For Sale, From the Sport Magazine Archives, a Photo of the Texas League's Dallas Steers in '37

While I finish transcribing a bit of summer-school homework forthcoming, allow me to direct your attention to this eBay find sent my way by Friend of Unfair Park PeterK: an original from-the-archives photo of the 1937 Dallas Steers, who played at Gardner Park (or Steers Park as it was known before finally becoming Burnett Field) and who'd previously gone by the names the Dallas Hams and the Dallas Submarines till the team was bought by none other than George and Julius Schepps in the 1920s and given the new moniker. (The authors of Baseball in Dallas also note that the owners included J. Walter Morris, Texas League president, and Ike Sablosky.)

That name stuck for a good decade, at which point George rebranded the Steers as the Rebels, who were bought in 1948 by the great Dick Burnett, who called his team Eagles, with whom I was once obsessed. By '58 they were called the Rangers -- no, not these Rangers, but these Rangers, the name bestowed upon the franchise by young Bobby Kokko of 1145 Peavy Road. (Sorry -- I just spent the last 20 minutes browsing his scrapbook of newspaper clippings, game programs and sketches.)

The seller's including not only the photo, but also the massive caption that accompanied the piece for decades in the Sport Magazine archives, which reported: "One of the finest farm systems in minor league baseball has been developed in the last three years by Dallas of the Texas League, through the foresight of Bob Tarleton, business manager of the Steers, and with the cooperation of the Chicago White Sox." Among those pictured: Dallas manager Alex Gaston, who broke into the bigs in 1920 with the New York Giants.

Which reminds me: Perhaps it's time to go into the old Texas League replica cap-and-jersey-making business.