El Paso Diablos, a new era in El Paso baseball started fifty years ago
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the start of El Paso Diablo baseball. Jim Paul bought the team at the end of 1973 for $1,000. He also had to assume the team's pre-existing debt of $52,000. Paul started a new era of El Paso baseball by renaming the team the El Paso Diablos for the 1974 season.
Even though the team was in last place after the second game and stayed there, the Diablos broke an attendance record.
El Pasoans of a certain age will remember trips to the "Dudley Dome" where "Enemy" was painted atop the visitors' dugout, receiving tissues as you came through the gate to wave "Bye-Bye Baby" to departing pitchers and Paul “The Mouth” Strelzin on the PA.
The fun continued at Cohen Stadium with picturesque views of Franklin Mountain.
Paul said in a recent email, “As you know, you did not have to be a true baseball fan to come have a fun filled night with the Diablos at the old Dudley Field or Cohen Stadium. In just a couple of years, we were breaking all kinds of attendance records, not just for El Paso, or the 100-year-old Texas League, but for all Double A baseball and on occasion even outdrew some major league teams on a Monday or a Tuesday.”
Following is a look back at the start of the Diablos and a few ways Paul, the leader in entertaining fans, kept us coming back.
More: Diablos Days evoke wonderful memories of Dudley Dome
El Paso Diablos all new
Dec. 2, 1973, El Paso Times
Games will still be played in Dudley Field, but just about everything else will be all new for El Pao’s Texas League baseball team in 1974.
First of all, there will be a new nickname – the El Paso Diablos. Add to that new uniforms, new ticket plans, and a bunch of new promotional ideas, and the enthusiasm with which new General Manager Jim Paul anticipates his advance sales campaign is evident.
“We want to reestablish baseball in El Paso,” is how Paul puts it. “We’re going to present an old product in a new way that we hope will be enjoyable for all El Pasoans.”
“Diablos” will be the fourth nickname in El Paso’s history in organized baseball. The team has been known as the Texans, Sun Kings, and Sun Dodgers through stints in four minor leagues…
The uniforms will be as flashy as the team itself hopes to be. The dominant colors will be bright red and yellow with jerseys in both colors and red pants. Caps and hose will also be red, and the club will also buy players special red shoes.
Memorable moments, fan favorites
25 cent hot dogs
Sundays were a family day at the ballpark with 10-cent hot dogs until the 1991 season when the rise in cost to 25 cents a hot dog made the newspaper.
More: Diamonds are a girl's best friend
Diamonds are a girl’s best friend
According to Paul, five couples married at Dudley Field and one player at Cohen Stadium.
In the Grand Slam Wedding Contest, couples vied for a chance to be wed at the Dudley Dome in June. 21, 1987.
Miguel Silva and Mia Tognaczi of Mesquite, N.M. won the chance to step up to home plate and recite their vows before thousands of cheering fans.
World record banana split
The banana split, according to Paul's, was 120 feet long but only four inches wide. It was assembled in 12 minutes using bananas, three flavors of ice cream, two syrups, whipped cream and cherries. 200 children with plastic spoons were let loose on the field to devour the sweet treat.
More: Paul Strelzin, 'The Mouth,' 1st announcer ejected from professional baseball game for song
Strelzin ejected from game
PA announcer Paul Strelzin, known as “The Strelz” or “The Mouth,” was the first baseball public address announcer to be thrown out of a game by a home plate umpire.
That game was played May 24, 1988. As reported:
Paul Strelzin’s musical tastes got him kicked out of Tuesday night’s El Paso Diablos baseball game at Dudley Field. In one of the most bizarre moments in recent memory at the old baseball park, the Diablos’ public address announcer was thrown out of the game by umpire Brian Owen after playing Linda Ronstadt’s “When Will I Be Loved?” The opening line of the song – “I’ve been cheated” – infuriated Owen.
San Diego Chicken, Diablo mascots
The San Diego Chicken, one of sports most well-known mascots, made his debut outside the San Diego area at a Diablos game. Of course, the Diablos had their own Kasey the Chicken mascot from 1990 to 2013, Scoops the Tiger from 2002 to 2013 and Chilli D from 1999 to 2004.
Dollars for home runs
Whether it was throwing money on the field at Dudley or lining up at Cohen, fans awarded home run hitters with dollar bills. Paul said the manager would collect the money, give half to the player and the other half went toward beer for the team.
In 2017, Times sports writer Bill Knight wrote, “There was always that wonderful mixture of fun and family and baseball floating through the Dudley Field stands, floating through there like a warm and calm London fog, a London fog that was a bit like a Barnum & Bailey Circus.”
The El Paso Chihuahuas will continue the city’s baseball tradition with their home opener against the Round Rock Express, Tuesday, April 2, at Southwest University Park.
Trish Long may be reached at tlong@elpasotimes.com or 915-546-6179.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: New owner, new name, El Paso Diablos began new era in baseball in 1974
