Last Wednesday morning in Houston, before I was scheduled to work in the Houston ABF Freight terminal, I had some personal time to check out some local Houston baseball experiences. I mapped out two places that were relatively close to each other, each about a 10 mile driver from my hotel. I’ll get to the second stop on a later blog. Let me tell you about the first stop of my Wednesday morning, MacGregor Park – home of the Texas Southern University Tigers baseball team.

To be exact, Texas Southern plays at Nagle Field in the MacGregor Recreational Complex just south of where I was staying in Houston. It was a traffic filled drive down I-10 but that is to be expected in a busy city area. I actually heeded the advice of one of the ABF drivers, who told me to wait until about 9am to head south. He was right and the traffic was thick but moving. I arrived at MacGregor Park after a short 25 minute ride which encompassed about 10 miles of driving. Not bad by Houston traffic standards. The park and baseball field were empty, so I set off to learn more about Nagle Field and the Texas Southern baseball program.

First, a bit on the Texas Southern University baseball program. The Texas Southern Tigers play in the Southwestern Athletic Conference. Interesting fact, the Tigers (according to their team page) have had just 2 Head Coaches since 1990 – a stretch of 35 years. Candy Robinson coached from 1990 to 2008 and was replaced by Michael Robertson, who has been the HC since 2009. That is some major league stability at the top spot of Texas Southern in terms of coaching leadership. According to Baseball Reference, no Texas Southern Tigers have made it to the Show aka the Major Leagues. Lastly, I wasn’t able to locate any information on Nagle Field or its naming significance.

Nagle Field, as it was listed on the home dugout banner, was clearly visible from a wide range of views. With my trusty cellphone camera on ready, I walked the perimeter snapping photos. It was a beautiful, sunny day with literally zero clouds and hardly any wind. So, I made my way from the backstop area, down left field past the bullpen mounds, around the back of the field near the scoreboard, and wound up taking a sidewalk passed a community garden area into the tennis court area of MacGregor. I was trying to circle back around the field to where I park, but was unsuccessful so I finished up around the right field foul pole.

After snapping a photo or two from way down in deep right field, I noticed a landscaping truck in the parking lot outside the field. Maybe they would let me enter the field and take some close up photos of the dugout, the field, banners, etc. So, I made my way back through the tennis courts, past the community gardens, onto the sidewalk, then back over to Nagle Field and my original starting point. The workers were getting ready to dress the field up for some upcoming games and did allow me to enter the field to take some photos.

If you look closely, you will see Jackie Robinson’s number 42 retired on a banner next to the Texas Southern Tigers NCAA Regional appearance years. Yesterday, 04/15 was Jackie Robinson Day in Major League Baseball where every player of every MLB team gets the honor of wearing number 42 on the back of their jersey. The number 42 has been an MLB retired jersey for some time now and every year players and managers get to wear it for one day and one day only. Pretty cool to see that Texas Southern is honoring the legacy of Jackie Robinson by displaying his number there at their home baseball field.

After I was done on the field, I thanked the landscaper crew and wished them well. I knew I had another field to get to on Wednesday morning before work, so I hustled over to my rental car and set the GPS for the University of Houston, a short mile or so from MacGregor Park.

It was a beautiful morning walking around MacGregor Park and Nagle Baseball Field, home of the Texas Southern University Tigers baseball program. The field was in amazing shape, baseball ready, they could have played a game there that very Wednesday morning. Just needed the bases. The park surrounding the baseball field had tennis courts, a community garden, walking trails, and open spaces for other recreational and family activities. I was psyched to run into the landscaping crew so I could get onto Nagle Field and take some up close photos. Overall, it was another awesome Houston baseball experience, one of two that day, at MacGregor Park and Nagle Field, home of the Texas Southern University Tigers baseball team.