Baseball in the Great Southwest

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1FGefVQzQA/

THE LEAGUES THAT NEVER WERE
Announced one day and website taken down days later

By Bobby Bullhorn

Every spring, the same press releases bloom like weeds in the baseball fields of the internet. A new league is forming. They promise regional rivalries, new opportunities for players, family-friendly ticket prices, and community pride. The logos look clean, the mission statements sound noble, and for a brief moment, it feels like baseball is being reborn again.

I’ve lost count of how many of these “leagues” I’ve seen come and go. Some have websites that last a month. Some make it to a single tryout before the page vanishes and the email bounces back undeliverable. By June, the players who paid their registration fees are back working night shifts, and the field that was supposed to host Opening Day sits quiet—grass high, bases missing, scoreboard dark.

It’s always the same story, just with a different logo on the cap. A few optimistic men with grand plans and limited money. A slick website, a photo of a new baseball with the league’s initials stamped on it, and a start date that never comes.

By the time the public realizes there won’t be a season, the site’s been pulled down and every trace of the dream has been scrubbed away—like chalk lines after a rainstorm.

I don’t write this out of bitterness, but fatigue. Baseball deserves better than these ghosts. The players do, too. They chase every opportunity because the game still calls them, even when the field isn’t real. They show up with gloves and hope, and the internet greets them with silence.

The last one that broke me was called the Heartland Independent Baseball Association. They had a good logo—red, white, and navy, with a silhouette of a batter swinging under the words “A New Era of Small-Town Baseball.” They even had teams listed: the Iowa Eagles, the Missouri Pioneers, the Kansas Plainsmen. Real-sounding names. Someone had thought it through.

I emailed the contact listed on the site in February. Got a reply the next day from a man named “Commissioner Randall.” He said they were “finalizing venues,” and he was “thrilled to bring pro ball back to the Midwest.” He asked if I wanted to come scout tryouts, maybe write something about it for my column.

So I did.

The tryout was in an empty college field on the edge of town, 38 degrees and windy. Twenty-seven players showed up—some college kids, some thirty-somethings with their best days behind them, all wearing mismatched uniforms. They threw, they hit, they ran sixty-yard dashes. Randall stood behind the backstop in a leather jacket and ballcap, clipboard in hand, looking important.

I could tell he didn’t know much about baseball. He clapped at wild throws and nodded at popups. But I wanted to believe. I always do.

The players handed over fifty bucks each for “insurance and processing.” Randall said rosters would be announced in two weeks. He promised them an 80-game schedule starting June 1st.

Two weeks later, the website was gone. The page was wiped clean. The phone number went straight to voicemail.

One of the players, a kid named Luis from Wichita, texted me asking if I’d heard anything. He’d quit his job at a tire shop to get in shape for the season. His mom had bought him a new glove for Christmas.

There was nothing to tell him.

That’s the thing about these phantom leagues—they don’t fail loudly. They just dissolve. There’s no press release saying “We couldn’t make it work.” No explanation, no refunds, no ownership statement. Just digital dust.

And the cycle starts again. Another name, another crest, another round of promise. New league, same silence waiting at the end.

Even this past summer, it happened again. Early on, the United States Baseball Congress issued a polished Facebook post announcing a new regional league structure for 2026 — regional champions leading to a national title. It looked ambitious, maybe even achievable. I exchanged several emails with the commissioner, offering advice on planning and financial oversight. He seemed receptive, even grateful. Then one day the replies stopped. No explanation. No update.

Just another idea gone cold.

Then later this past summer came another announcement — the Western Association, touting itself as “the return of classic baseball to the heartland.” Their flagship club was said to be the Henderson Hoo out of Nevada. They’d had their page up for five years with maybe a hundred followers, a digital ghost town.

But this year, they claimed 2026 would be the season they’d finally play ball. A month later, the website was taken down. No updates. Just another silence.

It seems to me baseball could use an independent oversight committee—a group to protect the integrity of the independent game. Not to police dreams, but to verify the real ones. To make sure the players, coaches, and towns investing their hope aren’t left chasing shadows.

Last week, I saw another aged announcement floating through social media:
“Introducing the Western States Baseball League — Opening Day June 6.”

Same language, same enthusiasm, same clip art of a batter mid-swing.

