This work traces New Mexican baseball from its beginnings in the West of Billy the Kid and Geronimo to today’s modern game. Set against the background of the state’s remarkable beauty and many cultures are stories of teams of miners, Native Americans, Hispanos, bomber pilots, outlawed major leaguers, prisoners, record setters and others. From the territory’s earliest base ballists to today’s AAA Albuquerque Isotopes, baseball has flourished on the high desert diamonds of the 47th state.

L.M. Sutter is an artist, writer and baseball fan. She is a member of SABR and lives in southwest Virginia.

L.M. Sutter
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 251
Bibliographic Info: 47 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2010
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4122-8
eISBN: 978-0-7864-5630-7
Imprint: McFarland

Preface and Acknowledgments      1

Introduction      5

1. The Land of Enchantment      9

2. Base Ballists in the Territory of New Mexico      24

3. Picks, Shovels and Bats      52

4. Doing Time: The Penitentiary Players      83

5. A League, a Town, a Legend      96

6. The Flying Kellys      116

7. Soldiers, Cowboys and Baseball Players: African Americans in New Mexico      126

8. The King (No Asterisk)      136

9. The Connie Mack World Series      146

10. The Rio Abajo      156

11. Making the Ball Sing      174

Epilogue      217

Chapter Notes      221

Bibliography      231

Index      235

Winner, Sporting News–SABR Baseball Research Award
“writing in a clear narrative fashion, Sutter demonstrates a strong grasp of New Mexican history and culture…a valuable contribution to the study of new Mexican baseball”—Nine; “belongs on the bookshelf of every lover of baseball”—nmmagazine.com; “valuable…essential”—H-Net Reviews; “Well written…[a] worthwhile addition to a growing list of first-rate studies on New Mexico.”—William E. Tydeman, Texas Tech University.