an away program from late May when the Rosebuds played the Amarillo Gold Sox.

I've never seen a home 1961 program. Please post a picture if you have one.

[JJ McGraw]

Hi Alan,
The only programs I have are from 1958 and 1959. I do have some items from 1960 and 1961 ( when they became the Victoria Giants along with your Ardmore Rosebuds), then a schedule from when they were in the Lone Star League in 1977 and back to being known as the Rosebuds. I included a schedule from Wikipedia, although , they consider the Victoria Giants as a team that was brought to our city from Harlingen, and the “true” Rosebuds, as you know, moved to Ardmore.
I’ll bet that “VG” cap on the news clipping was Giant Orange on a black cap. I have no idea what the uniform looked like.