The Amarillo Dillas were an independent minor league baseball club that toughed it out for 16 seasons in a series of ramshackle indy leagues. After the original version of the ball club went out of business at the end of the 2004 season, a new version of the Dillas began play in 2006 and continued until 2010.
The Bayou Bullfrogs were an independent professional baseball team that played for three seasons in Lafayette, Louisiana from 1998 to 2000. The Bullfrogs played at Tigue Moore Field, home of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Ragin’ Cajuns baseball program. The club competed in the Texas-Louisiana League, a centrally-owned and operated independent circuit founded in 1994.
For a quarter century between 1975 and 1999, Jackson, Mississippi marked the eastern boundary of Minor League Baseball’s Class AA Texas League. But after the 1999 season the Houston Astros and the Texas League pulled out of Jackson in favor of a brand new $25 million palace on offer in the Austin, Texas suburb of Round Rock. The independent Texas-Louisiana League quickly filled the void, placing the Jackson DiamondKats franchise at Smith-Wills Stadium in time for the 2000 season. Local fans accustomed to cheering rising stars en route to the Majors were unimpressed with indy ball. The DiamondKats disbanded after one poorly attended season of play.
The San Antonio Tejanos were a failed independent baseball franchise that played during the 1994 debut season of the now-defunct Texas-Louisiana League (1994-2001). The Tex-La league played mostly in older, outmoded ballparks in small cities left behind over the years by the Class AA Texas League. Places like Alexandria, Amarillo and Beaumont. The Tejanos were an exception to this model. But not in a good way.
Publisher receives compensation for affiliate advertising on this website.
*Like our new look? Next up: site speed. You can help with a tip for our Speed Fund today. Thank you!
