In most Americans’ minds, the town of Roswell likely triggers thoughts of an alien spaceship crash landing near the town in the late 1940s. I recently wrote about that because of the dramatic headline and story in the July 8, 1947, Roswell Daily Record announcing that an alien spacecraft had crashed on a ranch northwest of the city. My post lamented the announcement that the more than 100-year-old newspaper would cease operations.
The loss of the newspaper was a sad story for Roswell. The UFO crash was an exciting story for the southeastern New Mexico town. And now there’s a really good news story reminiscing about the 70th anniversary of the town’s Little League baseball national championship in 1956.
I’d become aware of the story several years ago and did some preliminary research about it. The more I dug into it, the more I realized what a great tale it was. It had the elements that I thought could even turn into a feel-good movie.
Consider that it’s about a rag-tag team from a town that most of the United States had never heard of and from a state that most Americans couldn’t pinpoint on a map. The Roswell Lions Hondo team worked its way up successfully through regional playoffs against teams in Texas that were likely better funded and more talented. When they traveled hundreds of miles by train to the final round in Williamsport, PA, they faced teams with a decidedly East Coast home field advantage. And they won the championship game in spectacular fashion with a home run slugged by the team’s hero, Tommy Jordan, who was the son of a former professional baseball player.
Jordan’s father, Tom Jordan senior, played briefly in the major leagues and for several years in minor leagues. At one point, in his career, he had a batting average of more than 400. He ultimately concluded that farming in his home town with his family was more appealing than spending months on the road as a major league baseball star, where he was only earning about $6,000 per year.
And it turns out I have a couple of connections to the story. In college, one of my fraternity brothers, Dick Storey, actually played on that 1956 Roswell team. He was a great guy to know but humble in that he never talked about that accomplishment with me. And my late brother-in-law, Buzz Murrell, who lived in Roswell at the time, knew some of the team members and recalled much of the excitement in Roswell when it won the championship.
There was a great story about the team and its run to the championship in the Thursday, Aug. 13, edition of the Albuquerque Journal. Here’s a link:
There is now a book and an upcoming documentary about the 1956 team. I should have jumped on the opportunity to write about this memorable New Mexico event years ago. At one point, I even wrote an outline for a possible movie script. I love to write, especially for my short posts on Aero-Cordero. However, I’m not sure I had the discipline to tackle the research that would have been required to flesh out a good story about the 1956 Roswell Little League champions.
Maybe the next time I get a thought about writing something bigger, I’ll have an infusion of discipline to make it happen.
In the meantime, you’ll just have to live with my short posts.
aero-cordero.com 