THE GREAT SOUTHWEST DESERT LEAGUES

Baseball is rich in history along the U.S.-Mexican border. At the   turn-of-the-century, several outlaw leagues were home to the area from  El Paso, Texas heading west into eastern and central Arizona.

The Copper League established itself in the early 1910’s and survived  until  the mid-1920’s. Some of the 1919 Chicago White Sox players that  were  banished from Major League Baseball because of the betting  scandal,  found teams in this league to join.

The  Arizona State League sprouted up as a semi-pro league recorded as early as 1907 and into the early 20’s  and played alongside the Copper  League. When the Copper League  disbanded, the Arizona State League  gained steam and in 1928, the league entered into the National  Association of Professional Baseball Clubs  (Minor Leagues) as an affiliated Class C professional league and the average player was an astonishing 30 years old.

The  Arizona State League played for three years and beginning for the 1931 season, two clubs were added, Nogales, Sonora and El Paso, Texas, thus,  the league was renamed the Arizona-Texas League. The league was active nine of those years under that name until 1955, taking breaks for the war and several economic downturns. The league was a Class D level league until it became Class C beginning the 1950 season.

In  1951, the Arizona-Texas loop merged with the Sunset League (based primarily in California but with teams in Nevada and New Mexico) to form the Southwest International League. However, the Arizona-Texas League clubs played only that one season in the new circuit before  seceding and reforming the AZTXL in 1952.

In 1955, when the league lost El Paso, its lone Texas franchise, its name was formally changed to the Arizona-Mexico League.

The Arizona State League is administratively active and has a goal to begin its reincarnated season in 2024 as a townball baseball league. The league constitution states that any team in the league must be in a community that has had a team in the league in previous years.