Last Saturday, Pittman-Sullivan Park on San Antonio’s East Side was alive with the sounds of baseball. Burgers and hot dogs sizzled on a grill. Hands slapped together in high-fives. The unmistakable crack of wood on cowhide resonated beyond the outfield.
Just after 1 p.m., San Antonio’s first sandlot baseball team in decades, the Texas Dingers, welcomed the Houston-based Texas Oil Dawgs to their inaugural home game at the storied Alamo City diamond. Dingers organizer Matt Dixon manned the pitcher’s mound for most of the game.
Dixon, who manages the Alamo City location of Austin-based Vista Brewing, is vying to bring baseball and mental wellness together through a partnership with the Saint City Culinary Foundation. The Dingers is comprised largely of local foodservice workers.
Dixon approached Joel Rivas — founder of the Saint City and Heard, a nonprofit focused on providing mental health and tele-health services to bar and restaurant workers — late last year about forging a partnership that would allow the team to operate under the foundation’s umbrella.
“I pitched [Rivas] the idea, ‘Would you ever have a sandlot baseball team as one of your programs?’ And he was like, ‘Dude, you don’t know how long I’ve been wanting to do that,'” Dixon said. “He happens to be a huge baseball guy, so that conversation took off. And now we’re set up as a nonprofit program under Saint City.”
The foundation expanded the San Antonio branch of Heard in September 2020, developing a comprehensive health program for hospitality industry professionals. Many in the industry can’t get health insurance through their employers or are unable to afford their workplace plan. What’s more, employers often view mental-health therapy and coaching sessions as a luxury and don’t include them in their benefits.
“We have seen a lot more of the normalization of talking about therapy, people saying they’re not okay and looking for help … that doesn’t mean there has been a decrease in people relying on substances to aid that, but that trend has been encouraging,” Saint City Culinary Foundation founder Rivas said. “But out of all of the programs we’ve run across the U.S., San Antonio is one of the hardest to get people to buy into mental health and wellness. We can have a wellness program in Austin that draws 35 people, where in San Antonio it draws two.”
Spectators in the stands
Both Dixon and Rivas hope the camaraderie, physical activity and feel-good benefits of baseball will draw out more industry workers. Given the turnout at last weekend’s event, that hope may be fulfilled. Despite the sweltering sun, nearly 200 spectators gathered in the Pittman-Sullivan stands and in folding chairs — many sporting Dingers hats and T-shirts.
Dingers player Dave Yelacic, a childhood sultan of swat, said organizer Dixon is on to something huge. Like Dixon, he’s convinced that it’s only a matter of months before San Antonio has a league of its own. Several local groups are already talking about organizing other teams.
“I think Matt [Dixon] was onto it pretty early on, and over the course of the last six months or so, there’s been whispers of teams popping up all over San Antonio,” said Yelacic, director of UTSA’s Center for Archaeological Research. “That community across Texas is really gaining momentum.”
Yelacic was feeling the literal weight of his pandemic-driven inactivity when he was introduced to the Dingers through a sandwich pop-up at Vista Brewing. Interested in getting back into a gym-driven exercise routine, he uses the weekly practices to fill his fitness void — and social void.
“For me, exercise equals increased mental health,” he said. “And building friendships and community, especially after having tightened up the social circle during the pandemic, feels really healthy to me. In a more general sense, most, if not all, of these items have a philanthropic angle. They’re giving back to their communities, so I think that helps grow the baseball family in its own unique way.”
During the team’s debut, the Dingers pulled off unexpected double plays, near grand slams and stolen bases. The game was called at end of the seventh inning when the field rental time ran out, but the excitement from spectators and players alike was palpable during the final moments. No doubt adding to the festive feel, team sponsor Vista Brewing was pouring its Pittman Pilz, a light and slightly hoppy beer created for the team.
Baseball city
San Antonio is no stranger to baseball.
Historical evidence suggests knuckleball teams may have existed in the Alamo City as early as 1867, the Express-News reports. In 1884, the San Antonio Sunsets and Galveston Nine played a game that the daily credited with giving birth to pro baseball here. Legendary New York Yankees slugger Babe Ruth even played games in San Antonio, along with heavy hitters Dizzy Dean, Mickey Mantle, Pedro Martinez and Mike Piazza.
During that golden era, sandlot baseball became a pastime for San Antonians who couldn’t make it to Mantle status.
“There are dudes that used to play sandlot baseball back in the day, guys that were either washed up or didn’t make it to be able to play professional ball,” Dixon said. “Or just guys that liked to get together to play baseball from the neighborhood. [That] whole sandlot idea kind of died with those guys.”
The South Texas Negro League formed in San Antonio in 1949, and much of its talent came from players who engaged in the game at Pittman-Sullivan Park. So, it’s no coincidence that the Texas Dingers claimed it as their home field, Dixon said.
In a 2020 interview with TV station KSAT, former South Texas Negro League players said that even as baseball became increasingly integrated, they noticed a decline in Black athletes represented in the sport. As a result, they said, fewer Black children were drawn to baseball.
East Side clinics
Dixon said he and the rest of the Dingers are making it a mission not only to work with San Antonio’s Parks and Recreation Department to rejuvenate the inner-city ballpark but to host free baseball clinics for East Side youth.
“These old ballplayers talk about African American boys and girls getting out of baseball, when it used to be all that they played,” Dixon said. “But now, they’re more [interested in] basketball and football, and these guys have a huge desire for the African American community to have a love for baseball again. So, if we could do something, just one week out of the summer, that’s free to the neighborhood, I’d love to do that.”
Dixon says he’s in talks with SA Youth, a nonprofit that works with high-risk kids and young adults, to make the dream of a baseball clinic a reality.
“This league is much more than … wanting to be social,” he said. “It’s about being able to support our city in different ways, too.”
Saint City founder Rivas agrees that the spirit of the Dingers is one rooted in support. After all, what are foodservice workers to each other — and their guests — if not a team of folks striving as one to provide great experiences?
“In San Antonio, we have such a culture of community, loyalty and love. When people dive into something, they go all in, and often they put themselves in the backseat when they do that,” Rivas said. “They’re such beautiful, good people at heart that they inherently pour so much into their work that there’s not a lot left for themselves.”
Community spirit
That culture of community was apparent at Saturday’s event.
Under shaded canopies, vendors sold wares including vintage clothes, hand-painted hats and commemorative T-shirts screen printed onsite. Smash burgers and hot dogs sizzled on a mobile grill, and drafts flowed from Vista Brewing’s mobile beer truck.
Despite the late-spring heat that beat down on spectators and players alike, the spirit of the sport was alive and well on the East Side.
That spirit was also on display before the game began, when the Dingers spent the prior evening working on the field. Players filled holes and cracks in the outfield and helped shore up the pitcher’s mound in advance of the game.
“There’s that philanthropic angle to it,” Dingers player Yelacic said. “We’re raising money for some really worthy causes. That sandlot ethos of giving back through baseball is seeing an upswing, and you know, it’s really a lot of fun.”
The Dingers’ next four games — May 21, June 19, July 16 and August 6 — will be held at Pittman-Sullivan Park. Tickets are $10 at the gate, and a portion of the proceeds from ticket sales and concessions will benefit Heard.
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This article appears in May 4-17, 2022.