And for a moment—just a flicker—I felt it again. That familiar itch of curiosity, the whisper that maybe this one could be different. Maybe somebody finally got it right.

Then I caught myself. I’ve seen too many like it. I scrolled past, then scrolled back again. The logo wasn’t bad. The towns they listed were places that used to host real ballgames once upon a time—Bisbee, Enid, Dodge City. You could almost hear the crowd if you stared at the names long enough.

Later that evening, I drove by an old ballpark on the edge of town. The lights were rusted out, the ticket booth boarded, but the infield was still there under the weeds. The wind pushed an empty paper cup across home plate. For a second, I imagined the teams that never played here—the ones that only existed in web banners and forgotten press releases.

I parked and got out, walking down to the backstop. The chain link was cool against my hand. I could smell the old dirt, the ghosts of resin and leather.

That’s the thing about baseball—it doesn’t die, it just hides until someone believes in it again.

I stood there for a while, listening to the breeze move through the bleachers. Somewhere a dog barked, and the sky turned that late-evening gold you only get in the Midwest.

And I thought: maybe next summer someone will pull it off. Maybe one of these leagues will stick. Maybe they’ll find a way to make the dream real.

Then I got back in my truck and drove off, leaving the empty field in the rearview mirror. The sun sank behind the stands, and the lights never came on.

A new Sim Baseball League is currently being formed. The league has 5 team owners now.

DOUGLAS CAPTURES CHAMPIONSHIP WITH 6-1 VICTORY IN NOGALES

Douglas 6 Nogales 1 - Playoff Game 3 (September 12, 1958)
By Konrad Kisch

Because of a Friday night conflict with Douglas High School football, Game 3 of the Arizona Mexico League championship shifted south of the border to Nogales, Sonora. The change in venue didn’t bother Douglas, as the visitors rode a masterful pitching performance from Howard Morse and clutch hitting from Dutch VanBurkleo and Donald Pulford to a 6–1 win, securing the championship.

Nogales struck first in the second inning when Tomás Martell drew a walk and later scored on a wild pitch, giving the home side a brief 1–0 lead. But Morse quickly settled in, scattering just two hits the rest of the way in a complete-game gem.

Douglas answered in the fifth when VanBurkleo doubled home the tying run, and an inning later Pulford’s sharp grounder plated the go-ahead tally after a Nogales error. In the seventh, Douglas broke the game open: VanBurkleo launched a solo home run, Charles Watkins followed with an RBI double, and Pulford capped the rally with a run-scoring single to stretch the lead to 5–1. Pulford added another RBI grounder in the ninth for insurance.

Morse went the distance, striking out four and walking four while keeping Nogales hitters o; balance all night, earning Game MVP honors. VanBurkleo /nished 3-for-5 with a homer, double, and two RBI, while Pulford drove in three runs on the night. Watkins added two hits, including his key double in the seventh.

Douglas’ 6–1 victory capped a dominating season, in which they easily paced the rest of the league, by winning a winner-take-all championship game on the road, in front of a fiesty Nogales crowd, to bring the title home and end the 1958 season.

GAME 3 REPORTED TONIGHT!
WHO WILL BE THE AZMX 1958 CHAMPION?

DOUGLAS PUNCHES BACK WITH GRITTY 4–2 WIN

Douglas 4 Douglas 2 - Playoff Game 2 (September 11, 1958)
By Konrad Kisch

Douglas responded back from a Game 1 loss with a bounce back performance in Game 2, evening the playoff series with a 4–2 victory. Behind steady pitching from Alfred Chávez and timely hitting from Donald Pulford, Douglas built an early lead and held off a late Nogales rally.

Pulford sparked the offense in the second inning, ripping a run-scoring double down the line and later crossing on Richard Binford’s sacrifice fly. In the third, Charles Watkins added an RBI double and Pulford came through again with a sharp single to plate another run, giving Douglas a 4–0 lead. That margin held for most of the night as Chávez went the distance, scattering eight hits and limiting Nogales’ chances despite battling a rally in seemingly every inning.

Nogales made things interesting in the ninth when Rigoberto Morales doubled home two runs to trim the score to 4–2, but Chávez was in no mood for playoff dramatics and retired the final two batters to preserve the win. Pulford finished with two key hits and two RBI, while Watkins and Binford each drove in a run. Morales led Nogales with two hits and both of his team’s RBI, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the early deficit.

