Hill Country Ball

Richard W. Butler Jr. is a lifelong baseball fan and a retired local government attorney who practiced in Michigan for 36 years. After moving to the Texas Hill Country in 2022, Butler became fascinated with the history of baseball in the region.  A member of the Society of American Baseball Research (SABR) since 1983 and a member of the Kendall County Genealogical Society, Butler employed his analytical skills and baseball knowledge to research the story of Hill Country baseball. He has published several works in Turnstyle, a SABR publication. Hill Country Ball is his first book. He lives with his wife in Boerne, Texas.

• IllustrationsTablesForewordPrefaceAuthor's NoteChapter 1: A Borrowing from the New World, 1867–1899Chapter 2: Baseball Is No Highbrow Game, 1900–1929Chapter 3: Rube and Ol' Diz: A Tragic Ending and an Auspicious StartChapter 4: Fredericksburg Can Be Justly Proud: Hill Country League, 1930Chapter 5: Mr. Fault Finder: Comfort, 1930Chapter 6: This Side of Bell Mountain: Hill Country League, 1931Chapter 7: Dancing on the Bridge: ComfortChapter 8: Outside Men: Hill Country League, 1932Chapter 9: H. O. Adler: Merchant and Baseball ImpresarioChapter 10: By the Margin of a Frog's Eyebrow: Mountain League, 1933Chapter 11: Charley Suche: From the Mountain League to the Major LeaguesChapter 12: Green Cathedrals: Hill Country BallparksChapter 13: A Bunch of Sandlotters: Mountain League, 1934Chapter 14: Hugo Klaerner: Major Leaguer, Musician, and County SheriffChapter 15: Life Gets Serious: Mountain League, 1935Chapter 16: Edgar Bergmann: A Pillar of BoerneChapter 17: Dead as a Dodo Bird: League Vicissitudes, 1936 and BeyondChapter 18: Baseball Was King: Kerrville Black Baseball, 1922–1970Epilogue: Baseball as BalmAcknowledgmentsNotes on Team Statistics Compiled from Box ScoresAppendix A: 1930 Standings and Team Statistics—Hill Country LeagueAppendix B: 1931 Standings and Team Statistics—Hill Country LeagueAppendix C: 1932 Standings and Team Statistics—Hill Country LeagueAppendix D: 1933 Standings and Team Statistics—Mountain LeagueAppendix E: 1934 Standings and Team Statistics—Mountain LeagueAppendix F: 1935 Standings and Team Statistics—Mountain LeagueAppendix G: Hill Country League Standings, 1933–36NotesSelected BibliographyIndex

"With Hill Country Ball, Richard Butler offers a rare blend of history and narrative that holds space for both a simplistic nostalgia and the complicated chronicling of our nation's pastime. But above all Butler gives us baseball--the forgotten heroes and local teams that captured the attention of Texas communities in the golden age of the sport. A compilation of first-rate research presented through Butler's apt and approachable prose, Hill Country Ball is sure to be a homerun for baseball fans and history buffs alike." - James Wade, author of Beasts of the Earth and two-time winner of the Spur Award for Western Fiction