This afternoon we drove down to La Grange to watch the Serbin Jackrabbits community baseball team take on the Weimar Vets. The Jackrabbits won the game 11-1, and next week they’ll be playing the Shiner Clippers in the first game of the playoffs.
Once upon a time, most communities around Giddings had their own community baseball team. I don’t claim to know all of them, but some of the teams I’ve heard of or have been mentioned by folks that follow my Facebook page include:
- Burton
- Concord
- Elm Creek
- Fedor
- Giddings Buffs
- Ledbetter
- Lexington
- Lincoln Continentals
- Manheim
- McDade
- Nechanitz
- Noack Bears
- Plum Ravens (I’ve also seen a few references to the Plum Yankees)
- Smithville
- Warda Red Birds
- West Yegua (maybe the same team as Fedor?)
- Winchester Rifles
- Warda Red Birds (later the Aces)
Not all of these teams were in the local league, but many were… in the 1970s, the local league was large enough to have a north and south zone (each with six teams) as the page from the April 15, 1971 Giddings Times & News in the gallery below shows.
Today, of the twelve teams that existed 52 years ago in the area, only one remains… the Serbin Jackrabbits. They play in a much further-flung league of only six teams:
- Austin County (Sealy) Brewers
- Jackson County Storm
- New Ulm Firemen
- Serbin Jackrabbits
- Shiner Clippers
- Weimar Vets
