McAllen Packers

History

The McAllen Packers were a minor league baseball team from McAllen, Texas, that played only one season, in 1938. They were part of the Class D Texas Valley League and held their home games at Legion Park. The team’s name came from the local agriculture industry, which had many packing facilities for shipping produce. Before the Packers, the city had the 1931 McAllen Palms, who played one season in the Class D Rio Grande Valley League and won a shortened championship before that league folded.

The Texas Valley League reformed in 1938 after a nine-year break, with six teams: the Brownsville Charros, Corpus Christi Spudders, Harlingen Hubs, Refugio Oilers, Taft Cardinals, and the McAllen Packers. The season began on April 14, 1938. The league used a split-season schedule. At the end of the first half on June 24, McAllen was in fifth place with a 28-40 record, behind Corpus Christi, Harlingen, Taft, and Refugio.

The Packers finished the full season in fifth place overall with a 65-72 record, managed by Ray Friday and Wally Kopp. They ended up 27.5 games behind first-place Corpus Christi and did not make the four-team playoffs. The final standings showed Corpus Christi in first at 92-44, 8.5 games ahead of second-place Harlingen at 84-53. Taft (68-67) and Refugio (67-67) took third and fourth, qualifying for the playoffs.

Corpus Christi won the first half and tied with Harlingen for the second-half title. The Brownsville Charros finished last at 30-103. In the playoffs, Harlingen beat Corpus Christi for the league championship. Harlingen was affiliated with the Detroit Tigers, and Corpus Christi with the St. Louis Browns—the only two affiliated teams in the league.

After the 1938 season, the Texas Valley League folded permanently. McAllen would not host another minor league team until the 1949 McAllen Giants, who played in the Rio Grande Valley League. Notable alumni from the Packers include Leonardo Alanís.

The ballpark

The McAllen Packers played their minor league home games at Legion Park. This ballpark was built in 1927 on city-owned land that had been leased to the American Legion. Before the Packers used it, Legion Park served as a spring training site for the Class A Wichita Aviators. During that same spring, the park hosted an exhibition game between the Aviators and the Major League Baseball New York Giants.

To get ready for that contest, the seating capacity was expanded to 3,000. The park’s location was described as one mile south of the post office, on the west side of the road. At the time, the post office sat at the corner of South Main Street and what is now Beaumont Avenue in downtown McAllen. Aerial photos and maps show that a ballpark remained at that spot for most of the 1900s.

In later years, the facility was renamed Palms Park, matching the name of the 1931 McAllen Palms team. Its address was 2010 South Main. Today, that site is part of La Plaza Mall, where a larger Dillard’s store was added during a 1998 mall expansion. Just west of the former ballpark, a small strip of empty land that was not used for the mall expansion still exists and continues to carry the name Palms Park.