Riverside Park (Austin)

Riverside Park was a ballpark located in Austin, TX and was the home to many Austin teams since 1888 when the Austin Hix, the city's initial baseball team, combined with the Austin Red Sox to exist as the first edition of the Austin Senators. The ballpark was located southeast of Congress Avenue Bridge. It was also the place of the largest shutout in Texas League history on July 23, 1907 between the Austin Senators and the San Antonio Bronchos in the second game of a doubleheader. In the early 20th century, Austin and San Antonio were bitter rivals, and this was no exception. During the first game, an Austin baserunner who had overslid 3rd base was tagged but was called safe by the umpire. (At the time, there was only one umpire who made the decisions of "out," "safe," "strike," and "ball.") The Bronchos felt slighted that day by the umpire in-charge on many calls and tried to get the call changed. The umpire did not change his call, and the Bronchos left the field in protest forfeiting the game to Austin. Because a forfeit was not viable due to potential hefty fines levied by the league offices, San Antonio came up with a form of retaliation for the 2nd game. Infielder Art Griggs was the starting pitcher; Griggs was relieved by another infielder Ike Pendleton soon after and followed by George "Cap" Leidy. The Senators batted in order the whole game while the Bronchos batted whenever they wanted to and batted out of order also. Austin stole 23 bases, scored 44 runs on 36 hits due to San Antonio's sloppy defense, which made nine errors, and farcical pitching. The final score was Austin 44, San Antonio 0; the score looked more like a football score than baseball score.