The series now stands tied at one game apiece, with Douglas showing resilience after dropping the opener and shifting momentum back in their favor heading into the final game in the 1958 Arizona Mexico League Championship. Winner takes it all, so don’t miss this one.

Nogales 7, Douglas 6 — Playoff Game 1 (September 10, 1958)
By Konrad Kisch

Playoff openers have a way of rattling even the steady-handed, tonight’s Game 1 was a perfect example. Nogales barely survived a ninth-inning push from Douglas and left with a 7–6 victory in a game that swung back and forth from the first pitch to the final out. It was the kind of low-to-the-ground, high-drama contest that defines postseason baseball: small mistakes, booming doubles, and one player who kept showing up in the moments that mattered.

Nogales drew first blood in the very first inning when Jesús Bustamante ripped a double to right-center and Hilario Peña followed with a two-bagger of his own; Peña later scored on a passed ball, and Nogales led 2–0 before Douglas could blink. Bustamante — who would end up as the evening’s heartbeat — continued to set the table all night, singling in the third and helping ignite a two-run third that pushed Nogales to a 4–0 cushion (Peña’s two doubles in the early going were a big part of that surge). Those first innings set a playoff tone: Nogales attacking the strike zone and manufacturing runs while Douglas kept grinding.

Douglas answered in the bottom of the third. Jim Dickson ripped a double and Dutch VanBurkleo followed with a thunderous double of his own to plate a run. Darrell McCall tacked on another RBI double that inning, and Douglas suddenly had life, closing the gap to 4–2. The middle innings turned into a tug-of-war: Nogales added a run in the fifth on an outfield misplay and a smart grounder by José Padilla, but VanBurkleo answered in the home half with another two-bagger to cut the margin to 5–3.

This one never stopped simmering. VanBurkleo’s pressure continued to tell, with a single in the seventh that scored Prevedello, Douglas crept to 5–4 and the ballpark began to feel the electricity of a series-opening contest. Nogales threatened frequently (a Solano double in the seventh was nearly disastrous for Douglas), but both teams left men stranded through the middle innings and the game was still very much alive heading to the ninth.

The top of the ninth delivered the night’s defining moment. Navarrete doubled off the third-base line, and after a grounder moved him into scoring position, Jesús Bustamante came through again, this time with a two-bagger into right-center that chased the insurance run across the plate and put pressure back on Douglas at 6–4. Bustamante returned to the plate later in the inning to score on Claudio Solano’s clutch single; by the time Nogales trotted back to their dugout, the scoreboard read 7–4 and the momentum was squarely theirs.

If the ninth was supposed to be a quiet curtain, Douglas had other ideas. Manuel Pérez came on to protect a three-run lead, but the Douglas lineup rallied: Dickson ripped a two-out double, VanBurkleo followed with another double to bring his team within two, and Fred Filipelli drilled a two-base hit that chased the tying run to third and made it 7–6. For a tense moment it looked like the game would tilt back to the visitors, but Pérez coaxed a deep fly from Pulford to end the game and seal a wild, wound-tight win.

Jesus Bustamante was the game’s steady hand all night — 3-for-5 with two doubles, three runs scored and an RBI — and his early work plus that ninth-inning double made him the obvious choice as the game’s MVP. On the mound, Rafael Fabela gave Nogales a strong start (6.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 10 K) and Erunez ate innings out of the pen before Pérez closed; Douglas’ Ace Jim Dickson threw a complete-game (9.0 IP, 9 H, 7 R, 5 ER, 9 K) but took the loss after that late Nogales rally.

This was Game 1 of the series, and it was playoff baseball at its sharpest: momentum shifts, tense bullpen moments, and a ninth-inning push that left both clubs holding their breath.

Tomorrow's game will move to Nogales, Sonora.

NOGALES DEFEATS TUCSON - CHIHUAHUA LOSES TO JUAREZ

LEAGUE OFFICE, TUCSON, AZ - A Nogales win and a Chihuahua loss guaranteed Nogales a second place finish in the league final standings.

A Best-of-3 playoff series is set with Nogales vs. Douglas.

NOGALES CLINCHES 2ND PLACE! - DEFEATS TUCSON 9-5. CHIHUAHUA LOSES TO JUAREZ 15-9.