{"product_id":"when-panthers-roared-the-fort-worth-cats-and-minor-league-baseball-9780875652054","title":"When Panthers Roared: The Fort Worth Cats and Minor League Baseball","description":"From 1889 to 1964, the Fort Worth Panthers--unofficially nicknamed and always known as the Cats--represented the essence of baseball in America. In their early seasons they reflected the outraged pride of the South and West in a bitter rivalry with the northeastern baseball powers, a regional disaffection whose roots stretched back to the Civil War. (The first official baseball game in Texas was played just after the war; the competing Texas teams were nicknamed the Stonewall Jacksons and the R. E. Lees). The Cats franchise was finally dissolved when major league baseball completed its national expansion by placing a team in nearby Arlington. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn between, the Cats set professional sports records that have never been equaled, including winning the Texas League title six years in a row and establishing themselves as perhaps the most famous minor league team in baseball history. From vintage Panthers such as power-hitting first baseman Clarence \"Big Boy\" Kraft and colorful Hall-of-Fame manager Rogers Hornsby to more modern Cats heroes such as Duke Snider, Carl Erskine, and Maury Wills, Fort Worth and the baseball-obsessed Southwest formed a high profile partnership that even survived a season when the spectator stands burned one day and the playing field was flooded a week later. Cats fans wouldn't be denied; they sat around the field on folding chairs, and no games were postponed. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003ePartially oral history, \u003ci\u003eWhen Panthers Roared\u003c\/i\u003e includes interviews with baseball greats Hank Aaron, Wally Moon, Dick Williams, Maury Wills, and co-author Bobby Bragan. Williams and Wills were Cats mainstays; Bragan managed the team during its great post-WW II years when baseball guru Branch Rickey made Fort Worth part of the Brooklyn Dodger farm system and stocked it with his finest young athletes. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBut during the Cats heyday, there were just sixteen major league teams who played out of ten U.S. cities. \u003ci\u003eWhen Panthers Roared\u003c\/i\u003e captures the excitement and pride the minor-league Cats brought to Texas and the Southwest. It was a time when, Bobby Bragan insists, \"any man lucky enough to be a Fort Worth Cat was as proud of that as he would have been to play for the New York Yankees.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhen Panthers Roared\u003c\/i\u003e is lavishly illustrated through the cooperation of Mark Presswood, whose sports collection features Cats memorabilia. Additional short interviews feature the late Joe DiMaggio, Vincent Devaney, and Leo Durocher.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Texas Christian University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/01\/1999\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780875652054\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 134\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.80lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 11.34h x 8.82w x 0.81d","brand":"Jeff Guinn, Bobby Bragan","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45418915102901,"sku":"9780875652054","price":25.46,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_b1902e78-7a2d-405e-98a3-b7b6c39e0d96.jpg?v=1748390302","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/when-panthers-roared-the-fort-worth-cats-and-minor-league-baseball-9780875652054","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}