Longhorn League

The Longhorn League was a high-offense league that ran from 1947 through 1955. In '56, it was renamed the Southwestern League. A league with few prospects (only three teams were ever affiliated with major league clubs, all for one year only; the top teams were farm clubs of other minor league teams), it was home to some long-time minor leaguers who were no longer of interest to major league teams. Even by class C standards, the average talent level was nothing impressive. In two of the league's nine seasons, a Longhorn player posted the top average in the minors - Jim Prince in '47 and Tom Jordan in '55. A .400 average or .700 slugging in this circuit was nothing to write home about. The league is most famous for Joe Bauman's setting the all-time minor-league home run record in '54 with 72 long balls when he played with the Roswell Rockets.

Literary Comment
The Longhorn League depicted in "The Star and the Rockets" is identical to the OTL version.