Texas Trivia (San Antonio, El Paso, Fort Worth: property, permit, engineering)

[lothartheterrible]

Originally Posted by jtur88

For four years, in the 60s, there were two baseball players in the major leagues at the same time, unrelated to each other, who were born and raised in the same small Texas town, with a population of only about 2,000. Many years earlier, there was another player from that same town, who has been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. But that town is much more famous for something else. What town is it?

Is it Winters?

[jtur88]

Originally Posted by lothartheterrible

Is it Winters?

No, that's Rogers Hornsby's birthplace, but not the one.

[lothartheterrible]

It was worth a shot...

[AmberAzeneth]

Hey jtur88, how about a hint of what teams they played for or would that give it away?

[jtur88]

Sure, it looks like we need another hint.

One played mostly for the Cubs, the other pitched for the Colt 45s. Twice in their career, they were on the same field together in uniform, but never faced each other in a game.

The earlier one in the Hall of Fame played for the Giants, and interestingly (for this thread), played high school baseball at West Texas Military Academy in San Antonio.

[jtur88]

Another hint:

Since the two simultaneous players mentioned above, there have been two more players from this little town to play major league baseball. One of them had a short and unimpressive career about a decade ago. The other, born elsewhere but grew up and went to high school in this town, is 6-foot-8, and has already pitched in 18 games so far this season, always about one inning in relief. This is only his second year in the majors, but is considered to be a promising prospect. He pitched last year in the post season playoffs.

Both of these players have surnames of central European origin, as do many of the other people in this town, which largely accounts for the other thing that makes the town even more famous than as a breeding ground for ballplayers.

[Sandstorm214]

The 6'8" pitcher has to be Logan Ondrusek (sp?) of the Reds (there just aren't that many 6'8" pitchers out there). He grew up in Shiner! I have no idea about the other players, though.

Must be something in the beer.

[jtur88]

Originally Posted by Sandstorm214

The 6'8" pitcher has to be Logan Ondrusek (sp?) of the Reds (there just aren't that many 6'8" pitchers out there). He grew up in Shiner! I have no idea about the other players, though.

Must be something in the beer.

Shiner it is. The Hall of Famer is Ross Youngs. The two from the 60s are Vic Roznovsky and Carroll Sembera. The recent one was Jeremy Fikac, and the current one, that you recognized, is Logan Ondrusek of the Cincinnati Reds, born in Hallettsville.

I strongly suspect that Shiner is by far the smallest town to produce five Major League baseball players.

The city of San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic (popl 200,000) has delivered 81 players to the major leagues, which more than one tenth of the output for the whole state of Texas (779). There are currently 83 player from Dominican Republic on major league active rosters, compared to 79 from Texas.

[Sandstorm214]

So I've been informed it's my turn. I learned this fact very recently:

Most people know that the first transcontinental railway joined up at Promontory Point, UT in 1869. However, in 1881, a second transcontinental railway was joined up at the present location of this Texas city, thereby creating a continuous route from Houston to Los Angeles, CA.

[jtur88]

It wouldn't be Junction, Texas, would it? Just a wild guess.