Disch Field was a baseball field located in

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

that opened in 1947 and hosted many minor league teams and playoff series. The diamond is at the present time part of the park behind The Long Center for the Performing Arts and the Palmer Events Complex between W. Riverside Drive and Barton Springs Road in South Austin, along the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. s ...

. The park includes an open area called

Willie Wells Willie James Wells (August 10, 1906 – January 22, 1989), nicknamed "The Devil," was an American baseball player. He was a shortstop who played from 1924 to 1948 for various teams in the Negro leagues and in Latin America. Wells was a fast ...

Field, named for the Austin-born

Negro league baseball The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latin Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be ...

legend. Disch Field was the first, followed by

UFCU Disch-Falk Field UFCU may refer to: * UFCU Disch-Falk Field, the baseball field of the University of Texas at Austin * United Federal Credit Union, a credit union in Michigan *University Federal Credit Union, a credit union in Utah *University Federal Credit Union ...

, to be named after

Billy Disch William John Disch (October 15, 1872 – February 3, 1953) was an American baseball player and coach. He served as the head baseball coach at the University of Texas at Austin from 1911 to 1939 and as an advisory coach for 12 seasons afterwards ...

Playoff Appearances

The Austin teams were quite successful while they called Disch Field home. The Pioneers went to the playoffs in 1948, 1949, 1951, 1952, and 1954. The Pioneers finished as runners-up to the Tyler East Texans in 1952, winning their only playoff series in their history that year in the first round against the Temple Eagles, 4 games to 1. The new version of the Senators finished as the runners-up to the Corpus Christi Giants in the championship series in 1958 and won the Texas League crown in 1959. The Austin Braves went to the playoffs every year from 1965–1967, and the Braves won the Texas League crown in 1966.

The Unlikeliest Hitting Machine-The Pitcher

On April 27, 1966, Austin Braves pitcher Pat House went 3-for-6 with two doubles and one single with eight RBIs. He also pitched a complete game giving up ten hits, four earned runs, striking out nine, and allowed one base on balls.

Sources

* "Baseball in the Lone Star State: Texas League's Greatest Hits," Tom Kayser and David King,

Trinity University Press Trinity University Press is a university press affiliated with Trinity University, which is located in San Antonio, Texas. Trinity University Press was officially founded in 1967 after the university acquired the Illinois-based Principia Press. T ...

2005 * "Texas Almanac 2008-2009," The Dallas Morning News, c.2008 * "The Texas League 1888-1987: A Century of Baseball," Bill O'Neal, c.1987

References

{{coord missing, Texas Baseball venues in Greater Austin Baseball venues in Texas