The Gulf States League was a Class A level American minor baseball league that existed for one season — — and was based in the American states of

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

and

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

History

Although its teams were not affiliated with any

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

farm systems, the Gulf States League was an "official" minor circuit and a member of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues. Established before the boom in minor and

independent league baseball Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

attendance that began in the 1980s, the Gulf States League did not survive after its maiden season. Instead, the league reorganized without any teams in Louisiana, and was renamed the

Lone Star League The Lone Star League was the name of three American minor professional baseball leagues located in the state of Texas during the 20th century. The leagues operated from 1927–1929 (as a Class D circuit), 1947–1948 (Class C) and 1977 (Class A ...

for the season. Six teams comprised the Gulf States League: the Baton Rouge Cougars, Beeville Bees,

Corpus Christi Seagulls The Corpus Christi Seagulls were a minor league baseball team based in Corpus Christi, Texas in 1976 and 1977. The Seagulls played as members of the Class A level Gulf States League in 1976 and Lone Star League in 1977, winning the league champ ...

, Rio Grande Valley White Wings (representing Harlingen, Texas), Seguin Toros and Victoria Cowboys. Despite drawing the second-most fans in the league, the Baton Rouge franchise folded on August 13, 1976, and Corpus Christi won both the regular season and playoff championships. Managers included

Leo Mazzone Leo David Mazzone (born October 16, 1948) is a former pitcher in minor league baseball and pitching coach in Major League Baseball. He worked with the Atlanta Braves' organization from to and was the pitching coach for the Baltimore Orioles fr ...

of Corpus Christi, future pitching coach of the

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The Braves were founded in Bos ...

and

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. As one of the American League's eight charter ...

; former MLB

catcher Catcher is a position in baseball and softball. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the ( home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the ca ...

Matt Batts Matthew Daniel Batts (October 16, 1921 – July 14, 2013) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a catcher from 1947 through 1956 for the Boston Red Sox, St. Louis Browns, Detroit Tigers, Chica ...

of Baton Rouge; and ex–MLB

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to c ...

Ted Uhlaender, who was the playing skipper of the Rio Grande Valley White Wings.

Cities represented

Baton Rouge, LA Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of counties i ...

: Baton Rouge Cougars (1976) * Beeville, TX: Beeville Bees (1976) * Corpus Christi, TX:

(1976) * Harlingen, TX: Rio Grande Valley White Wings (1976) * Seguin, TX: Seguin Toros (1976) *

Victoria, TX Victoria is a small city in South Texas and county seat of Victoria County, Texas. The population was 65,534 as of the 2020 census. The three counties of the Victoria Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 111,163 as of the 2000 censu ...

: Victoria Cowboys (1976)

Yearly standings

Baton Rouge folded August 13
Playoff: Seguin 2 games, Beeville 0.
Finals: Corpus Christi 3 games, Seguin 0.

References

* {{reflist

External links

Gulf States League
page at

Baseball Reference Baseball-Reference is a website providing baseball statistics for every player in Major League Baseball history. The site is often used by major media organizations and baseball broadcasters as a source for statistics. It offers a variety of advan ...

Defunct minor baseball leagues in the United States Baseball leagues in Louisiana Baseball leagues in Texas Sports leagues established in 1976 Sports leagues disestablished in 1976